In June, Huffy made its grand reintroduction to high-end BMX racing with the Huffy Primus frame.
Huffy’s BMX team sat down to talk about the decisions made on the Primus and how they got there.
The BMX Development Team
Jason Jewell
Director of Engineering & Product Development
Former Pro BMX Racer
Patrick Bonifas
Senior New Product Introduction Engineer
Mike Gonzalez
BMX Category Manager
Former Pro BMX Rider (Race and Freestyle)
Nic Long
Huffy BMX Manager
2x BMX Olympian, Elite & Amateur National Champion
The Discussion
Q: What was the origin of creating a high-end race frame?
Jason: Originally, it was the same as the Sledgehammer; we wanted something we could ride, we wanted something to be available that could perform at a high level. The goal was always to emphasize that the brand is capable of a lot more than just mass-market.
A lot of it was a play off of our history. This is the best part for most of us (BMXers) in the room. The race side of Huffy had a pretty substantial involvement in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. There were top pros, big sponsorships, lots of involvement...and then it just went away.
So, a lot of the initial development and even some of the elements on this (Primus promo video) are a throwback to that, the success, and the technology and the development that was done a long time ago.
We just emphasized that and then modernized most of it. It was really just taking the success and strengths we had in the past and reminding the industry that we can still perform at that level.
Q: Once a high-end race bike was decided, what did the process look like?
Patrick: The initial direction was to make a fully magnesium frame, and I was brought on because of my knowledge about magnesium material properties and manufacturing.
[At the time, Patrick was an engineer for Allite, a sister company focused on super magnesium materials]
[Jason] had done the full geometry and initial CAD. I changed roles and got brought in on the Huffy and United Wheel side, which is when I took over a lot of it. The first design was conservative due to the manufacturing constraints of magnesium but samples were produced and they were impressively light.
As we started getting further into the project, it became apparent that magnesium was going to increase the cost and lengthen the development timeline and we pivoted to get rid of those limitations. Once we took those shackles off the project, it was almost a blank page.
It was possible for us, in that moment, to pivot into making a super high-end carbon fiber frame but we understood that Huffy was re-entering the sport after a long absence. We needed to regain the trust of racers by bringing performance at a good value. Really, this made our direction clear and we decided that an aluminum design made the most sense.
Okay, so it's going to be an alloy frame, but we wanted to push our limits and see what we can do from a design perspective.
What people may not know is, through United Wheels, Huffy has the connections at the IBD (independent bike dealer) level and access to high-end factories with experience and the know-how that allowed us to create a fully hydroformed, smooth-welded frame.
So, with those possibilities on the table, it kind of became an exercise for the industrial design team and myself, to really push the design and not just accept the neighsayers who say that, “Huffy can only do simple cheap bikes.”
Q: That's a great segue. What discussions about design direction happened throughout the process? Or were there specific insights?
Jason: A lot of what [Patrick] just described, combined with his expertise company knowledge and the addition of insight from our newly added team. . Naturally adding these riders, we needed something they could compete on, and something we could market.
When that came about, the team rider’s insight and experience really shined through into the design direction. We went and spent time on the track with Carly Kane. We had Carly ride what we had. And she gave us insight and feedback into everything she was experiencing.
We had an initial geometry set that wasn't even relevant to the time. Nic came in and said, we need to rethink this geometry. It needs to be longer. It needs to support a more modern expectation and style of riding.
A lot of the evolution of the things we added came from the team.
It’s pretty critical to say the team's needs were a list of items: I want it to be extra stiff. I want to support this style hub. I want to have internal routing for my hydraulic cable disk brake, etc. .
All those things were rider needs. The beauty of it is, Patrick had a lot of those solutions, so it’s really a blend of all of that.
T47 was one of those things, we want this bb section to be as stiff as possible…
Patrick: And post-mount brakes…
Jason: Yeah, like the post-mount brakes. I hated the look of the brake [sitting above the dropout].
So when we began working on the brake mount, I was trying to shove flat-mount brakes down [Patrick’s] throat. I was heavily focused on the cleanliness of the look associated with flat mount brakes.
To maintain that visual but not sacrifice performance or serviceability, Patrick suggested a post-mounted solution positioned between the stays. I said perfect.
Patrick: That's something to call out because each category of cycling has its chosen its preferred style of brakes, even within hydraulic disc brakes.
Road is flat-mount.
Gravel is mostly flat-mount, because it evolved out of road. Flat-mount calipers are smaller, lighter, but hard to adjust properly because the bolts are coming in from underneath. It's really fiddly to get your hands in there and work on it.
