Seeking advice from the old school BMX crowd.

[RC10th]

I've built many bikes but this has been the one bike that has never been quite right, for many reasons.

A bit of background - I bought this many years ago and upon tearing it apart for a rebuild I found out that the rear bearing cup was cracked. I've wanted to keep this bike as original as possible so I had the front and rear hubs machined out for sealed bearings. The front hub was perfect and never had any problems but the rear one has been a nightmare, luckily a friend of mine said he was happy to look at it and fix the problem, tolerances between the axle parts are too loose and the bearings don't clamp up quite square.

So, hopefully that's the rear hub finally sorted for good.



The other thing is I took the GT stuff off as I've never been a fan of mixing competitors brand, kind of like putting a Chevy engine in a Ford, doesn't seem quite right. I went out and bought period correct Mongoose stuff to bring it back more OEM but now the bike is too bland and I don't really like it, it's just black and silver.

I'm thinking of putting the GT seat back on and the Tangent stuff back on to bring it back to same way I bought it. It's a old race bike with some history and I liked the way it looked before.

Also I cheaped out on the tires (cough Duro), couldn't find a set of Tioga Skinwall Comp III's anywhere local in stock or cheap enough and the Duro tires look and fit like crap.

[RC10th]

Fast forward to today and I found a set of Skinwall comp III's cheap enough, just need to decide on what sizes. I'm leaning toward the 2.125" front and 1.75" rear combo as that's what many Mongoose of the era came with. It also looks like that's what was on the bike.

Would you choose that combo or?

I cleaned up the seat and soft pads, I originally thought they were ruined by some sort of chemical that ate into the pads, it wouldn't scrub off. I had nothing to lose and it turned out metal polish followed by paint polish worked a treat !

Would you put the GT seat back on or find something else?


Looking forward to finally finishing this one off and reliably riding it once and for all. I already painstakingly polished the frame once but being aluminum it tarnishes quite quickly. If I can find a sticker sheet I'd strip it back again and clear coat it like the factory.

[RC10th]

Here's how I bought it

You can see the spots that look like they've eaten into the vinyl.

Nothing to lose - After aluminum polish and Meguiars paint polish

Hub apart again for the 5000th time finally waiting for a permanent fix, A new tighter fitting crush sleeve and machined nuts to finally clamp everything down square. Tolerances of the old parts were too lose and the sprocket bearing was walking in the hub from not being square.

[klavy69]

GT and tangent stuff back on.

Keep on the lookout for the sticker sheet and have it cleared like you want.

Same size rubber on front and back...personally think it kept mongoose away from the frontrunners in sales with that god awful smaller rear tire look of back then. Absolutely no one kept a 'bought' bike like that with different sized tires locally.

Do it up like you like it. Its not about what it was or how it should be but about personalization. Thats what makes it yours

Todd

[RC10th]

I sold a few extra BMX parts so I went ahead and ordered a pair of the fat 2.125" I'm half tempted to also buy a pair of the 1.75's just so I can play around and sell whatever I dont use.

[RC10th]

Bike is all torn apart ready for a rebuild. Both skinny and fat tires have been ordered. I will also see how much a new set of spokes and nipples are as these ones are dull and a little bit too long to begin with. The frame is pretty light considering it's one of the first alloy bikes, I always wanted the alloy Supergoose but apparantly these were better.



I can't really say I'm a fan of the purple decals but would be a shame to pull them all off and "rebadge" the bike. I am tempted to buy these though to have them as a backup incase.

[RC10th]

Still need to polish the frame but would you re-sticker this or leave it as a survivor? It definitely looks better in photos but is still presentable.

[klavy69]

I like it as is. First thing that happened when I ordered up new stickers for my GT bitd was a friend of mine's red line fell over into it about 20 minutes after getting them just right .

you can always resticker at a later date now that you have them

[RC10th]

I don't have the stickers yet but I've been tempted to get them as a backup.

I spent 3+ hours polishing the frame and it came up pretty good. I put all the blue parts back on and it looks much better. I also looked into a new chainwheel as mine is a little anno faded and about had a heart attack when I learned a new black 44T Tuf-neck is $255. Mine is huge at 46T.

My 1.75 tires came so I can play around to see what looks better. I'm going to respoke the wheels as they are grey and dull.

[klavy69]

DOH!

knew you were comtemplating picking up the stickers and thought you already did. Yeah, the purple is not my favorite either.(ducking head for those on the board ready to throw something at me for that ) . My GT was all chromoly/blue/black but when the GT Fresstyle came out in pink and white I was really tempted to go color...then came the drivers license and it didn't matter anymore

Todd

[RC10th]

Nearly finished, still need to fix and relace the rear wheel/hub and get some velcro for the top tube pad but it's pretty well back together. Here it is with two 1.75" tires, I will try a 2.125" on the front shortly just to see what it looks like.

Technically it is back to 100% as it was raced. I even kept and redid the "HV" on the number plate as the home track was the Happy Valley BMX club.

[tamiya]

Looks great, glad you didn't destroy the original decals - they're in great nick.

Frame looks long - good cruiser

Unless you were sponsored by the marque or a 1-brand LBS, no privateer had matching brandnames on all their parts back when kids just raced whatever they could get their hands on, many bits takeOffs from the neighbourhood's rich kid dumpster.

[RC10th]

Thanks, it's not really a desirable bike but it's just a cool time capsule.

Good light bike for a ride around and to spark up a conversation.




I'll never forget my Redline, literally just got it in the mail, put it together and within 5 minutes of my first ride someone wanted to buy it, lol.

[SPLATT]

I think instead of using the GT parts find period correct aftermarket parts from companies that just made parts(Tioga, Dia Compe, etc). Then find a period correct GT for the GT parts you have.