To all the bikes I’ve loved before…

So a few post’s ago someone suggested I post photos of my old Barcodes. While digging around for old photos I just decided to go all the way… here is a tribute to all the great BMX steeds that have carried me through the years (or the cross section I could find photos of anyway). Two cheers to CHROMOLY!!!

( Complete with points of interest…) 

1974! Bikes didn’t come natural at first.

Free Spirit bike. This photo ran in BMX Plus and was a contest to guess which rider it was. Hint: It was me.

This was my first really good bike. Spent the summer of being 14 and 15 saving for it. Robinson Pro frame with all the coolest parts of the day. It got stolen 2 months later.

This isn’t actually a picture of my Kastan (Top ones are my Kastan, bottom close up is not mine- thanks mom for the photos), but after my Robinson was stolen my mom’s homeowner’s insurance payed off and I got to build another dream bike. These Kastan’s were really amazing (though they were forever tarnished by the Uni-Blade that also came out at this time). Too short and was stolen also.

Key point: Supposedly this entire frame was heat treated after it was welded. I don’t know if it was true, but it seemed really strong. Remarkably modern frame design don’t you think?

Also, Later when Linn Kastan built T-1’s for a short while I got so pissed at him over some production issues that I jumped in my car and drove 24 hours straight to California to confront him. He called me a boy who didn’t even know what chromoly was and refused to meet me in person. The shitty part was I was holding a chemical/ molecular breakdown from a testing lab that showed that the metal in question was precisely only mild steel. Dude invented the tubular BMX fork so I guess we owe him some respect. 

Again, can’t find a picture of me on one of these, but I did have about 6 of them in one summer (and all of the colors above). My goodness they were pieces of crap! You could break them in a couple days. Sure was fun bashing them into things, but I don’t think anyone ever really figured out anything too cool to do with that bash guard. 

Revcore frame. You’ve totally never heard of that. These were the days of ride anything you possibly could.

Key Points: Two different tires, two different pedals, two different water ski gloves, tie died Albe’s shirt. AND Funk Pelts stickers on the helmets… someone told me I was sponsored by Funk Pelts, but I never even knew what the hell it was.

Black spray painted S&M Holmes. I got a lot of mileage out of flat black spray paint and had about 30 S&M Holmes frames through the years. 

Key points: This photo was used by TNT as an ad. I was upset because I didn’t ride for TNT and they blacked out the Standard logos (who I did ride for). 

Also note the gusset behind the headtube. I broke so many frames back then. I would take my bikes to muffler shops and have them weld on any old plate of steel to keep my bike together.

Standard OG prototype. This was the first Standard. The frame weighed like 9lbs because no one knew how thick to make any of the tubes. I hated this bike because I was used to long ass race bikes, but I sure was stoked to get to test it. 

Key Points: Lemon juice cleans copper to a wonderful shine. 

Also, this is the frame (but not forks) that Jeff Crawn got hurt on. I don’t like this frame.

Standard Lenghty prototype 2. Again this one was too small for me, but this one was also much lighter. This was Rick Moliterno’s personal frame, but he gave it to me to use on a road trip and I got my first ever interview in both Ride and Dig Mags on that frame. 

Key points: At a contest this bike got away from me, bounced 4 or 5 times in long cartwheels and then smashed into a bench and dented the shit out of the top tube. I thought Rick would be angry so I tried to cover the dent with a sticker before returning it.

Also, Pacific Palm gloves at Twin Palms jumps! 

S&M Holmes again. I was on these frames for years. In fact most of the time I was on Standard, Hoffman, and Family I was just riding Holmes. 

Key Points: Masterguard bullet proof sprocket guard. And you wondered how Props got started. 

Also, twisted spokes on a GT Race Lace hub…. so awesome!

Also, front peg welded to the fork to save axles. Thanks Mark Murphy.

Another Holmes while on Hoffman Bikes. 

Key Point: Did you ever wonder why you have a 14mm axle in the back? Its because of that little blue hub in my back wheel. The very first hub with a 14mm axle. It was the Gack hub prototype. In the days of axles bending like butter this was the savior. Although, since no frame was made to fit it I spent many nights in hotels (while on tour) with a hack saw chopping up innocent S&M frames to fit. I rode this hub for almost 2 years before production ones came out. 

Holmes number zillion.

One of the first US made production model Hoffman Taj frames.

Key point: LAID BACK PRIMO ROD POST!!

I think this might be my all time favorite bike. In the days of bikes getting more and more over built I speced this Hoffman Taj out as a race bike with 36 spoke wheels and lighter parts. It was so amazing to ride. 

Key point: Blue Shimano DX pedals. Those pedals were magic. Not these modern day DX pedals that suck balls, these were the original real deal. Picked them up in Germany because even in 96 they were impossible to get. 

Also, its amazing there was room for a full Fox head sticker on just the bottom part of my rear dropout.

A Hoffman Taj, but this one was made overseas. So many of the newer bike companies owe a debt to all the hard work that Hoffman put into developing high end bikes overseas. They went through a lot to work out the bugs and made it all a lot easier for everyone else. 

Key point: There’s those pedals again. I wonder what happened to them.

I got on an early light bike kick back in the 90’s and started riding a Hoffman Flash (HB’s race bike) with race wheels and everything.

Key point: red TNT hubset was pretty sweet with the red alloy nipples.

