Competition Development, the manufacturer of Quicksilver BMX, started its life as a BMX company in the mid '70's as the importer & distributor of Mongoose & Torker bikes. There may also have been others that I am not yet aware of. They also distributed mostly American components including Adicks, Cook Bros, Redline, Ashtabula & many others.
They produced their first home grown frame in early 1978.
They moved to Japanese sourced components during 1980 when this became a win win siruation with lower costing while being able to maintain or improve component quality levels.
All in all they produced seven full sized BMX models on six diferent frames that were built in Australia under the Quicksilver name. There were also two versions of the 24" Cruiser, a 26" Cruiser & a Mountain Bike.
Additionally there was a Quicksilver Mini & a Quicksilver Liquid Smoke [Mini] Both are extremely rare with only one or perhaps two examples known.
Made only in 1983, the last model to be produced used aero tubing in the frame as well as the aero cranks & fork.
These were simply known as Li'Qaero with the aero part of the name obviously refering to the new direction in design.
Research indicates that not more than 100 of these were made & currently there are four examples in my serial number list in another forum [Ozbmx.com] so it can be seen that they are not common.
Even less common is the Li'Qaero Mini. At this time I have speculated that perhaps as few as ten were produced, but time will tell. Two are currently known & one of them is the subject of this thread.
At this time this is the only known advertisment for them. They did not use the Quicksilver name anywhere on the frame but I think that I can make out a Quicksilver branded Elina seat that had been standard fare on previous models since about 1980 or '81.
This is my recently aquired Li'Qaero Mini. I got it without a stem or bar, no pedals or wheels & no seat, seat post clamp, or brakes. The seat post is steel & is firmly stuck.
I have quickly added a generic black seat, a black Addicks seat post clamp [og spec], a pair of original Li'Qaero wheels that were all that remained of a Li'Qaero 'find' that had been fitted with a pair of Tuff's. The bike had been sold years before I got there but the wheels had remained.
These wheels may have been original spec. on a mini, or they may not. The research continues.
The stem is a black Sugino that I had but not the UFO version that would have been original & the bars look about right.
The brake in the ad looks like it might be a Dia Compe & not the Shimano Tourneys that Competition Development had used as standard equipment for all it's previous models. Comments on the brake in the ad are invited.
This one will take its place in the restoration line & wait its turn as I have more Quicksilvers to restore first
The only other Li'Qaero Mini can be seen on the Museum website.
