BMX
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- Horp0
Hello little BMX thread, how are you?
BMX wise I am okay thanks. Decided to spend decent money on new parts for the important parts for my next Cult build (anything with bearings), and I'll go ebay/Marketplace/Gumtree on the rest.
But today was a bad day. I mean, actually it was a really great day that then went bad.
I woke up early because I was on Crete holiday time. So I decided to take Bet Lynch (my parts bin banger BMX) out for a gentle ride across Brighton. Exercise, not adventure. Gentle, not mental.
Rode it for miles, and along the way I couldn't resist getting a little bit jumpy. Jumpy became a bit more ambitious and before I knew it I was crashing into things, falling off things, leaping over things, sometimes failing to leap over things. Generally having a good time. I totally destroyed my shins and palms but that was okay.
What was not okay was I ended up about 5 miles from home absolutely exhausted in hot summer heat, bleeding somewhat profusely and with really hurting shins that made pedalling difficult/paonful... and then I discovered that somewhere along the way, I had dropped my phone.
It's a brand new phone, and I didn't take out loss insurance on it because I am simply not the kind of idiot who loses his phone.
It was in a black case along with my driving license and my two debit cards.
When I realised, I thought I'd best phone my (ex) wife (although we were never married) and ask her to get on to the bank PRONTO to cancel my cards.
Of course, I didn't have a phone. What I needed was the kindness of strangers. There was none.
Weird how a bleeding, sweaty, wild-eyed hypermanic looking 53 year old with a drunkards beard, on a fucking BMX, seems too sketchy to lend your phone to in the street.
So after discovering no kindness in around 20 strangers I realised there was only one thing for it. I was going to need to power crank like a fucking berzerker all the way home.
Which I did.
I never get jiggy if I have my phone, keys etc in my pocket. I always have my rucksack on if I'm going to be throwing myself around in street mode, and I put them safely off to one side if I'm in park mode.
But the sun was out, I felt good, I was enjoying myself, and so plenty of people would have seen me (eg) bunny hop a thing and launch my phone out of my pocket like a Scud missile.
Fucking BMX is a stupid activity for idiots.
*sigh*
- Horp0
Hi BMX thread.
At the weekend I discovered an ad on Facebook marketplace for a Fly Proton Complete, 2021, selling for £150.
It had been on FB Marketplace for 5 weeks already, so I doubted it was still available. Send a flurry of messages. It *was* still for sale.
The seller had failed to put "BMX" anywhere in his ad, and he hadn't listed it under Bicycles or anything relating to bikes, or BMX. It was in some 'Miscellaneous Items" category and had gone entirely unnoticed.
I went to see it. It was totally unridden. Brand new. The dropouts don't even have any paint wear from the grip washers.
The owner had bought the bike, assembled it, but didn't know what he was doing.
He used a hammer to fit the BB bearings, dry. Fortunately he only damaged the bearing not the BB barrel which is un-chipped and still perfectly round; but he hammered onto the central ring of the bearing races, rendering them pure junk by the time he'd smashed them into place.
So he couldn't pedal. Not even WD40 made the pedals go round, he told me.
Then he tried to fit the pedals at 90º to the crank arms, and had cross threaded them, found it hard work, and so had just monstered them home. Pedals at about 15º to the frame, so pedalling... if it had been possible... would have been like being on the fairground Waltzers.
Aside from that... MINT. Not a scratch. A £750 bike in immaculate condition because the owner fucked up the build.
It's very sad.
Paid £130, borught it home. Stuck the lovely freecoaster wheelset with Fuego tyres onto Bet, and sold Bet for £300 the very next day.
Now selling the Fly frame and forks for £150. All the other components will go on my Cult build, including high riser four piece bars which was exactly what I wanted, FOR THE WINZ.
So my £200+ parts shopping list has been completed for free once the Fly frame and forks sells.
