Mid skool? Freeagent! Its a 2000s Flying Fortress! Heavy!

[reanimation]

Crap pic. Anyway, this Dyno Compe was my first 'mid skool' bike, of course it was brand new when I got it age 16 in 1993 It had a jazzy purple metallic effect frame, small frame! this bike had been built up in 1994 with a Bully frame with bash guard, and enjoyed that way for a while, breaking the wheels as I went along.

so FFWD to approx 2002 when I discovered ebay, and attempting to de clutter, It got sold for a silly £20 as pictured with my mates Araya 48 spoke alloy rimz. :'(

I think about that time I picked this up from some young lad in Derbyshire who, according to his posh dad had outgrown BMXing! :-X ;D So here I was about 26 years old, handing over £80 for this Modern hard core jump bike worth over £300 new! ;D

It felt heavy as! and I the 2 piece cranks had cracked, SOLID apart from that, this bike would survive a bomb! It was beautiful to look at and rock steady to ride but bit OTT build wise for me and I kept looking at it as an asset, it ended up FS again! SOLD
After all I was never gonna actually need a BMX, my chances of being a credible BMX rider were out, so I stuck with my newish MTB.

So happy with getting rid, a hole started growing, and when I found this Mongoose frame....

I came up with a plan
I was living 10 minute walk from work now, what I needed was a fun short commutster, walking is boring and using the car is damned lazy, and walking to the chip shop at dinner is dull too something cheap and not so nickable was needed to buzz about on cracking the odd small time trick!

Bit by bit I collated bits from the mongoose, small shops, big shops, and of course Ebay in the end spending well over £100 (again)
The cherry on the top was finding a nice frame! ;D Mongoose weighed a tonne and I don't think it was even cro-mo, Hi tensile probs

So I started with a frame, and ended buying a frame, thats a 100% custom bike then got to use mongoose forks though, and even sold the rest!

TBC

 

[reanimation]

I really wanted that frame anyway, but the best bit was, for an extra £20 or summat he said he'd powdercoat it saves me painting! W00t

So mixing the best of mid skool with old skool influences, it HAD to be General Lee Orange, or as close as!

2005: Having Just relieved my garage of the Capri project

I locked my self away from the world happily in the garage for a long weekend with Classic FM. awesome.

Fetched back home my new toy

Since then I have fallen off it battering my shoulder :O pulling tricks on the way home while tired :-/ ;D and replaced a few of the shonky components, like second hand tyres and crappy cast 'GT' pedals, replaced with Gusset items just like on my MTB they do the job, they can also do ya shins :O the make shift suspender seatpost off the GFs stolen raleigh is still on though..

These lucky find wheels are awesome, Alex rims mx22 on 'Salt' Hubs, teh smoothest hubs EVER along with bend resistant 12mm axles

Here today, mucky

Volume Bronson bars are good quality and add to retroness, despite being NEW of course ;D

It doesnt get used much at mo as we moved 4 miles away from work, finally got a grown up bike for that task this year.

Lemme know what ya think.


PS a couple months after I got emailed from the Capri guy, he'd only 'finished' it! :O

 

[reanimation]

Long time bump!

Do people think this bike is alright?
I don't know a lot about Free Agent

It now has a non suspension post since that was temporary to complete build, and gonna get a better brake lever and shorter stem since its a long frame (21"), and pondering putting my Gusset 3pc cranks on

 

[DM]

Free Agent used to be OK AFAIK.
I think they did a 24 inch cruiser that I wanted at some point.

I'm just stunned by the photos of that Capri. :shock:
It looks like something from the pages of Hot-Rod & Custom in the late 70s.

You did very well to get rid of that one and keep hold of the bike instead - The bike turned put MUCH nicer.

 

[reanimation]

Great stuff I'm in the middle of lightening and reframing my fun do it all Hardtail MTB so might pop the Gusset cranks on the BMX yet if they don't goont new MTB, and still considering a shorter stem.

Yeah I fell out of love with the Capri when I found out how much it had been man-handled and bodged, onwards and upwards,,, erm almost



Thanks for the encouraging words

 

[reanimation]

I know what it is after a Google search!!!

http://hamilton.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sel ... Z140195046

http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/Bike ... &Type=bike

http://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/free_agent/27408

It needed removing from my moms dining room, so my sis's wedding frock could get through! plus I wanted to get it on the local BMX track
Not used it for a year + or summat!
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I'm now cringing slightly at this build, I have refined my building style and budgets so theres a few corners cut that i wouldn't do now, like Mongoose bits - forks - stem used headset. MTB plastic brake lever. hmm
But it is cool and was built to go to shops on and commute to work, and it did 5 years ago ;-)

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Pondering fitting my MTB originating Gusset cranks on as well as other stuff, but they are heavy. Everything inc c ring and BB weighed in at approx 1425g, meaning I saved about 350g fitting Saints to the MTB, so how heavy are One Piece Cranks, can't be that heavy can they? bit of puny bent metal....
:?:

1750g
thats how much!


check the hollow look drive side, all that pointless material!

Now i don't need the Gusset super strong cranks on this but they are loads better and i actually save 325g. crazy. Anything lighter and cheap to consider?

I expect this is all i need to get the cranks on
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=29570

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Its currently a weighty 32lbs and riding it feels wierd compared to the small framed MTB. head angle feels real steep and twitchy steering.

Still fast though and still love those hubs.

I'm half tempted to do something new and skinny tubed, or old instead. Hmm maybe I'll just get it straight and ride the damn thing!

Comments welcome

 

[perry]

I expect this is all i need to get the cranks on

yep . you will want the "us" one . basically mid and spanish are the bearings that used to get used in the us shell with an alloy cup . problem with us size is nobody could come up with a standardized size so the alloy cup was there for the discrepancies . ive had frames where they had pushed in nicely and others where i had to remove alloy from the cup to fit .

mid is funnily enough larger than euro and smaller than us ( same bearings just no cup ) the frame gets machined after welding to the exacting size of the bearing so you lose the weight of the cups and lose nothing in having a smaller shell , which is again lighter . they press in by hand too

spanish is a different sized bearing , same principal its just when everyone who mattered was in a room throwing ideas around about how crappy euro bearings are and how large us was most agreed on the mid size except a spanish guy . hence spanish size

you could cut away a lot of material in the dropouts . a newer stem will be lighter . the odyssey ones are cool . other than that its the large things like frame , forks , wheels . going for a smaller drivetrain ( means a new rear hub )

people like dave osato ruled on heavy bikes a few years back ( at one point his weighed 40lbs )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me2dvoDT ... re=related

 

[reanimation]

So I've not used this much since my last update, so the bike and build has become retro to me! The midskool bikes seem really old Skool now!

This was almost a random budget build, my first one in years in 2005.

I had bought my mates profile cranks no BB a while ago so those need to go on a BMX and this bike was mucky and in pieces, so I stripped it down to weigh and measure it...

can't share the pics right now but the frame with bb and HS cups was
a Woah! Almost 8lbs! :!: but that's what midskool tough nuts weighed.
The mongoose forks are over 3lbs and the wheels are heavy too though the spin super smooth.




I got looking at light and tight moderns, so had a measure, this seems to be a 21.25 top tube and the chain stays over an inch longer than moderns! The stem was 55mm too. The gearing seems to be about a 44 - 14! No wonder it was an urban commute speedster beast and not great at chucking about for street or manuals.

I've sort of found a potential new frame to build hoping it's a 21" tt rather than 20.75 as it will feel very tight and short. Im 6ft2 and Slightly different geometry will theoreticaly shorten it a few mm too and feel more twitchy...