cbrstar

Anyone growing up in the 80's/90's and even the 70's, will remember just how cool BMX's were and just how bad you wanted one.

Before the internet it was pretty hard to tell which one was right for you. Usually you either got stuck buying what ever the local bike shop had in stock, or you took advice from other 12 year olds on the "cool" bike they had seen. Finally the best option was to read BMX magazines.

Personally I had a lot of different bikes, mostly GT's, once a rare Kastan, and I think a Diamondback or two. I was always chasing after that uber light BMX, not really knowing if I was more into Freestyles, or Racing.

But in the early 90's I saw an article in a BMX magazine on Hoffman bikes...

In the article they had the not only the biggest ramp I had ever seen, but also the highest amount of air any rider had ever gotten. It was so incredible that it instantly BLEW my kid brain! And to top it off the guy who did it was Mat Hoffman, who was also the owner of Hoffman bikes. (Which made me think the bike must be good, if the owner uses it himself instead of some corporate suit)
I had dreams all week after of being able to sore off ridiculously high jumps, I suddenly absolutely had to have a Hoffman bike.

The problem was I couldn't find one to buy! And the only time I ever did in a store, it was double the price! There wasn't paypal etc, and there was no way I was going to send that kind of money in a envelope to the USA. But it wasn't like there wasn't any Hoffmans around, I knew a few rich kids with them. So I crossed my fingers that I could maybe find a used one, or save up enough to buy that one in the store.

A couple years later and suddenly there wasn't any Hoffmans around. When I asked people about them their reply was "Didn't you hear, he died so they don't make them anymore" ...And it was always a different story about how Mat Hoffman died, the most common one was a brain tumor. I felt completely heart broken, not only had my hero died, but now I'd never get the ultimate dream bike...

Fast forward to today, after seeing a vintage Hoffman tshirt on ebay I decided to google Hoffman bikes...

And I see Mat Hoffman is completely 100% alive and well...WHAT!!?? I feel somewhat stunned and shocked, and slightly silly. The power of the internet is real!

TL;DR
Now being middle aged I'm a bit too old and fat to be jumping off ramps with a BMX, but I would really like to hear what you're dream bikes were, or are, and maybe why you love them so much.

Oldbikenut

He's actually in kind of rough shape. There is a great documentary on youtube about him, watch it you'll like it!

Your comment on being to old and fat, bikes and motorcycles are one of the biggest inspirations of me keeping fit. I raced my last BMX race in 1986 at age 20 until I decided to give it another shot a few years back. I went to practice several times and raced one day, what a blast it was but sadly for me I was not feeling the track, felt like I was not riding on dirt and if I went down it was going to hurt That being said I'm getting a bike ready to go do it again to celebrate 30 years!

Tundra_Man 

I was in to BMX back in the late '70s/early '80s. There was always a huge delta between the bikes I wanted, and the bikes I could afford. I would spend hours pouring over BMX Action magazine and dream about owning a SE Racing, Diamondback, Redline, etc. But bikes like those were always out of the reach of someone in my family's economic position.

My favorite bike I've ever personally owned was my old Cycle Pro Macho BMX bike. I only owned it about a year before it was stolen. I wrote an article about it on my website: My Third Bicycle - The Tundra Man Workshop

cbrstar

You defiantly don't heal as fast as you used too! lol. What type of bike are you thinking of building back up?


I understand where you are coming from. I was really lucky when I was a kid to have a paper route. My first good bike was a used GT freestyle which was $350.00 at the time, which was a small fortune. The kind old bike store owner set it aside for me, and I made payments of $30.00 a month on it (all my paper route money) About 5 payments into it, he actually let me take it home! But I made sure to keep paying it off.
My brother on the other hand had my parents buy him a bike for Christmas, and he ended up with a horrible Supercycle bobkat. Which actually almost killed him one day.

Later on I was in the right place at the right time. There was a lot of guys who were like Oldbikenut who had been racers in the 80's but now were 20 something, and looking to unload their "Junk". I remember buying things like Kawahara frames for $20 bucks, I bought a couple Diamondbacks for $40 etc. And in my small town it was like a little car culture, where we BMX'ers were constantly trading with each other for better parts etc.

