An intro, a gloat, a grovel and a request.

[Slow6]

Hi folks.

Quick intro. I'm thirty phumph years old.. rode a lot as a kid gave it all up in my early twenties. now a decade or so later with two kids and feeling like crap I figure that leaving the ute behind and peddling around a bit might help.

I had a look around bike shopd for a while but for the money I was willing to spend the bikes looked a little tinny and for the most part I thought they looked ugly. The only bike I liked had a retro feel but it was a one gear thing and after a quick ride around the block I decided I needed some gears.

I found this fine forum while googling random ebay bikes and love what is being done with some of the 09's mtb's.. lots to perv at, lots of memories, lots to learn.

I picked up this Proflex 455 a few days ago from ebay.. it was local and the rear rubber was missing in place of some copper pipe the previous owner had used to make it a hard tail. I figured I have a lathe so all I needed was to find a chunk of rubber and turn it down to suit... oddly enough the first auto shop I visited looking for likely candidates had these polyurethane bushes in packs of four for a few dollars.. they are made for the font end of a truck so I'm guessing they'll hold my bum off the ground ok. no mods needed two of them end on end are spot on the right length and the ID is a perfect fit. Not pretty but perfectly serviceable for the moment.. at least I can ride her now.
The Bike cost me $150au... about 70pounds in your world.
The prev owner quoted 1996 as the purchase date.. sound about right.

righto.. there's the intro and the gloat.. now for the groveling and requests for your opinions.

I like the bike.. I like the way it looks.. it's a tiny bit small but for about 1/10th of what the bike shop wanted It'll do. I need another inch or so out of the seat post to be comfortable I think.
The major let down is the brakes.. I haven't put new shoes (right terminology?) on yet but I read a few reviews of these bikes bagging the brakes so my hopes aren't high.

So lets start with that.. in your highly educated (here comes the grovel) and with your obviously superior tastes in all things retro what should I do with the brakes? no need for disks, I'm certain I wont bounce like I used to so I'm sticking to the roads.. dirt roads sure but roads nonetheless.
And.. what are your thoughts on prettying her up, thoughts on improving the ride? New tires are a must, the old ones are shot. I saw some Michelin Wildgrippers on ebay that I liked.. orange walls and green tread, they were on your side of the pond though and probably not for rolling around anyway.
Shocks I'm not sure about yet.. they feel a little odd but everything feels a little odd after ten plus years out of the saddle. They don't bottom out, they do feel a little spongy though.

Any and all thoughts, good, bad, whatever.. lay it one me.

righto.. lets see if I have attachments figured out.

 

[Slow6]

more pics

 

[Slow6]

last lot

 

[orange71]

Now you see, that I like - especially the rear elastomers I don't have any constructive comments to answer your questions, though, sorry

 

[LQQK]

As for tyres, these look a bargain....

http://www.cellbikes.com.au/p_3255_WTB_ ... for_a_PAIR

 

[Void(EN12-82)]

Hi and welcome

I have to say I quite like your Proflex bike... looks like a descent bike to me.

As for the brakes, one thing you could do is hook the straddle cable behind both lips on the brake cable hanger. In pic 1 and the last one you can see it's only hooked behind one and it shouldn't be that way. Not that it will give you a lot more braking power, but that's the first thing I noticed as a compulsive neurotic dunnowhatelsefreakIam ;-) You could also try roughening up the rims with some sanding paper, I did that in the olden days and sometimes it worked a bit (might be between my ears though). If you change the brake shoes I'd deffo roughen the rims up with some sanding paper...

I think you should at least be getting descent stopping power out of those brakes. A lot of full suspension bike have this setup and it can't be all bad :?:

As for the forks, are they elastomer or are they air/oil? If they're elastomer, you could try and find some firmer replacements. My Manitou EFC had the same thing but the previous dude had soft ones in them and since I'm too fat for those I changed them to hard. Could be that's the reason it's so spongy. If it's an air/oil fork (I don't think so to be honest) you should just find the right pump, put some air in it to see if it gets any better and see if it holds the air.

But maybe you're better off getting some nice fork off E-bay and changing it (like a nice Rock Shox or Manitou).

Hope it helps anything and have a nice weekend

Void

 

[timtim]

Another Aussie? Where are you?
I recon I would just get it tuned up and run it as it is. Koolstop pads , good cables everything in tune and it will be a nice bike.
Enjoy
Tim ......inSydney

 

[jimihendrix]

Welcome , nice bike , i love early Proflex's as it was my first proper MTB back in 92, a 752 model, that had an alloy frame with DX kit but basicaly the same as yours.

I could be wrong but the brakes may never be that great, the front could work reasonably well but the rocker set up on the rear is a weak point (though fixing the straddle cable as pointed out will help), you could source better quality Canti's and pads, maybe XT or XTR and get them set up properly, not sure about the suggestion taking sandpaper to the rims though, maybe on brand new rims to rough up the anodising but not on rims already bedded in, a better solution may be to source some hydraulic rim brakes like on this bike,

These are Maguras, easy to set up, low maintenance, and work very well, can be found on here or E-bay for £50 - £70, i'd expect to pay about £70 for a good complete working, ready to fit set.

 

[Slow6]

Thanks for the welcomes Folks

Orange: cheers for the PM. I had a good long perv at a lot of photos over there and will register later tonight when things get quiet. Great to see these bikes have a following.

LQQK: Thanks for the link.. Hadn't seen that one, Bookmarked!

Void: Elastomer or Oil fork.. mmmm? good question. I'll have to figure that one out. I'm guessing elastomer because I cant see anywhere you'd pump air or oil into them. I might add alan key tonight and see whats inside.
Keen eye on the brake cable I did reach back and hook that over this arvo.. hehe.. can we pretend that one didn't happen?

Timtim: Castlemaine Vic. Koolstops. I googled and I like. I think maybe I'll take all the advice so far and give her a good strip, clean, new cables and pads and ride her as is for a while. Oh and tyres.

Hendrix: Now those I like.. They don't stand out on an older bike... and what a nice bike it is too. Definitely what I'll be thinking about if I don't get any joy with a spruced up version of what it is running now.

fwiw, The rubbers that I'm using end on end as elastomer replacements are the rear spring bushes from a CL Valiant. I just took the center shaft from the bike into an auto store and asked for anything with the correct inside diameter and after a few minutes shuffling around he came up with these. Two fit like a glove, a perfect no slop fit over the shaft and they pretension just a bit when bolted up. Crazy. I suspect that they are far too hard but we'll see, they might soften up a bit. I had to buy a bag of 4.. happy to unload the remaining pair to a Proflex owner for the price of postage.

Thanks again folks. I'll update as I progress.

oh yes.. took the family to the gardens this arvo and the better half took the bike for a spin.. two things resulted, one we are now in the market for a second Proflex and I remembered why I rode so much as a kid.. there's nothing better than a womans bum on a bike :shock:

 

[shovelon]

and I remembered why I rode so much as a kid.. there's nothing better than a womans bum on a bike :shock:

Your 455 is a model year 1995. The last digit is the year. For example, an 856 is year 1996.

Great idea on those rear bushes. If they work half as well as they look, you have a winner.

Good find.