RRBBO13 Old Goat (《 94 Proflex 》 )

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metalchewy

For the love of the Ride 🚲 🔥
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-------------frame swap starts 12 or so threads down.

It's been a great week. I've been thinking
this one out a bit. I even drew a sketch or 10. Finally ended up with almost an idea...

The name will come later.


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Loved your WBO stretch.
This one should be nice!
 
#overachiever #strikesagain! Hey MC, as for a name, how about The Gambler, Roulette, 5 Card Stud (5 speed drive train) or some such? I mean, you are in Las Vegas after all.... RaT oN~!
 
Sorry, been slacking and doing some work and travel. Planning to start cutting and bending this weekend.
Looks like a good plan...I see a derailleur. You doing gears again? Hard to go back to one gear once you've had the 1x10
It will have at least 9 gears. Still don't have wheels yet, but have a shifter and a derailer. I want to build a cammed suicide shifter for the click shift...
#overachiever #strikesagain! Hey MC, as for a name, how about The Gambler, Roulette, 5 Card Stud (5 speed drive train) or some such? I mean, you are in Las Vegas after all.... RaT oN~!
Was thinking about 9-ball, but... gambler[emoji106][emoji106] , I like that too/better. Hmmm... decisions....
 
I could get techie and call it Fe3C+Fe2O3
Well, there is already a brand of mtb called 'Iron Horse'.

Maybe yours could be ....'Iron Ox'. :21:
And if you paint it blue, it could be 'Babe the Blue Iron Ox' !
(dat deres a Northern Minnesota joke, dontcha know!)
 
Working on a frame swap. @OddJob gave me some inspiration this morning on this. His Gary Fisher build is amazing and I asked his opinion on my changeover.

It seems between the two of us we have a little Vintage MTB sub category going...

A couple years back I picked up one of the bikes I had tagged over the years as 'buy it' if you find it at a price you can afford. Will tell more on this bike and history as I get started with it.

1994 Proflex 554. 95% stock (missing stx crankset, tires, elastomer and grips)

Current condition: In the restore pile... I pulled the rear wheel off last night.
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The plan:
Rebuild the fasttrax
Install and preload the new elastomer.
Clean off all the melted elastomer.
Lube anything that moves
Polish anything shiny
Add some personal touches to make it mine.

The start of the Story:
As some.of you know. I grew up in the Utah Mountains, in a small farming community. BmX was my mode of transportation, and I took the old Predator Everywhere. It was my Mountain bike before news of the mtb movement hit the area in the late 80s.

Getting married young, by the time 94 came along, I was a full time student, had a wife, a kid and one on the way, and a full time job at a local manufacturing plant. We were getting our first house and expenses were tight.

On campus, one of my friends rode up on this bright yellow ride with purple lettering. Rear suspension on the back. It was the first Proflex I had ever seen.

We were at the top of old main hill at Utah State, and he could see the drool... "Do you want to take it for a spin?" Was all I needed to hear.

As I stepped on the bike, he said to be careful, the suspension is nice but can be bouncy if seated when you hit a bump. I did a couple circles bouncing the bike front to back like mustang to get a good feel for it.

At that point, I surprised him by making an abrupt right, bunny hopping the curb and down the steepest part of the grass hill. About 30 yards down, I crossed the first walkway, and caught about 6 feet of air as I dropped the next 20 yards in the air, smoothly landing in time to catch the same walk way again.

The second hop, I put less into it, as I was 2/3 down the hill at this point and flying scary fast.

I angled the line to ride down the walkway the third time I crossed it, and started heading up the windy walkway.

The click shifters and gears shifted with ease and it was an easy climb. So, as I hit the stairway up the hill, I put in mid on front and low in back and went up the stairs with the bike. I was amazed at how easy shifting down and climbing was.

The bike,.as I have seen quoted elsewhere, climbs like a mountain goat. Hence the name swap, Old Goat.

Oh, that's the bike, not me (yet :) )

There will be more to come.
 
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Talking about the MTB movement of the 80's, have I got a story for you.
1984/85-ish I was growing up in the concrete jungle of The City of Chicago, and racing BMX in Illinois under NBL sanctions on a Hutch Expert racer with Pro Class hoops, Hutch Ti hubs, and Double Butted ss Spokes, Needle Bearing head set, Shimano DX seat post, SR Tubular Turbox 175mm crank, 42/14 gearing, you get the idea The Hutch was a 18.9 pound beast of a wet noodle.
Anyways downtown was a bike shop that was hosting a Lincoln Park MTB race to promote MTB's sponsored by Specialized I think as there were a lot of Rock Hoppers there. The racing was grudge with 3 heats (1,2nd, and 3rd went on to next heat)in the park. They had a track laid out with orange cones that winded through the trees and such in a grassy park, they had small mounds of dirt to fashion jumps/whoops, and a 8 foot long 6 inch deep mud patch.
I noticed a 24 inch Race inc BMX practicing, with a paper plate number plate. So, I went to the stand and asked if I could race as well on my 20 inch. The guy looked at and kind of giggled and said yea sure we are trying to promote MTB's and I think it would good for people to see how fast MTB's are compared to a kids bike. LOL I said to my self. Little did they know I was a pro BMX racer used to short winding tracks.
During the races I was able to hole shot of the start, undercut the taller MTB's around tight turns, I was able to bunny hop over the little jumps, heck I even pulled a table top out of my a** over the mud pit. I was handle bar battling the MTB riders etc. I came in 2nd over all for the day and the 24 inch BMX bike took first over all. Those mtb riders never knew what hit em.
I hated MTB's in the 80's and still to this day hate them.
The problem was the tracks straight-a-ways were to short for any MTB to gather any real speed, and the riders were, to say the least, sissys.

