about 6 weeks ago i was at an Asda in Toryglen Glasgow neard Hampden stadium and was passing by the area where folk dump stuff at there recycle clothing bank area /skip where people tend to fly tip any old junk and spotted an old BMX in all the mess with both its wheels removed and its chain rusty and twisted and flatr tyres on the wheels and one didnt even have an inner tube ,,,,back in the late 90s i used to sell lots of these bikes when i worked at Dales cycles in Glasgow they were a very popular bmx at the time as they looked the part and were not that expensive a lot of flash for little cash .
So i dragged the bike out of all the junk that it was stuck in ,stuck the wheels back on it and pushed the bike the 4 miles back to a local train station which would get me back to Paisley which is around 7 or 8 miles away from the place i found the bike .
got the bike home and first step was to check it over in case the frame was cracked and nope was fine the wheels were dented but not out of true and over all it wasnt that bad considering it was over 25 years old and was no doubt going to the councils scrap metal pile ,next stage was to strip it down and clean all the pittimng and ususal surface rust that chrome type frames get ,used autoglym metal polish and 0000 guage fine steel wool which took a while to say the least ,then after that i started reuilding and regreasing hubs bottom bracket headset " i binned the Gyro " looked awful and i just dont like them......bought new NOS old school pedals via ebay some new Mx type brake levers and had to source a new brake cable ferrule to fit the front brake straddle wire " was some odd set up " but 2 quid on ebay sorted that ,fitted new tyres old school amber type on ebay 18 quid look the part fitted a new saddle which was 4 quid posted ,,,bargain fitted new cables inner outer and even fitted a nice retrol kick stand which was one of those cut to size type about 9 quid on ebay and even found a wee chrome bell to pop on it and also bought some mushroom grips to fit which were around 6 quid posted also stuck some dice dustcaps that i had and bought some rear wheel tensioners around 3 quid on ebay even managed to clean up and re oild the rusty chain it had and after lots and lots of polishing the bike has gone from a bike fit for a skip to a bike fit for a show and all for under 50 quid plus its the fun and satisfaction of rescuing and restoring such bike .
So i dragged the bike out of all the junk that it was stuck in ,stuck the wheels back on it and pushed the bike the 4 miles back to a local train station which would get me back to Paisley which is around 7 or 8 miles away from the place i found the bike .
got the bike home and first step was to check it over in case the frame was cracked and nope was fine the wheels were dented but not out of true and over all it wasnt that bad considering it was over 25 years old and was no doubt going to the councils scrap metal pile ,next stage was to strip it down and clean all the pittimng and ususal surface rust that chrome type frames get ,used autoglym metal polish and 0000 guage fine steel wool which took a while to say the least ,then after that i started reuilding and regreasing hubs bottom bracket headset " i binned the Gyro " looked awful and i just dont like them......bought new NOS old school pedals via ebay some new Mx type brake levers and had to source a new brake cable ferrule to fit the front brake straddle wire " was some odd set up " but 2 quid on ebay sorted that ,fitted new tyres old school amber type on ebay 18 quid look the part fitted a new saddle which was 4 quid posted ,,,bargain fitted new cables inner outer and even fitted a nice retrol kick stand which was one of those cut to size type about 9 quid on ebay and even found a wee chrome bell to pop on it and also bought some mushroom grips to fit which were around 6 quid posted also stuck some dice dustcaps that i had and bought some rear wheel tensioners around 3 quid on ebay even managed to clean up and re oild the rusty chain it had and after lots and lots of polishing the bike has gone from a bike fit for a skip to a bike fit for a show and all for under 50 quid plus its the fun and satisfaction of rescuing and restoring such bike .
