Keeping with the times #Instagram awareness

Tags

Andy Ruffell, Araya, bmx, BMX museum, Brett Allen, cape town, Dirt, Jumps, Maurice, mongoose, mongoose bmx, Old School BMX, OSBMX, Pro Class, rad, radlifebmx, south africa, Team Mongoose, Vintage, VintageBMX

Just to inform all readers that I have started an Instagram account for my content.

Please go follow my Instagram account @RadLifeBMX

 

Brett Allen’s Race Plate from when he visited South Africa in 1982. – Photo by @RadLifeBMX

Photo of Brett Allen racing on South African soil using the race plate above.

 

My Journey of owning a Supergoose

The last time I owned one was in 2001 when I sold it for R600 as I was growing up and wanted some spending money as it was the start of college for me.

In 2010 I started thinking back for some reason and regretting the sale of my Supergoose. I started searching high and low for one like it again. Places from local ads to searching abroad as well. I started to realise that it might or might not happen. I started looking for any Mongoose but did not find any at this stage. I was living in Johannesburg at the time and was also not exposed to people who actually might have these types of bikes there.

So in 2012 I moved back to my hometown of Cape Town where the search continued to find a vintage BMX. I had found a local ad for a Mongoose Californian at one stage and got excited about it. Called up the seller and the price was not disclosed but he was taking offers around R2500. I at that point was not fully aware of pricing but declined the seller on making an offer only based on what I sold my Supergoose for in 2001. Little did I know what these things go for.

Eventually in September 2013 I came across an ad for a vintage BMX. I was clueless as to what it was as the ad had no pictures. Just simply stating its an “old bmx”. For some reason it this ad caught my attention to actually enquire about it. The seller sent me pictures and we went back and forth communicating. He was also unsure about what it actually is and all he knew was that it was his brother’s race BMX.  After the seller sent me some photos I was started getting excited as I saw it was chrome and it had a “loop tail” (meaning looped rear chain stay design)…however the decal on the frame was not familiar to me. I started researching it using Google which lead me to BMXmuseum.com to know if it is an actual brand is as I have never been exposed to the brand when I used to ride BMX.

After all my research I realised that it is a Vintage BMX from the 80’s. I then followed through with the purchase and agreed to pay the seller’s asking price of R750. To me this was well worth it at this point. The owner and I met up and I inspected the bike upon arrival. It turned out to be a Mini which did not suit me as I would not be able to ride it myself but bought it anyway as a start to get into this hobby of Vintage BMX collection.

The bike I had purchased was a 1980’s Profile Racing Mini Shelby James Replica.

1980’s Profile Racing Shelby James Replica

I meant to restore this bike but never ever got around to actually fiddling with it to make it mine. Weeks and months went on and I still had not touched it. Eventually one day a friend I had met through the Vintage BMX South Africa Facebook group messaged me who knew I was into Mongoose bikes as a brand offered to trade me a Minigoose for it. I went home thinking about the trade and decided to go for it as I would appreciate the Mongoose as well as he would appreciate the Profile more than me.

We did a trade on full bikes excluding wheel sets. I ended up received a 1983 Mongoose Minigoose on the 6th of January 2014.

1983 Mongoose Minigoose

And this is where I really got hyped up in this hobby. I started searching for parts, experimenting with the overall look of how these BMX’s were dressed back when I used to ride. Eventually after lots of time and spending I was entirely happy with it.

During the time of me restoring the Minigoose I still wanted my childhood bike. The search continued. Eventually a friend notified me about a Supergoose (which was decalled a Pro Class and spec’d that way with parts) that was for sale. I immediately enquired and the asking price was too steep for me. However this bike was totally awesome and had awesome parts. The overall condition was super nice. This bike played with my mind for a couple of months. Every time i would go to the friend of mine that was holding it for someone in Johannesburg I would drool over it. After a lot of thinking I decided that I actually want it and should grab it. I decided to bite the bullet on the asking price. And eventually it was mine. A 1983 Mongoose Supergoose.

