Recent BMX builds: Laguna, Eastern, S&M

[johnny nightwolf]

I haven't been around too much in the past couple of months. I spent all summer working 2 jobs. Between 60+ hours a week running a bar and 20 hours a week as a bike mechanic in a little shop that specialized in vintage bikes I had no time to work on my own stuff... Then, I moved from NY to Texas about a month ago, and that called for me selling off most of my bikes (and 2 cars, and a truck, and 3 motorcycles). Now that I've settled in a bit, I started building bikes for myself again. Here's a little bit of what I've been working on:
I picked this up yesterday, on CL for nothing. Guy had no idea what he had. It's a 1980/1 Laguna 26" BMX Cruiser. Rough paint, but really good shape overall and some nice components. Tange bottom bracket and headset, ashtabula stem, Takagi 175mm cranks (first one of these I've seen with 1piece cranks???), Mongoose stamped seat post clamp. Changed dry rotted tires to knobby white walls, and ugly non-original seat to less ugly Wrights leather saddle. I'll take better pictures tomorrow. It's raining right now.

My daily rider, pictures from when I was still in NY:

2007 Eastern "The Reaper" frame, cromoly, 20.75 tt
Fly "Pantera 2" forks
S&M "Redneck" stem
S&M "RV" bars
Primo "Powerbite" 180mm cranks
Poverty sealed bearing pedals
Shadow Conspiracy "Ol' Dirty" grips
S&M "Bar Tab" bar ends
Fit seat post
FBM seat
FBM sealed integrated headset
S&M "XLT" seat clamp
Fly sealed spanish bottom bracket
Demolition "Anorexia" 9th rear wheel
S&M "Tuff Man" 25th sprocket
Shadow Conspiracy front wheel
Maxxis "Holy Roller" 1.95 tires
KMC heavy duty chain
Tektro u-brake
Diatech "Dirty Harry" brake lever

I'm also building a 1998 S&M Dirt Bike NG, I'll have pics tomorrow too.

 

[johnny nightwolf]

Re: It's been a busy summer.

Here's a few better pictures of the Laguna:

and here's one of the S&M i'm building:

It's a 98 Dirt Bike Next Generation. I had the GT rear and Haro front wheels lying around, as well as the spray bombed Odyssey bars and Kink pivotal seat. The FBM forks and S&M Redneck came from necessaryevil. I have 180mm Profile cranks and S&M one 0 one pedals that I'm waiting to install because I seem to have lost the FBM 44t sprocket I want to use in the move. D'oh. Down the road I'm going to switch out the pivotal for a white Odyssey Aitken seat but $ is tight right now.

 

[atomicclutch]

nice rides dude!

 

[necessaryevil]

Looks like you're a S&M addict like me, hands down the best bmx company still around. Check out their website, they have released a limited run of original Holmes frame and fork reissues.

 

[Lonewolf]

Good stuff.

 

[johnny nightwolf]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. It means the world! Necessaryevil, the fork and stem I got off you make that S&M! Thanks so much!!! I can't wait to get that thing ridable. I've checked out the Holmes reissues, and they are beautiful. A little bit out of my price range at the moment, but man... just sick bikes. You're absolutely right, S&M is hands down the best in the business right now.
I'm pretty much spending this weekend repacking everything on the Laguna to get it a little more comfortable to ride, and then reassembling the rest of my BMX stuff from the move. More to come, old school BMX goodness: 81 Mongoose 2, 87 Mongoose Decade, 89 GT Mach One. Pics soon!

 

[Unchained]

Sweet Laguna! Don't know anythign about them but really liking the frames...

 

[bmxerpete]

Nice Reaper! I love the way those things ride. If I wasn't so happy with my Standard I would be looking at one of those.

I'm loving the Laguna...I actually raced one of those tanks back in the late 70's/early 80's. Done up in our black and gold shop colors. If you ever want to part with it or trade it please please please let me know.

 

[johnny nightwolf]

Nice Reaper! I love the way those things ride. If I wasn't so happy with my Standard I would be looking at one of those.

I'm loving the Laguna...I actually raced one of those tanks back in the late 70's/early 80's. Done up in our black and gold shop colors. If you ever want to part with it or trade it please please please let me know.

