Spank Grassroots Program and my TR450
As the snow begins to melt here in Whistler, my Transition TR450 is still in pieces nowhere near completion.
My plans for this bike have changed somewhat. I became interested in Spank Bike‘s new Spike Pedals a few months ago. Spank isn’t a new brand to me, but given the discounts on Race Face gear that I’ve had in the past, I hadn’t really given a lot of thought to the controls that I’d run on my bike this year.
Being so interested in the pedals, I browsed the whole Spank website and was impressed by the rest of their gear. Their Spike 777 Evo bars are hot! I saw Mike posting on the MTBR Forums – it always impresses me when a company rep gets involved with online forums rather than letting misinformation spread wild! I dropped Mike an email, explained my situation and he offered me a position in the Spank Bikes Grassroots program! I had to accept – not only was sponsorship a big thing for me, I was already impressed with their parts line-up and wanted to put their gear through some abuse.
Spank Spike 777 Evo Handlebars in Blue
So as it now turns out, I’ll be running quite a bit of the Spank gear on my TR450. My Double will be getting some of the Spank gear too, but my TR450 will run Spike 777 Evo bars, “The Standard” Director stem, Spike pedals, and Subrosa Evo 30AL rims. I don’t smash rims like a lot of my friends do, so I went for the Subrosa rim instead of the Spike – for those of you that are heavier though, the Spike is a seriously light rim for the strength and is worth checking out.
Some of my other parts are very slowly rolling in too. I have one of my Saint brakes. Yep, one – Chain Reaction Cycles ran out of them just after I ordered them, so who knows when the other one will show up. On the plus side, I just snapped up a Hope Pro 2 front hub in blue from CRC for a great price and it will come with the other brake so I don’t have to pay for shipping.
I just picked up a second hand Chris King hub for the build too. Laced once, ridden a dozen times, and rebuilt with a brand new stainless steel “DriveShell” (freehub body).
So it’s slowly coming together, but unfortunately I can’t see it being finished any time before early May.
I love your website/blog so far i check it daily,
just wondering how you can get on a grassroots program like you did with spank components?
thanks,
Florian
Thanks Florian!
The thing we have to remember is that the people working for these brands are every day people like you and me, and the reason that most of them are in the industry is because of their passion for bikes.
Riding ability is one thing, but good communication and the honest intentions of helping to support their business is key. If you believe in a brand, then it’s easy to be able to represent that brand. Since I’m a MTB Instructor for the Whistler Bike Park, people are really interested in the parts that I run on my bike.
Long story short, if there is a brand that you believe in, contact them and tell them why how can help them.
Good luck!
[…] received my parts from Spank Bikes yesterday as part of their Grassroots Program. I’ve been (not so) patiently waiting on these for a while now, so when my friend let me […]