1983 Mongoose Supergoose (Pro Class decals)

The night I collected my Supergoose

Since then this bike has been my favourite one of my little collection of Vintage BMX’s. Lots of other bikes came and went but this one remained right there. All I did which i felt right is to bring it back to what it truthfully is…A SUPERGOOSE! The restoration process started and research was done to bring it to almost full catalog specifications. Its currently still not fully catalog specification but almost there.

Almost catalog specification 1983 Mongoose Supergoose

Ignore the washing and other crap in the background LOL

Dat ass! LOL

Till today it remains my favourite BMX. I get asked if I will sell it every now and then and I contemplate doing so due to offers received but then eventually I have to decline it due to two reasons…One – I would be kicking myself for a second time in one life time for selling another Supergoose. Two – My girlfriend will be kicking my ass too as she was there since day one of this bike and has also grown attached to it as i have. These days she rides them more than me on our moonlightmass rides etc. Its the one she chooses if she wants to ride any of the Vintage BMX’s.

So that’s it folks…My Journey of owning a Supergoose.

Everyone needs a Pro Class in their collection…

Tags

Andy Ruffell, Araya, bmx, cape town, mongoose, mongoose bmx, Old School BMX, Pro Class, rad, radlifebmx, south africa, Vintage, VintageBMX

Its been a while and thought I would start updating this blog with some pictures and specs and where I can throw in some words. So here goes…

First up is my 1983 Pro Class

As every brand has their flagship model…this one is Mongoose’s flagship known as the Pro Class. This is my first one ever owned. Even back in the days I was not exposed to these for some reason (Probably as they were not really affordable for anyone I surrounded myself with back in the days – let alone myself LOL). The only “Pro class” items we used to be exposed to were the bars and power discs.

Pro riders like Andy Ruffell used to race on these bikes and showed its capabilities.

So this was definitely the one I had to get to finish off my 83 Collection of Mongoose BMXs.

Here are the component list of my one in its current form:

1983 Pro Class frame
Supergoose forks
Pro Class bars (Maurice Stamped)
ACS Mongoose stem
Blue 7C Araya with Shimano via hubs and Shimano 17T chrome freewheel
Cheng Shin reproduction 20×2.125 tyres
Pro Class disc with Shimano 44T chain ring and Suntour chain ring bolts
Mongoose 175 cranks
SR P468 Pedals
Mongoose Stainless steel seat post (Maurice Stamped)
Dia Compe seat post clamp (DC Stamped)
Blue Viscount BMX Aero Seat
OG Mongoose Pad set
Blue Mongoose Grips
Shimano DX brake lever and MX 1000 brake caliper

I am very happy with the overall look of this bike but it would still need to be refurbished. One thing for sure if that I like the stance of this bike and it rides like a dream. Very good geometry for someone of my physique LOL.

Stay tuned for some more updates on the rest of the bikes…

The last part to my 83 Mongoose 20″ Collection…Pro Class!

Tags

Araya, bmx, cape town, mongoose, mongoose bmx, Pro Class, rad, radlifebmx, south africa, Vintage, VintageBMX

So after lots of patience I came across a Pro Class when I did not expect it. The previous owner decided that he needed a change and some blue parts and we struck a trade for the frame. I sacrificed a bit for it but for me it was worthwhile as it completes my 83 collection.

This is what the bike looked like many years ago which the owner had a photo of:

The day I did the trade I ended up bringing home all of this – it was quite a busy day:

I got to work on the stuck seat post tube but it didnt want to budge.

Eventually a friend of mine helped me with some heat and a vice and managed to get the post out:

I immediately decided lets put this bike together with some spares I have and this is the result:

Sorry for the poor quality pics. I will take some better pics of it as I progress with this one.

below is the part list:

1983 Pro Class frame
Supergoose forks
Pro Class bars (Maurice Stamped)
ACS Mongoose stem
Blue 7C Araya with Shimano via hubs and Shimano 17T chrome freewheel
Cheng Shin reproduction 20×2.125 tyres
Sugino 45T Flywheel
Sugino Cr mo 175 Cranks
SR P468 Pedals
Mongoose Stainless steel seat post (Maurice Stamped)
Dia Compe seat post clamp (DC Stamped)
Blue Viscount BMX Aero Seat
OG Mongoose Pad set
Blue Mongoose Grips

Stay tuned for updates.

