MSYT
Senior Retro Guru
Dug this out the loft last night.
A 7005 aluminium Planet X Jack Flash.
It was one of those random eBay purchases I made a while ago. Saw the frame, thought it looked cool, couldn't find any info about it but for £50, I thought it might make a cool build. Well when it arrived it looked good apart from a massive smudge on the head tube. A big black mark on the shiny aluminium. After I gave it a bit of a scrub though I found it was hiding a small crack. It came with a headset so I knocked the headset out and although very faint... the crack is on the inside too. There was a bit of back and forth with the seller after that, he said a rubber mallet had fallen and left the smudge, offered a partial refund which was fine but got all funny and after a couple of weeks waiting eBay jumped in and well... I ended up with a free frame.
So from what I've read about the Jack Flash, and what I've been told, this is the early model. Possibly somewhere around '97 but there are hints the Jack Flash released in '95 if the "25th Anniversary Jack Flash" released in 2020 is anything to go by. How do you know it's an early model? It has a straight headtube and doesn't have the reinforcement "rings" that were added in later model, I'm guessing to stop cracking. (Like this frame >> https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/planet-x-jack-flash-classic.489708/ )
Actually looking back at messages with the now owner of Banana Industries... He said he designed the Jack Flash and it was released around 1995, maybe 1996 so the 25th Anniversary checks out. And yeah, V brakes, no disc brakes, no reinforced head tube but also the decals are, I'm told, the first design, which was meant to be a tongue in cheek reference to the B movie.
I'd love to get this riding again so I'm looking for someone to repair the crack and then I've got a few bits to throw on it. An earlier Hope headset, a Manitou X Vert, X-Lite assassin riser bars, Control Tech stem (depending on the reach) and some Avid 1D V's but I may swap those for Magura's... maybe.
A 7005 aluminium Planet X Jack Flash.
It was one of those random eBay purchases I made a while ago. Saw the frame, thought it looked cool, couldn't find any info about it but for £50, I thought it might make a cool build. Well when it arrived it looked good apart from a massive smudge on the head tube. A big black mark on the shiny aluminium. After I gave it a bit of a scrub though I found it was hiding a small crack. It came with a headset so I knocked the headset out and although very faint... the crack is on the inside too. There was a bit of back and forth with the seller after that, he said a rubber mallet had fallen and left the smudge, offered a partial refund which was fine but got all funny and after a couple of weeks waiting eBay jumped in and well... I ended up with a free frame.
So from what I've read about the Jack Flash, and what I've been told, this is the early model. Possibly somewhere around '97 but there are hints the Jack Flash released in '95 if the "25th Anniversary Jack Flash" released in 2020 is anything to go by. How do you know it's an early model? It has a straight headtube and doesn't have the reinforcement "rings" that were added in later model, I'm guessing to stop cracking. (Like this frame >> https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/planet-x-jack-flash-classic.489708/ )
Actually looking back at messages with the now owner of Banana Industries... He said he designed the Jack Flash and it was released around 1995, maybe 1996 so the 25th Anniversary checks out. And yeah, V brakes, no disc brakes, no reinforced head tube but also the decals are, I'm told, the first design, which was meant to be a tongue in cheek reference to the B movie.
I'd love to get this riding again so I'm looking for someone to repair the crack and then I've got a few bits to throw on it. An earlier Hope headset, a Manitou X Vert, X-Lite assassin riser bars, Control Tech stem (depending on the reach) and some Avid 1D V's but I may swap those for Magura's... maybe.
