DB Silver Streak

[ParkRNDL]

There's a rough one on the bay right now, ending quite soon!
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1981-Diamon...246928?hash=item3b4ff0ba90:g:e7UAAOSwoZBfgQpCPics from the bmxmuseum for drool factor:
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From a five year old ad, they were priced a little higher than the evilBay one

I actually threw out a lowball bid on that early on, but I don't really want it that bad. Now that I've seen the bike with black forks, I kinda hate it that way. Gotta be chrome. I'd rather put a no-name chrome fork on it till I can get the original in usable shape.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Agreed. Chrome, or go home!

 

[ParkRNDL]

this thing looks SO MUCH BETTER with a straight seat post

 

[ParkRNDL]

8.5 mile ride thru Pittsburgh

It seems that now I have a "show seat" and a "rider seat"

 

[ParkRNDL]

I originally got the impression that though the original fork is repairable, it would take a while for my contact to get his contact to get around to it. And right now, the fork (and stem) on the bike is borrowed off a friend's carpet queen, which was bugging me... I just wanted it all back together with stuff I could call mine. So I hit up Fleabay for a period-correct stem and a reasonable facsimile of the fork to use till mine was done. This fork is off a '96 DB, and only hi-ten, not chromoly (and not stamped TANGE) like the original, and is put together a little differently, but I could definitely live with all that if it's only temporary. The seller was pretty serious about packaging it well, which I appreciate.

But then I got the news that my fork should be done this weekend. So this one might end up going to my brother's BMX project.

In the meantime, this was yesterday evening's ride. Dang I love the way this thing looks.

Oh yeah, I found a fluted alloy seatpost for it...

 

[SoulGarageOH]

I originally got the impression that though the original fork is repairable, it would take a while for my contact to get his contact to get around to it. And right now, the fork (and stem) on the bike is borrowed off a friend's carpet queen, which was bugging me... I just wanted it all back together with stuff I could call mine. So I hit up Fleabay for a period-correct stem and a reasonable facsimile of the fork to use till mine was done. This fork is off a '96 DB, and only hi-ten, not chromoly (and not stamped TANGE) like the original, and is put together a little differently, but I could definitely live with all that if it's only temporary. The seller was pretty serious about packaging it well, which I appreciate.
View attachment 142428View attachment 142429View attachment 142430

But then I got the news that my fork should be done this weekend. So this one might end up going to my brother's BMX project.

In the meantime, this was yesterday evening's ride. Dang I love the way this thing looks.
View attachment 142431

Oh yeah, I found a fluted alloy seatpost for it...

Ahh, a fluted alloy seat post. That brings me back. That was the final item, the finishing touch, if you will, to the bmx bike of my youth. I had a cheap AMF Hawk frame that was handed down to me from a friend, but I built around it and made it look pretty legit... and then it was stolen and I never saw it again[emoji45].
Yours is looking pretty legit too; ya better keep an eye on it.


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[ParkRNDL]

Well if anyone needs proof that miracles do happen, here it is.

For reference purposes, here's what the inside of this fork looked like last week:

I'm a little hazy on the details of what all had to be done to make it usable again, but if I understand correctly, it involved much bigger drill bits than I have access to AND a hydraulic press. The guy who helped me out hung on to the pieces he extricated; he figured I might want them for posterity.

And here's that beautiful fork in all its glory:

I also found an SR(?) MX 550 stem.

The only catch: I gotta find a crown race. The one that was on there is old and has a few cracks in it. Makes sense; the bearing retainer i took out of there was missing 2 or 3 balls...

 

[ParkRNDL]

something's in the works

 

[Captain Awesome]

something's in the works
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[Bike from the Dead]

Glad to see you can use that fork again! That looked almost like whatever was inside the steer tube had melted! Looking forward to seeing what's next!

 

[ParkRNDL]

Found me a crown race.

I brought the fork and cracked crown race to the LBS, and the owner dug through a box in a drawer and found this one for me in two minutes. Charged me three bucks. I feel guilty sometimes because I know selling new "real" bikes is what keeps this guy's lights on, meanwhile I come in and take up his time and raid the junkyard in the back room and only ever buy a few dollars' worth of stuff.

Man, it feels good to get this thing back together with all its own pieces.

