zeronine works bars.

The Body Belt, still have one, ha ha ha.

Changstar

Oh man, I forgot about that one. I remember having to have one, bought it at a my national. Did they actually serve any purpose other than smelling funny and make the small of your back super sweaty?

My pics would be:

Powerlite handebars-I never could get used to the bend in the grip area.
Peregrine 3-piece cranks-The two pairs that I owned always came loose and the splines in the arms stripped out.
Troxel Comet seat/seatpost combo-The WORST seat I have ever owned.
Race Inc. aluminum Pro bars-The extremely kicked-back bend made them useless.
Oakley O-Wing grips-those things were so thin and ribbed that you may as well have put condoms on your bars.

1982 Team Murray X20R, It said it was TRACK CERTIFIED
Man what I would pay for a NOS on right now

Aluminum fluted seat posts. Weaker cross-section, weaker material, plus, gunk flowed down into your frame tube to rust out from the inside out!

I so had this! To this day, when I get up on a gate, I make throttle grip sounds. Evel forever!

jesse D

I had a set of those. And yep, they're pretty high on my list of useless parts.

Whail tail chain tensioner
,welded seat post clamp[sorry jmc]
bandito double dropouts

kastan uni blade
thruster tri power

My experience with terrible BMX parts:

Grab On grips - good for a few hard rides, but that was about it. I remember riding home with one hand on one grip, and the other hand on the bar itself.

Ashtabula stems - strong, but it still did not take much to strip out a set of bars. Thank goodness for tuf necks

JMC forks - fine if you are 7 years old, but the older kids could kill a fork in no time. Beautiful, light and prone to crack.

Non-sealed bearings - In the Pacific NW, there is enough rain and mud to justify a set of Bullseye hubs.

Hare-Trigger brake levers - I think this is the name of those gawd-awful plastic things. Breaking one was a snap...literally.

Kingsbury pedals, or whatever those plastic Reedy-looking pedals were called.

Ooooohhhhh...glad to see this thread revived after about a year and half. There's funny stuff listed in this thread. If it wasn't for trial and error, we wouldn't be where we are today. Hat's off to all the companies that tried, but failed miserablly. heheheheheh.....

I know this thread is old but here is my list. Some of these had all ready been brought up.

The uni wheel cover things.
Acne chains? It was a huge, thick chain. Look like it belong on a motorcycle. I still have one somewhere.
Vector bars and stem into one..Lame
The pro guard. The first thing mention in this thread.
Jumbo donuts
JT Gators. Why do you want you pant legs covered and wider for your chain to get caught?
Dirt skirt. Didn't work...
I don't remember the name but the chain ring that was OVAL so it would be easier to bring the pedal over.
Z-rims. I did have a blast with my friends getting them to flex to the ground and back.lol

Tune Tote I think they were called...

Sorry about resurrecting this post, but I thought of a few products from BITD I couldn't resist adding.

Anyone remember those spandex seat covers? Or those handlebar grip donuts, where kids would have about a dozen of those. And then there was the Zeronine mesh plate. Although I was sort of fond of that plate, keeping the numbers to stay on was a real PITA.

Someone mentioned Super Suckers, they were the worst tires and almost impossible to mount.

Cook Bros and Phil wood hubs= junk. Dura-ace, Campy, 600's cranks=garbage: RRS, Cinelli, Cooks, Redline frame from late70's, early 80,s= junk. Champion, Gjs, JMC bars= crap. Redline, cooks, mongoose double clamp stem=Horrible. OMAS, Campy, Tange mx-5 headsets, the worst. Dia- compe mx 1000 brakes= never worked. Bullseye, Phil, Cooks, Sugino sealed bottom brackets always broke. I could go on forever! If you have any of these crappy things- send to me, and I will give you a killer SE 2009 China special. BWHAAAA!!!

Great topic.

WORST BMX part I ever tried: Addicks cranks - hideous construction and welding and a steel crank used with a tapered spindle.

HARE lever (LOL) - I had one of those. With long leverage you could practically break if off under normal load. Unbelievable somebody released that into the public.

Tufwheels - I never used them on my bikes, but the aerodynamics are poor; the bearings are probably lousy and the whole hub area can't be serviced much. OK if you're a kid and don't want to learn wheel truing, that's OK.

