Shaq's New Custom Bike Is Huge—and Totally Awesome
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To watch Shaq ride his new custom bicycle, it’s easy to forget his size is anything but typical. The handlebars, wheels, and frame all seem to be in deceptively perfect proportion to his 7’1” 360-pound build—and it’s only until other human beings enter the shot that the video regains any sense of scale.
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That’s a feat of magic created by DirtySixer, a new company that builds taller-framed bikes with all the features necessary to support a larger rider like Shaq. Where most large-framed bikes stick to a typical 700C wheel size, DirtySixer upgrades to 36-inch wheels so taller riders can ride a standard-proportion bicycle without looking like the rest of us do on folding bikes. Head of the company David Folch (a 6'6" cyclist himself) says everything about the DirtySixer's bikes, including the ergonomics, geometry, and fabrication, is designed to ensure proper fit and comfort for taller riders.
And immediately after DirtySixer presented Shaq with his new super-sized gift at an event in Atlanta, the former basketball star was on it for a test ride.
"He was literally like a kid who finds his first bicycle under the Christmas tree," Folch says. "After he first saw the DirtySixer, we exchanged a few words and he quickly went off, full speed, in the Turner studios corridors. He disappeared for a while, leaving us worried. And then he reappeared with a huge smile on his face. He said he felt that was the first time he felt normal on a bike."
Shaquille O'Neal rides his DirtySixer from Dave DirtySixer French on Vimeo.
Framebuilder Josh Boisclair at Empirical Cycles built the bike for DirtySixer and says making it wasn’t that much more challenging than the cargo bikes he typically builds, except that the raw materials had to be ordered separately and machined in-house, since there’s no standard Shaq-sized tubeset available to order.
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After all the parts were machined to size, Boisclair says he spent most of the time on sculptural elements to give the bike an over-the-top style, like special detailing, fillet-brazed welding, and finish work that sets Shaq’s bike apart from other 36ers Boisclair has built for DirtySixer. Building a bike for Shaq seems like a pretty big resume bonus—or at the very least, a good bar story—but that’s not the only reason Boisclair was proud to be involved.
“I thought it was important to be involved in narrowing this gap in the market where if you’re over 6’5” you can’t just go and buy a bike,” he says. “They want bikes, too—but they don’t ride them because they can’t.”
Here are the specs on Shaq’s new DirtySixer: 36-inch wheels, VeeRubber tires, 254mm rotors, Phil Wood front hub, Rohloff XL, Co-Motion shifter, oversized steel tubing for frame and truss fork, 220mm cranks, 1.5-inch steering tube, Cane Creek 110 Serie headset, SRAM XO hydro brakes, Brooks B190 saddle
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