More 80's Stuff - Mongoose BMX Questions!

[The Fixer]

Originally Posted by amargari

Great timing on this thread. I started disassembling a 1986 Mongoose FS1 BMX/Freestyle bike. I stripped the powder coat and rust and I am going to paint the bike black with TSC black. Once it is painted, I will put it back together with my son. I will post pics in a few days.

Nice, definitely post them up! How does your son like doing it? My son is 9 and having a blast. I'm pretty sure he'll be bugging me to ride it as soon as he's tall enough LOL.

[amargari]

Originally Posted by TPI Monte SS

Nice, definitely post them up! How does your son like doing it? My son is 9 and having a blast. I'm pretty sure he'll be bugging me to ride it as soon as he's tall enough LOL.

He is 10 and enjoyed taking it apart. Once it is painted, we will put it back together. He has also enjoyed looking for replacement parts online for the bike.

[The Fixer]

Originally Posted by amargari

He is 10 and enjoyed taking it apart. Once it is painted, we will put it back together. He has also enjoyed looking for replacement parts online for the bike.

Same here, my son has been learning a lot through this process, and having a good time helping me along the way.

And, now for a few more update pics. The rear forks had some surface rust, and the bike really hadn't been cleaned in a long time. So, here's a before shot -



And, here's the same spot after cleaning with the water/tin foil mix, and then being hit several times with Blue Magic metal polish.



Here's the whole frame, polished and ready to be reassembled.



The USPS sent my new crankwheel and seat clamp from Georgia to Texas (whoops!), so I've been delayed with getting it assembled. I'm planning to get the front fork installed with fresh grease on the headset bearings tomorrow, and maybe polishing the brake handles and ends so it's all detailed and ready to be put back together once the parts arrive this week. Stay tuned!

[The Fixer]

Well, today went better than expected! My son helped me install the fork and headset, and then he prodded me to get a bit more done. Thanks to the advice earlier in this thread, I was able to get the bearings installed, and not over-tightened. The handlebars spin free and do not bind anymore.



And, we wound up turning the Goose back into a roller today!



I should be done with it this week if the Postal Service can find the two parts we need to finish it.

[sweetbmxrider]

Man that thing is lookin sweet

[The Fixer]

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

Man that thing is lookin sweet

Thanx Adam!!

And, the missing parts finally showed up today. New seat clamp is on, polished seat post and rescued original BMX seat are installed.

Here's a pic of the crank setup now - new anodized aluminum Mongoose chainwheel, along with the GT crank that came with the bike (you can see on page 1). I removed all the powdercoating with aircraft stripper, then wetsanded with 2000 grit sandpaper and polished a bit with the Blue Magic.



I'm hoping to install the crank and bearings tomorrow after I get home with my kids. After that, I need to clean the chain, polish the brake parts, and give everything the once over to make sure its safe to ride. I'll have some completed pics by the weekend with any luck!

[zuuhlsT/A]

OMG you so took me back to the days of my MCS Spider. God I loved that thing. Sweet Mongoose.... I had 2 of them and never broke them....

[The Fixer]

Originally Posted by zuuhlsT/A

OMG you so took me back to the days of my MCS Spider. God I loved that thing. Sweet Mongoose.... I had 2 of them and never broke them....

Thanks! It's always nice to take a trip back in time - I finished reassembling the Goose today, and got to ride it a bit, and man I felt like a kid again for a few minutes!

Here's some final pics - it was overcast, but I figured you guys might wanna know how it turned out. I decided to keep all the original decals and just work around them. I know they're scuffed, but it's nice to see stuff that's 27 years old still look and ride good.



I wound up replacing the chain too - it was cheap enough, and the old one was too rusted to be presentable.



And here's the final shot -



It rides great so far! I will check it over again once I put a few miles on it. Don't worry, I fixed the rear brake pad after I took the pic LOL.

[sweetbmxrider]

Came out awesome! I love it

[donnj]

awesome job, enjoy the ride....

[zuuhlsT/A]

Diggin the Moto Mags. Had those on my Mongoose in blue. Nice work

[Tru2Chevy]

Looks great Steve!

- Justin

[The Fixer]

Bringing this one back from the dead because I made a few updates to it - here's how it looked after I finished it the first time.



And here's how it looks now -



I added a "survivor" ProClass disc off a Californian that was being parted out onto the chainring that came with the bike, along with a set of older Takagi cranks to replace the mid-school GT cranks. Other updates include a set of survivor mid-'80s Shimano pedals to replace those Wellgo pedals (they sucked!), repro skinwall tires, and legit clamps for the brake cable to replace the zipties.

Anyway, I had so much fun doing this one up I'm on the hunt for another project - anyone have an older BMX bike they'd like to get rid of?

[Mezzy]

Now you all got me out looking for 80s bikes, lol. I use to compete when I wad a kid also. I had skyward gift wheels and the Z rims that were spoked rims made from the mag wheel material. Anyone remember those rims? I'm gonna vid me a GT Pro series I think. Never had one of those.

Awesome looking bike man!!

[Z28 Heritage]

Wow it came out great! Its making me want to fix up my old schwinn from when i was a kid.

Here's a pic of what it looks like. Its not mine i just stole it from Google. Mine is packed away in the shed with flat tires.

[Mezzy]

I'm going to start one real soon as well lol funny to see this thread. Lol