Dumpster diving: First BMX bike since 1975

We stopped at Jim's new house over Christmas. He got the house cheap because
the previous tenants had trashed the place, and left all their junk. They
left 4 parts cars, 2 motorcycles (basketcases), and a big pile o' BMX frames
and parts. (!) The stuff was legally his, and he was getting rid of it *that
day*.

I picked through the BMX stuff pretty good, even though I was in my
Christmas dress clothes, and it was like 20 degrees F, and the wife was
hovering over me with the "we need to be at so-and-so's in 15 minutes" nag.
A hauling crew had already started to toss all the junk into an awaiting
dumpster. I had to just about tackle one of the guys to get a big box of BMX
parts he was ready to dump.

I know a lot about MTB's, road bikes and such; but BMX is another world. I
was guessing about some stuff that looked proprietary (cranks, funky rear
hub, gyros). We only had room for one bike's worth of parts in the car, so
I had to pick a good one from the 8 frames, 5+ wheelsets and 3 big boxes O'
parts. I ended up with an Oryg frame - huge oversized tubing, friggin'
bombproof steel frame, with a U-brake. It has pretty decent parts hung on
it: Profile splined 3-piece forged chromed steel cranks, decent looking
rims, sweet old-skool handlebars. This bike could withstand a nuclear
holocaust.

I got the loot home and bolted together something resembling a bike; but
it's not quite ready to ride. It looks pretty sweet. Damn, bro! This bad boy
is *heavy*! It's gotta be heavier than my CrMo SS MTB. All of the frames in
the pile were friggin' heavy.

I used to ride BMX before it existed as a sport. I remember reading about
BMX - the new sport - in a magazine, and noticed that the bikes looked a lot
like mine. I hung up that good ol' bike in 1975, after many years of dirt
jumping, wheelies, drag races, ditch slalom, you name it. That bike took me
everywhere. I rode it till the wheels fell off. Now I have a modern
version of a BMX bike almost 30 years later. All those years I've never
ridden one. Maybe I'm too old for BMX; but it will bring back some memories
to ride it around a little, maybe take a few drops and hop some curbs. I
don't have any kids to give it to; but I'm sure I can find one somewhere.

Rocketman

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"Rocketman" wrote in message
news:On7Ib.73299$VB2.146576@attbi_s51...

parts. I ended up with an Oryg frame - huge oversized tubing

Doh! Just realized that there's probably no such thing as an Oryg frame.
The frame has no decals, I was just guessing on the brand (based on what
looked like a matching fork, which had a big Oryg logo decal). Yeah, I did
notice that "Oryg" is "Gyro" spelled backwards. LOL! Well, I told you I
didn't know much about BMX. Anyway, it looks like a pretty sweet frame.
The dropouts looked beefier than the other frames, and the previous owners
had thoughtfully hung all of the choice parts on it, so I figured it was the
best one of the bunch.

Rocketman

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"Rocketman" wrote in message news:On7Ib.73299$VB2.146576@attbi_s51...
We stopped at Jim's new house over Christmas. He got the house cheap because
the previous tenants had trashed the place, and left all their junk. They
left 4 parts cars, 2 motorcycles (basketcases), and a big pile o' BMX frames
and parts. (!) The stuff was legally his, and he was getting rid of it *that
day*.

I picked through the BMX stuff pretty good, even though I was in my
Christmas dress clothes, and it was like 20 degrees F, and the wife was
hovering over me with the "we need to be at so-and-so's in 15 minutes" nag.
A hauling crew had already started to toss all the junk into an awaiting
dumpster. I had to just about tackle one of the guys to get a big box of BMX
parts he was ready to dump.

I know a lot about MTB's, road bikes and such; but BMX is another world. I
was guessing about some stuff that looked proprietary (cranks, funky rear
hub, gyros). We only had room for one bike's worth of parts in the car, so
I had to pick a good one from the 8 frames, 5+ wheelsets and 3 big boxes O'
parts. I ended up with an Oryg frame - huge oversized tubing, friggin'
bombproof steel frame, with a U-brake. It has pretty decent parts hung on
it: Profile splined 3-piece forged chromed steel cranks, decent looking
rims, sweet old-skool handlebars. This bike could withstand a nuclear
holocaust.

I got the loot home and bolted together something resembling a bike; but
it's not quite ready to ride. It looks pretty sweet. Damn, bro! This bad boy
is *heavy*! It's gotta be heavier than my CrMo SS MTB. All of the frames in
the pile were friggin' heavy.

I used to ride BMX before it existed as a sport. I remember reading about
BMX - the new sport - in a magazine, and noticed that the bikes looked a lot
like mine. I hung up that good ol' bike in 1975, after many years of dirt
jumping, wheelies, drag races, ditch slalom, you name it. That bike took me
everywhere. I rode it till the wheels fell off. Now I have a modern
version of a BMX bike almost 30 years later. All those years I've never
ridden one. Maybe I'm too old for BMX; but it will bring back some memories
to ride it around a little, maybe take a few drops and hop some curbs. I
don't have any kids to give it to; but I'm sure I can find one somewhere.

Rocketman

I'm supposed to look at a friend's friend's old GT this week, even
though I'm 6'2 with a bad back and there's no way I'm going to fit on
that thing anymore.
Still, I'll look. I've already got a couple 'artwork' bikes that don't
come down from the wall much.
/s

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In article L08Ib.4406$I07.10362@attbi_s53,
"Rocketman" wrote:

"Rocketman" wrote in message
news:On7Ib.73299$VB2.146576@attbi_s51...

parts. I ended up with an Oryg frame - huge oversized tubing

Doh! Just realized that there's probably no such thing as an Oryg frame.
The frame has no decals, I was just guessing on the brand (based on what
looked like a matching fork, which had a big Oryg logo decal). Yeah, I did
notice that "Oryg" is "Gyro" spelled backwards. LOL! Well, I told you I
didn't know much about BMX. Anyway, it looks like a pretty sweet frame.
The dropouts looked beefier than the other frames, and the previous owners
had thoughtfully hung all of the choice parts on it, so I figured it was the
best one of the bunch.

http://www.staff-bmx.com/store/gyros/oryg.html

You're right. The Oryg in question is an interesting rotor device that
fits around the top of the steering tube. It allows the handlebars to be
spun completely around without fouling the rear brake cable.

The brake cable comes from the lever, splits with a special splitter,
and then attaches to the top disc in the picture. That disc can lift the
lower disc up, but the two discs can rotate, one turning with the stem,
the other fixed to the frame. A second split cable is attached to the
lower disc, from whence it goes through an, er, un-splitter and runs
back to the rear brake.

The front brake cable goes down inside the middle of the steering tube,
comes out the bottom of the fork crown, and needs no special treatment.

These features are only found on freestyle BMX bikes. Racers generally
have only a rear brake, and no gyro.

--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine
President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club

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Ryan Cousineau wrote in news:rcousine-
:

http://www.staff-bmx.com/store/gyros/oryg.html

Heh...reminds me of a swashplate from a helicopter.

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