I managed to reverse out the really nice Fly Reuben Graphite pedals. A little bit of thread (one wind perhaps) was lost on both the pedals and the cranks. So they *may* be junk. But after freeing them and clearing out the threads, I wound the pedals back in correctly with just my fingers and they do feel absolutely fine.
Top tip for fitting pedals: put all of your tools down. Only use your fingers. if you can't wind them in with your fingers, you're doing something wrong.
If you're fitting them properly at the correct angle and on the correct side, they will wind in under finger torque only, and you only need to pinch them closed once home.
Pedalling constantly puts tiny amounts of tightening pressure on the pedals anyway so arguably you can just finger tighten them and ride, but I wouldn't recommend it.
I'm really sad that Bet has gone, but I get through BMX like salty snacks, and I'm always too keen on the next build to get too sad about selling the last one.
I will miss riding that bike though.
Here's to you Bet!
*Raises a glass of BMX juice*
- Fly Proton Complete, Freecoaster model...
£750 new.Horp - Owner told me the EXACT same thing I always hear "I'm a skater and I wanted to have a go at BMX but I lost interest after buying the bike"Horp
- May the fictional gods bless all skaters. Keep buying BMX, keep trying it out. I am here for you once you've lost interest.Horp
- Update on cranks vs pedals. I had a good look at the pedals and they won. No damage to the pedal threads, just a lot of crank thread jammed in the grooves...Horp
- A bit of penetrating oil and a steel pick and all the crank thread popped out. So cranks are useless but pedals are perfect and are now...Horp
- on my Mission Transit 165 crank arms waiting for the build up.Horp
- Fly Proton Complete, Freecoaster model...
- palimpsest7
Rich Forne always delivers.
FREAK | Jordan Godwin, Lewis Mills, Alex Donnachie, Felix Prangenberg- I'm giving this an upvote, but QBN won't let me. Therefore I am postal upvoting via comments. Could somebody please add an upvote for me, thanks.Horp
- Oh I just realised I watched this one already last week. Could somebody cancel my postal upvote please?Horp
- LOL
I saw him post it during holidays, just got to watching it now. It's taken me a while to warm up to Prangenberg, I'm getting it now.palimpsest - +1OBBTKN
- I upvoted it for you, Horp.
Then I downloaded it for your general absentia on Discord.Continuity - Downloaded? Downvoted. You've got me all scattered.
For that, I would downvote you again if I could.Continuity - the music soundtrack blows ass.utopian
- OK, boomer.palimpsest
- So they all ride without brakes nowadays? I fell old now.Longcopylover
- And look at the size of those bars!
;-)palimpsest - Longcopy, I started riding with no brakes a few weeks ago. Felt really weird for about an hour. After that, it was just a bit frisky...Horp
- Now though, it feels totally natural. For one you ride differently. Maybe more observant, and instead of stopping, you keep going, and that makes...Horp
- a huge difference. One thing I haven't mastered yet is park on brakeless. I just can't find the courage to let go. But just riding, and street stuff...Horp
- a break already feels weird and counterproductive. Oh, also I still don't like doing fast manuals brakeless. I'm scared hahah but it will come eventually.Horp
- The not stopping, keeping going thing is... you look for different lines, and you stop using your foot on the rear tyre and just blast through the best option.Horp
- Breakless pushes you to commit.
Geriatric brakeless gang!palimpsest - ^ THAT'S what I'm trying to say. It pushes you to commit. After a while you aren't thinking about stopping you're thinking about where the line is, or the exit.Horp
- The exit is always the hospital.palimpsest
- Often hahahaHorp
- The slams are too much for my old ass. I had to bail!stoplying
- Mine too Stoplying. But it doesn't mean you have to stop riding, that becomes some bunny hops, then you start trying to do fakies. Before you know it...Horp
- *SLAM*
Your old ass is broken to fuck.Horp - I tried today without using the brakes. Doesn't work, brain just grabs the lever. I would have to take it off. And then I die.Longcopylover
- Keep the lever but disconnect the brakes. Or gradually loosen the brakes.palimpsest
- Horp1
I want to talk about brakeless riding without being confined to notes.
