"Grown Up" BMX project

[ChrisEyles]

I've been gradually building up my MTB skills over the last few years and while I've made a lot of progress, I've always struggled to get the hang of manuals and jumping.

So last summer I got myself a BMX to learn some skills, on the basis that there's a pretty good BMX race track and park where I live. This actually worked pretty well - I can now manual a bit, do a small but "proper" front-wheel-first bunny hop and am a lot more comfortable getting a bit more air on jumps.

However, being a BMX it was not at all comfortable or versatile, and I felt like a complete tit riding it.

I want to keep my current MTB as it is, which is set up with low bars and a medium reach - brilliant for XC riding on bridleways with road links but rubbish for learning/improving these skills.

So I'm planning on selling the BMX and building up a 26" jump bike frame to hopefully bridge the gap. I'm looking for something I can work on the mechanics of manuals/jumps, while not being limited to riding in town and hopefully not looking like too much of a plonker on!

Plus I haven't done much tinkering over the last year and I'm itching for a project!

 

[ChrisEyles]

Aiming for something a bit like this:

I've also been wanting for ages to strip and polish up an ally frame, so may give that a go too.

Intended budget around the £100 mark so if it doesn't work out I can sell with no loss (knowing that I always over-run a bit!).

There, now I've put my cards on the table I'll keep this as a build thread and see how it works out!

 

[fossyant]

A full size jump bike would be OK - should be able to do it on a budget - suspension forks or not ?

I aim to get my skills up shortly, as seeing MTB is my main riding now. We've got Dirt Factory opening up this month in Manchester (an indoor MTB park).

 

[ChrisEyles]

I've been trawling ebay/gumtree for a local jump bike for a bit now. There is a GT chucker frame going nearby which I'm very tempted by, but no complete bikes in budget.

 

[ChrisEyles]

Not too fussed either way about sus forks. I fear those within budget might explode when I inevitably case a few landings, but then again I subjected an old pair of RST forks to considerable abuse and they were fine.

Haha, OTOH the springy rebound on a cheap pair might help pop that front wheel up

 

[DCLane]

I built a 24" wheel single speed MTB for my son out of a Spesh Hotrock - great fun and with a 400mm seatpost anyone could ride it.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I agree it looks somewhat ridiculous seeing a grown bloke riding a kids sized BMX, but why not just use a regular MTB converted to single speed and maybe in a slightly smaller frame size, but not silly small? Pretty much anything with a strong frame and two wheels could be converted I would have thought.

 

[ChrisEyles]

Well, I've now got a frame to build up, this GT Chucker:

The paintwork does look a bit shoddy, so it's a good excuse to have a go at stripping & polishing the frame. I've borrowed a bench grinder with a soft buffing wheel to hopefully save some elbow grease.

I used the proceeds from selling the old BMX to get a donor bike off ebay for parts to build the frame up with. Picked it up today and looks like it should do the trick, but haven't had a chance to give it a really good once over yet.

So far the budget is doing all right:

Frame - £30
Donor bike - £51.50
Paint stripper - £4

Total £85.50

I'm sure I'll find I need some other bits and bobs as I go, but will hopefully manage to claw a bit back by selling un-needed parts off the donor bike.

Just need to find some time to do some tinkering!

 

[JhnBssll]

Looking forward to seeing your progress on this. I used to have an old Azonic DS-1 built up as a jump bike, sold it about a decade ago but it was an ace bike - this one looks like it could be a lot of fun too Nitromors paint stripper has always done the job for me, what did you get? £4 seems cheap lol

 

[ChrisEyles]

I had a go at stripping the frame today. It turned out to be a bit more faff than I'd hoped (possibly due to the cheap paint stripper), easy to slop on but messy and time consuming to remove and I'm clearly going to need to give it another go to finish it off.

You can see it didn't take the decals off either!

Might have another crack at it tomorrow if I get time. I reckon it'll look pretty good when it's finished though.

 

[ChrisEyles]

I split up the donor bike today too. Given that I bought it sight unseen I'm fairly pleased with it.

The good - wheels and brakes all fine, decent tires and the fork is better than expected, even has working rebound adjustment. Headset should fit in the zero stack head tube of the GT frame with any luck.

The bad - FD is seized (wasn't going to use it but was going to sell it!), chain is stretched out, 12t sprocket has 2 missing teeth and shifting on the rear is very dodgy. Crankset is riveted together so need another one to go 1x up front.

The ugly - well the BB did give up and come out eventually!

 

[ChrisEyles]

Finished off stripping the frame today. Well, I say finished... Couldn't get all the paint out of the tricky corners and I discovered a bit of a crack in the seat tube just below the top tube, so decided "sod it" and called it good enough.

It was never going to be a pristine build so I'm not too gutted about the crack (I'll charitably assume the guy who sold it to me didn't notice it under the paint either). Will just have to watch the seat post insertion height and keep an eye on it.

Here's a mock up showing how it looks at the moment:

I quite like the brushed finish but will have a go with the bench polisher next weekend to see if it looks even better shined up.

Just don't look too closely, there's blue paint lurking!

 

[ChrisEyles]

Don't think I'm stripping another frame myself though, it's a right faff!

 

[JhnBssll]

Looks great

 

[tom73]

Looking good