The BMX (and other bikes) thread

[MelvinsArmy]

THEYTOOKMYTHUMB, I think a lot of us have stories similar to that, lol. Luckily my parent's did give my Dyno away, but rather I sold it to buy a mountain bike when they became popular.


Here it is. My Holy Grail in my kitchen. Now comes months of scouring the internet for all the right parts. This is gonna be a fun winter.

Hey Mel, Any updates on this sweet piece?? I've waited patiently...

It's almost there. I finally found a very hard to find Hadley bottom bracket for my 401 Flights. The loose bb stock Flight bottom bracket doesn't work on a JMC. I re-laced the wheels, but the spokes I got for the rear wheel were about 2mm too long. So, I've got to order 36 more spokes, re-lace the rear, get it trued, and the bike will finally be done! Just in time for spring. I'm actually very surprised at how quickly everything came together. I'd find one super hard to find part, then a couple easy to find parts, then have a three week dry spell when I thought I'd never get the bike finished. Then, suddenly another super hard to find part would pop up. It's been a very intense few months scouring the internet looking for all the right pieces. Now I've finally got them all. The bike is hanging in my room, nearly fully assembled, minus wheels. I should hopefully have everything done, assembled and test ridden two weeks from today.

Here's a small taste from the parts department. I found a pretty nice Phil Wood spider, but someone had polished the snot out of it. Booo! So, I got out the 1500 grit sand paper, my block, a fine brush and some red paint and returned it to it's proper not so blinged out finish.

Before:


After:

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

Nice work there. Look forward to the final product. My wife twisted my arm to go walk the riverfront yesterday and seeing all the bikes kinda gets me to thinking it's time...

[MelvinsArmy]

It is done.

[Acemechanic]

I am also into freestyle BMX bikes from the 80's. I am a member at the BMXmuseum.com I have two bikes posted on that sight. I have a 1986 GT Pro Performer that I built from a bare frame. I was 15 years old I worked a paper route and a weekend job at a bike shop for my best friends dad. He let me work for parts for my bike. I had soo much pride in that bike. Its because it was one of the first things that I really wanted bad enough to work hard enough to buy for myself. I still have that same bike. Last year I did a complete restoration on the bike and have brought it back to like new condition. My bike has a very rare set of purple OGK mags on it. I have had several offers from people who wanted to buy my bike. My bike is NOT FOR SALE so please do not ask me.

I also built my nephew a 1985 Skyway Street Beat. My nephew took an interest in the old school freestyle bikes when I was searching for parts for my GT. He asked me if he could have a bike like that. I thought about it and I didn't give him an answer but I came up with the idea to give it to him as a christmas presant. I bought all the parts needed to assemble the bike. I picked up an empty box from a local bike shop to put the parts in then I wrapped it up and gave it to him for christmas. He was a little disappointed that the bike was in parts and not put together but once I told him that we were going to assemble it together that made his day. I ended up having him stay at my house for the weekend while we assembled the bike.

Now i am working on my third bike. Its a 1987 Dyno detour. I am doing this bike for my other nephew. I found this bike at a yard sale and the bike was in really good shape and all the major parts are there. I just worked with a guy from the BMXmuseum who made the decals for this project. I just got them last week and they came out awsome. My next thing to get done is to have the frame powder coated. I can't wait to see this bike finished. This bike is in such good shape that I plan on reusing alot of the parts with not much more than a good cleaning. As soon as I get this bike done I will post photo at the museum so keep an eye out.

My nephews are handicaped. They both have hearing problems and we just found out that my youngest nephew also has a terrible learning disability. The doctors fear that his learning disability is worse than his hearing problem. So if I can bring a little bit of joy to these little boys then no matter how much this hobby costs me its money well spent. So when my own boy is old enough to ride a 20inch bike I plan on building him one too. I am thinking about either a Haro Master or Hutch trick star. I just guess I will have to see what he will want. Who knows maybe he wont want anything to do with them.

