After having seen my First Matthews years ago and yearning for one, someone got me in contact with a person that recently found this bike. After some dealing this is what arrived in the post today. A trully ugly/ beutiful American arrives down under.


A lot of love will go into this bike, I have forgotten who gave me the heads up on this, but THANKS!!!!

Does anyone know how to get these damn forks off? :whistling:

Take a look at the under the fork at the head tube.

The original instruction sheet for those forks was posted not long ago. Monster-Robot was that you?

If you need a replacement head tube decal, I can set you up.

Good luck on your restoration; it looks like you are picking a good candidate.

Thanks guys,

Zman, I would like one of those decals!

the front is alittle bent and thedown tube has a couple of dents from the forks. Lastly , the "gussetts the shock is attached to has a couple of minor cracks, but all fixable. I am wrapped with the condition.

were these things only yellow?

Nice score!

Here's mine






Any other head tube decals available.

Reilley,

I used to be very jealous of yours!!!! But now I HAVE ONE TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what are the bars on the red one? mine will look a bit more like the red one, I want mags on it. Are you able to seperate the shocker on these?

The bars on both are Matthews. Your frame is an earlier one with the "adjustable" dual position guesset.

Not sure what you mean by the "seperate the shocker" question

PM if you want

congrats on your Matthews score. and welcome to the twisted little fraternity of Matthews monoshock owners.

Matthews monos! just spreading the love.

you can keep those pics comming, giving me ideas.

The red mags on the second bike came off an Open Road sold by Montgomery Wards in the very early 80s. My first brand new bike came with those on it.

I LOVE these bikes! These were the 1st thing I was drooling on when I found out about this thing we call BMX!

Would love to find one some day to rebuild.

That looks like a fun project! I'm in a serious Mathews/LRV mode right now....love those bikes!

Here is the link to the Installation Sheet thread. It's in the tech/restore forum...


http://oldschoolbmx.com/community/index.ph...wtopic=27003284

My Matthews is missing one of the black plastic covers on the swingarm (lets it slide around the seatpost). Any suggestions for a replacement? I was thinking about using heat-shrink tubing.

Those wheels were available as seperate items and came out a few years before they became OEM

I might be able to help out with the swingarm covers. been a little busy but still trying to get that project going Mo-ro

someone on bmxmuseum had some motomags for sale reasonably. hadn't sold last i looked the other day. might be too new for that era, though?

here's mine that dewabo helped me finish last weekend at the grands show.

Actually, those are Lester Mags. They made a few different designs BITD & you could buy them like any other bike part from any bike shop.

I've got a pair just like 'em that are going on my Matthews project.

After I posted that I searched around and saw they were actually called Lesters and then wondered why I even thought I might know something that yall didnt.

:reminds self to keep mouth shut in those situations:

osrlracer,

that bike is magnificent, giv us a break down of what you have on it. What are the bars?

Reiley, I'd be up for some of those sleves too. mine are a little beatup.

thanks for the list link monster.

well the head set is more rust than metal, infact I can't even turn the forks!!, this'll be fun. I'll try do it with out bleeding or breaking anything on the bike.

I'll be putting mags on this, I like the five or six spoke metal ones like dan gurneys. I've got all the time in the world to do this one.

I may be your average 80's punk freestyle rat, but I gotta give my two cents as to how COOL those things are. Love it!

off topic here,

agentheinz,

my brothers name is Heinz, and we always mock him about being a secret agent, so when I first saw you here I thought it was him.

Yeah and aren't the Matthews cool!!!

Man you are going to have fun with that! I think they are pretty sweet myself. The real 70's deal there.

Thats sweet dewabo,

where did you score your seat?

[quote name='dewabo' post='466061' date='Nov 29 2007, 09:24 PM']Man you are going to have fun with that! I think they are pretty sweet myself. The real 70's deal there.


Dewabo, that's a sweet pair of bikes you have there!

I tried to catch you guys in Tulsa but I had to leave by 9:30 on friday for family obligations. Got to meet Shannon and Bill but no one else. So sorry I didn't get to see the vintage room. Next year for sure!

Reilley1: no stress on my end, take your time. Still have a full plate at home...if I could ever get any time there. Adam said you guys just kept missing each other.

Monster-Robot! Looking foward to next year. Hope you can show! Ever around Tulsa give me or Osrlracer a shout. I am always up for getting together and talking this stuff.

broke L345 I got lucky and the bike came with the seat. They are real hard to find. When I got mine it was in about the same shape as yours. It has been one of my favorite projects by far. I got to help Tommy with his at the grands so now there is two here in Tulsa! yellow and blue. Maybe Tommy and I can bring them to Rockford this year and get a group shot with Sod and Reilleys herd and yours! Monster you got one going too?

