am i missing some thing?

[58 delray]

was talkin to a couple of well known riders from bitd and they all said the same thing,
some of the parts that people are using on their show builds we would not have used bitd.
in fact they would have ended up in the parts bin.
now they command big money wtf.
one person said to me that maybe it was an area thing, ie, in the area he was in the eighties somthing was popular where as in my area it wasn't, eg kashie aeros, in his area everyone wanted them, where i rode in the eighties we chucked them away and used cycle pro shot gun 2s.
what do you all think?

[58 delray]

what i'm trying to say is that, not many people had factory bike's,  we all built them with what we could afford at the time, eg my ripper had Race Inc forks and GT bars, Hutch stem etc etc, it was not like the adverts and posters. while i admire the time and effort not forgeting the money that goes into the show builds imo they are not true to the eighties and what most of us rode,
andy

[donnydresser]

i know when i was riding in the eighties around doncaster that most of my mates rode  non factory bikes and not a lot of people had haros or skyways  most rode super tuffs and falcons  and firebirds  and like you say none resembled  the show bikes of now.most people hunted around doncaster  for bits and bobs to make them different 

[fugazi]

I agree with you there, around my way the people that actually rode bmx always used a mish mash of parts, there was only a few "factory spec" bikes & the people that owned them just hung out & cruised round on them, I love seeing the o/s bikes on here done to spec but to Me back then it was very rare to see a straight out the box bike.

[Jon The Bassist]

You're right in that most bikes were very much mix and match. Also very few of the racers in my era (85-90) used saddles like that; most had one-piece seatposts and saddles by Uni, Elina and I think Cougar? Some of the older riders and those that liked their seats high did use traditional saddles and seatposts. 2.125 front tyres were pretty rare also.

[DONNY R]

It seems a lot of people on here are not bmx'ers     there just collectors who never have and never will race there bikes,you have only got to look at the way the bikes are set up to see that,(seats as high as they can go,stems high,bars right forward eg)
THATS WHY OLD SCHOOL RACING IS DYING OUT IN PARTS OF THE COUNTRY collectors not BMX'ers buying the bikes they never had as kiddies  it has to be done thou and glad it is,but i know what you mean heathy

[Jon The Bassist]

I'm for bits and bikes being restored and re-used.  Yes, the prices of a lot of kit does my head in but people are free to spend there money on what they want.  At least its a creative pastime and positive if it creates interest in BMX generally.

[DONNY R]

Just watched Delirium play toxicity well sweet 

[Jon The Bassist]

ha ha, I've had my hair cut off since then!

[OrgasmDonor]

pose over practicality is the prder of the day with show builds, i switched to midschool bikes n builds coz i can to ride my bikes as hard as i dare, not as hard as i dare incase i break something. stock bikes are cool but custom bikes with choice bits are true old school IMO as, unless you were a factory rider, thats how the bike BITD were in my eyes, plus alot of the crap bits are fetchin huge money for that very reason, binned or fooked BITD = rare as fook now (hutch cranks for example) doesnt mean they were good.

[moley]

Shotgun II's 

We all (mostly) had shite bikes BITD.  Everyone changed parts once they saved up their pocket money or as components broke!!

[stidds]

It seems a lot of people on here are not bmx'ers  there just collectors who never have and never will race there bikes,you have only got to look at the way the bikes are set up to see that,(seats as high as they can go,stems high,bars right forward eg)

Actually most of us racers bitd had seats as high as they could go, it meant we could sit down going into corners.  Low seats are a new thing.

[20to26]

yeah Stidds that's true. In all my os racing pics the seats are high - saddle height about the height of the grips

As for seats - Shotgun IIs, Elina Flyte Techs & UNI Pro's - don't remember Kashimax Aero's being that popular at all...

[trasher]

well my curtis was built to how exactly i had it ,,,,kashimax ,mx 1000's tuffs, redline flight crank ,,vdc monkey bars
 ,,,,,i only had one mate who had a factory bike (and that was a redline),,the rest where all customs ,,rippers ,,quads ,,gt's ..redlines ,,,,,granted we all started on burners ,like most of us did ,,,

to me all the builds i see on here ,have all the parts i used ,and saw day in day out  

[Jon The Bassist]

Also it's a different BiTD for all of us, I raced 85-90 so missed the early bit when loads of you guys raced.

