BMXmuseum.com Bikes / Skyway / 1985 Skyway Street Beat mkI

Here's the full story for anyone who's bored at work, home, wherever..

This is my first Street Beat that my long time friend Mikko Salonen sent me from Colorado Springs in late 1991.
Around that time there was a flatland how-to photo sequence in BMX Plus! with Aaron Dull doing a Rolling Overtaker on a '86-86 Street Beat. I was very impressed of how his bike looked in those images and how the bike was set up in late 80's/early 90's "hardcore" flatland fashion with mixed parts. My '85 obviously didn't have u-brakes like his, but in the end it didn't bother me. This was also the first time i actually saw "tear drop" tubing and such thin drop outs. I remember the bike got lot of attention from the friends mainly because of these two features.

This bike's seen a lot. It has been with me in bike and sporting expos, local demos and contests and i rode it in the first two episodes of my "Lame Bike Video" series. It has also taken a lot of beating from riding, both accidental and intentional, for example the original forks were cracked and rewelded twice at both drop outs and on the top tube, near the headset there's a dent hammered in purpose for those shortened gyro cable ends (Nippon Clamps, the ancestor of "Knarps" of today) to clear. Remember, back then i mostly considered this "just an old frame" and it was my daily rider, not yet a collectors item or nostalgia piece like it is today.

I rode this bike only for about a year cause i was circulating a lot of frames. It was then put in storage pretty much useless from around 1993 until now, when i finally figured out what to do with it. Because of the broken original forks i just didn't have the slightest clue what i should do with the frame, besides the obvious to keep it as a personal nostaglia item.
However, late last year i started to play around with the idea of recreating my old rider bike, so i started to ask around for a set of new forks. Fortunately i did found a pair (Thank You so much Brian P!!) and i was all set to start the project. This time around though, i wanted to do things differently from the previous show builds. I didn't want to build another "museum", "era correct" or "by the book" vehicle, but to create one of those "personal replicas" that have been somewhat popular lately and bring the bike back to life like it used to be, with that early 90's twist in it.

Because the bike already has all its scars, chips and original wear and tear from back in the day, i thought "let's just stick with the theme" and was consciously avoiding putting in too mcuh shiny stuff apart from few compulsory exceptions like the cranks, disc and a new seatpost clamp. Afterall, this would be like the resurrection of a survivor bike, sort of. Just like Scott (serva) recently stated, i had also hard time keeping myself from choosing parts & colors that would match "too well" if you know what i mean. I constantly had to remind myself i was building a bike the way i did 15 years ago, way before i was collecting anything and worrying about color balance and such concepts like "era correct" etc.

The basic idea was to use as many parts as i had kept all these years as wella s keep the overall costs at minimum. I was on a very limited budget with this build but fotunately i hav e always saved almost every part i have ever owned so i didn't need purchase much anything. I call them "leftovers" (with deep fatherly warmth in my voice) although they're pretty much quality stuff, atleast in my scale. So i built another daily rider, cause i wanted to time warp myself back in time to experience my all-time favorite rider bike one more time. The bike that used to be so much fun to ride and has a special history behind it as well as countless hours of riding and practicing and having some of the best times in my life. It might not look like much to you, but in my eyes it's perfect.

As for the parts and customizing. Like you all know the frame is lightweight, compact size and has all the right angles, and in my personal opinion it might well be THE best all-around freestyler ever built. There used to be ACS BOA caliper on the back and Nippon in front. However, i didn't have a rear BOA and also i wanted something with more power so i put on my old scratched up Pitbull i used to own in '89, sold it to a friend and ultimately got it back from him few years ago. Back then i also once made a customized rear BOA that would mount and fit on to top of chainstays. Think about it.. For that modification i had to shorten the caliper arms where the adjusting barrel and the clamp are. Needless to say it wasn't very powerful but it worked, none the less. I also remember one time when the rear BOA exploded because the bolt snapped, just like they used to, and how i was picking up the pieces at the parking lot. So, Pitbull or centerpulls are clearly the best and most funtional choice for this bike and i never really liked how the caliper brake felt on the back anyway.
There is a special modification made for the Pitbull and for other centerpull brakes. I have drilled a hole thru the lower section of the seatpost tube, so that the cable can travel directly thru. The Pitbull stays firmly in place on the chainstays and the cable alignment is perfect. There is another hole drilled at the bottom of bottom bracket for a barrel adjuster in case you wanted to run the Pitbull under the chainstays or, if you want to get really crazy you can even mount two Pitbulls (or centerpulls) at the same time on both sides of the chainstays by using shared bolt and straight cables from the gyro!

