Raytown BMX



Got out to Raytown BMX the other week. The new paved turns peaked my curiousity. I'm not sure what to think. I think BMX should be on dirt, but I guess I'm not everybody. The start is a paved, and all the turns are paved,

 

This is a look at the exit of the second turn. It's not smooth as I was expecting, the berm is rough, and why shouldn't it be? I mean this is BMX right?

 

The 3rd straight will be soon home to a "Pro" section to the left, right now it's in an experimental stage as I'm told.

I even broke out the old school toolbox. I suspect it's about 30+ years old...Yikes. Notice it's got a Bicycle Motocross Action sticker on it. Not long after they just became known as "BMXA". And you thought this whole acronym was a new this. I guess they were a little ahead of the curve, although back then they were not paved corners...just say'n.



Inch Pitch in a Pinch

A vintage (Vintage: Characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring appeal; classic.)
Western Flyer bicycle came into the shop this week. From the definition I'd say more than anything it has enduring appeal. Who wouldn't want to get on this bike and go from a ride around the neigborhood?


The frame features a step through design. Today most people would identify this frame as a "Lady's" frame. However "Step-through" is a better description. Ladys who would wear skirts found the diamond frame cumbersome to get on and off of, so they lowered the top tube so then ladys could "Step-Through" the frame to get on the bicycle.


A distinguishing feature of this bicycle is the Inch-Pitch chain and skip tooth gears. As you can see the chain's pins alternate 1/2", 1", 1/2" . . .


. . . and the cog skips every other tooth to permit the 1" chain plates to ride between the teeth. I don't know why they used this protocol for bicycle chains and gears. I can only suspect it was because they borrowed it from machinery from the 2nd industrial revolution.
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Is that a seat or a saddle? I think it's more looks than function. Did you know Brooks still makes saddles like this one?
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Simple . . . yet simple.

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Speaking of simple, Ben at Benetti's does it again. I found a new favorite . . . Sulawesi Kalossi . . . and I can simple call this coffee . . . "Dangerous" . . .

. . . I call it dangerous because you can drink this coffee all day. As they say it's very clean. Could this coffee be the Golden Ratio?

The PowerCam Crank Arm

Before Shimano with there Bio-Pace chainrings, we had . . . P O W E R C A M !

Yep . . . that's a 60 tooth chainring folks.

The concept is simple . . . the design, not so much. The concept is to advance the chainring during the bottom of the down stroke when your leg strength is at it's peak. Then during the up stroke the chainring retards to it's original position. Yes "advancing" and "retarding" are industry terms. Check the Science
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I traded something for it a long time ago. It works fine when you have chain tension. When you don't it tends to clang a bit if you don't watch it. It was desinged for time trials more than anything. It was heavy, and I didn't see any pros like Greg leMond, Bernard Hinault, or even Francesco Moser using one, so it sits in an old cardboard box since.

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Heck it might have worked, who knows, I'd never know, I followed the sheep rather than do some practice TTs on it and seen for myself. Hmmmmmmmm . . . I smell experiment . . . don't you?

Cinelli Clipless Pedals

Cinelli designed and put into production the first clipless pedal back in 1970. I guess Some people are just ahead of their time. For some reason it took another 15 years for this concept to catch on. Much like shimano with the cassette rear hub, and Vitus and the integrated headset.

I will say they are probably not the easiest pedal to get in and out of. They slide in and out easy enough, they just don't have a lot of play, so you would have to be dead on. I suspect a lot of people found it easier to slide the shoe in, then lace you their shoes.

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The pedal looks a lot like a speedplay . . . only in an anti-lollypop kind'a way
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The cleat slides in the slots.

Then when the cleat is in postion, you slide the slide in, then a pin comes up locking the cleat in. They used to call these pedals death traps, because you were not coming out of them once locked in. Then if you were like most of us, and used Campagnolo record pedals, you probably used two Alfredo Binda straps per pedal . . like you were getting out of that configuration either.

Entry

Why we ride.

We ride for the different perspectives the view from the saddle can give us. Sometimes the view presents us with a puzzle or optical illusion of sorts.

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Sometimes it can throw us back to a different time
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Sometimes it just captures or curiousitys
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I saw this today.

It's a SE fixed gear bike with woodgrain finish. Officialy know as the Lager -Wood Grain I had two people walking behind me comment about how they like the finish. That toptube pad has a zipper

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Heres a close up. I think anybody could emulate this. I'm not sure what to think. One one side I expected it to be more high-tech, but then I kind of like the primative method they used

(Guess I need to trim that cable some . . . Oppps)

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Seat with Woodgrain effect.
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Viw from the cockpit. I might have to setup my bike with pursuit bars. It's kind fun.
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You never know what you'll find at Midwest Cyclery

How about this.

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That "this" has to do with this "this"

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. A set of Campitello, fur lined, winter cycling shoes.
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Back in the day cycling shoes had wood soles.
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and cleats used to look like this.
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You had one bolt that would maintain the cleat's position, then you would nail/tack the cleat to the bottom of the shoe. That's right, better get it right.