A build for my niece to enjoy…

Tags

bmx, cape town, mongoose, mongoose bmx, rad, radlifebmx, south africa

On the 30th of November 2013 I got back into old school BMXing and started with a Mini Profile Champ due to getting a good deal off the local ads. At first I didn’t know exactly what it was but it looked quite interesting.. After a bit of research I found it is actually quite a rare little BMX. I decided that I would fix it up and restore it to some sort of former glory but never had any time to really get into it. Well this is how it looked when I got it.

Mini Profile Champ

A friend of mine contacted me on the 2nd of January 2014 (yes while I was being festive) and offered me a trade for a 1983 Mongoose Minigoose. Being who I am (A Mongoose fanatic) I opted for this trade. The way I saw it is that he would appreciate the Profile more than myself and I would appreciate the Minigoose more. We did the trade and this is what I brought home that day.

1983 Mongoose Minigoose

Since then I have been messing with a couple of ideas of how I will finish this one. After almost a year of putting on and taking off parts I am fully happy with the end result for now. I built this one for my niece to pedal on our local Moonlightmass event or just a general ride out from time to time. I hope she enjoys it.

So that’s enough reading…this is the end result::

The parts list are as follows:

Frame & Fork: 1983 Mongoose Minigoose

Bars: Mini Pro class / Expert bars

Stem: SR MS422

Grips: Red Mongoose repro Brake levers:

Dia Compe Tech 2 (rear only)

Brake calipers: Dia Compe MX1000 reproduction

Rims: Generic plastic mags

Cranks: Mongoose 165 one piece cranks.

Pedals: SR MP460 (NOS before fitted)

Spider and chain ring: Sugino spider and Suntour Chain ring

Seat: Viscount Aero Reproduction.

Seat clamp: Dia Compe MX Reproduction.

Seatpost: Fluted aluminium lay back

Pads: Vinyl NOS (before fitted) Mongoose pads in red.

Decals / Stickers: Mongoose Minigoose reproduction

Tyres: Cheng Shin 2.125 reproduction

The joys of bike building

Tags

bmx, cape town, mongoose, mongoose bmx, rad, radlifebmx, south africa

A couple of friends and I decided to plan a little ride around Sea Point, Cape Town South Africa on Saturday and go for breakfast at one of the restaurants in the area. I had a little mission on my hands and needed / wanted to complete my latest addition, a 1983 Mongoose Supergoose, for this ride.

On Wednesday evening I started stripping the bike to clean and degrease all bearings and cups etc.

This is what the work bench looked like at the end of the evening:

Started the rebuild and service of it on Thursday evening at around 9 and ended up throwing in the towel and cleaning up at around 12 that night.

On Friday after work I had to put in a couple of hours if I wanted to take this bike out on a ride Saturday morning. I was a bit pressured for time due to other plans for the evening with it being Friday and all and needed / wanted to finish installing the cranks, sprocket as well as set up the brakes for it to be ready for final tweaking in the morning. Everything went as planned but just as I was happy with everything I realised that the Shimano freewheel was slipping a bit. I left it as is and was willing to take the risk an pedal it as is.
I came home a bit late that night and set my alarm to wake up to test the bike before heading out. Something was bugging me and telling me to swop out the Araya 7x wheel set for the Araya 7c wheel set for the ride. The question running through my head was…”do you want to be stranded and have to push all the way to the car in the event the freewheel slips continuously?” My answer that morning was to just swop them out. So that morning I changed the wheel set with the more reliable set of blue Araya 7c fitted with the 16T Suntour freewheel as well as the final tweaking.

The end result was this:

I had finished it in time to head out for a ride with some time to spare. Pulled out the car and was about to pack the bike in to head off to the destination and decided to have a mini photo shoot.

