vintage bmx

[toystalker]

im an avid collector of most things retro and vintage... toys, clothes and bikes mostly

here are some pics of my bikes

im currently building a kuwahara supernova with nos parts! costing an arm and a leg but it will be worth it in the end

if you guys can get hold of any vntage bmx parts ill be interested, even bikes and frames

sadly no skyway bmx or mongoose in my oleection yet but after ive done the kuwahara ill put that right lol

here ya go, mostly british raleigh burners as you will expect but i thought id share the love











if any you guys got vintage bmx can i see pics cheers

[livingdead70]

I dont have any pics, but I had a yellow and blue schwin nearly identical to that Raliegh you have pictured, I had Skyway Tuffwheels on mine. I had a Diamond Back Hotstreak I got for X-mas of 84.............
Does Kuwahara even exist anymore? There was a kid who lived next to me and his family was one of those that had to one up everyone on the block and he got some 400 dollar Kuwahara that same 1984 christmas, with graphite rims and all that mess that a kid tooling around the neigborhood just doesnt need.
trey

[toys2cool]

man I had a red and black one,it was awesome

[toystalker]

lol cool
yeah kuwahara still make bikes today

but not like they used to lol

im saving up to get me a kuwahara ET i cant wait to get one, i may even settle for a replica asit will cost a lot

that kuwahara you see there now so far has run me around £300 about $450 and its naked lots more to do yet lol

[Joe90]

This is a Blast From the Past.

For a few years between High School and University I worked full time in a bike shop, and then part time for two degrees... This was pretty much from 1975 - 1990. I saw the industry evolve quite, ahem, Radically in those 15 years. Kuwahara was the first High Quality mass produced bike that we sold. We dealt with Redline, PK Ripper, Diamond Back, Mongoose (I can't remember if they were into bikes or just parts.) but these bikes were beyond the price range of the regular kids. Of course, once they got bit by the BMX bike they began to hound their parents to upgrade.

Up until the Film ET, Kuwahara were sold up here in Canada as Apollo Bikes. They were the exact bike in every way except for the decals and medallion on the head tube.

There was a young Black guy who rode for Redline or PK Ripper back in the late 1970's. Anybody remember him? He came up on a Promotional Tour and was very interested in the quality of Road Racing equipment. The next year we began to see the same quality of equipment show up on BMX bikes.

Tuff Wheels are cool, but I've always preferred aluminum rims with a nice high flange hub.

[livingdead70]

Wasnt that guys name something like Tommy Bracken? Its been so long since I ever thought about BMX. I remember around 86 when the freestyle craze got real big. I had really gotten out of bikes by then, but it was huge here and very popular.
I remember buying BMX Action magazine in the early to mid 80s, and picking up a few copies of Freestylin' during the late 80s............
There were a ton of guys around here into this, I remember around 1988 you could pass by our mall parking lot at night, like 11 pm or so and see 40-50 guys out there riding. I always thought it was cool that mall security didnt seem to mind as long as they didnt make a mess and didnt fight or anything. They even allowed a few locally organized contests to be held there on Sunday afternoons for a few years............... I think the reason they allowed the late night rides was there was a 24 hour gas/store place on the property that the mall ran as well and I am sure they made some money selling those guys cokes and munchys................
trey

[littlewink]

Vintage BMX

Very Nice collection of Bikes you have...................that blue Raleigh is smokin Thanks for sharing. Here is mine that I built, took some time but this thing sums up my childhood for me and my friends.

littlewink

[Joe90]

This is priceless! I remember building these back in 1975. Strangely enough, guys who rode these as kids wound up riding these...



... as adults!

I guess it's true! Once you get a taste for Full Suspension you never want to ride a Stiffy again!

[littlewink]

So true..........Funny you picked that exact bike, I have a GT but it is Red and Black, LOL

[M3G0M4V3R1CK]

that yellow and blue burner is wicked cool i love it i used to have it before

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

They look great. My favourite bike was a Raleigh, I had it for a long time.

[toystalker]

i just got another mint built with nos parts mk1 tuff burner (the blue and yellow) its a minter
ill post pics soon

any old pics of you guys bikes are great to see

so dont forget now when you are at that garage/yard sale to pick up them old bikes, they are making a comeback im telling you

[mazinz]

I used to have a Diamondback viper

[tay666]

I'll have to snap some pics of my Mongoose when I bring it back out of the basement in a few weeks (stored for the winter)
It's an older model from back when Mongoose meant something.
I bought it used in 1987 and used it to ride back and forth to work until I could get enough cash together to finally buy my first car.
I love the bearing design on this. It still has the original hub bearings in both the wheels and they are still as smooth as silk. (wish I could say the same for the crank bearings though)

I still remember my first BMX.
A black and gold Trax 4000 with metal mags. Not sure what kind of metal, but man that bike was heavy. Bet both those rims weighed more than my whole bike does now (think my goose weighs something like 25-30 lbs total)

After that I bought a frankenstein from a friend of mine. Not sure what all he built it out of, but I made some big changes to it myself. I remember it had nylon mags, double goose neck, and alloy frame.
I changed the gearing on it as I wanted something with some speed.
13 tooth sprocket on the back. No freewheel that small so I had to go with a Bendix hub (hated Shimano's)
54 tooth sprocket on the front.
Took a lot of torque to get it going, but it would fly!
So much torque that I had to change the crank as I actually sheared off the peg on the one that was on it. Found an extra long alloy crank for a replacement. Which I painted metal-flake blue to match the frame before I installed it.
When I changed the back gear, I also swapped out the mags for Z-rims with gold alloy spokes which I strung myself (1st and only time I ever strung my own spokes from scratch as it completely sucked to do, but was so awesome once it was done)
Had that bike for a couple of years until it got stolen off my porch.
Someone actually cut he chain lock off of it with bolt cutters!

[mego boy CA]

i remember owning a gt mach one and a diamondback silver streak. very cool bikes you have there.