The term pit bike has its roots in motocross, where people often use small childrens’ bikes to cruise between the various staging areas at races. The term is now used to describe any variety of small childrens’ bicycle or motorcycle used to cruise the pits or injure yourself while drinking and dicking around.
While the renaissance of pit bikes was in the early-2000s, when even bicycle manufacturers like Foe’s Racing jumped on the trend and created trick components for the tiny tot motorcycles, it’s rare to see anything particularly spectacular these days. So we were incredibly impressed by the little red kids’ bike lurking in the Hayes Booth.
Can you spot what makes this pit bike so special?
Designed by Jon Wells, an accomplished racer and freestyle rider, the bike was custom built to fit his giant frame. The TT is an almost unheard of 22″ and the chainstays are also on the longer side, because of his racer boy background.
The hydraulic brake cable is routed through the stem and internally through the fork to give Jon the clearance for bar spins and X-ups.
The entire bike was custom built by Mike from Profile.
While some BMX manufacturers are starting to play with the concept of disc brakes on race BMX bikes, Jon decided to go full goon mountain bike. In addition to front and rear brakes, the bike has a tapered headset and a 15mm fork with a Maxle QR.
In the back, the bike borrows ISCG05 tabs and a GXP BB from mountain bikes.
A 10 speed SRAM shifter mated to a road cassette keeps Jon in the perfect gear for everything from gate starts to all day wheelies.
As an employee at Hayes, his bike was completely decked out in the company’s various component lines. Everything from custom wheels (Sun Ringle disc hubs laced to Sun Envy rims), to the perfectly bled Hayes Prime brakes.
Special thanks to Jon for creating such a rad bike and taking the time to share it with us!