We (my Supergoose and I) missioned off to our destination. Upon arrival I couldn’t wait to get it out of the car to pedal it out in the open. I must say it gave quite a pleasant ride. Really enjoyed riding this little bike. En-route to our breakfast destination we came across the Nelson Mandela Ray Ban memorial set up on the Sea Point Pavilion. I saw the perfect opportunity to snap a picture of this with my bike.

This was the result:

All in all, it was great fun stripping this bike down, assembling it again as well as pedalling it out in the open and using it for its purpose and not just a show piece to be looked at and admired. Some forget what a BMX was built for.

Moral of the story is…Some guys and girls spend lots of money on their show pieces but never really get the opportunity to pedal it and fully know what their bikes feel like due to things like NOS (New Old Stock) parts which they fitted to their NOS or refurbished frames…things like brake pads that never get the opportunity to be used for what it was made for…bonding to the speeding wheel set…having your pedal carry your body’s weight and listening to your freewheel clicking while you free the bike downhill.

Well that concludes the little joy I had over this couple of days that I felt I wanted to share. Until next time…stay tuned, subscribe and don’t be afraid to leave a comment and share with the rest of the BMXing community.

A legend Survivor Supergoose – A bike I used to know

Tags

bmx, cape town, mongoose, mongoose bmx, rad, radlifebmx, south africa

I have always been wondering if any of the guys I used to ride with still have their bikes or loose parts or remains…

A couple of weeks ago a friend gave me contact details of one of the guys I used to ride with. I made contact and we have been chatting a bit and he told me he actually still has his whole bike. I asked him for pictures and he sent them through to me.

This is what I received:

I was a little disappointed that the bike had been weathering and just been dumped onto some storage boxes in a garage but I was a bit more excited to actually see and relate to one of the bikes we admired as kids.

After chatting for a couple of days we decided to meet up and he wanted to come check out my bikes. I brought him to my place and showed him and you could actually see he was having flashbacks and started calling up some of the other riders he is in contact with. Started taking pics of my bikes and shared them with those guys too. Then I twisted his arm to mission through to his place to go check his bike and see what can be done to save the unused gem. Nothing major upon arrival but this bike sure showed some signs of how this bike has been used in the past. A true reflection of what we worked with as kids and how we used to shred them. I was quite happy in assisting him with cleaning it up but I think I got him too excited now that between yesterday and today he actually started and finished cleaning it off, including a full service and the bike is running smoothly again (or in his words “sagkuns” meaning tenderly).

Here are the cleaning pics:

There is a bit of a story regarding the Dyno stickers and the colour of the bike. Here goes:

The frame started cracking at the seat post. He decided its time for a change due to a couple of other guys also getting the Supergoose. He wanted to be different and went with the yellow. The reason for the Dyno stickers was that he was the only one that could get it that time amongst the friends. So a bit of uniqueness was his aim with it. He has achieved this in my opinion as I don’t think anyone in this day and age is that brave to “label” his or her bike anything its not.

Well here are the pics I was sent of the complete, revived Gem it is. Another 1983 Mongoose Supergoose III.  Enjoy!

BMX pricing requests these days in SA

On a regular I am asked the following: “Can you get me a mongoose BMX?” followed with “What do they sell for?” My response always is, “I will see and let you know”…and for the latter I use a ratio which is:

Sellers asking price VS Buyers affordability

The bikes we own does not have a price tag. Its not standing on a manufacturers showroom floor. It does not have a price. However if someone asks for a price and you give it, its up to them to decide to grab or walk away.

…

What I do not get though is that when you give someone a price for something, you never hear back from them again. LOL. Were they actually keen to get a bike as previously stated? Were they looking to buy and sell and score a buck or two? Were they genuinely looking to buy some of their memories? I will help anytime when I can but I will never force anyone to purchase anything nor if they are not by their means. I will try and assist the smallest budget but do not expect a showroom bike.