Also, I wonder why I was riding in my Aunt’s kitchen with no shoes? 

After Hoffman days ended I tried to ride a King (too short) and eventually bought a Taj frame from someone (was it Aaron Bostrom… that would be weird). Eventually DK started flowing me bikes. Here’s a DK SOB. I love you Colin WInkleman (where ever you are), but that bike was one heavy beast and even though the geometry was based on a Taj, it was hard for me to ride. 

Eventually DK sent me their lighter General Lee. I think this is the bike I had on Road Fools 1, but then it broke once we got to Austin. 

Key point: Castillo bars, much to Robo’s dismay.

Also, the first ever T-1 shirt is pictured.

The first Terrible One Progression frame. Robo and I each had one to test and ride. This was a dam fine frame and ranks as one of my all time favorites. Even though the gusset is gross.

Key points: Note the hose clamp holding the bottom headset cup together. The first T-1 frames actaully came with instructions on how to put a house clamp on your headset because headsets of the day sucked so bad. 

Also, you can barely see a number plate. Thats because this photo was taken on a trip to Japan where they flew me over not knowing I didn’t race. I had to race a bunch of American AA pro monsters. They were so far ahead I didn’t even see their dust.

This is my quintessential Barcode frame. Tan with white forks. I probably had about 10 bikes painted in some form like this. 

Key point: Holy shit… look at the trick on the left! That is cool! I can’t even remember doing it, but I found like 4 photos of it from this time. Its like a downside crank slide. Going to have to try that at T-1. 

IMPORTANT: This is the earliest photo I have of riding a mini-gearing set up. 36 x 13 finally got that 46tooth dinner plate off our bikes. I had gotten one of the early Profile cassette hubs back in 98/99? Though, this photo must not be from that early because that’s a Kink sprocket that wouldn’t have been made in that size quite that early. 

Another tan Barcode, but a good bike.

I gave this Barcode to someone, but I can’t remember who. The usual gold painted rims.

Key point: This bike was made with sweet ass internal cable routing for the dual cable gyro system. It really worked well, but we never made them because we were worried it would confuse too many people.

Also, I think this one of the first bikes I had built with thinner then normal tubing to make it really light.

Barcode. Gold painted rims. Primo days. I was a little nuts with the gold paint on the rims for a few years. 

Key point: Check the homemade sprocket guard. Helped a lot learning crankslides. I made it from an old 44t kink sprocket by cutting the teeth off.

Another one of my all time favorite bikes. I guess its a Barcode with a Garrett post on it. Not quite sure what the camera mounted on it was for. 

Key point: Testing one of the first 25 x 9t Profile set up. I hated how un-smooth it was and predicted no one would want to ride it. Ha…. ooops. 

Also, something about Dr.Pepper can colored bikes makes them ride a little faster.

I only rode this T-1 Barcode for one contest, but I won the contest, got free stitches in my lip and gave the bike away in a raffle at a Backyard jam. 

Another tan with white forks Barcode. Always classic. Hmmm…. maybe this picture is older… that sprocket looks pretty big.

A really really expensive Barcode. I had this one made out of titanium as an experiment. It was really light, leaps and bounds lighter then any frame of the day. Now though, normal steel bikes are getting close to this 3.8oz frame.

Key point: This bike sucked to ride. It was so mushy and flexy it felt like the frame was made out of rubber. It sits silently in a box in the T-1 store room to this day.

I never really had as many bikes as people thought I did. I just really liked to paint them. Here is one bike with 6 paint jobs in just one day. Sandy and I tried to set up a photo on the ramp where I would be in 6 different spots on the ramp on 6 different colored bikes. It never worked out. 

Oooh.. this blue Barcode is pretty sweet looking (except for the taped together seat). I like the subtleness of the dark gray grips and tires. 

Key point: I ran one of those Nokon metal cables up front for a while fused to a normal Slic cable. Kind of gave the feel of a regular cable, but with the benifit of a compressionless cable for tailwhips and stuff. 

I have absolutely no memory of riding a yellow barcode with brown metallic rims, but it looks pretty sweet.

 

This T-1 Ruben was pretty amazing. I worked really hard on the tri-tone paint job and it looked really good with the smoke chrome rims. The cranks were my first flow part from Odyssey. 

Key point: Got to help Ruben test out his sample tires on this bike. 

Also, this might be my last gyro bike.

T-1 Barcode. Please excuse Dave Parrick who is doing something strange and painful on (to?) my bike.

Key point: I rode for a couple months with no back brake but with a front brake. It was really quite fun.

This Ruben frame was set up with my first full factory Odyssey package. I had just gotten on the team and the new limited color of the time was that minty toothpastey green. Never felt very at home with this machine and the colorway was not for me. 

T-1 Ruben custom frame. Don’t know how I got hooked on orange, but I have had a bunch of orange bikes in the last few years. 

Key point: Director forks have arrived.

My first Giant team bike felt crazy, it wasn’t until later that we found out it had been built with the complete wrong geometry.

Giant Method Team. Now we’re talking. This bike’s geometry came out perfect and Giant made me 4 of them. Same batch as the frame I’m riding now. 

Today’s bike. I’m thinking the skin wall tires don’t really look right on the orange. I bet they’d look good on the green frame. I might have to build it back up.

 

And to all the bikes I’ve sent to the recycling plant, rest in peace my brothers…