Well, it's about time I show people what I've been doing for the last four months!
It all started last October when my missus bought me an issue of Ride as it had a free DVD on it. I've always been into BMX but it had been put on hold whilst I pursued my motorcycle racing career. As I have now been financialy forced into semi-retirement I was looking for something to give me the same buzz the motorbikes did. Then that DVD came along and, of course, this is what I should do!
I immediately bought a 2012 Verde Radia on hp and promptly spent over 300 quid modifying it!
The idea behind this was to retire my trusty MRD Badlander I'd owned from new and modified over the years and restore it to it's former, well deserved glory!
This was meant to be the only bike I'd restore but more of that later.......................
Here's how the bike looked after I dragged it out from the side of the house. It's looking a bit sorry for itself and wearing some pretty ghastly parts!
I immediately stripped her down (ooh-err) and found the poxy alloy post was welded to the frame! Luckily the local bike shop shifted it easily. I didn't ask how they did it!
It was then dispatched to Dan along with a set of NOS Skyway EZ bars for a fresh coat of old school white!
I've always had a strange fetish for ACS Rotors and picked up this beauty for a bargain off Threaders on here needing some work.
I got the broken cable out, stripped it down and rebuilt and polished it and applied new decals.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of it after I rebuilt it!
My original plan was to refurbish the wheels it was on but I changed my mind (something which happened a lot during the build!) and decided to go for more classic wheels. I picked up an early set of Araya 7X rims off Terry (Londonhellboy) which were in rider condition but I wanted them nice and shiny so spent many hours with wet and dry and polishing mops preparing the rims.
I then sent them off to my local anodisers (Malden Plating) to have them anodised the same colour as the MX900 brakes which came with the bike which I was also having done along with the Sugino chainring the bike was wearing and a NOS Landar seat clamp.
The brakes were one of the parts which took the longest to do. They've had new bolts, nuts, springs, decals and genuine white Dia Compe pads. To get them anodised I had to grind off the quick release pin and order one from Pork Chop which Steve (Animal) very skillfully put on for me!
The adjusters are the original ones I cleaned up. I was going to buy some more until I saw the price!
I won an MRD brake guard of eBay a while ago and replaced the tired decal with a nice shiney new one!
I also won a rather nice MRD race top which fits!
I bought a pair of NOS Suzue hubs and had the wheels built up for me (I'm no good at that).
The last thing to get was tyres, then I was ready to build her up!
The stem is a NOS ACS item I picked up for a song and polished up.
In a couple of hours, this will be a bike!
I realise by this stage you will have spotted the snake post but don't worry, it doesn't stay!
The hardest part of this build was putting on the downtube decals. Next time I'll try the wet way!
Hope you like her?
Now I just have to wait for some nice weather to go and get some decent pictures!
A quick run down of the parts are:
Owned from new MRD Badlander frame and forks
NOS Skyway EZ bars
NOS ACS stem
Rebuilt ACS Rotor
NOS Beartrap 2 headset
NOS Dia Compe lever grips
NOS Dia Compe Tech 4 levers
NOS AME rounds
NOS Dia Compe cables
Dia Compe cable guides
NOS Dia Compe white brake pads
NOS Dia Compe white brake bolt caps
Orginal Dia Compe MX900's refurbished
NOS Haro pegs
NOS Suzue hubs
Araya rims refurbished
NOS Tioga superlite innertubes
Dice dustcaps
NOS Panaracer Tyres
Maxy Cross cranks
Sugino chainring
NOS Tioga Crazy Bolts
NOS Shimano SX pedals converted to 9/16
NOS Landar seatpost clamp
NOS Odyssey layback seatpost
NOS Elina Flyte Tech
NOS Shimano 16T freewheel
YBN chain
NOS chain adjusters
Refurbished MRD brake guard
Paint by SBD
And thanks to everyone who helped me out in this build!
Giles