The project that started around december '05 has finally come to an end. This bike is dedicated to Dave Vanderspek and Curb Dogs and is my way of honoring the freestyle legend.
This bike isn't a Vanderspek replica. Nevertheless a '88 Boss Competition FS survivor frame which i wanted to dedicate to Vanderspek because he used to ride for Boss, like we all well know.
Originally, I was supposed to buy the Boss bars and the Odyssey stem, that's all. But because of such a good deal and no one interested in the frame and the misc. factory parts i thought "why not start an all-new project?" and went for it.
The frame was in somewhat beat up condition. The paint had scars everywhere and the headtube & toptube decals were missing ..how convenient. The existing decals however were in decent shape and i was happy with them. Now i'm not sure whether the Boss decal set i found was repro or not (probably they were, judging by neon yellow) but it didn't matter to me, they looked good anyway. Although i didn't start the project from scratch there were still lots of right style parts missing and lots of touching up to do with the frame's beat up paint job. The factory stock bike had 6-spoke Tuffs, but instead i ended up putting all white Hi-Caliber 48's (which are basicly just unknown rims with Joy Tech "sealed tech" hubs) with custom wheel discs. The wheels were likely from a pink Hutch Windstyler or similiar when i asked about it from the seller.
The wheel discs are whole another story. This is the first time ever i have wheel discs on any of my bikes so, the experience was all-new to me. The idea of large Curb Dogs/Vander memorial stickers on each side just came to me one night and i started playing with the idea and making rough sketches from a low-res image. I thought immediately it would be a unique way to honor Vanderspek's memory and make a standard beat up Boss FS stand out from being the star of the typical "survivor bike brought back to life" -story.
I then emailed Maurice to ask if this was ok with him to reproduce the images for this purpose and whether it would be possible to use the hi-res image of the original. He said yes and because of that i'm forever grateful to him because of trusting me in this. Thank you again!
I had to enlarge the black bar on the background of the image so what i did i basicly "stretched" it to make room for hub openings on the discs. I had to adjust the brightness/contrast of the images to get good quality print but that was the only thing that was modified, every graphic detail was left as they appeared on the original. On top of that i wanted to add the copyright mark and the year '88 with maurice's name to make it more "legit" in case someone asks about it.
At first i thought the discs would make the wheels stand out a little "too much" from the black/white theme and that it would look too "downhill". But after few sketches i really strated to like the idea and the looks. The resized Vander images is without a doubt the real "catch" in this build, for me atleast. From the beginning i was very exited about the idea and couldn't wait to see it done.
The four 39cm by 18cm decals (15.3/8" x 7") however cost me a fortune to make custom. The shop ofcourse suggested me that if i had like hundred of them it would be cheaper. True, but the idea is was to be unique, not mass-producing wheel discs. Now applying the stickers on to the discs was easier than the guy at decal shop had first predicted and warned me about when i had told him they were going on to a convex wheel discs.
Installing the actual wheel covers on the other hand was sheer nightmare because of the 48 spokes giving me hard time fitting the discs. The 6 mounting bolts per wheel seemed far less than enough, really felt like there should've been 12 of them or something. The wheel discs really felt like they were meant to be on 36-spoke rims. In all it took me five hours per wheel to fit the discs in snuggly without bumps or loose spots on the edges and they really taught me how to work with hidden zip-ties inside them.
However, by far this has been THE most exciting build i've yet made because of the special "Vander aspect". It is truly now the most special bike in my collection because of the idea and the work involved, not so much of the money because the bike was relatively cheap with all the parts combined, well excluding the sticker, and all the parts were pretty easy to get ahold of.. except for the damn regular black Odyssey layback seatpost for 50 something US dollars total... almost as much as i paid for the frame alone without shipping! Crazy.
It would've been perfect ofcourse if i had had the bike done by Vander's birthday, but better late than never they say. I'm sure he wouln't mind.
My sincere thank you's go out to:
- Dave Vanderspek for the spirit and inspiration, where ever you are RIP, "i'm looking back at you".
- Maurice Meyer for kindly sending the original memorial sticker image exclusively for my use and for the amazing info and stories on his Curb Dogs website!!
- Darren "DCBMX" Chan for the Boss FS survivor frame, bars, stem & all the misc. factory parts, and understanding me on the way.
- My Father for the first round of wheel disc stickers.
- My wife Kati for the patience during this build that mostly took place in our living room.
- Rob Quinlan for the Hi-Caliber brakes, it was a real pleasure to make business with you!
- Matt Berry for the white 48's and freewheel, thank you for one of the best deals i've made.
- Alan's BMX for the cables, cranks, BB and grips.
- Dave Abraham for the Kenda slicks on the first round.
- Ginny for the wheel covers and the seat, once again, couldn't have made it without your help.
- Bob Lee for yellow Tuff pads.
- AJK for the Pro Neck power disc and Odyssey pegs.
- "James" for the essential Boss decals and having patience with me.
- Reid Rowlands for the black Spinner pegs.
- Evelyn for the seatpost.
- Handybikes for the Boss type forks.
- Lainisalo Oy for professionaly powder coating the forks.
- Marianne Bäckström at InterText Oy for the custom Vanderspek decals.
- Melinda Piwinski for the current Avocet FasGrip tires.
I don't know how to thank you all enough.
The pictures..
This is the latest photo taken today. The previous Kenda slicks have been replaced with Avocet FasGrip slicks.
Here's how i created the custom hand painted "Vander" text on both sides of the top tube:
And here's how the blank white plastic wheel covers turned into custom Vanderspek memorial wheel covers:
The parts list:
- Frame: 1988 Boss Competition Freestyler
- Fork: "Boss type"
- Bars: Boss "Step Ladder" Freestyle 29"
- Stem: Odyssey
- Grips: A'me Round
- Seatpost: Odyssey layback 22.2mm
- Seat: Viscount "Dyna Max"
- Seatpost clamp: Odyssey RX-2
- Levers: Dia-Compe Tech-77 w/buttons
- Front brake/pads: Hi-Caliber FS2001 w/Odyssey -adjuster, Skyway FS Tuff pads
- Rear brake: Hi-Caliber FS2001 w/Odyssey -adjuster, Skyway FS Tuff pads
- Gyro: original Odyssey Gyro 1"
- Gyro cables: Odyssey
- Front brake cable: Odyssey Slic, Peregrine housing
- Headset: Tioga
- Cranks: Sugino 1 pc. 175mm Cro-Mo
- Pedals: Odyssey VPX 1/2"
- Sprocket: Pro Neck power disc with "Tracer" 44T sprocket, Sugino bolts
- Bottom bracket: Tioga "Beartrap" BB-220BT 24T
- Chain: Izumi "zebra" ½" x 1/8"
- Freewheel: Mongoose 16T
- Wheels: Hi-Caliber 48's w/JoyTech "Sealed System" hubs
- Pegs: Rear Odyssey Hollow bullets 26T, Front Spinner thread-on
- Wheel covers: Taiwanese made by CO-Union Industry transformed into custom made "Vanderspek/Curb Dogs" memorial discs.
- Tires: Avocet FasGrip Freestyle slicks (previously Kenda K-154 "slicks") 20 x 1.75 skinwall
- Tubes: Kenda 20 x 1.75-2.125
RIP
"I'm looking back at you"
-Timo
