The first S&M
forks were made by Cook Brothers racing in 1988 right here in Santa
Ana. Early S&M forks featured a BMX first, double thick drop-outs
(two thin drops welded together on each leg). In the style of the time
they also had legs that extended well below the axles. In the next few
years we switched fork manufactures from Cook Bros to CW and then to GT
and after 3 years of bending 1 1/8" legged forks with welded on rings
to hold the crown race we decided to look elsewhere for forks. During
this time we even got a call from the owner of GT Bicycles irate we
were talking trash about the forks GT was manufacturing. Even after
explaining the problem with all the current designs, and descibing the
increased demands street and trails would be putting on forks, GT did
nothing for years. Needles to say we left GT behind and the Pitchfork
was soon born to keep pace with the rapidly changing face of 20" riding.
The
original 1" threaded Pitchfork came out in 1991 and was manufactured by
SE Racing in Long Beach, CA. At that time the Pitchfork was the only
fork available with 1 1/4" legs, a sleeved steerer tube (instead if the
welded ring) and 1/4" thick drops. Pitchforks only came in chrome until
1993. The first Pitchfork graphic with the red and black hand drawn
pitch fork was done by Jeff Tremaine, who went on to edit Big Brother
skate magazine and help develop and produce JackAss. Thru the years,
Pitchforks have constantly evolved and been improved (flame cut drops,
threadless steerers, wrap under drops, welded in headset sleeves,
one-piece steerer tubes, laser cut drops, butted LT legs, etc) but one
thing has remained the same: top riders trust Pitchforks enough to run
them in spite of their sponsors wishes. Flip open any BMX magazine
printed after 1991 and you'll see pro riders from numerous other bike
co. teams proudly displaying Pitchfork stickers. We stopped using
Jeff's graphic sometime around 2000 and haven't heard from him since.
He's probably got better stuff to do now like be rich and hang out with
famous people...whatever. At least we have good forks now, and GT went
into bankruptcy.
Neil Wood flying an S&M Challenger
