Todd Lyons

HS: When was the decision made to go with the retro bikes?

Todd: 2007 was the first year we brought retro back. SE basically went out of business in the late 90s—‘97 or ‘98. The old owners owed so much money to the factory over in Taiwan, that was producing the bikes, that the factory basically took it over. So, the brand lay dormant for some years. Then in 2002 ASI, Advance Sports Inc., bought the brand. ASI also runs FUJI, a lot of people might think that FUJI owns SE, but it is ASI.

HS: Is it an umbrella company?

Todd: Well, at the time they only had FUJI. Then they bought SE in 2002. Last year they bought Kestral. This year, about a month and a half ago, we bought Breezer, which is more of a city, utility bike—cruiser bikes.

2003 was the first model year of bikes for SE. Once SE was bought by ASI, the first product manager was a FUJI guy, 55-years-old and he just threw together the SE line. There wasn’t much thought put into it. They sponsored me in 2004, as the only PRO Rider. For about a year and half, I was like “these bikes kind of suck.” Then they hired me as the brand manager. 2006 was the first year I was in charge, The next year, 2007, once I got settled we began to bring retro bikes back.

Point I was trying to get at, you asked about the retro guys and if they flipped out at first. They didn’t. They were like, “This new FUJI SE sucks, its not SE.” But, since 2007, we’ve started to get those back.

HS: So initially history wasn’t part of the selling point.

Todd: Yeah, and history is really a key component to SE. There are a lot of dads out there that remember it from back in the day, and they have kids. The dad wants this big ripper, or OM FLYER, a bigger bike. Like, holy cow, that is a BMX-style ripper bike I grew out of 20 years ago. And now they are making it in the 29er size, and making the OM Flyer again. These guys have kids, and that is the whole concept. Now, we are doing this DC Fixed Gear which mimics the PK Ripper Looptail. Again, the looptail, flouval tubing, gusset at the head tube, everything that is classic to old school BMX, including the Landing Gear fork. It’s going to be the PK Ripper Looptail look from 20 years ago, and now it’s a 700c fixed gear. That was the brainchild of Damon Way at DC. He was the one that said let’s do this.

He actually helped spark the whole retro bike thing for SE, too. When I first got here I thought about doing it, but felt like we couldn’t make the bikes in China or Taiwan, because the old school would never buy them. We wouldn’t be able to get the bikes right. I was scarred to death. The SE Looptail was always made in America, made in Southern California, I thought there was no way we could make it in China, the old school guys would laugh.

Then I got contacted by Damon at DC. He was the starter fluid, I guess, for us to bring back the retro bikes. He said he wanted to do a retro bike with us, bring back the PK Ripper Looptail, let’s do it. Then I was thinking, “Ok, now we have to do it.” So I took some old bikes to the factory in Taiwan and said, “Make the bikes exactly like this old school bikes, but lets go neo-school geometry.” Look old school, but ride new school. And now, this is our third year of doing retro bikes and I’m already working on the 2010 line.

HS: DC sparks the whole reemergence of the brand then?

Todd: I wanted to do it, but was just kind of scared. I was scarred to go over to Asia and make the bikes, because I knew SE had a crazy cult following and certain things were always made in America. To make it in Asia, I was too scared. With the offer with DC to make it happen, I contacted some American frame builders, but there was now way they could make complete bikes, and do it by the hundreds. Our only option was to go to Asia, and I was more than impressed. For years now people have been impressed. They like the welds on the PK Rippers, and we are yet to have one come back broken. We still do them in limited quantities, but everyone let a huge sigh of relief when we got a lot of praise and very few complaints.