I think they all noticed the 24inch BMX and myself were pro riders the minute we balanced (Both feet on the pedals, brakes applied and rocking the bikes right to left ever so slightly to maintain balance) as if we were at the gate. It was a gateless flat start but him and myself, took the standard gate start positions, everyone else started with one foot on the ground. Sissys
 
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Talking about the MTB movement of the 80's, have I got a story for you.
1984/85-ish I was growing up in the concrete jungle of The City of Chicago, and racing BMX in Illinois under NBL sanctions on a Hutch Expert racer with Pro Class hoops, Hutch Ti hubs, and Double Butted ss Spokes, Needle Bearing head set, Shimano DX seat post, SR Tubular Turbox 175mm crank, 42/14 gearing, you get the idea The Hutch was a 18.9 pound beast of a wet noodle.
Anyways downtown was a bike shop that was hosting a Lincoln Park MTB race to promote MTB's sponsored by Specialized I think as there were a lot of Rock Hoppers there. The racing was grudge with 3 heats (1,2nd, and 3rd went on to next heat)in the park. They had a track laid out with orange cones that winded through the trees and such in a grassy park, they had small mounds of dirt to fashion jumps/whoops, and a 8 foot long 6 inch deep mud patch.
I noticed a 24 inch Race inc BMX practicing, with a paper plate number plate. So, I went to the stand and asked if I could race as well on my 20 inch. The guy looked at and kind of giggled and said yea sure we are trying to promote MTB's and I think it would good for people to see how fast MTB's are compared to a kids bike. LOL I said to my self. Little did they know I was a pro BMX racer used to short winding tracks.
During the races I was able to hole shot of the start, undercut the taller MTB's around tight turns, I was able to bunny hop over the little jumps, heck I even pulled a table top out of my a** over the mud pit. I was handle bar battling the MTB riders etc. I came in 2nd over all for the day and the 24 inch BMX bike took first over all. Those mtb riders never knew what hit em.
I hated MTB's in the 80's and still to this day hate them.
The problem was the tracks straight-a-ways were to short for any MTB to gather any real speed, and the riders were, to say the least, sissys.

That hutch sounds sweet! Sounds like you had some great BMX experiences on it. A guy here in town was on an 85 chromoly mongoose 24" that I wanted in the worst way, in the 80s and when I saw him riding it a couple years back. One of those is on the list.

I too, had a hate for mtb in the 80s. And like you said, as kids on BMX, we knew how to ride them and could out perform the mountain bikes beside us. I fully understand your point of view, and have built many 1 and 2 speed bombers, because they ride like BMX when you set them up correctly.

One additional detail of the story relating to this line of thought..... After the ride that I described above happened on with that Proflex, I made an abrupt change in thinking about mountain bikes.. It's why the bike was in my list to obtain. I couldn't afford the 1000 dollar price tag, and wanted one badly. I figured if I ever got one, Fun shall be had.

I had done the exact same on my 83 predator many times, except for the ease of climbing the stairs, I could do it, but it was hard work... As I took that Proflex down, Similar speed, similar air, et al. Handling in the air was similar, but the landings had much less impact than on my 20" mags.

The ease of the climb, was the biggest selling point to me. Each heavy down pedal, the bike pushed forward a bit with the suspension. With the proper bounce, I felt the added help from the suspension in climbing.

There are a few bikes on this list. I picked up a specialized A1 FSR for 125 a couple years back, to check it off the list That one, expanded my trail riding down here to some of the rocky ones that solid tails beat the crap outta you with.
 
Cool story and complete turnaround on build style!
Have fun and good luck!
 
Cool story and complete turnaround on build style!
Have fun and good luck!
[emoji106]

Building things that excite, help push me to make more time. Seeing OJs build, and then noodling on this frame i had, mixed with the deadline nearing.

I had to change to something do-able.. As I start getting it setup in view from my workspace, additional excitement will occur each time I walk past... ;-)
 
I do own a MTb my hate is not for the MTB but the soccer mom-ish attitude of both male and female MTB riders in general that stems from the 80's. LOL They rode 400.00 bikes thinking they them selves were better than the rest while wearing store bought by themselves, sponsor style MTB riding gear trying to look like something they were not, when I was wearing sponsor supplied racing gear, and them not knowing that at the time my "Little Kids bike" cost 1300.00 in 83 to build looked down at me and other top notch BMX racers. They also did not know that it was a BMX racer from Mongoose who started the whole MTB craze. They did not know the bike they were riding was born from BMX to 24" BMX to 2 speed BMX to the MTB. They were to up-nosed and snobby to listen when we the BMX-er knew more about the MTB bike they were riding than they did. They were riding them to try to be cool and not because they really had a passion for them (They thought it was a status symbol. Today their attitudes have finally changed. It was not the MTB I hate it is the early attitude of the MTB rider/racer. And this/that is real history.
 
One thing they never imagined when they designed bikes with elastomer what would happen to it after 30 years. This bike, it turned to goo, and got on everything. Took 3 hours last night to get it off the wheel and spokes.

Elastomer removal Tips
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1. Cold elastomer doesn't come off well.
2. Heat to about 140. (Set in the Vegas summer sun 20 min), and much can be scraped off with a popsicle stick.
3. For painted surfaces, 190Proof everclear and a lot of elbow grease to scrub off paint and rubber surfaces.

These original wheels are light, and solid. Treated some light rust on the sprockets.
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Pre lubed with Kroil.
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