1988 Ozone Method Air
Ozone Method Air 1988 with original Ozone forks, paint and decals. Built by Timo "2Fresh" in Helsinki, Finland.
The Ozone was my "holy grail" for over 14 years!! I wanted something special for this build so there's a set of actual gold plated Peregrine Q-Bars and a matching seatpost to enhance the yellow elements in the graphics. The frame & fork set was purchased in used but very well preserved condition in 2004 and it came with original decals (and rare) Ozone FS handlebars with ODI Mushrooms and Odyssey Pitbull rear brake. The project was first completed in june 2004 but has since been updated little by little to achieve the kind of looks i had in my mind. Ozone was introduced in 1988 and it had total three models available which all shared the same frame geometry. The only major difference between the three models was in the materials used. Here is the three models explained:
Method One: Full 100% Chro-Moly construction, "the flagship" pro model. Had U-brake posts under the chainstays. It was available in chrome/black & chrome/white. In some listings they have mentioned chrome/orange and chrome/aqua which only refers to the earlier models by Air-Uni (introduced year before, in 1987) which also had three models under same geometry. Those were called "Air-UNI U2", "Air-UNI Ozone" and "Air-UNI U-Bi". As for the 1988 Ozones the Method One is only known to exist in black/chrome and white/chrome.
Method One had dual (parallel) cable stops at the bottom bracket and dual cable guides in front of them so that you could run dual lower cables directly from the Gyro into the u-brake arms. It also had a cable stop plate on the underside of the downtube, just like O3, and this was meant for the two cable adjusters (unlike the O3 that only uses single cable thru the same type of plate). The idea is that you can run two separate lower cables and have their middle part exposed for less cable friction so that only the top and bottom parts have housing. Simply genius!
Method Air: The "expert" model. Tri-Moly construction, (or more likely "Quad-Moly" if you will, when adding the dual toptubes to the overall tubes count) which consist of Chro-Moly headtube, downtube and toptubes. Chainstay tubes were Hi-Tensile Steel. Method Air was designed to work with centerpull type rear brakes that mount with single bolt into the frame's seatstays or chainstays (i.e. Dia Compe, Weinmann, Altenburger, Odyssey Pitbull etc etc). Note: "centerpull" is NOT same as "u-brake". Centerpulls are mounted with a bolt on to either chainstays os seatstays while u-brakes require special welded-on u-brake studs for mounting them. There is two cable guides on the underside of the down tube, both located near the bottom bracket. The Method Air came with atleast two different downtube decal designs with fading on the front end of the decal and the other is completely chrome foil without the fade.
Method O3: High Tensile steel frame, the "entry level" model (supposedly spelled as "Oh Three", not "zero-three"). Designed to work with centerpull type rear brakes just like Method Air. Appears to be the only Ozone that came fully painted (as black) but used the same chrome foil/black fade decals as Method Air & Method One except ofcourse the tiny stickers on the top tubes saying "Method:O3". Has the same two cable guides on the underside of down tube, near the bottom bracket and a welded-on plate at the middle part of down tube for cable adjuster or, more likely to anchor the lower cable firmly to its place.
According to Alan Brown (the creator of AIR-UNI and Ozone) Ozone frames were produced in hundreds rather than thousands which pretty much explains their rarity these days although they do pop up from time to time. Obviously some broke, some just disappeared or more likely, ended up in the dumpster back in the day. Shame. But i know for fact there is a few Ozones circulating around the collecting community. Hopefully they will be listed one day here in the museum.
Let's begin with the original Ozone magazine ad from 1988:
Here's my own "ad" i made for the freestyle bike of the year 2008 competition:
Parts & specs:- Frame: 1988 Ozone Method:Air (Tri-Moly) w/original paint & decals
- Serial#: SC80601706
- Fork: 1" Ozone made by Akisu, stamped '88, has drop outs with adjustable wheelbase
- Handlebars: Peregrine Q-Bar 1 mkII - gold plated
- Stem: ACS 55 slanted "Rotor stem"
- Grips: A'me Round (original 80's production bubble font logo)
- Seatpost: Lowrider Collection 10" tall, 22.2mm - "gold-chromed"
- Seat: labeled as "Diamond Back" manufactured by Viscount
- Seatpost clamp: black DK "noncon" from the 80's
- Brake levers: 80's production Dia-Compe Tech-77 w/locking buttons
- Front brake/pads: ACS Tangent 860F w/Skyway Freestyle Tuff Pads
- Rear brake/pads: Altenburger Concorde centerpull from the 70's w/Skyway Freestyle Tuff Pads
- Gyro: original Odyssey 1" Gyro
- Gyro cable upper: SST Oryg cut on the lower part using Odyssey knarps
- Gyro cable lower: SST Oryg/Odyssey Slick housing
- Headset: Tioga Beartrap-2
- Cranks: GT Power Series 1pc. cro-mo 175mm
- Pedals: Victor VP-500 Shimano SX copies
- Front sprocket: Tioga CDC-1 Compact Disc 43T
- Bottom bracket: YST waterproof 24T USA-BB
- Chain: KMC Z ½ x 1/8" black/gold two-tone
- Rear sprocket: NK 16T cog
- Rims: Peregrine Super Pro HP-48s stock hard baked black powdercoat w/ original production silver print Peregrine HP 48 decals
- Front hub: Peregrine/Suzue sealed 48H w/aluminum GT micro adjusters from a GT Superlace hub
- Rear hub: Suntour Freecoaster 48H 3/8" marketed as "Static" in the early-mid 90's, sold as pre-modified freecoaster. The only difference to a OG Suntour hub is the welded hub flanges.
- Spokes: 183mm black spokes with black brass nipples
- Pegs: Diamond Back dual thread 26T/24T same shape & style as Ozone pegs, just different print.
- Tires: original ACS RL Edge skinwall 20 x 1.75
- Tubes: Kenda
- Original retail price: $329.00 (Source: Freestylin' march 1989)
- Approximate value: long time holy grail - beyond priceless.
Previous updates:- On january 25th 2008 this bike won the Freestyle Bike Of The Year 2008 competition hosted at vintagebmx.com with grand prize of $500 and a trophy provided by Juan Mattos at bmx-addicts.com. Many thanks to everybody who gave their vote and left all those nice comments! I greatly appreciate it. Thank You.
- September 2007 came around with a small yet very significant update because i finally took the time to apply the silver Peregrine HP 48 decals on to the black HP rims i had had lying around for a while. So i guess now it's safe to say the bike is fully completed and looks exactly the way i like it.
- Replaced a generic seatpost clamp with Genuine DK "Noncon" (for "non-concentric") seatpost clamp from the 80's, aug 2007.
- KKT Pedals on aug 2007, very similiar to those in the old Ozone ads.
- Black/gold KMC two-tone chain, dec 2006.
- Diamond Back dual thread pegs, sept 2006.
- Victor "DX-style" pedals, summer 2006
- Viscount seat with Diamond Back print, summer 2006.
