Possibly trade my 24" mod trials bike for your BMX bike?

I hate "I'm just feeling around" type ads, but I'm both very earnest and quite undecided.

I have a no-name modified trials bike, mechanical disc front brake, V-brakes on adapters from Magura hydraulic frame mounts, wide rims with the new wide-tyre-style holes drilled between spokes. The rear tire isn't actually wider than the front, but is on a wider rim, which mimics the ultra-fat-rear of the 20" modified trials bikes.

If there's any interest at all I'll pin down the component specifics (or perhaps I'll just take photos and details and add them tomorrow).

Most interested in an old-school-freestyle-ish type bike (see my ramblings here) or a cruiser (BMX cruiser, not beach cruiser), but curious as long as my 6-foot, 190-ish self is viable on it. I suppose that shipping costs will make this a pain (not to mention the sight-unseen-ness) for anybody not around Portland, OR, but hey, maybe this will align perfectly. The GRMiverse works in mysterious ways.

Ok, I'm very interested in your trials bike. I have a pile of bmx/freestyle parts, a few old school, most mid-school. Not sure what you're looking for, but on the high-end line of things, I have a very cool aluminum Powerlite race frame with forks/bars/cranks/BB. It's large enough for your average adult to not be overly cramped. I also have enough parts to complete it, but nothing super special for wheels, etc. For freestyle, I have an old-school Diamondback Strike Zone frame, a 90's GT Bump, a Trek of some sorts…seems like a few others. I could probably fill a semi trailer with bikes/parts, so give me some more specifics of what you're looking for and I can get some more specifics on my end.

Okay, that's enough interest to A) go get details/photos of my trials bike
and B) look into some of the stuff you've mentioned.

The riding I have in mind is mostly hopping around my driveway. Some of it might even be called urban trials, but the actual mod trials bike is unsuitable for riding further than, well, the end of the driveway (no seat). I don't know whether the Powerlite frame is too "racy" (long chainstays making manuals/rear wheel balance harder? Am I in left field again?) for what I want to do.

Rambling other thread about resto-mod retro BMX aside, the appeal of another BMX bike boils down mostly to two things, neither iron-clad:
+ I love the look of '80s freestyle bikes. I have a particular soft spot for Tuff wheels
+ I want to practice my atrophied bunnyhops, my never-learned front and rear wheel hops and mauals, and jump curbs around the neighborhood, and probably very, very rarely take it to some neighbors' backyard jumps

If you have any thoughts on which combinations of stuff you have lying around fits some of that, I'm all ears...

In reply to petegossett:

Photos of the bike are in this album.

I'm not certain what brand the frame is, though after some Googling I suspect it's a Because. Labeled parts seem to be mostly a mix of Because and Neon. Stark cranks. Avid front disk, no-name V-brake rear, actuated by Because levers.

The biggest problem it has is that the rear brakes honk semi-constantly. The Neon Magura-to-V-brake adapters don't do anything to stiffen the rear up, and the Because levers have soft bushings in the pivots, and the resulting give in the system makes me want the pads right at the rim. A brake bridge would help tremendously, I'm sure. Or putting Maguras or a disk on the rear (frame has disc mounts, but the hub does not).

I'm not enough of a trials rider to have many more gripes, but it's fundamentally not an Ibis or a Monty or anything like that...

I'm more drawn to the idea (and aesthetics) of the Diamondback, though I don't need the freestyle frame add-ons... Does it have the wacky roller-cam rear brake I keep seeing in the googling? Those just use cantilever pads, right? Not some impossible-to-find randomness?

Any thoughts on which of your BMXers you'd ride for the sort of stuff I described?

Well, it looks like I just found someone to do some old-man BMX riding with this summer .

On that note, I have a Sunday Model C that you could try out, if'n you wanted to see what the BMW cruiser thing is about. It's kind of a trip. The geometry is... unique.

In reply to Ransom:

I think the Powerlite would suit what you're wanting to do perfectly. I don't have any Tuffs though.

Honestly, I expected your trials bike had a seat(I haven't seen any 24" ones without before). I'm not sure I'd ride it much either. But then again, none of this stuff is doing me any good either. :D

I'll get some pics of it for you.

In reply to petegossett:

If it's not what you had in mind, no pressure... No point in giving UPS a bunch of money just to have a different bike sitting in the corner

In reply to Burrito Enthusiast:

Sounds like fun on both counts; thanks!

Pete, just out of curiousity, what are the details on the Strike Zone frame? I've sort of been absentmindedly hunting one of those.

In reply to mndsm:

It's been repainted black at some point. IIRC it was baby blue, but I'd have to double check. I'm not sure if it's a Dominguez signature frame or not(is there a way to tell?). I didn't get any other parts with it - honestly I didn't even realize what it was(and I had one BITD!), but a buddy was checking it out & pointed out a few details.

I'll post a pic of it and of the Powerlite.

Here's the Powerlite, the wheels came from an early-90's Dyno. I don't see a name on the rims, but the hubs are ACS. I do have a sprocket for it too.

And here's the Strike Zone. It appears to have originally been baby blue, and has (mostly) been spray painted black.