A couple of years ago I decided that I always wanted to buy back my BMXing memories…I searched around on the local ads and found nothing. I then decided to search abroad to see what it would cost to bring in (via eBay) and was enroute to fulfil that. I had a capped budget at this point and never applied the final click. After being patient and waiting and still searching the local ads I came across a BMX that was not known when I used to ride in the 90s. I purchased it and that’s where it all began again. A couple of months later I found the real bike I always wanted as a kid (and which I ended up having and retiring with) … this was a Supergoose. I think it was all meant to be as my capped price in my head was the sellers asking price. I did not negotiate a single cent on this bike and I was quite happy paying it. I was really after my childhood dream at this point and finally got it “back”. Its was my favourite bike then…and its my favourite bike now. I do not regret spending what I did on it. It brings a smile to my face when I ride it. I am happy with my purchase even though the asking price was miles apart from when I left the BMXing in 2001.

I know I stepped away from the subject of this post but I felt I needed to share my “feelings” regarding my / our bikes and their worth to us VS what everyone else thinks they are worth to them. I sold my Supergoose for R600 in 2001. When people ask me what i paid for my current Supergoose they tell me I am crazy and they do not believe me. At the rate that things are going it seems people still want to pay these types of prices for these bikes but they claim they “Really want one”. When asked the question regarding ‘how much” and you answer…that’s the last you hear from them.

So yeah…this is becoming very common for me…and just thought I would get that off my chest.

My 1981 Mongoose Motomag

Here is my little project build…I will update changes and progress with dates as time goes on.

This is how I bought it.

1981 Mongoose Motomag Frame, Fork (pinched), Handle bar and Mongoose stamped seat clamp. It had a cheap stem attached as well as an aftermarket seat I assume. Then with it came a set of Blue Araya 7x wheels with Suzue low flange hubs.

I did a mock build before the rebuild and fitted some items and ended up with this:

Some detailed pics…please click to enlarge:

So the parts list in the mock build in current pics above is as follows:

Frame and Fork: 1981 Mongoose Motomag
Handle Bar: Mongoose Pro Class (Stamped)
Stem: SR stem
Grips: Mongoose (Reproduction)
Wheel set: Blue Araya 7x with Suzue hubs and Shimano 16T freewheel
Tyres: Black Cheng Shin 20×2.125 (Reproduction)
Seat post: Mongoose Californian
Seat post clamp: Mongoose Motomag (Stamped)
Seat: Viscount BMX Aero
Cranks: 165mm Mongoose (Stamped)
Sprocket: Sugino 44T steel
Pedals: SR Pedals

Then since the mock build I put out feelers and came across some goods that I will use on this restoration.

Herewith are the parts gathered over time:

1x NOS Deep Blue 7x Araya
1x Blue Dia Compe Tech 3 lever
1x Blue Dia Compe Brake Caliper
1x Blue Dia Compe MX Seat Post clamp (might not use this on the build as I have the stamped mongoose clamp)
1x Blue aluminium seat post
4x Blue wheel nuts
1x Pair of Blue rat trap pedals.

Then I stumbled across the perfect stem I want to use on this build. It needs a restoration its self but its an awesome piece to start with.

Well there you go…I hope you guys enjoy my little restoration thread.

All comments and crits welcomed.

I hope to send the frame, fork, bars and cranks away for paint soon.

Artical BMX Jam

On Saturday, the 12th of July 2014, I decided to dust off the equipment and head out to another BMX event arranged by some young local Cape Town riders.

It was a well attended event held at the Nantes Skate park in Athlone, Cape Town.

The event started at 10am although I only arrived at 12.

Well…these are the pictures I took. I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

There were some Skateboarders too doing their thing at the park. Looked like they decided to have their own little competition on the side while taking a break to watch some BMX riders too.

So back to some BMX photos…

I had to leave a bit early as there was some vintage BMX advise needed elsewhere. I believe there was a prize giving of sorts. Ah well…I hope to stay for the whole event next time.

Thanks to all that made the event possible.

All in all a good fun outing for me as well as everyone that attended.

 

Photography by Ashley Murray
Written by Ashley Murray

Follow me on Instagram @Belharboyrsa and on twitter @YDontUTakeAPeek