| Gary Fisher PHD
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The PHD is the culmination of everything that we have learned from Chris Duncan about building the ultimate jump bike.
We first met with Chris at Sea Otter last year. At the time we were pretty far along on design of our Bigg'ns hardtail. In our initial meeting with Chris he validated that the Bigg'ns was well designed by his standards. He can rail the bike while dirt jumping but the Bigg’ns was designed to fit a wider range of freeride hardtail users then just the jumper. Today we have more dealers selling them as trail bikes then jump bikes or park bikes. We think that dirt jumping is going to continue to grow so we set to work designing the best bike for this growing market.
In our follow-up meetings with Chris we learned that he has some really specific needs for dirt jumping. Chris does some really advanced tricks and is very good at breaking down the mechanics of his riding and determining exactly how he interfaces with the bike. He laid out just what he wanted for handlebar height and rear weight bias for the best positioning on the bike. Top tube height was critical because often times he needs to tuck his leg in between the top tube and the nose of the saddle. He has also seen a lot of jump bikes fail through the years. So he helped us make a durable bike while still delivering a good ride quality.
The resulting bike is the PHD (As opposed to the top end Bigg'ns, the GED). The PHD has an externally reinforced 1.5" headtube and uses many of the 7" Kingfisher's tubes that are manipulated to give the PHD the ergonomics Chris looks for. The top and down tubes are highly manipulated ZR9000 while the rest of the frame is 6061 aluminum. Internal cable routing is an option on both the drive and non-drive seatstays for snag-free routing. The frame has cold forged seatstay yoke and dropouts. Completely unique to the PHD are the removable stainless steel bash guards on the downtube and non-drive side chainstay. These allow the rider to be more aggressive without affecting the frame itself.
The PHD comes in three sizes in the BMX tradition. All three sizes have the same rear triangle but only vary in top tube length and hand position. This way everyone gets the same rear end stiffness and rear end bias while putting the hands in the right spot for handling.
From front to back the PHD is the most highly engineered jump bike ever to hit the market.
Key Points:
- Designed with Chris Duncan
- Optimized for dirt jumping
- Durable oversized design
- Rear wheel bias
- Stainless steel bash guards
- Three sizes in one model for 2006
For more info on Gary Fisher bicycles, check out: www.fisherbikes.com
