easternbikes.com, march 2013: Eastern Bikes may have started in 1996 but the idea was sparked sometime in 1992 when Mike Corley had problems with the frame we was running and the company wouldn’t warranty it. He was taking welding classes at the time and decided to take measures in to his own hands and build a frame he could trust. Mike didn’t actually do the welding but knew enough to cut the tubes and get the pieces ready to weld. The rear triangle was cut from a Schwinn. The front-end was made of chromoly bought locally. The dropouts were cut with a grinder Mike had in the garage, hey he didn’t have any real tools then. The tubes were welded by a friend of Mike’s. The welds weren't pretty, but it was never meant to sell these frames. Random fact: The welder now resides in jail. The Fatty decals were die-cut down by a local sticker maker, Harwood Designs who are still in business today. And the owner was attacked by a knife. Another friend of Mikes was restoring and old Vette and he used some extra paint to give it a 74’ corvette yellow paint job. There were a total of four frames made and were ridden by Mike Corley, Jon Byers, Mike Mancuso and one other person who we just can’t remember. Jon and Mike for them for two years with out a single problem and no one broke one. A few years later Mike and Jon started Eastern Bikes and the rest is history. In fact Jon recalls; “The thought of starting a bike company was never really the purpose… it was just to build a few frames, but the experience spawned the thoughts of a bike company that wouldn’t leave us alone for the next few years.
Eastern was started by Jon Byers, Keith King and Mike Corley in 1996.
Keith King, Ride BMX UK february 2001: Since 1996, me, Jon Byers and Mike Corley all got together. Originally I decided I wanted to do a bike company, played around with some ideas in '95. I decided to go in with two other guys, it made it a lot easier financially to get started up. We all decided to focus on it together, we have all been long lime friends.
Jon Byers, Mike Corley, www.easternbikes.com, 2001: We've been in love with wrecking our bikes since the 1970's. Witnessing just about every lame idea from fold-up pegs to handlebar/ stem combos. But by 1996, we'd had enough and started Eastern Bikes to build the best bikes money can buy - a pretty arrogant undertaking for 2 guys with no money. Regardless, we forged ahead with our products building a reputation for quality and uncompromising strength. Today, we are a stronger company and offer a full line of BMX products made from the highest quality materials and parts available. You simply cannot buy a better bike than an Eastern Bike. Built with Love.
Jon Byers: We have jumped on the bandwagon just like everybody else by coming out with a frame.
BANDIT FRAME.
Flatland frame.
BRUTUS BARS.
Eastern moved the frame production to Taiwan.
Keith King, Ride BMX UK february 2001: It just seemed like everybody we dealt with took forever to get the frames ready. Just because it is made in the USA doesn't mean the frame is going to be perfect, like the workmanship and stuff, and so to meet deadlines and make orders we went to Taiwan. We found some quality manufacturers in Taiwan and that's who we went with.
Mike Laird left Eastern to ride for Nirve.
Keith King, Ride BMX UK february 2001: It bummed me out to lose Laird, but one thing that would be stronger than sponsorship with Mike Laird would be friendship, and the guys at Eastern are all good long time friends. Laird got a really good deal to go with Nirve, to hold him back which is what we would do it he was to remain on Eastern, I think it's not fair to him, we were happy to see Mike get a deal like he got. We encouraged him to go ahead and take the deal, run with it, you never know how long this wave is going to last, so we encouraged him to take advantage of it. We were sad to see him go, cause he did a lot for Eastern promoting bikes and stuff. Mike recommended a new rider to us, a really talented rider, Josh Harrington from Greenville, I think you'll see Josh up there with the big guys soon, Jay Rodriguez is another rider we brought on, a well known rider from NYC. We stilt have the other riders, I am pretty happy to still have Chris Shellkopf, so we'll see what we can do with these guys.
Leigh Ramsdell signature frame.
Eastern recently picked up distribution in The Netherlands. Eastern also sells into France, England, Australia, Russia, Guam, Japan and Germany.
Eastern est distribué en France par Sunex.
EASTERN SEEKER FRAME.
The new Eastern flatland frame designed by Leif Valin.
Dimensions: 19" pour le top tube, de 13" à 14.25" à l'arrière.
8-MILLIMITER STREET SPROCKET.
Grim Reaper frame. Interbike october 2005.
FRAME CUTOUTS.
easternbikes.com, 2014: Eastern lead the light weight craze several years ago. When we brought out the Grim Reaper, we used cutouts to save weight. One cool outcome was the “EB” logo in the headtube. Again, we are flattered that other companies adopted our stuff, but we decided to find other ways to save weight. For example, the Helix tubing we’re offering on our high end completes and aftermarket frames is an awesome way to increase strength and save weight without cutting holes in the tubes. But, the iconic look of the cutout logo in the Headtube and seatube are undeniably Eastern. So we had to bring it back. You might see other cutouts around, but anything else is just a wannabe.
easternbikes.com, 2014: One of the most subtle products that had the biggest impact was our LB-9 hub. Prior to 2007, any BMX bike under 350 bucks had a gigantic sprocket. Eastern Bikes changed all that with an economical loose ball 9t driver hub. This was not necessarily a high end product, but it definitely changed the way complete bikes are spec’d. These days you don’t see as many kids rolling around the skateparks with sprockets the size of Russia. We try to make products better for kids just starting out, so they can have a good bike to build their skills on and hopefully enjoy riding enough to stick with it. Although the design was good, if it was adjusted improperly it could significantly damage the hub. This is a shame because it was a great hub and many companies have adopted a similar design which they are still using. However, we always knew there would be a day when a simple sealed bearing hub would be mass produced and economically available, so it’s not a surprise that the LB-9 hub had a short life. It’s amazing to us that other companies are still using it or a similar loose ball design when it’s already outdated.
easternbikes.com, 2014: The Pop-n-Lock hubguard is a lightweight, durable and inexpensive solution to hub and spoke damage that occurs during grinds. The fast and secure snap-in installation is a breeze.
easternbikes.com, 2014: A little product that we think has always been awesome. When your grinding the last thing you want to have is an alloy hub guard catching against cement or binding against a steel rail. Plastic slides right over that junk and keeps on sliding while protecting your spokes. Other companies are finally catching on to the properties of a plastic hub guard, but Eastern is the original and it pops on easily to any Eastern Hub and some hubs from our sister brands like EZRA.
Scotty Cranmer 2003.
Duncan Gore 1998
Pascal Guerard 2003 - ....
Kennan Harkin 1997-1998
Keith King 1996
Mike Laird 1997 - 2000
Steve Nowak 1997 - ....
Leigh Ramsdell november 2000 - ....
Paul Russel
Leif Valin september 2001 - october 2003
Leif said he will be involved in designing and testing products.
easternbikes.com, october 2003: Leif Valin and Eastern have parted ways. Leif is a great guy and will be missed on the team. We wish him the best.
Todd Walkowiak september 2002 - ....
Pro rider Todd Walkowiak left Mongoose to ride for Eastern.