Mountain tried flat-mount for like a hot minute and collectively said, " These are garbage because they’re so fiddly” and post-mount brake calipers became the standard here for their ease of adjustability.
So it just made sense to me that the BMX riders would be better served by post-mount calipers for their adjustability and for how many options there are on the market.
[The group gets into a long discussion about flat-mount brakes and all the pain of working on them.]
Jason: So, that was a big factor. That was part of that conversation.
We hate this; we don’t have a better solution. Patrick’s solution made a lot more sense and made it more adjustable.
Q: We’ve already seen a lot of questions about the T47 bottom bracket. Why is that used on the Primus?
Patrick: The people in this room are all life-long BMXers, and they know the sport inside and out. I consider myself a mountain biker and had a lot of learning to do in the beginning. It was eye-opening to work with the team and hear how the sport operates at the highest level.
From an outsider's perspective, it struck me how unsupported the riders are. At UCI Downhill World Cup races most riders have a dedicated professional mechanic, team staff, and suspension technicians all working to tune the bikes between practice, quali, and race runs. In the elite BMX world, it’s quite the opposite; only a few riders have mechanic help and most do all the wrenching themselves.
So I wanted to make sure that critical areas of the bike were easy to maintain with minimal experience or special tooling. T47 is a threaded bottom bracket standard that has a larger bore diameter which allows for bigger crank spindles and larger bearings and, critically, can be easily removed and installed.
It is a standard from the wider cycling industry, which was developed over ten years ago to fix the creaky pressfit road and mountain bike bottom brackets of the time. So it probably seems weird to a BMX rider who is more familiar with Euro, American, or Mid standards. But this is a standard that has been around for a while.
Mike: But it’s also not as if mountain and road were having a problem BMX didn’t see. BMX was trying to solve the same problem. They’re (bike categories) all in different silos, trying to solve the exact same problem.
What Patrick married was basically saying, okay, it seems to us, like the broader bicycle industry is deciding that T47 makes the most sense in those other areas, T47 also solves for us as well, which is then broadening it to making it easier, more readily available, and easier for us to get their hands on.
It's that we are all equally trying to solve similar problems because we are all going to a bigger spindle diameter in general.
But yes, there are people who do, are still going to run a 19 millimeter spindle. And there are people who are going to be in a 22 millimeter spindle, and they can. If you're a crazy, you can run a GXP spindle, you can still do that. And so you can still run all of these smaller options while affording you the ability to run those bigger and bigger options.
And so we believe, as a group, as a development team or whatever, that the T47 should allow us to solve any current ask for a future problem until somebody decides to make, like, a, you know, 90-millimeter-thick spindle or something like that. (everybody laughs)
Patrick: Exactly. So, T47 allowed for a larger shell, which supported bigger bearings that last longer.
But again, it’s a threaded standard as opposed to a press-fit style. This means you don’t need a bearing press and pullers to service your bottom bracket.
Nic: BMXers have a mallet.
[everyone laughs]
Patrick: Yes, that is what I wanted to avoid.
Nic: I did my carbon bike with a mallet every single time...
Patrick: … and THAT makes my skin crawl.
But seeing the purpose of the bottom bracket area for a race BMX frame, where you're trying to stuff super big, stiff spindles, and have a big weld area to bury the bottom bracket shell and provide torsional rigidity. Because it's all about getting off the line with massive acceleration.
They're putting down over 2 kilowatts of power at 0 RPM. So, it's just twisting that frame up.
Having a big shell with big bearings, which also allowed them to be serviced relatively easily, it made perfect sense for this application. Add to that the fact that it's a broader industry standard, so more T47 options will be more readily available because it’s not just a BMX-specific standard.
We did choose to go with an external T47 setup. So the bearings sit outboard to the frame. One of the main reasons is the spline tool, which allows you to thread and unthread the bearing. On an external bearing, they're much wider, whereas when internal, they’re only about 3mm.
It is so easy to cam those off and just completely mess up your bottom bracket, and then make it almost impossible to remove.
The external bearing T47 allows for a much more positive tool engagement on that and allows you to spin it off and install it much easier.
Q: You all have made clear how much thought went into ease of service. What other things do you want to call out in that area?
Patrick: In the same way I wanted to make the bike easy to work on, I wanted to make sure the rider wouldn’t be left hanging if a bolt failed for whatever reason. I’ve seen far too many rusted or stripped threads which could have made a bike unrideable.
I don't want to put riders or customer service people through hell. If there was a custom-machined bolt that was necessary for the chain tensioner and that part fails but we don’t have replacements available, so is the whole bike trash then? Like, what does the rider do and does our customer service reps take the brunt of my design complexity?