Thanks man. Eastern gets a pretty bad rap but I've never had anything but good luck with any of their higher end stuff. I love that frame, and for the $ I don't think I could have done any better (I picked it up used and cheap). As for the Laguna, it's not going anywhere at the moment, but if I do decide to part with it you'll be the first to know! Awesome you raced one, too. I know almost nothing about Laguna's history. Anything you can fill me in on would be greatly appreciated!

 

[bmxerpete]

Laguna started out as a bmx parts distributor in Cali, and around '78 or so they started coming out with their own bikes. Their top of the line aluminum race bikes were essentially the same as the FMF bikes- when FMF got out of bmx the guy that was welding them changed the dropouts and gussets and a few different companies sold them as their own, including Laguna, Race Inc. and Cycle Pro.
Laguna had a nice line of chromoly race bikes, a few different low to mid price mild steel 20's and the Laguna Cruiser. You could buy the Cruiser in a low end coaster brake/steel rim version, a freewheel/alloy rim version, and a five speed version with steel or alloy rims.
I'll dig around and see if I can find the pics of mine.

 

[LIVE TO RIDE]

That Laguna is gonna be sick!Maybe a yellow and anodized blue cruiser!Kind of like the DG below.

I just finished my 3 bar MCS and I love it.But Im on the hunt for a DG next!

 

[johnny nightwolf]

Here's the S&M, done for now. I want to upgrade the wheels later to something a little higher end than what's on it, but for now, who cares, it's a rider.

frame: 1998 S&M "Dirt Bike Next Generation"
forks: late 90s FBM forks
stem: early S&M "Redneck"
bars: old Odyssey, cut down
grips: Odi "Long Necks"
headset: bottom Cane Creek "Tank II" top FSA "The Pig"
post: Odyssey
seat: Odyssey "Mike Aitken"
clamp: S&M
sprocket: FBM 44t
cranks: Profile 180mm
pedals: S&M "one 0 ones"
bb: DK sealed, american
brakes: Dia Compe "FS990" and Dia Compe "Tech 77" lever
back wheel: GT flip flop hub laced to Alex double wall rim, 14t freewheel. Maxxis "Max Daddy" tire
front wheel: Haro 14mm with Kenda Kontender tire
new S&M pad set.
The only things I bought new for this bike were the pads and the seat post.

 

[LIVE TO RIDE]

hey JOHNNY whats the progress lookin like on your Laguna!!??Sweet bikes you've got.

 

[johnny nightwolf]

Bikejunkie: Thanks! The Laguna is on hold right now. I just started working after 2 months of being jobless, and I'm broke. I want to do that thing up right, so I'm waiting until I have some disposable income saved up. Right now, bikes are coming in 2nd to getting back on top of my bills. Hopefully I should be starting on it by the end of this month.

 

[necessaryevil]

The Dirtbike's looking pretty good, now you just need to find one of the old shield pattern seats to finish it off.

 

[LIVE TO RIDE]

I hope things change for the better for you.Well its not going anywhere,and there is no rush.my 26'' is my favorite just to cruise and take it easy.family and bills always take top of the pile over bikes,even though sometimes I disagree with that!!haha!

 

[johnny nightwolf]

Necessaryevil: Thanks man! Shield seat is a great idea. That'll look way better than the Odyssey. I'll definitely have to keep my eye out for one.

Bikejunkie: I appreciate it. These things happen, and yeah, sometimes you need to put the rest of your life first. Hopefully be back on top (or at least somewhere towards the middle) again soon!

 

[LIVE TO RIDE]

yeah I agree with the seat.I have one in my garage,but its in bad shape.Wish it was nicer Id give it to ya.But your Aitken seat,I think is one of the baddest seats out right now!Theres a black one at my LBS I was thinkin about picking it up.

 

[Justin]

This is more of a rebuild, and I've since sold this frame and built the stuff up on my white 1979 Laguna, but here she goes:

And here's my recently acquired OM Flyer. Apparently there are rare in chrome. I'm sleuthing out the history on this one.

 

[LIVE TO RIDE]

That OM looks rad in chrome!!The chrome Laguna is just crazy sick!!