Aussie Apollo Himalaya - some tubes chromoly!

[Course_Out]

Hello fellow retro riders!

Only just joined the forum, stumbling across it while googling old school MTB's. Although I am only new to mountain biking, I have been involved with BMX since the 90's and have an affinity for the clean lines of the older style bikes.

After a lay off of a couple of years I got into mountain biking, riding new hardtail bikes and having a lot of fun. However I found I was getting a bit bored of my local trails, so built a single speed full rigid Diamondback. I can't find a pic currently, but it was no thing of beauty, and way too tall for me. Still loving the retro style I tried my hand at building a cheap "clunker" out of an Apollo beach cruiser (no idea of the age)

From this:



To this:



Using spares from the shed mainly. Rode quite well, but the flex under power was pretty scary so I sold it on. The search was on for a new project, with gumtree and ebay coping a hiding, as always.

An Apollo Himalaya turned up on gumtree about 2 hours drive away. After some back and forth with the unhelpful advertiser I discovered I was going to be in the vicinity anyway, so I decided to go have a look. Advertised at $120, my wife and I went to a rather shady looking unit block where an eastern European gentleman and his daughter met us. After some haggling, some good natured jibes and a few laughs what seemed like a really sketchy situation turned into me walking away with the bike for $90. My wife, as ever, was greatly amused by my poker face bargaining skills, and my ability to make every buying expedition an adventure into absurdity!

So enough rabble, what the hell did I buy? Well...





(excuse my corgi trying to hog the limelight)



Bit rustier than I thought...



Biopace chainwheels!

So it is basically an early 90's (pre 1994 given the biopace I think?) Australian Apollo. It seems Apollo also exists in England, but these are a different brand as far as I can tell. In Australia Apollo made many high quality bikes during the 80's (BMX) and early 90's (MTB) with the higher end full chromoly BMX's (and possibly MTB's? I'm not sure?) made in Japan by Kuwahara. Some earlier Apollo's are also direct copies (homages?) to GT, particularly their 26" BMX.

So plans for this? Well it isn't really worth anything, but it does have sealed mech hubs and rather nice and straight Araya rims, so I figure so far it is a win. The plan is to run it as a single speed mountain bike, maybe giving some local cyclocross racing a go and generally burn around the local trails. To this end I have collected a few bits and pieces including:

Crossmark tyres (freebie from a mate who's gone to a 29er, yay!)
Single speed cassette conversion
32 tooth front ring (74bcd)
28" wide bars and lock on grips
New levers as the current nylon ones have the shifter built into them

The plan is to keep the budget as low as possible and, given the poor condition of the frame, basically clean it up as best I can and ride it til it fails. The only thing I might do is replace the spoke nipples as the fronts are quite rusty (thinking purple maybe?), as I think if (when?) the frame dies most of the parts could be transferred to the next bike.

Currently I am waiting on bits to turn up, so here is how it sits now:



There's that corgi again!



Thanks for looking, any comments or questions are welcome!

 

[eraser215]

Re:

Hiya,

I was most excited when I found this post! I own almost the exact same bike, except it's the Kosciusko model, which is one step down from yours. I recently did some research and (with the help of cool people on the internet) found out that the order of Apollo MTBs of this era, from low to high is:

Cheetah
Crystal
Montega
Summit
Alpine
Corniche
Aspen
Kosciusko
Himalaya
Matterhorn
Everest
Expert
Team ($3200)!!

So we are somewhere in the middle. My bike has the same paint scheme, but pink/orange at the back, white middle, and green front.

Everything on my bike is original except for the tyres, which means:

- Shimano 200GS derailleurs, shifters, and centre pull cantilever brakes
- Shimano Biopace change rings
- Avaya rims on Shimano Exage hubs if I recall correctly (the bike isn't in front of me right now)

I have hybridised mine by fitting IRC Metro tyres 15 years ago, and replacing them with Schwalbe Kojaks this week.

If you are interested I will send you some pictures!

I hope you're able to give this bike a new lease of life. Even though they weren't high end machines, I have an irrational affinity for them so it's great to see that some have survived the last 20 years largely intact

 

[Buzzsaw]

Re:

Good job. The paint scheme looks like the Scott mountain bikes of the early 90's. Nice.

 

[Course_Out]

Wow replies! I didn't think anyone had even looked at this thread!

So some further changes have been made - on my first ride I slid out and fell down an embankment, bruising my kidney (not recommended at all). I gave up on it for a little while as I couldn't get the hang of the handling. I ended up buying a threadless fork and stem to replace the threaded set up, which had the added bonus of raising the front an inch which made the handling a bit more agreeable. Unfortunately after 1 ride I ended up having the star nut fail, so it has been banished to the back of the shed until I rectify that. I do have a photo of it in its current guise though:



Yes, I did ride it with no front brakes. It was ... eventful!

If anyone else has photos of their Apollo's I'd love to see them too! My first 3 bikes were Apollos, and I also own a 1985 Apollo mk1 BMX - they are kind of addictive!

 

[eraser215]

Wow, I am surprised you replied so quickly! I am really sorry about your accident and hope you have recovered fully.

Your bike looks great with the mods. It's a shame you couldn't keep the original forks (at least for the sake of colour coding). What will you use the bike for when you get around to finishing it?

One of the key differences I can see between your bike and mine is that you have a better quality groupset. Mine has plastic covered cranks and spider, and the chainrings are riveted on, whereas I can see that yours are bolted, which allowed you to do your single speed conversion without having to replace the cranks.

Anyway, here is the most recent (crappy) pic of my steed for your perusal. As I said, it's almost completely original, I use it for my commute about 3 times a week here in Melbourne

I'll take some more photos on the long weekend and put them into a separate thread.

 

[Course_Out]

Yours looks to be in a lot better condition than mine - up close there is a fair bit of rust damage to the chainstays.

I have recovered from my crash thanks, I have a fair bit of practise unfortunately! The intended use for this bike is as a full rigid mountain bike on the local trails, and potentially doing a cyclocross race or two. Although the bike isn't really cyclocross specific I think it is reasonably close in spirit.

There is an Apollo frame and fork rusting away in a neighbours yard, but to be frank they are a bit dodgy so I don't think I will be heading over there...

 

[eraser215]

Don't be fooled by the lighting, the frame has a fair bit of wear and tear! However I don't believe there is any that is structurally significant.

I am surprised you want to have a full rigid mountain bike for trails when hardtails are so readily available nowadays! Then again, if you like the look of the bike and it rides well then you do whatever makes you happy

There are a million and one Apollos still out there in people's sheds etc. so i think it's worth waiting until you see something you actually want rather than accruing junk that isn't worth keeping or restoring.

In any case, I am glad you're back to full fitness after your crash. I luckily don't have too much experience with crashing, but know that bikes are pretty damn painful to come off at the best of times.

I didn't get around to taking any decent photos this weekend, but a new cassette and chain have arrived in the mail, so I will have to make some time to properly shoot the thing.

 

[Course_Out]

I actually have a modern alloy framed Ghost 4x with some front shocks and hydraulic disc brakes, as well as 3 bmx bikes - I just like variety! I find riding a rigid is good practise and can also make trails that might be a bit boring on a fat tyred modern bike a bit more exciting. I also find that as a bmxer I can climb much better on a single speed (I know that makes no sense)

I think my collection will not be growing any time soon, but I do find it difficult to see bikes rusting away in people's yards. I am the same with cars, I'd have a lot more of both if room allowed!