HARE pedals - I never tried them, but they look hideous

modern BMX brake systems with connectors at the headset and rear centerpulls on your kids' BMX bike. Hideous braking and maintenance issues.

--
Other comments or products with serious flaws:

Addicks sprockets - You've got to give the guy credit for trying new concepts. Actually I think if you kept the chain at normal tension, the problem is not stripping the sprocket.
Problems:
- There was a loss in the transfer of power, since the plastic would obviously
compress a bit under hard pedalling
- A chain running on the sprocket had more friction
- they started with a creative idea using a very lightweight sprocket,
but then put hideous big heavy bolts on it. The whole package probably weighed
more than an aluminum sprocket setup
- lube made the sprocket look even worse and you couldn't really do anything.
- lifespan was poor

Haro lever - discard the plastic lever holder and put the lever in an aluminum one

colored tires - the rubber breaks down quicker than black rubber

Vector bars - probably great if the bars were welded in your exact position! They look like they had no reach.

Bob Reedy Ultimate pedals - Looked like they were only for tiny kids' feet

Oakley 3 grips - the wing part was simply a pathetic marketing concept.


--
Other products which had a good reputation that shouldn't have failed in my personal use:

26" Bottema forks - welding on dropouts failed shortly after getting them

Torker stem - quill separated from the clamp part

--
There are probably tons of other items that I've forgotten from 30 years ago.

Oakley 3s (Is it 3?; Im thinking of the grips where you could only put your hand in one position)

Plastic Mongoose grips-ripped up your hands

+1 on the wheel covers

The thing you put on the back tire to make a motorcycle sound (they still make it; my son wanted one and I told him no way).

Fabric seat cover.

Philwood hubs junk? CBR frames junk? I'm not arguing with you just curious as to why; the perception of these products was that they were high end. My CBR race bike the lightest strongest bike I raced.

I think its called sarcasm

My bad. A little difficult for me to get the sarcasm in blog form.

I never used PW BMX hubs. Around 2000 I had Phil Wood hubs with a cassette on a road bike. I had to service them by sending them back to Phil about 4 times. The cassette shell is not hardened and I notched it over and over. The pawls skipped no matter how many times he serviced it. Shimano Ultegra bearings last at least 10 times longer than Phil Wood bearings. Maybe Phil didn't put much effort into the cassette design. I would never buy PW hubs again. Over priced boutique stuff. I had PW BB (tapered) on a road bike. The bearings don't last very long (about 5000 miles) and you can't service the bearings. Low end Shimano is just plain better any way you look at it. Tapered BBs are horrible for big guys.

The "Holeshot" gear shifter was pretty bad. The chain would throw about 4 out of 10 times, and one of those, your knee would slam into the stem, or you'd go OTB. Itasca local Danny Itzenthaler was the expert I ever saw successfully use one and not die.

For those of you who said Addicks sprockets...the Graphite ones were way better.

M

Kickstands that were "welded" right behind the bb on old huffy bikes. The springs usually wore out effectively turning them into a pole vaulting... thingy. I cant count the times I would be barreling down the trails behind my house and make a left turn and have the kickstand fall down and catapult me and the bike into cartwheels. I was so hard headed i would hop back on it and do the same thing 5 minutes later.

Danny Itzenthaler! I saw him a couple years ago @ Elkhorn. I believe his kids are racing now.

Back to the topic at hand...


A few products mentioned were not really bad. I think many didn't like them, but they worked well and had relativity decent service lives. Whale tails were awesome. They were like giant washer-dropout protectors that also kept a rear wheel from slipping when torquing out of the gate. The design had been used in motorcycles successfully.

Gators--as ugly as they were-- were a way to hide race pant "floods" that were a plaguing issue for the tall, skinny BMXer *cough*. Remember, race pants only came in one waist/inseam per size.

Both or these examples worked.

The chain cover thing blew goats. I remember a kid had one BITD and cranked like half a lap on the track before that stupid thing got caught in the chain.

I think Kashimax aero seats belong on this list. It was uncomfortable, and the lip interfered with getting over the back of the seat when tucked. How about the company's ad claims to improve aerodynamics...

Really? Air would pass through the saddle, right over those aero seat guts and reduce drag and make you go faster?

It was offensive to look at those magazine ads and see a company that thought BMXers were really that stupid to believe that crap.

