image by zak Taylor

from Ian Schwartz Leaving sunday to new products being released in the near future, I felt that it was time to hear what the man in charge, Jim C had to say about all of it, So I sent him a few questions to pick his brains and celebrate the launch of the new site.

Hit the more link to read the interview and see a few of Jim’s video parts.

Hey jim, hows it going today?

JC:  Super good!  It’s really early in Austin, so today is just starting.  I’m still excited from yesterday because we finalized some big plans that will be announced later in the month.  Lots of work to do for sure, but it will be really good.

Well Im going to dive right into the deep stuff, It seemed that Ian Schwartz leaving sunday and ultimately leaving bmx, pretty much shocked and took everyone by surprise. Where you in the same boat , or had you guys talked it over and made decisions about his departure from bmx?

JC:  To be honest, I had a feeling about Ian leaving last winter.  I spoke with him on the phone a lot and he definitely spoke about farming a good portion of the time.  I really sensed that he was looking to move on to the next challenge.  Not that he conquered BMX, but he was really intrigued by his farming ideas.  He called me in September to talk about it, I tried to change his mind, but he was really motivated towards his farming ideas.  I’ve been in the same boat before so I understand why he did it.  I’m happy for him and wish him nothing but luck.

So what are your plans with Ian’s signature frame, are you selling the last ones off then thats that done or are you going to be keeping the integrated pivotal on future models?

JC:We are selling the last ones off and putting the pivotal post on hiatus for the time being.  It will definitely be brought back at a later time though.

This year at Interbike you showed of a few new products from sunday, including the addition of complete bikes, how do you feel these are going to go down in the bmx community?

JC:We were really nervous about this taken the wrong way because we’ve always been considered a high end brand.  Completes were never known to be the highest quality and we were nervous it would hurt the image.  But the thing is that Sunday is also considered to be a very progressive brand and we’ve applied this to our completes too.  So in the end we are progressive even with our completes.  The response from the BMX community has been amazing.  At Interbike, we received only a positive response.  We won’t stop making the high quality frames and parts.

Obviously your first range of completes are based on the aaron ross’s funday, but are you planning on bringing any other rider inspired complete bikes?

JC: Yeah for sure, there’s a lot of ideas running through our heads.  We’ve recently gone direct to shops with our USA distribution, so we can do more unique stuff without worrying if the distros will carry it.  There will be some more rider completes and a few others that will surprise you.

There was a huge amount of hype about the 2010 products including the completes and the 3rd wave, when can we expect to see the 2010 products on mail-order sites and in bike shops?

JC:  In the USA and Australia, competes should start to be available mid to late in February with other countries getting them a little after that.  Frames and new parts should be available in mid to late April.

On your site you recently posted up the first part from Ian Schwartz’s up up and away section, is the plan in the future to release all the riders parts like what was done with odyssey electronically?

JC:  Yeah for sure, the guys worked hard on the video, so everyone should receive the proper attention from it.  Some websites were biased towards the video, so I’d like to put them out without all the BS.

Your riding seems to be very original and i almost feel like you don’t want to follow the trends in terms of riding, and like to shake things up a bit and really just want to have fun with your bike. how would you describe your riding style and how often do you get to ride?

JC:  Thank you!  I appreciate that.  I’m always nervous about being the second person to do the latest trick.  Even though I’ve done it, but I usually add something to it.  The funny thing is that I don’t get that much time to ride anymore, so I really just look for the things that interest me the most.  Plus I’ve been riding for so long that there’s a good chance I’ve been through those phases.  Right now, I’m into riding fast, in traffic and making things look spontaneous.  A trick doesn’t have to look absolutely perfect, there’s spontaneity and personality in the imperfections.

You and sunday recently moved to austin, where odyssey and OTX are based, how have you found this move, and did this give you the opportunity to work more with the guys at odyssey?

JC:  Let me make it clear, only Odyssey’s R&D department is based in Austin.  The warehouse and accounting offices are still based in Cerritos, CA.  Austin is amazing!  There is so much riding that goes on here.  There are riders everywhere!  One night we went to the bank and 10 riders flew by us.  Then we went to check the Steven Hamilton gap and there were guys flatlanding in one of the parking garages.  There’s so many choices for riding here.  We’ve always worked closely, but now it’s way easier to bounce ideas off each other.  It’s really ideal.

So for 2010 do you have any team trips planned, and are you working on getting another video out there?

JC:  There’s always stuff planned, we are doing more web stuff and trying to create our own content to promote the guys.  New stuff will be coming soon.

Well thanks a lot for your time, do you have anything you want to put in or anything you wan to say before we wrap this up?

JC:  Well I usually get in trouble when I open my mouth so I’ll just say something benign like go out and have fun
on your bike.

I like Crankslides from SundayBikes.com

Jim Cielencki, Cheap Thrills from SundayBikes.com

Jim Cielencki, Wasted Days from SundayBikes.com

JIM CIELENCKI FROM ODYSSEYBMX.COM