Because I think it's really interesting how the riding mind is before and after. We spend our entire lives riding bikes as transportation, with brakes, so that we can stop.
It's become ingrained in our thinking that there ought to be a stop mechanism.
Aside from speedway, I can't think of another wheeled vehicle that doesn't have brakes (carts and horses maybe). It seems to be a purely BMX-borne idea.
I found the idea of brakeless inconceivable. I'd never ridden brakeless and didn't understand how one could even do that.
But building up Bet from my parts bin, all I had was a crappy old Tektro brake set from a really old junk BMX. It would have required cleaning, repainting, new pads and a new cable. I could not be arsed, so I decided I'd give brakeless a try.
The very first time I got on, I did a half crank to get going and just felt panicked as fuck. I was in the provate road (a mere driveway really) out the back of my house. Flat, straight, wide, no obstacles, no traffic, no Pedxers. But I was like "OOoooOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHSHIIIIT" and it felt like I was out of control at 40mph when in fact I was gently rolling at 2mph.
So then I figured out how to quickly stick my foot on the rear tyre to provide a brake. Got my foot firmly jammed between the frame and the tire twice and just fell off sideways. Helpless.
Then I started riding round the streets and I'd have little panic moments and not know which foot to use. But I'd stop.
Then I got used to it, and I barely even need to use my foot now. Your mind-state changes from "I will need to stop" to "I need to aim that way and then swerve"
In reality you just don't need to view the process of riding as go/stop. It's just go, and there's always a way, and that's exactly what BMX is, it's using the environment in whatever way you need to.
Doing manuals... I have realised how much I depended on my rear brake to just take the fire out of a loop out and stay balanced. I am finding manuals hard without the brake because I *now* need to learn how to adjust my weight via my knees, to maintain balance. An instinct I had not yet developed because of brakes.
My Manual game is lame again for now, and will stay lame until I've built the Cult which has a long 14" rear end. I will need to relearn on that. Picking up the pace will come after it but right now each time I Manual I loop out. I will have to relearn the entire thing.
So anybody riding BMX who is curious about Brakeless, I would say give it a day and you'll like it and won't go back.
I don't even do bar spins, so I could easily have a brake and that would be fine. But I don't want them now because the problem with brakes is, they slow you down.
- I started riding in my 40s, not out nostalgia because I had recently found out about BMX when researching for my kids bike.palimpsest
- I'm still struggling with manuals and bunny hops but going brakeless certainly changed my outlook and pushed me forward.palimpsest
- Manuals are impossible, and then suddenly easy, and once they're easy you can't imagine why they were hard. My problem with manuals...Horp
- is that at 53 I seem to lack the speed of instincts, or even just the instinct, to jump off the pedals and save my back...Horp
- I just go "uh oh, here we go" and then *SLAM* I'm down and screaming like a baby.Horp
- and that's the only reason I miss breaks. My back misses the brakes.
Brakes, not breaks.Horp - Always rode brakeless. Learn the little nollie skid, you won't even need a foot in the tire. I only put a foot in the tire on steep streets or emergencies.garbage
- jagara0
BMX stands for Bicycle Motocross. Great name.
- Horp0
I bet *this* doesn't work at all...
<iframe src="
?h=9b4037bdee" width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="">CULTCREW/ 01</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/cultcrew">Cult Crew</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>- Oh fuck me it kind of did work.