I agree with everything you said except this one.
Tuffs were great for a street/park/jumping bike. I raced with graphites too. I killed alloy rims and I still have the og tuffs from 1981-82. Some of the Tuffs had removable cups and were completely servicable.

boy aint that the truth. Being tall and skinny had its advantages but certainly had disadvantages in the clothing department. You were either were waiting for a flood or had the waist straps sucked in like Erkle or whatever the hell his name is. I opted for the floods myself.

For me it was any alum 3 piece cranks ( super maxy, takagi, sr, etc) I always hated how the came loose, how the arms would easily strip at the spindle, along with the pedal bosses. Those, and 1 piece cranks never lasted long with me.

The ame fini may be the grip your thinking of. On the other hand, the ame unitron was the best ever.

Mx Mug

Anyone remember Galindo handlebars? For lightness they had a plastic cross member. I wasn't a heavy rider so they lasted quite a bit longer for me but everyone else either broke or cracked them within a few months.

New Troy Lee D3.

Ugly, but hey, but it's bargain priced at $450.00.


(I think there is nothing wrong with the shape, just stupid billboard graphics and designs)

I loved my Galindo bars. I wasn't very heavy either so I had no problems with them at all.

AM'E Fini
oops, MXMug beat me to it.

Not a big fan of the whale tail. May have worked very well, but I still have a 5 inch scar (68 stitches) from one that was on someone else's bike.

Ken

Dam they are my favorite grips of the time....Then again I do love gimmick!

*digression*

Why the heck did I type relativity?!

Anyway... Good point, Ken. That would make me think differently about the whale Tail too, I suppose.


*more digression*

I knew a kid BITD who crabbed his front wheel entering a turn, forcing his leg into his tech 3 lever. It went through his jeans and pierced his thigh about an inch or so. It was freak thing I guess...

Speaking of brake levers... There's another crappy product. all of those pre-bent BMX levers from the late 70's/early 80's that were designed to mount below the cross bar. The funky bend gave crappy leverage and had aweful finger clearance. Every brake set I have ever seen with one (including mine) always had crappy brakes.

The lightning bolt seat post kinda like the CW "Z" frames. If that post broke in the right place...Chromo Enema!

Speaking of brake levers... There's another crappy product. all of those pre-bent BMX levers from the late 70's/early 80's that were designed to mount below the cross bar. The funky bend gave crappy leverage and had aweful finger clearance. Every brake set I have ever seen with one (including mine) always had crappy brakes.
[/quote]

This was just evolution. Initally guys were were riding with full length 4 finger straight levers. Bmxers started bending their levers for 2 finger operation. Next the brake companys started selling prebent levers.

Mx Mug

I saw a mention for fluted seat posts, but did any one mention FLUTED BARS?

Good grief those are awful : )

I know this pertains mostly to non-BMX bikes, but anyone remember those battery-operated motors for the lazy folk who didn't want to pedal to hard? This motor unit would mount onto the front forks with these motorized wheels that would drive the front tire.

Then there were those headlights powered by a small generator being in contact with either the front or rear tire. The faster you pedal, the brighter the light.

Whoa! I used Ultramax 180s for 3 years and LOVED 'em. With a Hadley sealed BB (which was a rare and shortlived thing of beauty). Never had a problem with flex or bending and they looked sharp. How come you didn't like them?

Um, I think he's pulling your leg...

Brian P has one.

Actually, every one I ever saw, the drive gear rode on the tire's inner ply belts.

Check this out: http://hudsonvalley.craigslist.org/bik/1325775684.html

THis is the first time I've seen someone call Philwood Hubs Junk. I have to agree the MX-5 headsets didn't hold up well.

Does any body remember those cranks that were bent?
Kinda Like these, but with more of a sweeping bend.

http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Italy/PMP_crk_ad.htm

GT Epoch Headset. - Nerve-racking spring.

Powerlite Race Bars. - Those with curved barends. Never got used to them.

white seatposts.

Bob Reedy, campy, skyway, suntour pedals were crap, all oakley grips- horrible, = cinelli, kashmax, viscount , (specially suade) seats=junk. Ambrosio, araya, weinman rims= they always bent. But that new Hutch crap that breaks when removing= priceless!! BWHAAA!