But there were certain things that you could never get cheap...1) Redline 3 piece flight cranks. 2) Hutch anything. 3) Those fancy super light Araya rounded gold wheels. They were always more expensive then what my entire bike was worth

Your little BMX looks like it might be pretty fun. Ironically something like that might be harder to find then a Redline etc. (BTW Your Guitars look amazing)

shirefolkbike

I always drooled over skyways and redlines

Oldbikenut

Something like this, this is a mid 90's Robinson that I don't have to much in to. I currently own an 81 Diamond back, an 83 Roger DeCoster(loop tail) and a 1985 Profile. I just don't want to chance damaging one of my older bikes. When I raced last I raced a GT Pro series 24 cruiser. Want to see how the 20" bike feels on the track.

cbrstar

I've never actually seen a Skyway in real life, but the wheels were defiantly cool!

Robinson is a good way to go, they were pretty rare in my neighborhood. I actually have a Diamondback Silver Streak frame still sitting in my shed, but too bad it's actually my little brothers.
I wouldn't be too worried about ruining a Diamondback there seems to be still lots of them out there.

I think a 24" cruiser might be a little easier to handle on a track, but it's hard to say, 20'' are great too. I guess it depends on your height and build so you might like the 20'' better. BITD I preferred 20'' because I could get more height off jumps.

What I don't really understand looking at modern BMX's are how small the chain wheels are, even the ones that are meant for racing.

shirefolkbike

they rocked

hockeyref

Raced late 70's thru late 80's had a few state plates, one National plate. Had the opportunity to ride a lot of different bikes. I basically had my dream 20" as I had Cycle Craft built me a custom frame. I wish that I would have gotten CycleCraft 24" cruiser built too...

As far as light bikes... 83 Hutch Pro Racer F&F, GT bars, Tioga one piece hollow CroMo crank with spider and chain ring, Shimano DX pedals, Ourey grips, Kashimax seat, Pro neck stem, seatpost and clamp, DiaComp brakes, Mongoose proclass rims\DT 14-15-14 spokes\Miche hubs with Track axels, Tiaga Comp III 20x1.5 tires..... Weighed in at 16.5 pounds for a full size racer. I still have most of those components in storage.

cbrstar

That's really awesome! To be honest I had never heard of Cycle Craft before, and had to look them up on BMX museum. How did you manage to get a custom frame made?

Hutch was defiantly a dream bike. They must of have had the deepest and coolest candy apple red paint I have ever seen. But 16.5 pounds is crazy light for the times! The lightest I had ever gotten to was approx 18 pounds, which was my Kastan, which I think was Aluminum and had that stupid mono fork which quickly broke.

Unfortunately I never got to race in a proper sanctioned BMX race. I had all the armor and helmet etc, but it was usually just me and my friends hanging out and racing each other. Unfortunately I only got serious about riding at the time in the early 90's when City's everywhere seemed to be bulldozing their BMX tracks.

We actually ended up making our own track way out in the woods. Which was actually pretty good! As we had a lot of help from some of the guys who did race professionally back in the 80's. Just for the city to threaten anyone trespassing to be arrested. And now it's a housing development.

I find it weird how in the 90's they were trying to limit kids from gathering together, and having fun outside. Where as today they are desperate to get kids off the video games, and are spending millions to build skate parks to entice them.

hockeyref

CBRSTR,
When CycleCraft first hit the scene in IIRC ~1985 there were several factory riders that shared my home track (PGH- South Park). I had the opportunity to talk to the owner and couldn't talk my way into a factory ride, but I did ask if he would build me a frame. I was 6'3" & most of the stuff out there was too cramped for me. I stretched out the front triangle a little, gave it enough BB clearance to comfortably run 185mm profile cranks and balanced the rear triangle to allow easy speed jumps but not let the front end come up as quick at the Hutch. That Hutch had a really short rear end so it accelerated really quick and the rear stuck like glue in turns but the front would wash out quicker than "greased moose poop" (to use the jargon of the day) if you didn't pay attention and have your weight int he right place. The front of the Hutch came up really fast\easy because of the really short rear triangle but it was really easy to loop it out - the Hutch Pro Racer really was a Ferrari. With the CC I could speed jump\pedal over almost anything and it cornered like it was on rails (I didn't have to worry about the front end nearly as much). It was heavier than the Hutch at about 18# or so, but I had added the Cro-Mo 3 piece Profile cranks w\sealed BB and Suntour MX pedals with Trog cages. I was no longer afraid of breaking the frame as I did break two Hutch pro racers.
Yeah the Hutch candy apple was nice but I was part of the chrome everything camp.... and Hutch had some really nice chrome!

