De-Mid Schooling my '99 Specialized P.O.S.

[NoBrakes23]

I recently got my son an entry level bike (Fit Inman 1B) and have started riding 20" again. It has become painfully clear that my old hoss needs some serious TLC. Well, actually I need to just get a new bike. This thing should have been put out to pasture a decade ago. But it is 2013, and I have a haggard ride and not much money, so a low budget refresh is in order. I plan to ditch some of the silly obsolete features and make a slightly more capable machine.

He she is:


Ahh, the Dia-Tech Flexie. I don't think I ever had this thing installed correctly.


Primo Pervert. I think the Odyssey M2 lever made this obsolete.


Primo Trucker Grips (Chad DeGroot?) with the flanges cut off.


Volume bar ends. God these were a pain to remove.


I don't remember being such a Primo fan, but the parts don't lie.


The Snafu tires are warped and lumpy, and the brake pads/cables are done. I took the frame down to my LBS, (Fullerton Bicycle) and they pulled the headset cups to get the Oryg piece off. They reinstalled the cups so the fork will be going back on soon. I can't seem to find a better sprocket/spider that is economical, so the Kink might stay on there. More pics to come as I put it back together.

Any suggestions other than the obvious solution of putting the whole thing in the dumpster and saving my pennies for a new ride?

[sealclubber]

slim plastic pedals
ditch the front brake
new rear 9t cassette wheel
smaller front sprocket, anything 25t is an improvement
pivotal post/seat combo

might as well keep one of the tensioners for the driveside. never know when its needed.

[cmc]

There are actually mid-school collectors and appreciators out there. I kinda think you should leave it exactly as is. Keep the front brakes and get them working really well. Then go to the skatepark and do Jay Miron style nose wheelies. OWN that sht !

[NoBrakes23]

Thanks for the suggestions!

1. I have some JCPC pedals I bought a few months ago, I will try those out. I still have nightmares of slippery Welgos, and don't trust non-pinned plastics
2. The front brake is staying, I still like doing endos and rock-walks. I will lose the back brake before I lose the front.
3. It absolutely needs new wheels, but new wheels are a cost breakpoint. If I am going to get new wheels, that is so cost-prohibitive that I might as well get a complete bike. So, I am stuck with these ****ty 48s for now. Also, the fork is 14mm slotted.
4. Can't downsize the drive train, rear brakes are in the way.
5. The seatpost is 29.2 because Specialized is stupid when it comes to BMX. No pivotal for me.

The tensioners work fine, they will probably go back on.

I would leave it as a rolling mid-school monument, (The bars are actually from '91 which makes them old-school,) but I am ditching the gyro for now, so no need for the Pervert. As much as I loved those Volume bar ends, they are pointless and worn out. I am torn on doing something to the surface of the rims so the brakes will work better. I wasn't thinking when I got black rims.

I am all about doing front wheel stuff at the skatepark. I am teaching my son, and I want to introduce him to all sub-disciplines, (Flat, Park, Street, Dirt.) We are working on building block tricks right now, (Bunnyhop, Drop-In/Flyout, Rollback/Rollout, Manual, etc.) We'll put the pegs back on and try other stuff after that.

[cmc]

I am torn on doing something to the surface of the rims so the brakes will work better. I wasn't thinking when I got black rims.
...

I bought a bike from a guy once who dremeled the paint off the rim to make the brakes "work better." Don't do this ! I know that back in the day everyone said brakes work better on chrome plated rims. True. BUT, there are brake pads out there that work great with painted rims, so just get new brake pads. Also the inside of your brake cable housing needs to be well-lubed. New cables that are well-lubed with no weird kinks or bends will work really well.

The bars are from 91 ? What are they? GT 4-piece ? If so, that's what the Animal Bob Scerbo bars were based on, and there may be a few collectors around, like on bmxmuseum, that would be interested.

Issue#3 of RIDE BMX (1993):

[NoBrakes23]

I bought a bike from a guy once who dremeled the paint off the rim to make the brakes "work better." Don't do this ! I know that back in the day everyone said brakes work better on chrome plated rims. True. BUT, there are brake pads out there that work great with painted rims, so just get new brake pads. Also the inside of your brake cable housing needs to be well-lubed. New cables that are well-lubed with no weird kinks or bends will work really well.

