BMXmuseum.com Bikes / CTS / 1982 CTS

The frame and the odd parts were found from Hilden, Germany for about $70 (warm thanks Linda!) It came with a badly scarred Akisu fork, way short 1pc cranks, mutilated pedals, completely disintegrated bottom bracket, steel sprocket, steel 36 spoke wheelset with coaster brake, rusty no name bars, scarred HL stem, headset, some horrible mid 90's mountain bike seat, a short piece of some mangled steel tube acting as a "seatpost", generic and beat up anodized blue seatpost clamp and a mismatch set of comp III type tires. Phew. They were all part of the deal so i couldn't say "hey i need just the frame and fork thanks" because that would've been rude. Ultimately, the only parts i found uselful however were just the frame and stem. Even the fork which at first glance looked OK was left unused because it was so beat up.

Then the box arrived. A BIG box. And the first thing i noticed wewe the rear drop outs sticking out of the box. hmmm... The frame was in ok condition though, no damage to it during transit. Not much rust either apart from the usual areas around the welds and the drop outs which only had mild chewing marks and were true. One thing that got me slightly worried was the top of the seatmast that had been cracked and re-welded, right under the seatpost clamp where the top tube and seat stays meet, the typical place for such crack. It would have been too perfect unless something like that hadn't come up. However, i was reliefed to find out the repair weld was executed well and it felt solid so it didn't bother me. Besides, the repair weld seam turned out nice and shiny and is now barely noticeable after polish so.. No problemo.

The Akisu forks which came along the frame were abused beyond help so i decided i wasn't going to bother restoring them as it would be too much work and too expensive for my current budget looking how horrible condition they were. They had been treated very bad and had several scars and dings allover and on top of that the threads were chewed up. All i did, I just cleaned them and threw them in my ever-expanding archive of "miscellaneous parts i want to keep, but don't have any real use for" and began searching for some decent, era and style correct forks and eventually came up with a nice set of TX-1200's form the UK, beautifully re-chromed and cheap, for once.

The bottom bracket seemed like original stock for sure. It takes years and years of abuse for a bb to get in such condition with pieces of bearing cages falling off and cones completely destroyed. So i just installed new polished bottom bracket and voilá! The cranks were likely taken from some child's bike because they were very short, shorter that you'd expect to see even in a bike this old. Same with the steel sprocket and plastic pedals.

Oh yeah.. The pedals...
The left side pedal was unlike anything i had ever seen. I mean i have seen all kinds of broken and deliberately destroyed parts but this.. this, was beyond them all. It looked like one of the previous owner had had hard time getting the left side pedal off the cranks. So what do you normally do when you have a stuck pedal? Try turning the wrench "the other way" and some lubricant? No. Instead this guy had completely hacked off the pedal cage thinking it will "slide thru" the bb once it is slim fitted. Clever thinking but not working. I solved this by simply turning the wrench "the right way" with only little force and off it came. "Lefty tightey, rightey loosey goosey" ..or was it the other way around?

Bars were some knock offs from some dept. store bike aswell, not much use for them but since i had the OA dip going i did them too for fun. The grips were just pieces of hard plastic tubes abandoned on the end of the bars. You can't really call them grips. And, there was the caliper brake axle left of the forks which came in handy and some no name mountain bike lever etc. etc. Long story short, looks like the bike had been assembled with whatever parts the previous owner could catch. It was truly a mix of all styles and eras and did no justice for the otherwise cool looking and obviously good quality chromoly frame. It is light weight so i am assuming it is chromoly.

Assembly.
I already had the mags, cranks, spider, chain ring bolts, bottom bracket, seatpost, seatpost clamp, front brake, cable and lever so there wasn't soo much stuff left to be acquired from elsewhere because like i sais, i couldn't spend too much money. I have a soft spot for those gnarly looking late 70's BMX bikes so you will see influences of those in this bike. The project was a quick one, it was completed in about a month and it went thru the usual oxalic acid dip and polishing. I have no idea what the original frame decals might have once looked like but i kinda like the frame in bare blingin' chrome. Besides, there is so much going on with all the red pads and checker details anyway.

The first ride.
I was surprised on how small the bike feels. I mean the frame seems pro size so i guess it's the combination of sloppy steering angle (guesstimate 72) and the narrower-than-what-i'm-normally-used-to Nitto bars. I refused to put on a layback post because it wouldn't have fitted with the style i had in mind for this build and like we all know, "style is everything", "fashion before function" and so forth.

Getting used to the coaster brake seems to take a while for me. That's why i assembled the front caliper to act as a "lifesaver" in case i don't have the time to react and backpedal or, my cranks aren't in the "right" position for quick braking. And with the Bendix being practically unused there is only so much slack (practically none) so the the brake engages from the slightest back pedal cranks movement including accidental, so therefore it is now a bit pain to use but i will get used to it. After a few good rides it is already much better.

