An interview with Bill Lazdowski from Sinister Bikes

As a co-founder of Sinister Bikes in Peabody MA, Bill has helped put the East Coast bike builders back on the free-ride radar screen with the introduction of the Sinister Ridge frame. In addition to his work with Sinister, we sat in his living room to chat about his views on the industry, riding, life, and the pretty pink bike on his wall,

We're sitting here in "Sinister" Bill's living room watching Monster's Inc. on the big TV. (One of my favorites!)

BustedSpoke.com: This is like Busted Spoke does "Cribs". Any hidden Rottweillers?

Sinister Bill: Ha, ha! No!

BS: Let's get the formalities out of the way shall we? How old are you?

Bill: 31

BS: Why am I always older? OK, where were you born?

Bill: Salem, MA About a mile from here. My best friend lived about a 1/4 mile from here.

BS: Number of years in the industry?

Bill: Ha! Two!

BS: How did Sinister begin?

Bill: Wow, that's like a long drawn out story.

vBS: Can you give the 10 cent version?

Bill: Yah, sure. Well, really two things happened. A long, long time ago my friend Ross majors and I were riding Lynn woods together, and back then it was all just trail riding, but today we call it freeriding. We were breaking everything and were trying to find something that would hold up. Then Ross ran across a local frame builder, and we started talking to him making a custom frame. It turned out, the guy never followed through, and the frames were never made. But I kept looking around and eventually came across the Spooky Metalhead, and really liked it. Then Ross, a friend John Huard wanted to get in on this whole beefy hardtail kick, so I went searching for bikes for them. We ended up buying two prototype dual slalom frames from a small company in California, Storm Racing Cycles. The numbers looked close to what those two wanted, and at first they worked out pretty well. But, then we wanted to make some changes, and went back to Storm. That's when I got my "real" introduction into the cycling industry. It turned out that Storm didn't make bikes, they designed them, and had them made in Taiwan. So in order to make any changes, we'd have to make a run of 6000 units. Obviously that wasn't going to happen, so we started shopping around for a builder in the US. We ended up contacting Easton, and they suggested a builder in CA. That builder did the prototypes and the first production run.

BS: Where did you come up with the name "Sinister"?

Bill: Well, we all rode at Lynn Woods, and Lynn is called the City of Sin, so we were going to call it Sin City Cycles. But there is a motorcycle shop called Sin City Cycles already. Then we thought of just Sin Cycles, but thought it was too short, so I through out Sinister. We sometimes get lumped in with the whole "Evil" image thing, but it really was just a coincidence. When it came time to name the frame, things got a little out of hand. Some of the names being tossed around were pretty bad. Like "Wicked", and 'Hucka" Ha, ha! Then "Unbreakable" was thrown out, but we thought, all we need is for someone to break one. Eventually we realized that the whole idea was born around riding and riding Bow Ridge, so we all decided to call it the "Ridge".

BS: What are the plans for the future? Any plans for full suspension?

Bill: Dual suspension is next. We first looked into doing a single pivot design. But after a few brainstorming sessions, decided that we wanted to do something different. We have an option on a bike with a VPP-like ride design, but developing a VPP-like bike, and getting the prototype right the first time is expensive. Frank the welder has done a lot with linkage driven shocks that run off a single swingarm, similar to a motocross bike. So we're looking to leverage off of his experience there and do something like this. We're also planning to design in an adjustable travel option, so you can race it and ride it in the woods.

BS: You went back to your roots a little when you entered the Big Wheels competition at Rye Airfield this fall. You definitely should have been given an award for the most old school tricks.

Bill: Ha, ha! Oh yeah! That was to my benefit. A guy I used to ride BMX with in 80's was one of the judges, and he basically told me, "Everybody was jumping, but you were doing stuff no one else was doing. You definitely got my vote!"

BS: Will you enter again?

Bill: I'll definitely enter next year. It was a blast, and very well done.

BS: Any chance we'll see you on a BMX at Rye?

Bill: I brought one once, but only did a couple of runs with it and then put it away. I gotta bring someone with me. If [my friend] Jason brings his 20, maybe he'll be able to talk me into bringing mine again.