I am glad you said this. I was about to go to town with the Dremel. I will leave them stock and try different pads. I got some Odyssey Ghost Pads, (Clear for front and black for rear,) that I am going to try. I have a linear cable and a regular slic cable. Would it be good to put the linear on the front or is the severe bend of a front cable too much for a linear housing? What sort of lube is appropriate for cables? I've used all sorts of silly things, Talcum, Molybdenum Disulphide, WD-40, Vaseline, Phil's Grease, CLP (Rifle Lube). What's the best?

The bars are from 91 ? What are they? GT 4-piece ?

Yes. I love the bend that GT put on the Performer bars and the same bend was on their 4 piece bars. Sadly, I cut the width so modern grips don't quite fit, and the levers are on the bends. I always found them to be comfy bars, but I am looking forward to trying out some of the newer ideas regarding backsweep, upsweep and height.

[cmc]

I have used odyssey linear and slik on both front and rear brakes. i think they both work really well. i usually use Tri-Flow inside the housing--a LOT, until it drips out the other side (empirebmx.com sells it; maybe regular stores do too). if i'm re-using the housing at all (like there are already some bends in it), i add a little white lithium grease to the inner cable in addition to the tri-flow in the housing.

on the front brake, if you leave a bigger loop of housing to the side of the fork, your brakes will work better. a lot of riders do a tight loop around the fork, and that is better as far as foot clearance or whatever... but i think the tight bend does detract from the power. depending on the exact front brake setup, make sure the inner cable is not rubbing on any of the hardware. in early front 990 setups, when people ran the housing directly into the arm without an adjuster, the brakes actually worked really well, because sometimes the adjuster creates its own friction, if it's not lined up exactlyi right. any friction on the inner cable reduces braking power.

as for your bars... i don't really think the backsweep/upsweep/height has changed that much. well, ironically it did change, but it's sorta changed back. low straight flat narrow bars got popular (e.g. Castillos/MadDogs etc.) .... but now we're back to 8-8.5" rise, 4 up, 8 back, etc.

[nyhc00]

slim plastic pedals
ditch the front brake
new rear 9t cassette wheel
smaller front sprocket, anything 25t is an improvement
pivotal post/seat combo
might as well keep one of the tensioners for the driveside. never know when its needed.

Unfortunately dropping down to a 25-9 gear ration won't work if he keeps the chain stay brakes on still.

[NoBrakes23]

I didn't start this project in order to lose weight, (The frame itself has to be 8 or 9 lbs,) but as I was replacing parts, I couldn't help but notice that most of the new stuff is lighter. I weighed as much of it as I could on the digital scale, and it looks like I am losing just under a pound of weight with the new parts. The cables are mocked up, and my tires finally came in so now I just need to install the wheels, put the chain and brake pads back on, tri-flow and tune the brakes and tighten everything. Hopefully, I will be at the skatepark on Saturday.

[NoBrakes23]

I am putting everything back together and these brakes are driving me out of my mind. I swear brake maintenance gets harder each time I do it. I know these Tektros are ****ty brakes, but I still can't believe what a PITA they are to work on. I don't understand how when I was 15 I could dial in 880 and 883 calipers to stop mag wheels, but at 38 I can't seem to get U-brakes to stop metal rims.

[NoBrakes23]

Looks like I am more or less done...

These Chase DeHart tires are pretty ignorant looking. I like them. This is about the only place on the bike where I added weight. The DeHarts are about 100 grams heavier than the Rim Jobs.



The Ghost Pads look good, but they should call the clear ones Banshee Pads. They howl like Trials brakes. I didn't like the way the Linear was bending so I put the Slic on the front.



Here is the Linear cable routing. I went back to stock configuration. The brake saddle aft of the seat tube is not a great set-up, but it is better than the half-ass set-up I had before. I used a scrap of my son's Linear SLS for the Saddle cable. I dig the Linear cable. My rears actually lock up now.



I left enough slack for the bars to turn 360.



So that's it. It is still a pile of crap but it is a more functional pile of crap now.