Recent content by Uncle Grumpy

Lizard, by Vanguard. They also made cantilever brakes and were mostly aimed at the BMX market. I have a pair of the cable hangers in green somewhere. Unfortunately not the place I thought they were so can't provide a photo. I also had the brakes but I think I swapped them for something...

Wrap jelly snakes around the hose. Not only will it dampen the pinging, but you have an emergency energy source should you get an energy crash on the trail. Okay seriously... maybe something like these... https://www.amazon.com.au/Jagwire/dp/B01MT56XCZ?th=1&psc=1...

Never seen an XY in carbon! That must be a rarity!

No, it's actually a matte grey. Not a polished silver, but an anodised grey. I have black ones in 27.2 and 30.9 as well, all 3 are in use. They are the best seatpost I have ever used, so simple to adjust and they stay in place. Race Face, you listening? bring back the XY and XYO seatposts...

32.6mm is a BMX head tube standard, which makes sense given Mongoose's roots in BMX. Look for a headset in 32.7mm cup diameter to give the interference fit. Lot's of decent headsets for BMX still being made in that size, or track down something period correct. Oooh, this one! Damn, the red...

I have an XY in 27.0. Not sure of other models, I think later models just went 27.2, 30.9 and 31.6.

I'm a descendant of the inventor of the Grumpler. I still have one out back, along with a couple of broken Thwangles and a box of the original spec oily rags. Gawd, I'd love to get that thing going again, if only to scare the kiddies.

Oh I'm not surprised, just lamenting. It's not about expecting 20 somethings working minimum wage jobs in modern bike shops to have any breadth of knowledge of older, and arguably irrelevant bike components, especially in a world where "standards" are trotted out every second Wednesday - it's...

That pukeworthy City of Angels... And a classic from the Three Stooges (couldn't find a better clip unfortunately).

Nope, the shape of things to come is already here. I was restoring an old funny bike, and I walked into a bike shop and told the kid I needed a 650c road tyre. He laughed at me and said "No, road tyres are 700. 650 "B" is 27.5 mountain bike. There's no such thing as 650 "C"." Then he shook...

We need a special month category - Pick of the Once a Hero Bridesmaid collection. Ha, if your luck is anything like mine, you'd still come second! 😀 My main criteria for selecting a bike is "go back to the year that bike was made, is it a bike that I would have wanted to own, and is it set up...

The shifters look a bit Suntour Power Shifter-ish. Not sure on the cranks or the derailleur. Front brakes are wide profile but not sure on brand. My mind immediately went Fat Chance because of the bright, fun colour, cartoonish logo which was so high up the downtube - but no, it's not a Fat...

Or bar ends attached to bar ends.

One more crankset and a funky purple bottle cage.

Digging thru the box marked "MTB Cranks". Afterburners, Toplines, Tioga Revolvers (I also have the BB for these).