Nickel Plated vintage Mongoose BMX find...

[rustyford5]

Sorry for the crumby cell phone pictures, but these are the images a friend sent me saying his uncle was cleaning out his garage and "getting rid" of a bunch of stuff. He kept the bike out for me saving it from being donated. I am going to pick it up tonight. It looks to be a vintage nickel plated Mongoose 20". This ends a pretty long dry spell so I am super excited! With snow on the ground here in Nebraska I thought my bike finds were going to be rough for quite awhile! Thank you bike Santa!


IMG_0855 by coupehunter, on Flickr
IMG_0857 by coupehunter, on Flickr

 

[scrumblero]

cherry!! :shock:

 

[Danimal]

Love it!

 

[RCain]

Very nice, That frame was made from '77 to around '81.
S/N will tell you the year. First letter will be a "C", the second is the month code, and the 3rd digit is the last number in the year it was produced.
Look like it has some nice parts on it too. Cool pick up!

 

[rustyford5]

Thanks for the serial number help! Finally got it today and it was Christmas early at my house! My wife might not think so, but that is another story! CE9 must make it a 1979! Blue annodized Suzue hubs, Labeled Race Inc bars, Araya wheels make for a pretty neat bike. I plan on cleaning it up really well and leaving it as is. Always fun to share "fresh find" stories with folks who can relate!

 

[RCain]

Yes, 1979.

C = Chatsworth Ca. (City of manufacture.)
E = May (Month of manufacture.)
9 = 1979 (Year.)

The numbers that follow those are the frames actual production # . which will give you a good idea of how many frames BMX Products (Mongoose's parent company.) made. I'm guessing yours is somewhere near the 200,000th frame made. Those boys were busy back in the day.
I have a '76 model Mongoose, and both a '78 and '79 DeCoster made by BMX Prod.
Classic bikes!!!
Reproduction decals are easily available through BMX Products inc. on ebay. 8)