BS: Any plans for a Sinister 20" bike?

Bill: No. There are too many people building 20's that are doing a great job. It wouldn't be worth it.

BS: How far did you take your BMX career?

Bill: I did shows for 6 years and competed for four years. I started as a beginner and eventually progressed to expert. The only place to go from there was Pro, and I decided not to. But I look back now at guys who I thought were awful, who are now Pro and wish I hung in there a little longer! It just shows that if you stick with something long enough it will eventually click. I wish I could have taken it further, but at the time freestyle was a dying out and I was 18, so It was time to go to school...

BS: ...and get a bigger bike?

Bill: ...ha! Yah, and get a bigger bike!

BS: I'm told you have quite the collection of old school BMX freestyle bikes and cruisers, including an all pink Hutch Trickstar?

Bill: Yah! Wanna see it?

BS: Maybe later. Will Sinister be doing more Trail Days with NEMBA?

Bill: Definitely! I was invited by NEMBA to come out to Vietnam to look at the terrain and tell them what I thought. They want to expand the freeride terrain, and because of my work at Lynn Woods, they wanted my opinion, which really blew me away! I think it's a great opportunity, to go in and mark up a trail from scratch.

BS: Will there be any stunts?

Bill: I was surprised when I asked that question and there was no definitive answer. Stunts are a huge liability. To be honest, as far as truly "manmade" stunts like elevated structures, yah, they're really fun to ride, but where we ride - Lynn Woods and 'Nam - the terrain doesn't really warrant it. Things like earth transitions will have to come because the drops are getting bigger, but I don't think bridges and teeter-totters are going to happen anytime soon.

BS: Where in the North East, besides Lynn and Vietnam, are some of the great freeride destinations?

Bill: Definitely Trumble Valley, CT, and New York around Croton on Hudson.

BS: Aj's trails? The TMX breakers?

Bill: Yah. And Plattekill. There's some really cool stuff there.

BS: So what makes the Ridge an "East Coast" bike?

Bill: Basically the geometry. We built it specifically to ride Lynn Woods! Things like a 13.5" bottom bracket, 16.5" chainstays and the ability to run a 3.0 tire in the rear. Then there are the overbuilt aspects like the extra thick head tube and tubing. We did everything to build strength into the bike, but still came out with a 6 lbs frame! And nobody has broken one, yet. All the 2002's are still going strong! Our 2003's should be available around Christmas and I am very confident they'll be the strongest frames available.

BS: Colors?

Bill: Just matte black and white for stock colors, but we are doing some custom colors as well.

BS: No orange?

Bill: No. When people saw the orange, they either loved it, or hated it. So we kept the colors very basic.

BS: Where will we be able to see Sinister in 2003?

Bill: We'll be in the expo areas at both Mount Snow and Pedro's Fest. And, of course, at InterBike. We were there with MRP this year, and got a lot of press from it. We got interviewed by Pink Bike and the Ridge made it in this month's Mountain Bike Action, in their 2002 Interbike coverage. We'll also be in their 2003 buyers guide and we're working on a couple of other magazine tests as well.

BS: Will you be doing complete bikes?

Bill: Right now, we're only selling frames. We are looking into adding kits and we will be able to do frame/fork/headset combos very soon. MRP is really excited to work more with us, so you can expect to see frame/MRP guide combos, too.

BS: How far do you plan to take this?

Bill: We never really talk about the future. When we started out, there were three partners - myself, John, and Ross. After the first run, Ross wanted out of Sinister, and I thought it was over right there. But, John really stepped up, and we kept moving forward. Then we hooked up with Frank The Welder, and he was a revelation! He really psyched us up, and we pretty much formed a partnership there that day! Now we're planning the suspension frame, and things look back on track. We're doing triple the number of frames we did last year and at first we were a little nervous about selling all the frames. But Frank truly believes in us and thinks we should be worrying more about keeping up with demand. So we are very optimistic about the future.

BS: Are you planning to quit the day job?

Bill: Ha! No way! It's just a lot of fun, right now, and we hope to keep it going as long as we can.