Other stuff I want to do:
This is on its way in the mail from the UK.

And I want to paint the inner surfaces of the fluted seatpost black to make it look like the original one.

Also, a couple of the BMX aficionados that i hang out with have razzed me for running a cheap Wal-Mart brake cable on a "pedigreed vintage bike." Apparently I should be investing in a Teflon-lined cable (with linear pull housing? is that a thing?) and while I'm at it, I should upgrade to salmon Dia-Compe pads. For sure it needs new pads; the ones on it are original to the bike for all I know and they don't offer much grab.

 

[ParkRNDL]

Latest project: seat post. Silver Streaks originally came with a fluted silver seat post with black painted insets. I figured it wouldn't be too hard to mask the outer surfaces and paint the inners black. The outer ribs are 1/4" wide. The narrowest masking tape I could find was 1/2", so I cut strips of it in half. Easier than I thought with my wife's cutting mat and rotary cutting wheel.

 

[Chad T]

Great looking bike!

 

[ParkRNDL]

seatpost done...

 

[ParkRNDL]

regarding earlier post "something's in the works:"

An old school BMX bike has to have something in the way of pads. A few weeks ago, I borrowed a full set of Diamond Back pads for a group ride, and they certainly looked the part. But when I took them off, someone commented that the bike looked really good without the pads too. So I decided to run just a handlebar pad and leave the rest au naturel.

I picked up some appropriate black vinyl and my wife helped me hem the edges of a rectangle. (Side note: I tried to learn to use her sewing machine for this project. Between my fat little sausage fingers and my lack of patience, it did not go well. I gave up pretty quick.) I bought a snap kit for 7 or 8 bucks at JoAnn Fabrics, and cut a piece of pipe insulation, and I was in business with a good-looking handlebar pad.

Couldn't stop there, though. I fired up the Cricut and fed it a .png of a Diamond Back
logo that I found online, and it spit out a couple of stencils. The plan was to do like I did with the seat on my Schwinn Scrambler tribute and use a Krylon Fusion spray bomb, which is supposedly formulated to bond to plastic, to paint on a graphic. The test run on scrap vinyl came pretty good.

Ready for prime time:

Unfortunately, though, on the finished product I either didn't burnish the stencil on well enough or I laid the paint on too heavy or both, because the edges aren't as clean. The only upside is that it happened pretty uniformly, so it almost looks like it's supposed to be like that. (That's what I'm telling myself, anyway. )

 

[Captain Awesome]

regarding earlier post "something's in the works:"

An old school BMX bike has to have something in the way of pads. A few weeks ago, I borrowed a full set of Diamond Back pads for a group ride, and they certainly looked the part. But when I took them off, someone commented that the bike looked really good without the pads too. So I decided to run just a handlebar pad and leave the rest au naturel.

I picked up some appropriate black vinyl and my wife helped me hem the edges of a rectangle. (Side note: I tried to learn to use her sewing machine for this project. Between my fat little sausage fingers and my lack of patience, it did not go well. I gave up pretty quick.) I bought a snap kit for 7 or 8 bucks at JoAnn Fabrics, and cut a piece of pipe insulation, and I was in business with a good-looking handlebar pad.
View attachment 143278View attachment 143277View attachment 143279

Couldn't stop there, though. I fired up the Cricut and fed it a .png of a Diamond Back
logo that I found online, and it spit out a couple of stencils. The plan was to do like I did with the seat on my Schwinn Scrambler tribute and use a Krylon Fusion spray bomb, which is supposedly formulated to bond to plastic, to paint on a graphic. The test run on scrap vinyl came pretty good.
View attachment 143280

Ready for prime time:
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Unfortunately, though, on the finished product I either didn't burnish the stencil on well enough or I laid the paint on too heavy or both, because the edges aren't as clean. The only upside is that it happened pretty uniformly, so it almost looks like it's supposed to be like that. (That's what I'm telling myself, anyway. )
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Nice handiwork!!!

 

[SoulGarageOH]

I really like the paint job on that seat post. The whole thing is shaping up nicely.


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[ParkRNDL]

WOOT WOOT this is the decals from the UK...

 

[El Pocho]

I hate when my balls go missing.

 

[El Pocho]

can't beat an original loop tail.