Over the last 10 years or so I’ve been watching the Odyssey team work on the OPTIS. This is not meant to be a promotion for the OPTIS (though it is cool), more a little reflection on watching the product come to fruition. I’ve tested assorted iterations of the design and tracked its progress from a rough prototype that George French made in his shed to a dialed looking final product that you can actually buy. 

Seeing a product develop, especially a uniquely new product like the OPTIS, is something I find so incredibly interesting. It fits with my website’s motto, “Think Up Good Things and Make Them Real”. First the idea is dreamed up. Then attempts are made to make it and eventually hard work produces one that functions well enough to prove the concept has merit (how the hell George figured out how to make a pneumatic insert in his garage is beyond me!). But that is hardly the end of it. A good bike part idea isn’t worth much if you can’t figure out a reasonable way to mass produce it. As a small brand you can’t very well invent some multi-million dollar machine that a factory has to build in order to manufacture the product. You have to understand what process the factories have available and figure out how they can adapt their capabilities to create your product. It’s been inspiring witnessing the team figure all this out and make an interesting idea into a reality.

I mostly help out on the Fairdale Bikes side but Odyssey BMX is part of the same family of brands. Through the years I would get occasional updates and the odd sample to test from the Odyssey crew as the OPTIS progressed. As I started riding more and more MTB I also began to understand how such a product could be a benefit to my riding. Now that Fairdale makes an actual mountain bike Odyssey will be debuting the OPTIS on my personal bike at Sea Otter in just a few days time.

So what is the OPTIS? In simplest terms it is an insert for tubeless tires that offers some potentially game changing characteristics. In mountain biking running lower tires pressures is beneficial because a nice soft, malleable tire conforms to the ground and helps the tire grip. However, going fast and pumping hard through corners (BMXers will understand better than anyone else) will tear those soft tires off the rim and burp out air. With the OPTIS the theory is to divide the tire into two chambers. The OPTIS insert tightens up and holds the tire onto the rim with one air pressure and it allows a 2nd, lower pressure to be run in the tire volume. So you can tune the two pressures to find the best of grip and support. 

I tried to help out by making a couple little videos with some animations to explain the product.

See much more about the OPTIS here.