What years were the Ashtabula frame set made? Are they a rare frame? I see only one in the museum.
Thanks
Rick

I bought my first one when I was 12 in 1975...I broke a couple...jumping with motomags....

Sweet, what years were they made to?

Thanks
Rick

1977 & 1978 could be the only years.

Ashtabula sold a frame called the black Diamond (kinda huffy looking) in 1974/early 75. It had tabs for seat struts welded on the seatstays and a very weak looking loop coming from the seatstays to the seat tube.

There was one on the wall vacuume packed on cardboard for years. A friend of mine bought one. The other one was there for years, and years.

It broke in half bunny hopping the divider curb when crossing Highway 7.

I have a pic of it during a winter race, the Frostbite 500. Lemme see...

It could be zoomed in on if you want. 3rd bike back.

Steel plate gussets on the seat tube, top and bottom. Pretty much a cast iron bike frame.

Here is the one i found out in Oklahoma under a junk pile. I sold it to DaddyGoose who retored it. I was lucky enough to get it back.

I got an Ashtabula Black Diamond at Elysian Park - Thanks Adam Cox! - It is the same as the Ashtabula frame except the front gusset is short and has a .750" hole in it. I really like the longer gussets on the standard Ashtabula frames but I have never seen another one of these frames and it had a clean Black Diamond head tube decal so I bought it. Guess I need to find a standard Ashy frame too!!

It has what I believe is a Month/Year stamp on the outboard side of the left drop out: 9 76. S/N 3663

The welds are kind of crude but nothing says jurassic period more than 4 gussets on a frame and huge dropouts!!!

I will try to post pictures later.

Yep thats them...mine was a Black Diamond,....

looking at the picture don't the angles look pretty close to today's frames??

For those too lazy to navigate, here's the museum photo--definitely one of the coolest BMX-related things I've ever seen.

Yep, that's the way I always saw it, hanging in the store!

It's a cool collectors sort of an item now. But I bet more than a few went to the dumpster packaged just like that after hanging on the wall for 10 years.

They made an interesting display, but with torkers, and haros, and red lines, cooks, and stings hanging next to it, it ammounted to there being not one single thing in the package that you would want to ride with, past about 1978. It was a display of what not to buy.

Even the welds must have come out of someone's bad dream....

It is cool seeing it in the package.

I'd like to put that package on a scale. I'd bet everything in my wallet (Safe bet, lol) that that packagage alone weighs 23-25 pounds minimum...

Who's is that? Weigh it up for us!

"Kompetition"???

The dumming-down of America began way back in the 1970's, eh? Hmmm

Was that the only color they came in? Silver?

surry, translation : wuz dat dee onley culor dey kame inn. Silvur?

I am not so sure that was intentional.

"If you're happy and you know it crap your hands!"



http://www.engrish.com/

Know what I mean.....?

I thought that was Bill C's frameset in the museum.

Sorry to ask again, What colors did they come in. I think I have seen black and silver?

That silver was the only one I have ever seen...

+1 for silver.....

They also came in black, red and blue. I have a black one. It's a recreation of my sister's first bmx bike.
They were popular down here in Floriduh. Probably because they were cheap.

The original Ashtabula Black diamond was different from the ones you guys have in the pictures

Bmxerpete do you have a picture?

bump, cause I'm feeling 70s today.

Vista,

Don't feel bad about the front gussett on your frame being different. I have run across and seen several Ashtabula frames like the ones in the photos.

The frame I sold you is the only one I have ever found with that particular gussett.

Post a picture please....

I would be happy to buy it back for what you paid for it, including all of the parts, of course...


Adam

Mine had the Gusset like the one sold to Vista.......and was blue.....no pics

"crap your hands"
LOL!!

I almost spit my cereal all over my monitor over that one.

I'm surprized many of them survived. They were inexpensive yes, but you paid for it by them being heavy and weak. Still a cool frame and very collectable, partly due to there atrition rate. I remember alot of Moto Mags being used with those frames. Run Moto Mags, and you could crack any frame. I even knew a guy who cracked a Redline squareback with them.

Cheez,

The first day I mounted Motomags on my stingray, I snapped the downtube in half just below the cantilever tubes....

The stingray is long gone... but i still have the same set of Motomags mounted on my WEBCO.

I am working on a red one and need decals!

here are 2 Ashtabulas that live in Oklahoma ! the silver one belongs to dewabo and the blue one is mine .

Very nice!

and probably because they were drawn to the misspelling on the package like a moth to a flame. Your all black Ash is the coolest pete! JD

That's the first thing I noticed . . . . now that's funny. Yes where was Charlotte Iserbyt?

It goes back even futher than that.There was a very cool magazine in the 60s called Kar Kraft,hot rods,go carts,even models.Really cool stuff.

look around gatherings..pete has a lot of pics up..look in the rockford gatherings too...and just remember when you see pics of petes ash, know i rode it!!lol..
They were very cool bikes, but mild steel and no heat treatment makes for a weak structure...

Scanned out of BMX News. I am pretty sure this is from 1975.

6 lb frame it says

6 pounds is what they call HEAVY METAL from OHIO!

The ashtabula is a cousin to, and possibly built by:

Has anybody weighed a Mongoose? Of course, they were Tri-Moly frames and didn't snap when you jumped 'em with Motomags...

Richard Vogt
bmxmountainbiker

Hey Wilco, Is that blue frame a Little John?

It's a Littlejohn-Murphy

Gary Littlejohn and a guy named Murphy made these. Murphy was a business partner as he had the pipe bender and some business savvy.

Useless trivia:

After Gary and Peter Murphy went their seperate ways, Murphy continued making handlebars

You guys are a plethora of information! especially you Mr Showoff! Where is that build you've been working on?

The other piece is that Gary Littlejohn made sub-assemblies for many companies. Quite possibly that Ashtabula frame. Look at that rear triangle (and gusset design).

BTW: while not up to the Reilly standard, here's the build:

Very nice bike Wilko! I'm sure reilley likes it too!