13 years old. I don't think much has evolved since then judging by some of the stuff going on in this.Horp - This is the time before freecoasters and the fakies were no less decent. I've noticed more and more riders are selling freecoasters to go back to cassette.Horp
- 1:59... a pretty sweet move.Horp
- FC's were abused the past five or so years. I have nothing against them, but always remained cassette.garbage
- Also feeling like the hall monitor for this, but if you post something in your profile and the formatting works, it will post. It's your own personal test pagegarbage
- Oh shit yeah, you told me that before Garb, but it totally slipped my mind. Next time I'll test before posting for sure.Horp
- Yeah FCs, Ive had a couple. I've never bought a shop fresh one I've always had them off second hand bikes and rebuilt them because NOBODY...Horp
- ... services those at all, it seems. I have just bought a brand new one though, going super cheap on sale. I may end up going back to my cassette though in timeHorp
- I honestly think I'm ahead of the curve on going back to a long frame, and I reckon people are going to go back that way over the next couple of years.Horp
- There's no doubt a shorty frame enables a lot more street trickery, but I think it's going to swing back hard to parks n bowls again, and a longer frame.Horp
- What do you run? I've run a 2.75 TT which was hilarious because I'm 6'1". I'm always with a 21 TT and a short back end unless I'm doing gaps or non-tech stuffgarbage
- There was a fad in the late 2000s of chainless riding, before there were functional freecoasters that didn't just explode.garbage
- Def Paul would be the legend. Shit quality, but wtf https://www.youtube.…garbage
- I run whatever I've just finished building, before I sell it. So it's a wide variety of TT lengths, back end lengths, bar heights/widths etc...Horp
- but I was at my best on this old Cult frame I had with a 2.75tt and a long back end. So my next build is that, and it will be a keeper. I won't build and sell..Horp
- because I just want to focus on developing on that one set up, without constant changes.Horp
- I'm 5'11' so 21tt is probably most ideal for me too.
New things for me to get used to on this next build are...Horp - LHD set up + brakeless
165 cranks not my usual 175
25/9 vs my usual 28/9
Much taller barsHorp
- Oh fuck me it kind of did work.
- Horp0
Well,
I am almost ready to ride again.
I have everything I need. New chain arrived this morning, plus the the Mike Hoder S&M grips which I ordered specifically because of the big deal being made about how Hoder specified extra thick/bigger diameter grips and I thought "Yes, sensible for a man of my age".
I honestly can't detect any difference from every single other grip I've had. But oh well...
- Grips are now on my bars.
- Rimtapes, toobs and tires mounted on my wheels
- Saved-from-landfill Reuben graphites wound into my Mission 165 cranks.Everything ready to go. I just need my frame and forks, which are in a flat in Stoke Newington, and the earliest possible time I *might* get them is Friday.
I hate waiting.
- Break a leg.utopian
- Tempted to rebuild the Fly I took apart for parts but I want to ride an old Cult. I don't want to be riding a Fly complete with cheaper cranks wheels and tiresHorp
- It's quite tough at my age to have periods of not riding, because even a couple of weeks off is like starting again from scratch.Horp
- and particularly difficult is constantly switching bikes around. This time I'll go from a tucked 13" back end to an old school 14"+ back end, higher bars...Horp
- ... LHD freecoaster. So I'll have to re-learn the basics on that whilst also still trying to manual again without brakes.Horp
- Horp0
Finally made it back to Stoke Newington and laid virgin eyes on the unspecified stock/geometry Cult frame and forks that arrived here weeks ago.
My expetation was that it would be a 2012 CC02. My hope was that if so it would be a late frame number when they went full chromoly 3/4s of the way through the production run in readiness for their first official full 4130 frameset.
It's not a CC02 at all. It's a 2016 Alan Kennedy (AK) Frame, with Sect forks.
20.75tt
13.5" back endPretty much mint except for some mild chain chatter under the right hanger and 2 scratches down to metal on the frame which are clearly not even riding related.
Omce cleaned, and those scratches filled, it will be like a totally unused bike. Even the bb bearings fitted feel new and totally useable... although I will be taking them out and fitting my own. Superstition.
