Author Topic: tuff wheels and rose tinted glasses (Read 9617 times)

theRuler · « **on:** November 27, 2006, 11:11 AM »

how come people are so into tuffs for the old school bikes?

do you remember tuffs bitd?

how heavy they were? how cumbersome they made the bike?

and as for running one tuff, and one alloy. do you remember why?
the hubs on tuffs would disintergrate.

i rode with zytecs on my fox until the bearings fell apart. about a year.
what a difference it made to the bike, when i got some alloys on it.

RATTY · « **Reply #1 on:** November 27, 2006, 02:22 PM »

Your right, my first bike was a mongoose 2 with blue tuffs, they went as soon as I could afford spokes....

But I think they look old school and add to the look of our bikes

mightynimrod · « **Reply #2 on:** November 27, 2006, 02:31 PM »

I think they were the wheel that defined the old school bike.

Long live the tuffs

electobooty · « **Reply #3 on:** November 27, 2006, 03:50 PM »

I wasn't the smoothest of riders, and rode street, trails and parks. I ruined every wheelset I could get my hands on until I got tuffs. Never broke them. Simple as that. Kept a spare set of Z-Rims if I wanted speed for a change (as spokes are cheaper than rims

)

Got to admit its THE look now.

It was also the cheapest way to get a useable coaster bitd, and that was essential.

theRuler · « **Reply #4 on:** November 27, 2006, 05:25 PM »

i see what you mean about the coaster

as for the wheel that defined the old school bike, well i dont know.
think back to the early eighties and the 1000's of race bikes out there. not too many on tuffs.

tuffs were popular in freestyle for a few years though. but by 86 the newer riders were on alloys.
i think sponsership kept a lot of top riders on tuffs.
plus the brainwashing from magazines saying "a freestyle bike must have mag wheels"

mightynimrod · « **Reply #5 on:** November 27, 2006, 05:29 PM »

I shoulda said freestyle - they are the defined freestyle wheel - look at all the resto's they nearly all run Tuffs.

P0LL0 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 27, 2006, 05:32 PM »

Quote from: theRuler on November 27, 2006, 05:25 PM

i see what you mean about the coaster

as for the wheel that defined the old school bike, well i dont know.
think back to the early eighties and the 1000's of race bikes out there. not too many on tuffs.

tuffs were popular in freestyle for a few years though. but by 86 the newer riders were on alloys.
i think sponsership kept a lot of top riders on tuffs.
plus the brainwashing from magazines saying "a freestyle bike must have mag wheels"

I rode Tuffs till 89 but i have to say i preferred riding with spokes and thank god for the HP rim and 48 spoke revolution!

theRuler · « **Reply #7 on:** November 27, 2006, 05:38 PM »

i guess quite a few rode on tuffs at some point bitd

jeff spicoli · « **Reply #8 on:** November 27, 2006, 05:55 PM »

Tuffs were the best wheel you could get when I started bmxing and still the best when I quit 2 years later. I want some more.

theRuler · « **Reply #9 on:** November 27, 2006, 05:57 PM »

get some now andy

theRuler · « **Reply #10 on:** November 27, 2006, 05:58 PM »

and araya aeros on some quality hubs were way better than tuffs.

jeff spicoli · « **Reply #11 on:** November 27, 2006, 06:02 PM »

Quote from: theRuler on November 27, 2006, 05:57 PM

get some now andy

yeah Graeme but not for the Dayton I will put some on a Ripper

What do you think?

selfpreservation · « **Reply #12 on:** November 27, 2006, 06:09 PM »

i love tuffs , spokes are more practical brake better and are more ridgid and lighter but so fook "viva le zytec" tbh why not have a set of each and change them when you feel like it

Steve P · « **Reply #13 on:** November 27, 2006, 06:13 PM »

I rode coaster Tuffs BITD and still do now

Steve

billstup · « **Reply #14 on:** November 27, 2006, 06:15 PM »

They were ok for me bitd, I only broke one, and that was from a bad hang up in the clover leaf bowl at Rom

Rombloke · « **Reply #15 on:** November 27, 2006, 06:20 PM »

everybody i knew that had a bmx from 1980 till late 84 had or wanted tuffs.

