Right. Will take me a while this one.
OK, so I am Andrew. I am 43 and live on the beach in West Sussex. I've been into BMX since its inception but had a pretty hard time of things as a kid. I have Aspergers and in my mid 20s was found to have Bipolar 2. This has made life pretty tough, plus my dad died when I was 7 so we weren't rich. My first BMX came from a toy store and was called an Atlas. It had a cotter pin crank. It also weighed a ton and wasn't very nice. I did own some nice bikes as a kid (TRM, Ultra Burner, Numerous GTs and so on) but I found old skool bikes to be unreliable. As an adult I was a good 15 stone, too much for an early bike. During the mid school was where it was at for me and I was sponsored by JAD during my 20s. Just street mainly, but a lot of long distance riding too.
Any way, in 1998 I decided I wanted to retire from riding Street. It was taking its toll on my body and I wasn't getting any younger so I bought myself a 1998 Quadangle. It looked like this.
All candy red, but it had this decal set.
It was a beautiful bike, with Fusion 3PC cranks (made in USA not Taiwan) and some seriously nice parts (Chrome Peregrine 48s etc). Any way, one day when leaving work (at a bike shop) I was assaulted by a crack head (bar over the back of my head) and the bike was stolen. I stopped riding shortly after.
So the mission was to basically rebuild that bike. I kind of knew that it wasn't going to be that specific Quadangle because they are hard to find (SB still owned SE Racing then) and they are expensive. Last one I saw (the red one in the pic) was in Australia and he wanted £450 for the F&F before customs charges. Any way, I then found out that during the noughties SE made a very similar bike only in Cro Mo. TBH? with my fat ass it is a better idea.
So I put the feelers out on a US based forum and was soon offered this F&F for £100.
As you can see, it is very similar
The postage was cheap at around £75 so I decided to go for it. Around eight days later.
All the way from its spiritual home in Cali
OK so I decided to strip off the decals.
And then get it powder coated. I was all set on the original red, but then saw this which turned my head.
Ooo, god that looks nice in yellow ! so I poked around and found that with powder coat they use an RAL chart. I soon found that RAL 1018 Zinc Yellow was a good match !
OK, so then I needed some parts. Back in 2013 my wife bought me a SE Ripper which is like a cut down version of the PK Ripper. This is mine here.
I had in the entrance to the building locked, but not locked down. Sadly the bloke in the flat upstairs had a row with his wife, stormed out and left the building open and it was stolen. But, as you can see I replaced most of the parts on it, so I had a box full under the stairs lol.
The bike has now been replaced with a Mike Buff PK Ripper, but I want my Quadangle..
Any way, I then put the feelers out for a set of pre '99 decals. These came up, for forty quid (again USA, again excellent people helping me along)
OK, then to decide on the colour scheme. Just after my dad died my mother got my brother a Burner. This one, to be exact.
And I remember falling in love with it. Sadly it was stolen about a week after he got it and he then got a racing bike instead.
So, it was time to start hunting down parts. As I have said before I am not a huge fan of early bikes. They were worryingly light (racing that was fine but not when you are an adult) stupidly expensive and modern technology was so much better (990 brakes, better headsets, sealed bearings etc).
Here is where I am up to.
Grips and pegs. ODI Mushroom 2 in yellow/red with Colony pegs. (X2, just for some flatland fun)
Brake levers. Tektro Magnesium (made in 1999). These came from Sweden.
Chain disc. Crupi billet made in USA. 42t.
Cranks. Salt Rookie mid, 3pc sealed bearings.
Stem. Exposure Infinity.
Bars. Snafu Greg Illingworth. These are being powder coated.
Seat post. Anodized red micro adjust.
Tyres. Panaracer Mach SK (bought from Portugal). Made in 1998.
Gyro/detangler. Blank.
10-14mm axle converters.
Seat. SE racing padded seat made during the mid to late 90s.
ICT
Chain.
Headset.
Potts mod bolt and Kona cap.
Seat clamp.
Plate.
Brake cables.
Brakes.
Nipples.
Stickers.
Misc/tools.