(Rapid Transit is an awesome place — they have an employee there who builds dirt-jumpers, and is building a custom 24" BMX for himself.... I didn't expect to find a place nearby that specialized in this!)

I'm THIIIIIISSSS close to ordering one. $520, built, and it comes with 1 year of service from the local shop!

I want the perfect hybrid bike that can do both 1) BMX freestyle, and 2) touring/commuting. Yeah, I'm crazy. I don't care.

This bike is the cheapest base bike to work off that I've found.

Concerns / planned modifications

• I want to tour on one. Question: how hard would it be to put a flip-flop hub on there?
  • I'd definitely have to have a new wheel custom-built for this.
  • They looked through their catalogs for a while, and didn't see a flip-flop hub that would work for this. They think one is available, but it may take some more digging, and/or a very special order.
  • Either way, because it requires custom work, and the bike comes with a pre-built wheel, they suggest that I try the stock wheel for a while, and decide after that if I want to shell out more money after that.
• I want to tour on one. The Model C doesn't come with front brakes. How hard would this be to add?
  • Two possibilities: either the existing fork would have to be drilled out (which entails a new paint job, which isn't cheap), or a new fork would have to be ordered that has posts for front brakes already installed.
  • Again, since the bike comes with factory forks, I should just try it out as-is, and I can always change it later, since it's the same amount of money either way.
• REALLY far-out question: If I wanted to put a Rohloff Speedhub on there, what would it take?
  • the rear hub spacing is too narrow for a Speedhub. You'd have to have someone do some specialty steel rework. There's a place nearby that can do cold-setting. It carries a little risk though, so you want to make sure the people who do it really know what they're doing.
  • actually, Mr. Eads says he's done this himself, on a road bike, and it wasn't that big of a deal. YES, you do have to be very careful and thoughtful about it, but he says that it's not such a big job that a plebeian can't do it.

TODO

• BZZZZT. Both Mr. Eads and Ben agree: "get two separate bikes, you're never going to commute on this one".
• My FIRST GOAL is to make it minimally useful for commuting. If I can't commute, the bike isn't worth the cost to me. What minimum changes do I need to make that happen?
  • Change the gearing. This probably involves changing the chainring, because that's an AWFULLY small chainring. Is that doable, and how much will that cost?
• Mr. Eads strongly suggests that I check out Blackstone Bikes first. They have a lot of BMX bikes go through there, and there's a mechanic in particular (Aaron) who is familiar with them, who I should chat with. I should do this before buying the bike, because he may provide some insight on what's possible.