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[reilley1]

Many many years (late 70s) ago when I used to race at Rancho, Lakeside and other San diego area tracks, there was this mini hack running around the pits and sometimes in the track itself. The hack consisted of what appeared to be a 16" mini Littlejohn/Murphy hack (I believe Rick Pruitt had some ads from back in the day) or a very good mock-up. It was black with full GLJ decals. More importantly, it was attached to a G-Boy 16" bike. i remember the metallic red (almost Burgundy). Thing was pretty cool and always attracted a crowd.

The years went by and myself and former Rancho starting gate guy have talked about it over the years. He remembers who owned it but at the moment, the name escapes me. I thought it would be a cool find but I also figured the hack set-up was long gone after 30 something years

Fast forward to the present. I recently moved to the Rancho San Diego section of SD not far from where the track used to be. One of my friend's asked me to get some bike parts from a local guy. I get a hold of him and he turns out to be located less than 5 minutes away. The guy has a warehouse full of assorted stuff (Motorcycle, BMX, Road, Furniture etc).

I'm checking out some cool boingers that he had and out of the corner of my eye I see.....

[sweetbeats]

Many many years (late 70s) ago when I used to race at Rancho, Lakeside and other San diego area tracks, there was this mini hack running around the pits and sometimes in the track itself. The hack consisted of what appeared to be a 16" mini Littlejohn/Murphy hack (I believe Rick Pruitt had some ads from back in the day) or a very good mock-up. It was black with full GLJ decals. More importantly, it was attached to a G-Boy 16" bike. i remember the metallic red (almost Burgundy). Thing was pretty cool and always attracted a crowd.

The years went by and myself and former Rancho starting gate guy have talked about it over the years. He remembers who owned it but at the moment, the name escapes me. I thought it would be a cool find but I also figured the hack set-up was long gone after 30 something years

Fast forward to the present. I recently moved to the Rancho San Diego section of SD not far from where the track used to be. One of my friend's asked me to get some bike parts from a local guy. I get a hold of him and he turns out to be located less than 5 minutes away. The guy has a warehouse full of assorted stuff (Motorcycle, BMX, Road, Furniture etc).

I'm checking out some cool boingers that he had and out of the corner of my eye I see.....

  Rad ! You need to PM WickedStyx He will treble your radness to the MAX  Sick Sick Sick...gotta lurve a vintage hack 

[reilley1]

....there is a little minihack, little GLJ copy with a G-boy pit bike.  It has a Bullseye front hub,a 20" TX-50 fork and some newer components. Not mint by ant means but still sooo moto.   I talk to Brent--the owner--and he tells me has had it for quite a few years and that his kids (now grown) used to zip around on it.  I tell him the story about the hack and he cracks up cause he knows I'm stoked about just seeing it.

I continue to look around, cool bikes all over the place.  Some Vintage Husqvarna, Penton and Bultaco jereseys, lots of motorcycle stuff and and of course the  BMX stuff.  A few Yamaha bikes, a couple of Monos and some uber cool Ross(?) with fake front forks. 

I buy some jerseys and I ask him about the hack again.  He tells me he was going to take it to the swap meet the next day.  I freak and offer to buy it. 

[bmxbob]

superb 

[fouronethreeoh!]

No muff too tuff

     

Not sure if that means something else in the states.

[RATTY]

Thats gonna look great once you work your magic Rik

[nic968]

 Another great score Rick....A cool project to get stuck into for the summer..

[Mattdub]

Cool Rick , if the OG finish bitd is there in your memory it's gonna be coooooool 

[oldtired]

 , thats the dogs that , sidecar were always odd, there was always somthing a bit wrong about em, to build a mini one, thats the stuff of nightmares imagine two kids in full race gear tramming towards you , , RUN AWAY!,     , nice score  ,

[MartyC]

As ever Rick, uber cool, uber cool 

[daz bmx it!]

Another Gem bud look forward to seeing that lil Dirt hack built

[reilley1]

and the reason for building...



Here's some details.  The actual serial number is 11-77-004 not what I wrote earlier.  I would safely assume it's a date but don't know if that meant there were 4 built.  Still waiting for a response from Mr Grable to see how many were built. I compared it to a 20" model belonging to Mr Maurice Mayer and it looks like a smaller version of it with similar welds, oversize seat post and so on

Parts breakdown:

77 G-Boy frame
WFO Fork
Tange/Tioga headset
Araya/Sumo rims
ACS 77 stamped 28 hole front hub
Grimeca 28 hole drum brake
Win (?) stem
Unknown bars
Winner Circle grips
Unknown alloy oversized fluted post
Unknown seat clamp
Schwinn crankset and BB
HKK chain
Trickray seat struts
Schwinn Mini banana seat
Weinmann alloy lever
Cheng Shin tires and Wchwinn sidehack tire
Wheelsmith spokes
Takagi MX-40 spider and sprocket

I totally dig this little thing, sadly my kids are too big for to ride comfortably on it but they still love it.  I checked with the BMX encyclopedia Bob Bohn and he mentioned that the hack most probably belonged to Ray Uppenkamp who used to be a G-Boy dealer in the 70s.  I haven't been able to verify this as of now.

I brought back the hack after it was finished at the powdercoaters at around 5 PM.  Ended up finishing a few hours before the show.
I want to say thanks to a whole lot of people for helping out starting with Brett who sold it to me.  He was stoked after seeing redone.  Johnny "WFO" Severin for the fork and the cool repair.  Thanks to the guys at A & J's paint in El Cajon for the great paint job (It really does look a lot better in person,) Da-G-Ryd for the tires, Spike for the seat, Hinkdog for the plates and drill press and a special one to The Aussie crew with Christian (Broke L345) for the decals and Warren (Waza) for helping out with what was a somewhat difficult build.  He pretty much had to kick me in the ass to finish it

[reilley1]

Damn!  No opinions for this build? 

[harris]

great find mate,you gotta find me a tasty 70s frame set oneday.
thats turned out a peach and the kids suite it well.

[reilley1]

IHow about a 70s Schwinn?  All yours, just pay shipping

Hack won best of class at the Peck Park thing in Los Angeles by the way

[billstup]

Another excellent build, and a great story too Rick 

[Dennis Dain]

...opinion?

... "at a boy!"

How's that?

Seriously though, that is a very cool find. The hack looks like it could have been built yesterday. I think you should give it to me as a bookend for mine.  

Rick, you should get a scale picture of that one next to your original hack. That would make a great shot.

I'll bet you and I could twist that thing into knot after a lap or two.

[Bigplinky]

Lovin' that Hack man you should be get a medal for bring all this cool stuff back to life where most people would have scrapped it 

[Dingobmxer]

Rick thats ace, sidehacks rock!!!!!

I used to use the teams one to do my paper round on bitd

  DINGO