Dave

retrorider.u.k · « **Reply #16 on:** November 27, 2006, 06:27 PM »

i broke 2 rear coaster tuffs but more down to design faults than abuse.they would hairline crack around the rivets but they were well cool back then and made a great sound when they did let go.in mid 85 i switched to araya aeros with a coaster and never looked back...

billstup · « **Reply #17 on:** November 27, 2006, 09:21 PM »

They took some punishment first though, to be fair I think its the sideways forces that got put on them when I was learning to peg stall that opened the cracks right up

MeddlE · « **Reply #18 on:** November 27, 2006, 09:25 PM »

Bill's graphites broke at Skaterham, you can hear them crack in the video when he bails an attempt at a backflip. The bike went a good 20ft up. He carried on riding them after that I believe?

theRuler · « **Reply #19 on:** November 27, 2006, 09:42 PM »

Quote from: MeddlE on November 27, 2006, 09:25 PM

Bill's graphites broke at Skaterham, you can hear them crack in the video when he bails an attempt at a backflip. The bike went a good 20ft up. He carried on riding them after that I believe?

lol i have seen that vid.
had he had some rigid wheels it would have probably have cracked the frame!!

there's a plus for tuffs then

currio · « **Reply #20 on:** November 27, 2006, 10:19 PM »

I think the street/freestyle riders will always favour tuffs.
If you ask a track rider, they will say spokes. There is no doubt that tuffs were heavier, and even BITD everyone knew that less weight, especially on revolving parts gave an advantage in racing.
Saying that, I rode araya's for street and ramps, (cos thats all I had) and they did stand up, but they were prone to buckling.
Also, when people talk about breaking tuffs, its usually a bad landing, or a bail. What isnt talked about is how alloy rims would have faired in those instances.
And as for Zytecs.............

Bren Gunn · « **Reply #21 on:** November 27, 2006, 10:34 PM »

Tuffs were very cool and high tech at the time, spokes had been out for years and were boring... especially to a 10 year old that was built like Lester Piggots whip!

theRuler · « **Reply #22 on:** November 27, 2006, 10:38 PM »

Quote from: Bren Gunn on November 27, 2006, 10:34 PM

Tuffs were very cool and high tech at the time, spokes had been out for years and were boring... especially to a 10 year old that was built like Lester Piggots whip!

i think that hits the nail on the head

and as for zytecs, just the same as tuffs. only with better hubs

MartyC · « **Reply #23 on:** November 27, 2006, 10:47 PM »

My first BMX came with Tuff's and after a while I switched to Z Rims, back to Tuff's and then onto some chrome araya's on my Ace Racing but that bike got nicked. I then alternated between alloy's and Tuff's depending on what riding I was doing. Parks and ramps were for tuff's, for jumping and racing alloys although the Tuff's often faired better jumping but with alloys you could jump that little bit higher and further. The only problem I ever had with Tuff's was the obligatory implosion of the hubs, I got fronts and rears to go but never got one to break. The worst I ever got with an alloy rim was a major flat spot and that needed re-rimming, never managed to get Araya 7c's or 7w's (Aero's?) to ding badly. I fooked a few Z rims though, way too flexy no matter how you built them and were really hard to get totally straight and true.

For my 85 Haro build I've gone for White Tuff's and a pair of polished early GT Freestyle wheels, when it's built I'll work out which ones to keep on it

aerostylie · « **Reply #24 on:** November 27, 2006, 10:51 PM »

Ride BMX No 99 Dec 2006 has a one page article on Skyway Tuffs at the back of the mag. It mentions the myth about ''you could straighten out a buckled set by popping them in the deep freeze''....did anyone try that? Apparently over 8 million Tuffs have been made.

Think everyone wanted a set BITD and now that we can afford them I suppose we want to buy what we couldn't get, and it is the ultimate old school icon for some of us I reckon.