The bars. This build has a set of first generation Peregrine Q-Bars in white that used to belong to a great rider and great guy Glenn Mehltretter (Thanks Glenn!!). They have the 80's measurements and the usual sweep and a special set of homemade bearings or "bar end rollers" at the ends that was somewhat popular invention in the early 90's. Some will say the rollers were for cheaters but seriously, they helped a lot while learning stuff like Hitchhikers and Backpackers. Besides, once you had the tricks mastered they were merely just "speed savers" in case your bars would accidentally touch the ground, and protect the bars, so they worked both ways. Nevertheless, they helped alot while i was learning those tricks and also saved a few sets of grips too. The first edition of these rollers had an expanding rubbery locking mechanism inside the bars which worked but made them stuck inside the bars. So now we have the updated version with pieces of nylon bar cut into shape of wedges. However, the bearings themselves are the very same ones i've always had.

The pegs. They are 3.5" chrome plated Pulse pegs made by Bill Nitschke. I remember how excited i was when i bought them directly from him! It was something special. They mount with a nut inside just like all pegs do today, but back then were considered as "new hot item" compared to all threaded pegs that would strip and were usually too skinny and short, especially for a size 11 feet. Later i also tried a set of those "Havok" pegs with the grip tape on, but the Pulse's are the ones that really "belong together" with this bike. They are extremely light weight, thanks to very thin walls on them and they grip well because of the deep thread pattern that acts as knurling.

For the most parts the bike has almost everything exactly the way it used to be, i'd say this is a replica in 90% accuracy, however with some small up-to-date improvements. Keep in mind that this bike is going to be more or less another daily rider, so it will have to take some random hits and the abuse of flatland riding and i don't want to break anything that's too rare to replace in the next few years. For example this time around there's a Nankai freecoaster because i felt putting a Suntour would've been "too precious" part to put thru riding abuse anymore. There's my old set of Peregrine tires in the photos but they will be changed to a set of skinwall Kenda slicks.
With this bike i always used shortened upper gyro cable with a modified locking brass nipple that would go inside the lever (known these days better as "Nipple clamp" or "Knarps"). We got those from local bicycle/motorbike shop and in order to make them fit we first had to drill the cable end hole bigger on the lever or file down the clamp's diameter. Also a 2mm hole was usually drille all the way to the other side of the lever for the inner cable to go thru so that the clamp would have powerful enough grip of the cable. Otherwise the clamp wouldn't have fit into the lever neither would it hold the cable. Fortunately there's such companys today like G-Sport who produce these wonderful gadgets they call "Nipple clamps" that fits right in without having to modify anything.

The drop outs. First of all, huge Thanks to Brian P again for hooking me up with the correct forks for this build!! I can't thank you enough. To stiffen up the ridiculously thin drop outs that had became a slight problem back then in the stress of 90's flatland tricks, i made a set of locking adjusting cones instead of the regular two nuts tightened against each other. These steel cones will support and stiffen up the drop outs combined with 2mm steel washers the diameter of the pegs. Snapping axles and bent drop outs was somewhat common problem to most of us in the early 90's and riding a dated frame like this with feather weight drop outs wasn't helping either. Just think about the stress that tricks like Smith decades put to the axle and drop outs.. I used to trash or bend axles/drop outs quite regularly back then.

