My very first real bike was a Yellow Schwinn Varsity (my sister got the Orange one) that my parents bought me in 1975. By early 1976 I had stripped off the gears, fenders, reflectors, etc. and was jumping it in the park with my friends on their Stingray Scramblers. In 1976, we headed back to the local Schwinn shop and grabbed my first race bike, a Red 1976 Schwinn Scrambler Competition Model. It was only another $25 to upgrade to Black Tuffs from the stock 105 gauge HD S-2s so my folks went for it and that bike was my new best friend for a few years.
By the time I had raced my first race on it, it was upgraded to Powder Yellow Araya 7b hoops laced to Shimano High Flange hubs. I also had those cool directional Schwinn Skinwall Tractor Tires on it and these recycled Takagi Tourney Cranks from a road bike that had come to the local shop for repair.
(IMG:
http://images.vintagebmx.com/web_pages/KenPliska/1977_Takagi_Cranks_1.JPG)
The cranks were stripped on each pedal boss and tossed in the trash of the local Schwinn shop so my brother and I thought we'd try to use them on my Scrambler. Keep in mind we were 12 and 11 at the time (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) We took them to our father's machine shop and cut off the stripped out ends. We then reshaped them on a bench grinder.
(IMG:
http://images.vintagebmx.com/web_pages/KenPliska/1977_Takagi_Cranks_2.JPG)
Knowing that there was not enough "meat" left that far up the crank arm, we opted to tap them out for 1/2" pedals instead of 9/16". The only problem was...... Dad only had right side threaded taps. So, this set of custom cranks utilized two right side 1/2" pedals and a Yellow Addicks sprocket in 39 tooth to keep the stock Scrambler gear. You must admit, this was a pretty cool modification for a couple of pre-teens. They stripped out on me too but I thought they were too cool to toss into the scrap metal pile.
(IMG:
http://images.vintagebmx.com/web_pages/KenPliska/1977_Takagi_Cranks_3.JPG)
This is the last summer (1979) that I raced my Scrambler. By then it had Phil Wood Hubs, C&G Super Pro hoops, Blackwall Comp IIs, KKT Lightning Pedals, Troxel Seat, V-Bars, Tuf Neck, Grab on Grips and Tange TX-1200 Forks. It also had a custom laid back post that we made out of a cracked set of Fluted Alloy Bars. We were pretty resourceful considering we were just kids (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) . All of these parts ended up on my 1979 GJS A Frame.
(IMG:
http://images.vintagebmx.com/web_pages/KenPliska/Tree_Jump_1979.jpg)
Oct 15 2008, 07:43 PM
