Knew a guy that had wooden painted hubs years ago, asked him what kind they were and he said Tree. Going on their website everything is sold out. Are they still in business?
by The_Broken_Shutter
Knew a guy that had wooden painted hubs years ago, asked him what kind they were and he said Tree. Going on their website everything is sold out. Are they still in business?
by The_Broken_Shutter
6 Comments
I get emails from them every so often with info on what’s back stock. They sell out fast though.
They went out of business, contracted Dutch Elm Disease
Changed manufacturing to overseas as they couldn’t remain competitive on some parts being USA made, whereas things like the hubs couldn’t be made anywhere else but Taiwan, just seemed they slowly faded after although the parts quality didn’t decline (Taiwanese manufacturing is on par with if not better than USA made) Their initial game changer was a 7075 cnc sprocket and later an even more aggressively machined out design that really for the time was by far the best and strongest sprocket you could buy, seems every other brand caught on eventually and offered their own take though. I’ve still a few tree sprockets now on older rides and they’re still true and run well. Sam who owns tree is a one man business, so affording larger scale production runs probably means much larger gaps for product and to a degree smaller runs than the much bigger brands. So what does become available sells out quickly.
Well, it’s almost like making boutique BMX parts that were 3-5x the cost of other functional parts might not have been a profitable and sustainable business model
That OG sprocket was iconic. Still surprised more brands haven’t incorporated the spokes of sprockets into the bolt holes themselves, it just makes so much sense. That same sprocket was also among the first to use 7075 aluminum for sprockets which is harder than the 6061 that was standard at the time. Tree had other great contributions too like popularizing flush stem caps.
Anyone else remember watching a video of Sam eating raw fucking chicken? It was like a peak into his daily life and he mentioned being into the whole raw food thing but usually that falls under the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle but mans was eating a fucking raw chicken and trying to pass it off as healthy. That image will be forever burned into my brain. There’s being a hippie, and there’s whatever the fuck he was on.
Bummer Tree isn’t as active these days. I still pine for their mid seat. Best seat in BMX.
I’ve tried like several times over the past few years to score that seat, but it just never happens.