[trasher]

Also it's a different BiTD for all of us, I raced 85-90 so missed the early bit when loads of you guys raced.

true i,d done by 85-86 

[spillers#1]

Every one i knew and raced in the mid late 80's had there seats quite low including me so i could get maximun air   it was normally only the really tall leggy fckers who had there seats really high otherwise you would hit your ass on seat when jumping or speed jumping/pulling up if you know whaqt i mean  

[Jon The Bassist]

Also it's a different BiTD for all of us, I raced 85-90 so missed the early bit when loads of you guys raced.

true i,d done by 85-86 

You probably saw the best bit for numbers participating. Numbers were shockingly low in 90. Not knocking those that organised it though as the tracks were all good (if a little flat), and the gates etc were all good.

[stidds]

I was racing early also, started in the USA in 1981 and my last race was in 1985.

[bigfatolly]

everyone i knew had mish mash bikes,i cant remember anyone having out the box bikes apart from burners or falcon pros.
even my burner was second hand,i resprayed it white and replaced and swapped bit by bit until i got my rickman fs.
all the parts off the burner went on that and more bits swapped etc and so it went on......

[stidds]

The thing is collecting anything goes this way, VW's are a prime example.  I know some mates that run Beetles exactly as they did bitd, a mish mash of parts.  However I also have mates who are completely anal about only putting original parts on within a 1-2 year window.

It all depends on how you want to build something, I have built bikes exactly as I would have run them bitd, however when it came to building my DeCoster I only used parts that were around in 1978, if I wasn't 100% sure a part was from '78 then it didn't go on the bike.  It even came down to speaking to lots of members on this site and in the US that are into the 70's builds whether radial spokes were used, whether blue or chrome nipples should be on the rims and it wasn't actually until the day of MK09 that I finally decided on whether to put a blue or black brake cable on it.

At the end of the day it is still a BMX however you build it and to me it is not for someone else to comment on how that person built the bike.  No-one is right or wrong, they are just another sad collector/rider of childrens bicycles.

[trasher]

The thing is collecting anything goes this way, VW's are a prime example.  I know some mates that run Beetles exactly as they did bitd, a mish mash of parts.  However I also have mates who are completely anal about only putting original parts on within a 1-2 year window.

It all depends on how you want to build something, I have built bikes exactly as I would have run them bitd, however when it came to building my DeCoster I only used parts that were around in 1978, if I wasn't 100% sure a part was from '78 then it didn't go on the bike.  It even came down to speaking to lots of members on this site and in the US that are into the 70's builds whether radial spokes were used, whether blue or chrome nipples should be on the rims and it wasn't actually until the day of MK09 that I finally decided on whether to put a blue or black brake cable on it.

At the end of the day it is still a BMX however you build it and to me it is not for someone else to comment on how that person built the bike.  No-one is right or wrong, they are just another sad collector/rider of childrens bicycles.

well said that man 

[southern andy]

My race bike back in 86 below was a mish mash of parts as my Dad only ever bought F+F sets and built around them, but then a GJS with JMC DY bars and 400 flights would also be high on someone's showbike. In fact the only ever bike we bought complete from strongs cycles was a Diamond Back senior Pro but even that was built by them.

And i used to run a high seatpost exactly for the way Sean describes above.  I don't ever remember seeing anyone run a set up like they do nowadays







My bikes nowadays are built with what comes up and at an affordable price. My latest one the Mongoose Californian special has been built like the catalogue bike though.
My next one will also be 100% catalogue but then most of it is already there.



EDIT>>>  Oh yeah, and i ain't got a clue what saddle i used on the bike above but i know i've never owned a Kashi.

[hotdog]

I bought my PK Ripper from Surrey Skateboards,bitd,and it was custom built to my specifications. When that died,I got a Trick Star with a Kashi Aero on it and remember thinking that was the most uncomfortable seat EVER!

[CD17]

It seems a lot of people on here are not bmx'ers     there just collectors who never have and never will race there bikes,you have only got to look at the way the bikes are set up to see that,(seats as high as they can go,stems high,bars right forward eg)
THATS WHY OLD SCHOOL RACING IS DYING OUT IN PARTS OF THE COUNTRY collectors not BMX'ers buying the bikes they never had as kiddies  it has to be done thou and glad it is,but i know what you mean heathy

   What makes you think that everyone who had a BMX BITD had to race it    Where I lived there were no tracks, so we rode street & parks 

He is a rep of mine BITD



I think most of us could not afford a factory build, I know I couldn't, it took me a long while to get all the parts together or this.

I just brought a new MTB & have changed the seat, the seat post & the cassette, like others have said people who have factory builds don't ride there bikes