Sean McKinney, Ride BMX UK april 1997: We were kind of surprised about Primo. It all started with that V-Monster tyre. Me and Day Smith approached the owner of Primo, told him all of his imitation BMX components are lame, they suck and nobody wanted it, why are they fooling themselves, let's do something with freestyle. We had a meeting with the guys from Cheng Shin from Taiwan, described to them what we needed in a tyre, what we thought would work for most people, we wanted it to work not just for flatland but for everything. Small specialised parts usually don't go too well. So we gave them patterns and told them the nylon wall had to have so much TPI [threads per inch] so it wouldn't blow out. The final touch was putting that knurling on the tyre that you can find on most road bike tyres believe it or not, that's where we got that one from. So we gave them the whole scoop. We even researched rubber compounds to make sure the tyre didn't wear down too fast, because it wore down real fast at first. It still does, but it's way better. Once we'd done that they basically said, "Thanks for the ideas, you guys are salesmen and warehouse workers, so go back to work!" Things were the same and we didn't get anything else; they didn't help us out. Except that we were sponsored by them and they are a great sponsor, you cant go wrong with them as a sponsor. We went ahead and designed more products for them, the pedals, the pegs, the seat and the freecoaster hub with 1/2 inch axles and sealed bearings that actually works, but they wanted to make it in Taiwan so it's been two years since we've actually seen one. (...) Primo never cut corners on our designs. What they would cut corners on was if we said something needed to be made in America, they refused and wanted to do it in Taiwan. That was pretty frustrating. It comes down to that sealed bearing, 1/2 inch axle coaster hub that we did. A dream come true. Everybody's been asking for it for two years. We had one made in America, we jobbed it out to a company called Dig-It who sells Graveyard and Love-Goat Products. They helped us machine and make a hub, it worked perfect. Two years later and they still don't have the hub available because they're trying to make it in Taiwan and Taiwan can't come up with new ways on manufacturing things. They're very repetitious in the way they manufacture stuff. Whereas in America you've got more leeway with a company building something from scratch although it costs a little more. (...) We didn't want to pick products out of a Taiwanese catalogue and put our name on it. Primo put up the money to create tools to make completely new tyres, new pedals, new products that haven't been seen before. Everything turned out better than we expected, it was pretty inspiring. (...) With Primo we wanted to show them that we knew what we were talking about and when you get a bunch of Asian guys who own the business and a bunch of lame ex-roadbike rider employees who managed the business we basically felt we were treated bad. It wasn't just me giving ideas, it was Sean White, Nate Hanson, Leo, Day, all of us. Once they saw that things were going well we were basically treated as if a secretary could have done the same job that we did, but Primo wasn't a very reputable name until we came in there and made it something. Not saying that we single-handedly did it because without their money we couldn't have done anything. Luckily things went well but now Primo has got some guy managing the Primo area and the team, who knows nothing about anything. He's some Asian guy who really should understand that he has no right to be in that job. They've got a product manager who used to race road bikes and sell Time pedals and Giro helmets. How are you a manager and purchaser for a BMX distributor if you know nothing about BMX? I don't think they really know what they're doing.
V-MONSTER FREETYLE TYRE.
20x1.95
Steroid seat
Tenderizer platform pedals
V-Monster tires 20x1.95 - 20x1.75 .
Ride BMX UK august 1997: Primo Steroid seats have to be the hardest seat known to man, and sitting on one is a right pain in the arse - literally. So Primo base padded out the Steroid and called it the Hemorrhoid. Still strong, still with oversize cromoly rails, same killer size - but now with padding. Rated. £19.
JEWELS THREADED SOCKET NUTS.
Bomb coaster hub.
Primo's super popular V-Monster freestyle tyres are now available in all blue.
Gorilla cup.
Primo Wall tyres.
PRIMO MOE'S BARS.
Ride BMX UK december 1998: Brand new from Primo comes these new bars designed by Brian Castillo. They're 4pc and pretty similar to the S&M Castillo bars (surprise, surprise) - thick walled cromoly tube, a really good size, 27 inches wide, good sweep, they're well made too.
Greg Walsh, thecomeupbmx.blogspot.com, october 2006: I met Brian Castillo on Road Fools 2, we got to be friends, and when a position opened up at Primo/ Tip, he asked me to come out. I went out to visit, took the job, and started working there on January 10th of 1999.
Wellgo manufactured 60,000 pairs of Super Tenderizers pedals for Primo this year.
Lisse, dispo en 1.75 avec des anneaux en kevlar donc super résistant et léger
Plastic pegs are designed with park use in mind.
Paul Buchanan 2001
Amos Burke 2001
Brian Castillo 1998 - march 2000
Sandy Carson 2001
Chad DeGroot 1995 - ....
Edwin Delarosa 2002
Mike Escamilla 1997
Fids 2001
Brian Foster december 2001 - ....
Dave Freimuth march 2000 - ....
Kerry Gatt 2001
Mike Griffin 1995
Nate Hanson 1995 - ...
Dean Hearne 2001
Josh Heino 1998
Ed Koenning 2001
Sean McKinney 1995 - 1997
Troy McMurray 1997 - 1998
Taj Mihelich 1998
Robbie Morales 1997 - ....
Chris Moeller 1996
Ian Morris 2001
Paul Osicka 2001
John Parker december 1998 - december 2001
Joe Rich 1998
Dan Rigby 2001
Ryan Sher 2001
Day Smith co-sponsorship from 1995 to ...
Josh Stricker 2002 - ....
Brian Terrada 2001
Brian Tuney 2001
Dylan Worsley 1997
Leif Valin 2001
Gabe Weed 1995
Shawn White 1995
Neal Wood 1995