All of the fasteners are designed to be readily available in the hardware section at your local hardware store.
[Below are the specific callouts for hardware used on the Primus frames]
Dropouts
(2) M5 x .8 x 12mm Black Oxide Steel (Flat Head Socket Cap)
(2) M5 x .8 x 35mm 316 Stainless Steel (Hex Head)
Downtube
M5 x .8 x 18mm* Black Oxide Steel (Flat Head Socket Cap)
*Length varies by production - a 12mm length will also work
Q: The dropouts and chain tensioners are another “easy service” feature. Nic, what does that mean for a racer?
Nic: Without that pinchpull…man.
Patrick, I called him one day, absolutely having a meltdown because I was trying to change a cog, and I could not.
It took me probably 45 minutes to get my wheel back in place, like in my brake lined up, and I was like, dude, I don't know if it's too late, but there's got to be a better way that we could fix this.
It was just that easy. You have to loosen it to slide it back and forth, but for all the plates to be locked onto the frame is everything. If your bike’s upside down, the wheel just drops in and out of it.
You put the actual bolts in, you change your tube, your gear, whatever it is, it makes it exponentially faster. I mean, 4 times faster than how I was doing it the 1st time.
Mike: That shoulder is what is saving Nic from that issue, or a lot of it. That shoulder keeps the rear axle more or less in place.
Nic: Yeah, I didn't have those bolts, all 4 pieces would fall out… spacers on my axle bolt. If I wasn't holding everything, trying to fit the wheel in with my wrist? It was awful. Then, when it's 100 degrees outside, and you’re trying to do it?
Jason: (Demonstrating) So what Nic can do, for example, if he’s swapping gears, put on a 15 (cog) versus 16, take this (barrel adjuster) and adjust out your chain, then you can take in that slack, get that dialed, sink those 3 mill bolts, and you're right back to it.
Q: A lot of places have tried to make dropouts and chain tensioning easy. One of the big things for Primus is not having to deal with loose parts. Any other insights into it?
Jason: I mean, that's a pretty big deal, dropout design has a huge impact on the rider’s experience when servicing their bike.Axle conversion plates have been a pain since they showed up, even without the addition of adjustability. Having to deal with multiple loose components while assembling your rear wheel was frustrating and added extra steps to the process. In general, the simplicity of our design is awesome.
And [Patrick] added width in the rear triangle to stiffen the rear end. That’s something no one’s going to notice, I know Nic brought it up in his video, like the chain clearance, but a lot of it was really getting that stiffness and widening that stance.
We have a way wider space between the structural elements of the dropout, chainstay, seatstay junction. From the frame's structural perspective: the frame is more rigid.
Nic: Carly’s (Kane) video points that out more. They talked about width. I got theirs (videos) before I did mine, so I tried to talk about other things.
And then I got the schedule, and I was going first (everybody laughs). They talked about all the important things, so I was trying to add something a little different.
Patrick: There is an appreciable performance benefit to having a wider, straight chainstay and seatstay line. So there are other frames out there that are very curvy and very shapely. It looks pretty, and it looks svelte, but the strongest structural member is a triangle with straight sides. That's it.
Because of chain clearance and brake clearance, you can't just make them perfectly straight. You have to work around crank clearance, chainring clearance, and pedal clearance, so you're not clipping your heels all the time. It's a very tight box of constraints in this whole rear-end area.
But we tried to make [the rear triangle] as wide and as straight as possible. Again, for peddling efficiency, torsional rigidity, just stiffening that rear end up.
Nic: Torsional rigidity is a pretty sexy term, I like that.
Q: Nic, you’re on the road in the pit at races and running clinics. Are there any other questions you’re getting?
Nic: So far, the questions I've got, that pretty much cover it. I don't think we, no offense to Patrick, I don't think we reinvented the wheel, so it's not like, well, what the hell is this? What the hell's going on with this?
I think the questions were like, where are the dropout adjustments? Or, like about 10 and the 20 mill axles, or what brakes do we have to use?
What bottom bracket? I’m getting asked like, hey, I have this set of cranks….and so I have to do a little research and figure out what works, but I've been able to handle pretty much everything so far.
Patrick: Nic made a good point. We didn't completely reinvent the BMX bike. All of these details that we like to talk so much about and spend so much time developing are really intended to never be thought about, because you don't realize when something works. You only realize when something doesn't work or makes your life difficult, right?
So, as a general comment. If they buy the Primus, then only think about their motos, and the bike just always works, that's what we were aiming for.