What kind of brake is the Powerlite set up for? And do you have the wacky rear brake for the Diamondback? (Not to mention enough other bits to turn it into a bike?)

I should really either just sell the trials bike and eventually buy just what I want (as soon as I figure out what that is, and without spending stupid money on a Skyway reissue...), or try to do this without getting myself into a partial bike that needs more parts or time, 'cause I should be either working on other projects or getting a little exercise...

petegossett wrote: In reply to mndsm: It's been repainted black at some point. IIRC it was baby blue, but I'd have to double check. I'm not sure if it's a Dominguez signature frame or not(is there a way to tell?). I didn't get any other parts with it - honestly I didn't even realize what it was(and I had one BITD!), but a buddy was checking it out & pointed out a few details. I'll post a pic of it and of the Powerlite.

Thanks. I'm gonna try and see if I can dig up details on the Dominguez's or not. I've been looking for a pink one... but beggars and all that. I'd have the frame stripped, check the welds and PC it anyhow.

Hm... nearest I can tell, the Dominguez ones were differentiated by components. I'll do some more digging....

Ransom wrote: What kind of brake is the Powerlite set up for? And do you have the wacky rear brake for the Diamondback? (Not to mention enough other bits to turn it into a bike?) I should really either just sell the trials bike and eventually buy just what I want (as soon as I figure out what that is, and without spending stupid money on a Skyway reissue...), or try to do this without getting myself into a partial bike that needs more parts or time, 'cause I should be either working on other projects or getting a little exercise...

Rear brake is just an old school Nippon side-pull, they're easy to find. Parts for these are out there- I'm guessing this beast is purely frame only. Neat bike, though.

In reply to mndsm:

Which bike are you talking about? In doing a bit more digging, all the similar Powerlites I found appeared to have V-brakes (hence the lugs on the seatstays that pivots thread into? I think?), and the photos I've found of the Strike Zone all had something akin to the old Suntour Roller-cam brakes, like so: (Notice that on petegossett's frame the brake pivots are very high, close to the bridge and definitely above the rim, so any arm above the pivot would have to be forced outward to squeeze the pads inward)

Yes, the Powerlite is set for V-brakes, though it will work with standard calipers(I was using ACS Boas). I think I have enough parts to build it complete, if you'd be interested in it as a complete bike.

Oddly enough, I have two of the Oddyssey roller-cam brakes. However, they're on my '88 GT Ricochet trials bike(where they've been since new), and even though I'll never really ride it again, I don't really want to mess with it.

Nyeep! Odyssey roller-cams are available on Ebay right now, but $80 a throw...

And shipping's looking $70ish...

This is all starting to feel just a bit "close but no cigar..." What are your thoughts?

Ransom wrote: In reply to mndsm: Which bike are you talking about? In doing a bit more digging, all the similar Powerlites I found appeared to have V-brakes (hence the lugs on the seatstays that pivots thread into? I think?), and the photos I've found of the Strike Zone all had something akin to the old Suntour Roller-cam brakes, like so: (Notice that on petegossett's frame the brake pivots are very high, close to the bridge and definitely above the rim, so any arm above the pivot would have to be forced outward to squeeze the pads inward)

I was looking at Dominguezes as well- so the Diamondback frame. The ones I was able to locate had basic brakes, I guess I didn't look at the stays close enough. I wonder if the roller cams were a Dominguez specific... or what the deal is there. The one Diamonback site I found, owner took his ball and went home.

In reply to Ransom:

Actually, I'm thinking even if I don't like your seatless frame, at least I'd have a component group to build around a new frame. So it would probably be worth ~$80 to me.

Well, heck. If you can assemble either bike (and I'm guessing that means the Powerlite, though part of me wants the DB so bad ) into a complete, functioning unit, then what the heck.

If I dig it after riding around, maybe I'll paint it Pepto pink and throw some white Tuffs on it

I do want to make sure that you're clear that this is an entry level trials bike, especially since you're contemplating moving all the bits to another frame. It's functional, and I've had fun with it, but all the parts strike me as being chosen (or manufactured) so that Because could have a trials bike at an affordable price point (looks like they were $5-600 new, if it is a pretty much off-the-rack Because). The hubs are no-name, and it's not a freehub rear. OTOH, I guess it's about as cheap and easy as it's ever going to get to get a bike's worth of trials-specific bits...

Basically, I'm torn, but would rather have a BMX bike right now, so I'm game. But I want to make sure you're happy when this thing shows up... If you have any remaining questions about the bike's specifics, more photos, anything, let me know...

Damn, the one thing I'd gladly trade my chrome Trick Star for and I don't have it anymore.

In reply to Knurled:

That makes two of us disappointed

I have a gt fueler frame/fork and a complete standard trailboss id like to sell, not sure if that's what you are looking for though. The standard is good for a tall person to ride, but it might need a few parts swapped to use how you want to.

In reply to Travis_K:

I'd consider trading the trials bike for the trail boss, but I don't want to contemplate anything further 'til petegossett weighs in; he's spent enough time hashing this out with me to get first crack at it.

Man, I never should have sold off that Bontrager... It wasn't perfect, but it was simple, well-spec'ed out, and a bit lighter than its contemporaries...