The 45/16 gearing is heavier than what i normally put on my bikes. However i noticed the avergae cruise speed increased because i simply can't pedal slow if i know i can go faster. The bike weighs a lot but once you get the speed and momentum going there's no stopping it! The last time i had rat-trap pedals was on my Carraro years and years ago and i hated them. I am definitely not a big fan of them but they were the correct style for this bike so here we go again, style is everything, functionality comes in second it seems. I mean they are lowest of the low end but i can accept that knowing they are the right ones for this build. However, they feel surprisingly good under feet, no complains. The steering response is sluggish, as expected, and the narrow bars and fat tires doesn't make it any quicker, either. The bike as a whole feels very solid, heavy and in fact, bomb proof. The fat knobby tires are slow but man i dig how they look combined with mags and the sound they make when rolling on asphalt or concrete.. YEAH!

It's funny, no matter how carefully you think you have everything adjusted there is always something coming loose during first rides. I thought i adjusted the bottom bracket properly only to find out the cranks make noise from being so loose i'm almost embarrassed. Same with pedals with factory adjustments, can't trust that. Everything else held fine and i was really surprised about the O.G.K. grips and how nice they felt in the end, especially since every grip i've have ever ridden has been either A'me or ODI. Little did i know these funky pentagon shaped grips would be so comfortable.

Parts and specifics:

• Frame: 1982 (?) C.T.S. BMX
  
• Serial#: A25078 ..that would be january 1982 if there's any logic to it? If there isn't i have no idea what year this is, so this is all based on my assumption looking at the gusset and the style of the frame.
  
• Fork: Tange TX-1200 beautifully polished and re-chromed by the previous owner in the UK Stamped Tange "2L" for dec 1982. Threaded.
  
• Headset: mixed, mostly Tioga parts, caged bearings
  
• Stem: HL (Hsin Lung) quill 21.1mm
  
• Stem pad: currently red Pro Neck vinyl snap pad, pictures to follow... Thanks Stevenbeven!
  
• Bars: Nitto V-bar Cro-Mo
  
• Handlebar pad: Norco BMX snap-on vinyl pad
• Grips: O.G.K. Hex grip labeled as "Motocross Accessories" has a stamping "77-17A" ..for whatever that stands for..
  
• Number plate: O.G.K. oval plate "made in japan" with custom handcut number "2"
  
• Seat: Centurion "Aero" with checker print on padded vinyl, chrome plated rails and polished guts. Basicly a cheap but stylish taiwanese seat that is surpricingly comfortable.
  
• Seatpost: generic 22.2mm chromoly post, has knurlings for seat guts
• Seatpost clamp: DK non-con single bolt
  
• Cranks: Sugino 175mm Cro-Mo one piece, stamped '83
• Bottom bracket: generic USABB 24T w/custom rubber seal modification to keep the dirt/dust outside
  
• Pedals: labeled as "Warrior BMX", steel rat-trap made by Wellgo ½" spindle
• Spider: SR Sakae BMX, steel
  
• Chain: KMC 410 single speed chain
  
• Chain ring: alloy 45T SR Sakae "341"
• Chain ring bolts: unbranded, anodized red aluminum
• Wheels: Troxel TrakMaster 5-spoke star mags w/Bendix 76 coaster brake on rear. Both mags are stamped "TROXEL 5-20-83"
  
• Cog: Bendix 16T
  
• Tires: "Motocross Grip" brutal knobbies made by Duro 20x2.125 max inflation pressure 35PSI although these can handle 70PSI without any problems.
  
• Frame pad: "CK" snap-on vinyl pad whatever "CK" stands for
  
• Front brake/pads: MX1000 copy w/Weinmann Semi Automatic adjuster, generic red rubber pads (currently removed)
  
• Front cable: black teflon coated cable, generic housing (currently removed)
  
• Lever: MX copy, formerly white but it was in awful shape, so it was stripped and polished (currently removed)
  
• Tubes: 20x2.0-2.125 w/schrader valve

Fresh updates:

• November 2008: Replaced the checker CalLite nylon stem pad with solid red Pro Neck vinyl stem pad with snap buttons. Now the bike has whole set of vinyl pads although each being different "brand" but who cares, they look good nonetheless.
• October 2008: removed the front brake (for now) for cleaner looks and for the fact i wanted to try out what's it like to have just a rear coster brake. I might put the front brake back on but for now it's off. Also finished off the numberplate by adding handmade red glitter lightning bolt stickers, a Minnesota Faction and Rockville 2008 stickers. Huge thanks for those Mikkopeters!
• September 2008: New custom headtube decal for ultimate radness.