Tomorrow, once home, I build a bike
- Horp6
For the interest of absofuckinglutely nobody, I just done did the fastest BMX build in the world. About an hour between getting back with a bare frame to test riding a complete bike.
Having got it back to sunny Hove, cleaned all the sticker bogies off the frame and viewed it in bright daylight, the paint is a lot more scratched up than it first appeared. So I took a second to work out whether I should strip it and paint it, or just throw it together and ride it.
As I have no intention of selling this one, and every intention of riding it off cliffs and into threshing machines, I decided no paint required. So I stuck an old Cult decal on the frame, and threw it all together.
Halflink chains infuriate me. I can break and relink a chain like a champeen but I always seem to end up one link too long or one link too short, no matter what I do. And if I'm honest, I hate adjusting chain lengths, it's dull, fiddly, and highly irritating.
So the chain right now, despite being as tight as chuff when I selected where to break it, is slopper than Mitch McConnel's neck skin, even with the wheel pullled way back.
FUCK YOU CHAIN.
But otherwise, based on a very quick and gentle test ride out the back, awwwwwww mannnn it's glides so smooooth.
Bars need to come back a snidge, chain needs a link taken out FUCK YOU CHAIN and neither of my headsets (Trebol or Killabee) seems to want to bed down (I'm hoping riding it awhile will unsitch that, there's no damage to the head tube but stuff wont sit down fully right now) but otherwise, quite pleased.
- Wattles.
Sloppier than Mitch McConnel's wattles.
Couldn't think of the word a the time of writing.Horp - No brakes??? Ooohhhhh...
j/k. Love it. I would love to take a ride on it!OBBTKN - Is your gripe with full halflink chains, or installing a single halflink?garbage
- Right now its like a Rolls Royce. All new bearings everywhere. Silent and smooth.Horp
- Droppomg down to 25/9 from 28/9 though feels a bit weird. I want my torque back :(Horp
- Fitting a halflink chain, then having to take one link away knce done, or add one. I check, double check, do it, then go "fuck need to do it all again".Horp
- Trad bikes chains, whilst less tweakable, just seem a lot easier to break/join. I never pick the right breakpoint on a halflink and I don't know why.Horp
- To be clear Garbage I prefer halflink chains for the additional tweakability. I only buy halflinks. I just wish I had the knack of getting them tight 1st try.Horp
- I flip the bike, one foot on the seat, one hand pulling the back the rim, one hand bolting it down. A slammed wheel is less important than a tight chain for me.garbage
- Yep me too. I hate a sloppy chain. Worst thing ever. The WTP I just sold was fine because it had those screw locker things. This one doesn't. >-(Horp
- Also, notes... I really don't think I like 25/9 now I'm properly out riding it. Going back to 28. I thought 25t with 165 cranks might be nice. No power though.Horp
- My preference was always 30/9, I like a little juice. But some parts of Seattle that means you're walking.garbage
- Do you mean because it's steep hills Garbage? I've only ever flown in to Seattle and mooched about by the airport. So I've always assumed it was flat :)Horp
- Haha, absolutely no. There are spots here that rival SF. It's like, the worst place for somebody who is brakeless and rides a fixed.garbage
- On the hill that I live on, borrowed a fancy e-bike with a speedometer and just did a test of how fast I was going when I would bomb Wallingford on my bmx.garbage
- Did not engage the motor, just rolled. I was going 35mph when I hit my block. There are legitimately scary hills here, not flat at all.garbage
- https://s.hdnux.com/…garbage
- That's pretty common. There's like.. three major neighborhoods with "Hill" in the name. Mine doesn't have that, but is probably the worst.garbage
- Wattles.
- garbage1
Fuck yes.
- Nice.Horp
- He's got such a raggy style IMO. He just motors through things that would be mistakes for others. He's smashy and crashy and he just cracks on. I loikes it.Horp
- He's got more bike control than anybody, and over the past few years he's decide to express that violently.garbage
- No joke, when he was a child his parents wanted him to be a gymnast. He eventually said "fuck that" and picked up a bike.garbage
- Look up his old parts, they are unreal.garbage
- Horp0
Pffffffft frikkin' amateur
Toom the bike for a test ride along Hobe seafront. Just riding, no shenanigans.