Gordon.

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

Mel, it's a cream dream! Love the lay-back bar and tires. I would have used Mushroom hand-grips, but then again, maybe I should shut up and build my own...SWEET!

[Acemechanic]

Here are photos of my two bikes.

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

If I've only learned one thing from this site it's that everyone has COOLER TOYS THAN ME!! Great stuff ACE!

[MelvinsArmy]

Great stories Gordon, that's awesome. And, I really dig that Pro Performer, I'm a sucker for GT's. What color are you going to do your D-Tour in? My bike back in the day was a day glo pink 87 D-Tour.

[SofaKing]

Hey Melvins, all I can say is WOW she's a beaut! What an awesome looking cruiser. I love the attention to detail, what kind of frame savers are you running there? Whale tail or something like that. Also is that a black & silver izumi chain? I need to get my mitts on one of those for the PL-24 (also a black & chrome theme).

Dave

[MelvinsArmy]

Yep, those are whale tails. They are one of my favorite old school parts and luckily this frame was already drilled for them, so I put them on. I wouldn't have had the courage to drill this frame if it wasn't already. And yep, that's an Izumi.

[Acemechanic]

Great stories Gordon, that's awesome. And, I really dig that Pro Performer, I'm a sucker for GT's. What color are you going to do your D-Tour in? My bike back in the day was a day glo pink 87 D-Tour.

The dyno detour is the blue and I want to try and have the bike powdercoated the same blue. It was my pleasure to share my story it makes me feel good to share it.

[aconsola]

Great stories Gordon, that's awesome. And, I really dig that Pro Performer, I'm a sucker for GT's. What color are you going to do your D-Tour in? My bike back in the day was a day glo pink 87 D-Tour.

The dyno detour is the blue and I want to try and have the bike powdercoated the same blue. It was my pleasure to share my story it makes me feel good to share it.

Blue dynos rock,
Here is an updated pic of mine. I'd like to get another pair of pegs for the rear, and some GT Tires. I do get strange looks riding it around the neighborhood with the kids, but it is fun. I never realized how heavy these were until I got into mountain biking. This thing is a tank!

[uzzi]

Thought vintage rc was bad? there is a set of Hutch Aerospeed crank set going for $1500 on Ebay.....crazy coin !

[Acemechanic]

Thought vintage rc was bad? there is a set of Hutch Aerospeed crank set going for $1500 on Ebay.....crazy coin !

Trust me I know exactlly what you are saying. Anything Hutch, Redline or Haro brings big Money for those parts. Don't ask me why? I am not sure if the parts are anymore rare than a GT, Dyno, Mongoose, CW ect ect. Hell they were even expensive bikes to buy back in the day. You couldn't touch a Hutch, Haro or Redline for any less than a grand. I am always keeping an eye peeled for those NOS scores. Right now I want a set of Blue RX3 locking brake levers. I know you are out there my sweets.

Gordon.

[MelvinsArmy]

Thought vintage rc was bad? there is a set of Hutch Aerospeed crank set going for $1500 on Ebay.....crazy coin !

That's about half what they've been selling for since I got back in to vintage bmx about 5 years ago. Wait till that auction ends.

Why anybody would spend 2 or 3 thousand dollars on some of the worst cranks ever made is beyond me. There's usually a good reason why some parts are rare, it's because they sucked to begin with and the company discontinued them.

Hutch prices are starting to drop because someone bought the name and is making new Hutch stuff. He introduced bear traps again and vintage real Hutch beartraps are going for about half what they went for a year ago. In the bigger BMX picture, Hutch, Redline and Haro are relative steals. Try to buy anything made by VDC, or something like a JMC Andy Paterson, it's a whole other ball game. I paid as much for the JMC handlebars on the bike above as I did for a nearly mint all original, complete 1988 Haro Master in 2005 if that gives you any idea.