Hard to believe that was 30+ years ago!

cbrstar

You must have been really hardcore to brake two Hutch frames! My friend seemed to have every high end bike there was, he would let people try out every bike of his except his Hutch, and I was pretty jealous of it lol. In fact it was him I bought my Kastan off.

I only ever broke four frames frames. One was a GT mach one and I have no idea how did it. The other is my Kastan though I have the sneaky suspicion it may have been why my friend was selling it so cheap, I came along and managed to finish it off. The other was a Kuwahara... I got my best air, and landed too hard, cracked the entire bottom bracket. The last was my GT Freestyle, but by just being dumb. I had a "bash guard" on it and my friend had this broken down Dodge Omni in his yard. One day we thought it would be fun to bunny hop onto/into the grill with with the bash guard. The bash guard held up, but where it was connected to the frame didn't lol.

For me my biggest struggle was always handle bars and stems. I was constantly breaking them. The only setup that ever worked for me was the big GT block, I think they called it the Mallet? I bent it, but I never striped any handle bars with it, so I was really confused when they suddenly discontinued it in the 90's.

On a side note I managed to pick up a nice little bike on the weekend at a garage sale for pocket change. But I have no idea what brand it is. It might be a good bike to fix it up and give it to my nephew.

xsboost90

i had a huffy freestyle that i painted up and dropped a bunch of GT parts on- looked like a Mach1 i think. Rode that awhile and talked my parents into buying me a new Robinson SST. Swapped a bunch of parts out on that and started racing up at Joyce park in Hamilton Ohio. I wasnt too bad but some of the guys were animals out there. After i bought my first car the bike stuff slowed and when i moved into my first apartment i sold my Robinson to my boss for his kid to ride. I didnt see the bike or think about it until after i was married, had a house and my first daughter. My old boss called and wanted to know if i would like to buy it back! Turns out his son didnt ride much and the bike had been sitting prob. ten years in his room like a display. I got it back and cleaned it alittle but it was just like it had been when i sold it! Its been hanging in my garage at my new house for three years, i'll ride it alittle here and there but next weekend its going to be in a vintage BMX display down town so ive been cleaning, repacking bearings, bought some new tires etc to get it looking nice. Love this old bike, i think when my kids get big enough we'll be visiting the bike tracks down the road to do some practicing.

tomw12

nice bike

cbrstar

That's awesome you were able to get your childhood bike back! Many guy's can't or they spend a small fortune trying to replicate it. And it' a sweet looking Robinson!

Johnny Mullet

When I was a kid growing up in the 80's all my parents could afford was a Huffy BMX while all the other kids had Hutch, GT, Skyway, etc. I always dreamed of having one of those expensive BMX bikes growing up. Recently after getting back into cycling and thought about finding one of those old BMX bikes just to have it and have fun with it. One day I found it! It was not a Hutch or GT or Skyway, but it was identical to my Huffy I grew up riding and decided to get it and restore it. I love my Pro Thunder...........

xsboost90

nice! i think my first actual bmx bike was a Racing 50? Black with gold everything...cant remember if that was huffy, murray?

cbrstar

There's nothing wrong with a Huffy, especially one that looks brand new like yours! If I saw a Stu Thomsen for sale, I'd snap it up as they were actually made by GT.

Like this one (Pic from BMXmuseum)

xsboost90

looks like it. Heres one of the only pics i had of that one....

cbrstar

It's defiantly a Huffy Racing 50, though I'm not sure of the year. Here's a few you can look through Huffy - BMXmuseum.com

xsboost90

unbelieveable amount of vintage bikes at the big custom car show this weekend on display. My Robinson is down there but just look at this stuff....