I've had these forks for a year or so and need to sell them. They are 20",1" threaded Bottema's (I think). I was told when I got them with a Patterson Avalanche that they "might" be repros. These are before the whole JC fiasco and they look genuine to me but I want to make sure before I try to sell them to someone. They appear to be like my "known " set of Bottema's but have a couple of differences. My skatepark Bottema's have a continuous weld on the outside of the dropouts and a 1" or so stitch in the center on the inside of the drops and have no brake hole (maybe just because they are skatepark forks). The forks in question have two welds on the outside of the dropouts with a "break" in the middle and a 1" or so stitch on the inside but its at the bottom instead of in the middle. I do remember BenOr stating in a thread in 06 that he got 4 sets of forks directly from Jeff Bottema and all four were different. I just want to make sure these are real before I sell them as such.

Forks in question:





[ January 04, 2007, 08:32 PM: Message edited by: BRIAN HAYS ]

My skatepark set:

Jeff sent me about 6 sets. 4 at one time. All 4 were different. Johnny Choppers are new and Bill's are only a few years old. The marks and age couldn't be reproduced. I think the final Bottemas were made by VDC. I believe VDC made more than Jeff needed and was sitting on inventory. A well know Bike shop owner (RIP. This was not Sandy) would buy them direct from VDC and put Bottema stickers on them AFTER he didn't pay his bills to Jeff and Jeff stopped shipping to him. So VDC may have made a few adjustments to try and get around he was selling around Jeff. Either way they were made and sold as Bottemas. Just one way screwed Jeff out of his money.

[ January 04, 2007, 09:26 PM: Message edited by: BenOr ]

call a spade a spade, Ben, so as not to put all well-known shop owners of the day under a "wonder if" cloud.

Big Daddy Ralph Mundia.

Fair enough and good point. You called it TIM. Jeff is a gentlemen and asked that I not list that. I should have perhaps excluded my comment.