First Look: Tyson Jones-Peni and his United TRU Trails frame setup

"I’m not into anything kooky and nor are most trail dudes."

26 Jun 2015

Photos by Brendan Boeck

Ever since United retired the KL40 frame back in 2010 they've been wanting to create a new trails specific frame for their line. Behold, the TRU frame, handcrafted by FBM in New York with "options to suit even the saltiest of trail dogs". United's OZ ripper Tyson Jones-Peni is one of their riders who had a bunch of input on the frame so team mate Jack Birtles caught up with him to produce the video below where Tyson shares his feelings on what he feels trail riding really means. Meantime we also caught up with Tyson to get get a closer look at his current ride and find out more about the TRU frame, his input and the OZ trail scene.

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Featuring Tyson Jones Peni - More Info

Tell us more about the TRU frame.

It’s the Trail Rider’s United. The name literally says it all! It’s going to come off as cliché but it’s the best frame I’ve ever ridden. I’m not into anything kooky and nor are most trail dudes. Roasting sets is generally at the top of your list when picking a frame and the TRU just provides real deal geometry to do that; longish back end, a head angle a touch mellower than 74.5, low BB.

Did you have any input in it’s design?

Yeah, I spoke a lot with Toby Forte and Ian Morris about what I wanted/liked in a frame. Toby used to work for the Oz United distro here and it was pretty sick to see it all come into fruition. Like for instance, the head angle is made to accommodate a 2.1” rear tire and a 2.35” front, so when you build your bike up it should feel somewhere around a 74.25 head angle. Toby came up with that and I’m grateful for it; feels dialled.

I actually designed the ‘TRU’ typeface graphic and the OZ version of the frame comes with chainstay mounts. I had the option of making them removable, which I went for – there’s some badass brakeless trail riders in OZ.

tyson jones peni-2 TRU onefoottable united BB

Tell us about your trail scene out in OZ. How dos it compare to elsewhere?

Year round roastage! We’re lucky to not have the harsh change in weather that the dudes on the East Coast of USA have with snowfall, so we can ride all year round. It just gets hot and dry in summer, pretty standard. Our spot is best in winter, the ground is more tacky.

Honestly though, it’s all the same; I feel like trail building is something that isn’t spot driven when you’ve been doing it for a while. Everyone’s spot has ups and downs about it, it’s about doing the best you can with the spot you have. Pretty much just fuelling the addiction of catching air. I’m sure other builders will agree, there is times when you swear your spot is the worst due to wind/rain/snow/shit dirt/roaches; but when you get on and that cracking session is happening, it’s the best place on Earth.

We've been hearing good things about the the Back Bone DVD. What can we expect to see in there?

55% trails, 30% street, 15% concrete, focusing on gnarliness and general badassery. Back Bone is an Australian BMX store and the video reflects that we’re proud of that. We went into making the video with Anthem/Building the Underground as inspiration. Whether our video will mean the same to people as those two epics is up to the viewer, but that raw BMX feel that those timeless videos give off was a huge inspiration; not to mention the high trail content.