The third upgrade has to do with the washers. Because there is a limited space for pegs that are little over 30mm in diameter in street Beat forks, i had to shape up the washers a bit so they would adapt with the welds on the drop outs. There's also a drilled recess with a tiny bolt inside the inner washers keeping them in place when tightening the pegs, similiar to those slots in grind pegs of today keeping them from turning and become loose while doing grinds.

At the rear drop outs there's a set of big homemade aluminum washers for supporting the rear axle/drop out. I remember how they were somewhat of a trend at one point for those reasons. Thanks to these washers and a half link on a 43/16 gearing, i don't have to use any chain tensioner. The chain runs comfortably tight and stays that way because the edges of the rear washers are leaning against the chainstay tubes and therefore keeping the rear wheel from moving forward/loosening the chain tension. I can also now run the rear wheel as far forward as it goes on the drop outs for shortest available wheel base. I can now also run the rear brake pads as far back as the Pitbull allows me to for better leverage in braking.

Back then i was swithching parts weekly, just experimenting and testing different parts like most of us did. Therefore there wasn't any certain combination of "right" parts to follow thru in this replica build, but atleast there was a set up i liked the most. Back then i wasn't yet familiar with the concept "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" either, so i was constantly adjusting things.

Parts & specs:

Fresh updates:

• July 2008. Behold the 44T Skyway Turbo Disc and "crazy" Tioga Crazy chain! Yes, the old chrome chain had to go because it was too stretched and was starting to eat the precious teeth on my previous Tioga CD. First i thought i'd replace just the chain until i realised the fixed chainstay length doesn't work with the new non-stretched chain so i had to change the sprocket aswell. The gear ratio is now 44/16 instead of 43/16 so it's slightly hared to pedal but gets me to my spot faster. In fact, i think the looks improved quite a bit actually and hey, it's a Skyway disc!
• I had saved the NOS Crazy chain for quite some time because the color doesn't actually "match" with any of my bikes. Since thise bike is my daily rider and has all kinds of color on it i thought what the heck, let's put on the multicolour Crazy chain and, i think it looks fine. 
• Used/beat up set of Sugino 175mm cranks. The nos ones will be on my green Street Beat soon for more era-correctness.
• Have you ever got tired of cleaning all the sand and dirt and whatnot grime that likes to hide inside the regular unsealed bottom bracket? Well I did and created my own bottom bracket boot aka poor man's sealed bb aka cut a piece of old inner tube and wrapped it around the non-drive side of the bottom bracket. No more sand, dust or water. See pictures.

Previous updates:

• September 2007. As crazy as it might sound, especially in this day and age when just about everything has to be "sealed" or "machined" to perfection, i switched from Tioga sealed bearing bottom bracket to a regular loose ball, generic bb. Why? The creaking noise of the slightly worn out sealed bb cones was driving me nuts, and there seemed to be now way to fix them so it had to go. Amazingly due to change of regular bb the chain tension is now more constant and runs quietly.
• Major updates were around for the Street Beat in august 2007 too. I tossed the Haro Kneesavers and replaced them with "the mojo bars" also known as white first generation Peregrine Q-Bars with some impressive history.. That's right, i call them "the MOJO bars" because they've seen alot in their lifetime and they have been ridden by Glenn Mehltretter who was a flatland instructor in Woodward in late 80's/early 90's. Here's some of the people who also rode Glenn's bike (Dyno Pro Compe) and in particular, these Q-bars that are now on my Street Beat: Kevin Jones, Chase Gouin, Joe Anderson, Chris Young, Perry Mervar etc. So yeah i guess it's fair to say the bars got the "mojo" allright, lol! Although i've yet to feel the "mojo" in my riding skills but i'll keep waiting til it hits me, lol. Any time now..
• Also added a black Suntour imitation seatpost clamp for color and for less weight and a new set of tires, in form of Kenda 154's.
• KHE "Stimulatorz" pedals aka Grafight-X copies.
• Used black Skyway Grabber seat.
• Replaced gyro top plate.
• Added some green grip tape on to the frame platform and fork bends (now removed though).