Blue Hills Bike & Hike

If I get enough information together, I'm hoping to start a Vintage Kansas City BMX web site. I know the information is out there, I just have to find it.
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I'm going to start things off with Team Blue Hills Bike and Hike.

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Above from left to right are, Curt Bales, Drew Jameson, Mark Denton, Brian Duff, and Todd Dean. If you were from Kansas city and you were fast on a BMX bike, odds are you raced for Blue Hills Bike and Hike. I believe the picture above was taken at the St. Joe. BMX track the summer of 1979. I didn't start racing untill the fall of 1979, so that picture is before my time.

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I still have my Blue Hills Bike and Hike Shirt . . . No Really . . . I still tote around a t-shirt from 1979.

I still wear it sometime, and people ask me how old it is, and I tell them I wore it to go see "Jaws". OK 3 years off, but I have a 30 year old T-Shirt, You gotta give it to me, OK who else still has and wears . . . Wears Mind you . . . a 30 year old T-Shirt? . . . None of you, thought so. By the way it's a Hanes Beefy-T, made in the good ol U.S. of A.

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While I'm tooting this T-Shirt's horn, I'm going to say, try that with T-Shirts of today. You will be lucky to get 30 days, much less 30 Years. I got a whole closet full of today's POS T-shirts, that after the first wash they start curling up at the bottom.
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Quite a transition for tracks today. Hey check that out real dirt. Most tracks today are paved until the first jump, and all the national tracks have the corners paved. This was when BMX was Bicycle Motocross). Also notice that guy standing to the side of it all. He the race starter, He tell the guys to get ready, then he pulls that rope, realing the latch that drops the gate, then has to pull it back up by hand. . . . allllll freaking day . . . No electronics, or hydraulics, Just a lot of hard work for pat on the back if he was lucky. I beleive the riders are starting left to right are Curt Bales, Tim Edwards, Tim Applegate, Drew Jameson, Doug Prather, and Mark Denton.

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Not quite the perfectly manicured tracks of today. That's one thing you don't see, Car tires lining the course. I'm not sure why they don't do that these days. It's not like there is a shortage of used car tires.

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This is the race Flyer for the series.

I Knew St. Joe was small, I guess small enough to reguard the Bike shop as "The Bike Shop" if you need race information. Special thanks also has to go to Dick Gibson for his efforts in promoting BMX at that time. His Son Steve Gibson was also reguarded as being one of the faster kids on the USA at the time. He was on Torker's Factory Team.

He's back

He's back. Been busy, and encountered a few computer problems. The Father day ride didn't happen as planned since the night before I was up to 2am with these guys.

These are some of the people that gave genesis to BMX in Kansas city. Maybe I should put that in other words. These are the kids of the parents gave genesis to BMX in Kansas City. It's been a little over 20 years since we (Patterson/Jameson Dist.)have been all together.
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I'm going to get together a retrospective of the origins of BMX in Kansas City. I have already done a little history on the subject. But since getting together I have pictures and flyers from as far back as 1978, or 79.

What's he into now?

I was able to find out what year my Raleigh was made.

It's a 1970. I can only image what a boat anchor this bike was. I suspect it's all steel except for the stem, tubes, and tires. It's vintage.

However not all vintage things are not bad things, you can find some good buys on E-Bay, Craigs list, or other place if you know what to look for.

For example Suntour "Power Ratchet" shifters

So what gives these levers the POWER. It's the racheting wheel. Ahhh yes the days of Friction shifting, back in the day when people actually had to shift their bikes. The levers are designed so that when you pull back there isn't friction, all you feel is the tension of the derailleur spring. but the ratcheting wheel doesn't let the shifter shift down. Now in this respect it performs like a friction shifter.

I took mine apart to clean it and make sure nothing inside was broken.

An now re-assembled with smooth Phil Wood Grease for buttery smooth action. "Very Simple, Very Easy" (Does anybody in Kansas City remember "The Green Grocer".

Suntour's bar end shifter work on the same principle and were the king of bar end shifter for a long, long time. Suntour was not the only manufactures to make retro-friction levers.

Simplex for one. If you were a fan of the Pro peleton in the late 80's a lot of pros dumped their Campy or Shimano lever for the ones you see on the very left). They are very nice . . . Who knew I'd ever praise a french manufactured component? . . . Oh and my love for Mafac brake calipers, but I'll save that for another day.

(Photo borrowed from Orange velo)

http://velo-orange.blogspot.com/

Notice the more compact and elegant designs.

I think Simplex went out of business and In the early 90's Mavic took over the design and sold it along with the Mavic component group. Campy would also make a retro-friction lever in the early 90's. Funny enough Shimano never did jump on that band wagon as far as I know. They went straight from friction to index in one swoop.

In my research to fins information on Simplex deraileurs and shifter I found this cool site on Old school derailleurs. Or are they so old I think you have to call them "Old World" shift levers.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hadland/derailleur/index.htm

Then visit his whole Site Tony Hadland's Links

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hadland/