Interviews
Ryan Frisk / RNC MFG. By Greentalks

RNC the company responsible for the cranks  a lot of people are talking about, as well as bringing titanium to mainstream BMX.. We manage to arrange an interview with Ryan Frisk, the owner of RNC, and see what makes him and his company tick. 

The cranks (Photo stolen from Albe's)

Red = Greentalks (BG staff)
White = Ryan Frisk (RNC)

What’s your name, age, location, etc?
Ryan Frisk, 25, Arlington, WA

What’s an average day for you?
Wake up go to the gym come back to the shop and go to work. I usually only get to ride on the weekends since my business keeps me so busy and the nearest trails are 45 minutes away.

How long have you been riding?
Since I was about 13 so I guess about 12 years. I did quit riding for about three years. So really only 9 years

Sexy Sexy, ti seat post clamps

How did you get into riding?
 I had some local trails that were around that I started riding at they only had like two jumps I started riding their and it just took off from there.

What type of riding are you into? Trails, Park, Street, etc?
I ride trails a lot and race.

When you ride trails do you like to just flow or do you throw in tricks over every jump?
I'm not really a trick rider I just like to flow big jumps.

Is there much of a scene up there?
Everything has been getting plowed we did have a big trail scene. You may have seen the Seattle trails in road fools 10 they are dozed now.

The ones where Van Homan and Biz are just going off on?
Yep it's a shame a lot of hard work went into that place.

From the way it looked it must have spent months maybe a year to build them dirt jumps
I think it was a few years. You can't really respect the amount of digging that was done unless you saw it in person. Most of the bases of the big jumps were like 20-30 feet wide that’s a lot of digging.

Ti bar ends. Try wearing these down.

Usually after trails are plowed the scene dies down. Did that happen?
Well another good set of trails got plowed. And with this being the hottest summer Washington has ever seen the trails scene isn't t o good right now.

Since Washington is known to have lots of rain what do you guys do when its raining?
You learn to ride in the rain. Unless it is totally dumping. I guess there are also some trails under a bridge but I have never been to them. I guess you can ride those in the rain.

Onto the company. Why did you decide to start this company?
Well if first started my shop about two years back and I started doing work for a lot of other bike companies. But I got kinda tired of having to stick with the way other people wanted to do their parts. I had a lot of good ideas and wanted to do my own thing.

How long has your company been around?  The actually RNC company that is
Probably about six months now

Really? I didn’t notice until a few months ago
It takes a long time before people start hearing about a new company.

Yeah, I didn’t find out what RNC was until I found a link to one of your auctions for your parts.  Why do use so much Ti for you parts?
Ti rules. It is stronger than 4130 and just a little heavier than aluminum.

You say its stronger than 4130 but why haven’t we seen Ti BMX frames?
They are so expensive. I would like to maybe make some in the future.  I want to make them affordable too.

The RNC race fork. Possibly the next change for bmx forks. Tianium. 

Would there be any problems with Ti BMX frames?
You could make your frame .06 wall all the way around and it would be stronger and lighter than a .049 wall frame as long as you get a good welder.

How do you sell your cranks for such a low price but yet a comparable crankset with a ti spindle is almost 200+ dollars?
We make everything in house so that saves a lot of money. Plus we get a good deal on our ti.

Do you have any upcoming products we should keep our eyes on?
Yes lots of things. I have had a lot of people ask me to make a ti hubguard so I might make a few of them in the future. But I am going to try to make some reasonably priced ti drivers. I am also going to be making some ti spindle for the Odyssey Phat Black Widows that will be available through flatland fuel.

Will the ti hub guard be the typical hub guard design like the FBM, Snafu and Standard? Will these ti drivers be a lot cheaper than the Profile drivers and will they be available for Odyssey cassettes?
I'm not sure what hubgaurd design I am going to use I don't run one myself so if anyone has some input let me know which ones the best. I am going to try to keep the retail of the ti drivers around $50.00 and I will be making them for pretty much for all the popular cassettes including Odyssey.

I might even make the drivers out of a hardened grade of titanium that is about 30% stronger than what profile uses.

Titanium sprockets

Do you ever plan on making stems, pedals, bars or anything else?
Oh yes pedals I have an awesome design. That is probably the most comfortable concave made yet. They are 3d machined. I have some protos made and they are pretty good. I might make some stems but the stem market is so flooded. Unless I come up with something innovative I won't make them. That’s the way I feel about my products if they aren't new and innovative I'm not going to make them. Why come out with another aluminum sprocket when there is a million of them out their you know what I mean?
Ahh I understand what you are saying about the innovative part.  Any idea on when these pedals will be out and how much?
They will be expensive probably like $90.00 but well worth it. They won't be for people who do lots of pedal grinds.

The interview is coming to an end since I cant think of any more questions.  What are your goals for your company and is there anyone you  would like to thank?
My main goal is to build the best parts in bmx. I also would like to have my own indoor trails one day that would rule. I would like to thank God first of all he is the reason I have a business in the first place. My wife for all the hard work she puts into the business my in-laws for letting me start a machine shop in their garage and everyone else who has contributed to making RNC a success there are to many to list.

Alright here is three questions from a couple members of BG:

BMT - It seems that a lot of your parts are made from either a Sheet of Titanium, or a Tube of Titanium, never a block of titanium, also, a lot of businesses only have those 2 types of titanium. Did you steal it from work?
Actually the only tubing we use is in our forks everything else is made from a solid bar of round titanium. Except the bash gaurds they are made from plate. I haven’t had a job in like a year so no I didn't steal it from work.

EI - If there was a massive zombie attack what would your plan for survival be? and be specific in detail
What kind of a question is that. I guess I would get in my car and drive to the mountains to get away I don’t know.

The guy is a little weird but he wanted me to ask.
ok, do you have many zombie attacks out there

Not that I know except the mass amounts of illegal immigrants if that counts
Probably does

Bluebmx - Do you plan on sponsoring anyone for both freestyle and racing?
I have talked to a lot of people about getting pro's hooked up on stuff. I sent a set of cranks to Vic Murphy he's suppose to give them to Jon Greer the guy who got last months cover of ride. I also have Travis Turreson AApro on my forks. I would like to get some more big name guys on my stuff.