Original candy blue team..............
Well I've been slowly building this for what seems like forever. Got the lovely survivor frame and forks from the states almost a year ago - it has it's original candy blue finish AND original decals ! I had some bits already in my collection for it others I had to hunt down and some restoration work was needed also.
I restored the seat myself - it is a genuine kashimax manufactured Team mongoose seat - I could have just covered a standard kashi MX and covered the holes but I held out for a proper goose (without the holes) one and found one in need of a recover over in the states - you could still make out the mongoose logo on the sides from where it had been hot stamped ! Really happy how it came out after my resto. The brakes are the correct shimano tourneys with the correct 1st gen shimano levers - I have restored these as well - stripped and hand polished (didn't want them too bling as I wanted the original finish effect) the left hand shimano levers are a right b@st*rd to find !!!!
The rims, bars and seatpost were re-ano'd by CCA (big thanks to Carl for helping me out with that
) and the wheels were laced up to the correct NOS shimano cassette hubs by my good man Joff (nice one mate they are the bollox)
Everything else is either NOS or mint survivor really. Couple of cool NOS mongoose bits like the seatclamp and headset which you don't find NOS ones of everyday !
The pedals are 9/16 MKS BM1's and are probably the hardest rat-trap bmx pedal to find in the world ! (I know a lot of people don't like rat-traps but those who do will know what I mean
)
The only thing that's not to spec are the tyres - but as per usual 20" mongoose snake bellies are a thing of myth and legend!
I settled for Hwa Fong snake bellies - I could have put something else on but the look would have been wrong - these fit the 3 main criteria - they are genuine oldschool, they are snakebelly pattern and they are black ! So fook it - I reckon they look nice
Oh the gearing my look a little strange but it's factory spec as they came BITD - 39T/14T
Spec:
1981 Team mongoose F&F (Original Candy finish & original decals)
Araya 7c (Re-Ano'd)
NOS Shimano Cassette hubs 14T
NOS Hwa Fong Snakebellies
Alloy race bars (Re-ano'd)
Alloy post (Re-ano'd)
NOS mongoose headset
NOS mongoose seatclamp
Shimano Dura Ace cranks
Shimano 39T chainring
NOS MKS BM1 pedals
Restored genuine Team mongoose suede race saddle
Shimano Tourney calipers
Shimano Pre-Bent Levers
Shimano stamped brake pads
mongoose gold stem
Genuine survivor mongoose grips (not re-pops)
NOS D.I.D. chain
And before anyone suggests black grips they came with blue BITD