Rear wheel got tugged off centre...
So I'm cracking out the old 80s tricks. Ballbearings in the stays each side...
- Toom + Hobe =
Took, and HoveHorp - The chain is now tight enough to explode.Horp
- Or fold the sprocket.Horp
- Well the bearings did the trick. Wheel stayed straight and the chain is nice after going down a bearing size so it was't like mechanical dynamite.Horp
- Today's ride though produced a clicky left crank, so that's the next bit of fettling it needs to get *HASHTAG dialled-in*, as the kids like to say.Horp
- Toom + Hobe =
- Horp0
Without all the fancy doo-dads thrown in, this is where I like my BMX riding these days. I'm not nimble enough for technical street riding. This is almost like perpetual motion, sucking the locomotive energy out of the ground. I love a good unbroken bowl flow.
Prepping the bike for the surface you're about to land on, rather than prepping the leap to land in a preferred spot. Winding up the power with tight turns on curves and just gunning it out.
Kind of mellow, despite the speed and the soundtrack.
Standard BMX vid intro bullshit ends at about 42 seconds.
- Horp1
It's an oldie, but it's my home town and some of my spots, so
REPRAZENT! REPRAZENT!
Brighton ain't ready Pt1:
- Horp1
Not sure how big this news is outside of the UK, but Source BMX who are pretty much the Amazon.com of BMX retail, has gone into what appears to be a pre-packaged administration.
Pre-packaged meaning, I think, that one pre-designs a process so that Old Business Owner A (OBOA) can place their company into insolvency, escaping all of the debts that have built up, and they then auction off, quickly and quietly, the assets and the stock to New Business Owner B (NBOB).
so OBOA knows, might even be directly related to NBOB, and only they know when the auctioning off of stock, assets, business will take place.
OBOA lets NBOB buy it all for like 10% of it's value, and the business can pretty much carry on but as a new business in the same place with a similar name and a different owner/director.
Which means that all the suppliers who extended the business credit lines now can't get back what they extended because that business has gone into insolvency. NBOB's business looks, feels, sounds and operates the same, and is even selling the stock that has not been paid for, but it's a new business.
NBOB's new biz got a shit tonne of stock and other assets for almost nothing. The old debts can only be paid by what the old business has available to settle with. In this case the 10% auction earnings for absolutely everything.
So the supplier brands lose out. Which if true, is shitty.
But going back to Source, if that's what has happened ^ and I don't know for sure that it is, then whatever lead them to this in the first place isn't going to magically vanish now NBOB is running it, and what's more, those BMX supplier brands are going to be pretty pissed at having their stock effectively stolen, and still sold legitimately by an exact copy company, and they won't get their payment for it.
I mean, if I've got this right and I was Cult or Subrosa or WTP or whoever, I'd be telling them to GFT from here on. They may be the biggest but they aren't they only BMX retailer with online ordering/delivery capabilities.
- Horp2
BMX Con-tent BMX Content WOOO! YEAH!
BMX CONTENTTTTTahh^New Jingle
Hopefully the tweaking and *dialling in* phase on this bike will very soon be at an end. But for now, I made one more tweak.
Really hated the whitewall tyres. They were 2.3, and old, and shitty, and I felt they made the bike look shitty. So I just popped on some Kink Sever 2.4s.
They have all over micro-knurling. A friend of mine has tyres like that and they're great for street, park and regular riding. I really liiked how they felt on the shitty concrete ramps I ride.
Plus I think the bike just looks a bit more right and a bit less like a Walmart own brand trick bike now.
Apologies in advance or that pic not working. I'm on my phone and cannot be arsed to test it first.