I was contacted by a guy who has a survivor for sale if any one is looking for one. PM me and I'll send you his Email. He is not a member here.

I guess I'd better be getting around if I'm gonna make Rockford. I have a yellow survivor MS-1 that needs just a little Rod Miles help...someday. I've almost got my red LRV Moxie mono done. Just need a couple tiny details wrapped up. ((Hope Rod is doing ok!))

Matthews/LRV have recently become my favorite "brand". To me it signifies early BMX when they were trying very hard with lots of experimentation but did not quite have things figured out.

Here is mine, I have not even cleaned ANYTHING on it - it is just hanging and waiting for me to put some love into it. Found it exactly in this condition just about a month ago! They are cool bikes!





Here is the scematic - I am not sure who posted it but credit should be to them.

Here is some more literature... there seem to be a few of these bikes around. I know some are earlier but I think the adjustment of the shock, reverse dropouts (Mine has) and the two hole adjustment (which mine does have). More details on the generation of these bikes would be great.

I'm getting very close with this one. I just threw the wheels and tires on there so I could take this pic. The wheels need rebuilt and a serious cleaning.

Also the top section of the swingarm (what would be the brakebride on a hardtail) seems to be bent and is missing the sleeves. One side rubs and the other side has too much gap. I tried shimming the shock but it only made the shock off of parallel with the frame. I guess I either try to bend it or take to the machine shop. The rest of the swingarm appears to be aligned correctly.

A few of the pieces are not correct and will be replaced. I'm sure that the bars and seat post are not correct, both are unknown manufacturer. The crank is NOS non-stamped Ashtabula, gear is NOS Wald and the pedals NOS Schwinn. The seat is NOS Messinger quilted.

My priorities are a set of Matthews bars. The wheels I think will end up on my Stroker and maybe a set of Motomag II's on this bike.
.
.
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...but I sure like the MX-60s on the mono...

Not a flame, I'm just wondering, why are people putting Moxie decals on the monoshocks?

If I'm remembering correctly, the Moxie was the hardtail frame.

That's kinda like putting PK Ripper decals on a Quadangle.

I am going to attempt to answer the Moxie vs. MS-1 question: I was 99% sure the reverse dropout frames were all MS-1's (MonoSock-1). There was a transition point where Moxie came into play. I am not sure which modeal but it could have been when a different shock (the bigger diameter) started to be used but someone will answer for sure. There are also some color differences. I think the very early MS-1's were only in two colors. The blue and a Yellow? Experts, where are you??
Moxie did make a hardtail too - that I do know too, but it came out at the end of the Monoshock era for them or at least at the tailend.

In PK Ripper terms - it is kind of like when SE bought Race Inc. and the left over Race Inc's got stickered as PK's???

This bike seems to be exactly like mine was form the factory - color wise and set-up. Is the headtube decal supposed to be clear background or the white background? Does or has anyone made the MS-1 decal the go on the top tube and are the bars on this restored bike (GREAT JOB TOO BY THE WAY) correct Mathews bars? Those are the exact bars that are on mine and my bike has never had anything taken off. Not even the rear wheel!

I believe the origional headtube decals were white background. The one on Tommys and my bike were some I had made till the correct ones could be found. I have one and need to get it on there. There was a MS-1 decal on the top tube also. I would like to find one or get a pic of one. Osrlracer has a nice hardtail Moxie. Maybe he ill post a pic.

Hey Christian - Awesome man
They are sooo cool. Those forks are so unique! I'd love to have one...he he
There wouldn't be many of those in Oz. How long have you been searching for one?
Great addition to your collection man! Are you keeping it yellow?

Hey Sodbuster - love that avatar...herbie goes bananas
Mick - Volcano

Moxie decals are correct on either the hardtail or the mono. They were just leftover from the Matthews Moxie and into the transition to LRV when Chuck took over

Just for fun, here's a little twist on the girder

Moxie was a name that covered several models, the Moxie Mono being one. Matthews were manufactured by LRV who later dropped the Matthews name and marketed them as just LRV. The Moxie name continued.

I'm no expert but have been researching as much info as I can find. These scans I robbed from one of BenOr's eBay auctions (Hope it's ok to post these Ben! )









I got this frame and fork from Ben but I only have a picture of the complete bike when he owned it. It's been posted here before and I'm close to having all of the parts for it.

Haven't done anything with this one except wipe it down. I have most of the parts but the chainstay needs some work. I have a NOS three-arrows 44T and an Ashtabula with fresh black oxide. I will probably use Schwinn pedals. It also needs one of the sleeves on the swingarm.

Reilley1, is your red one an LRV or Matthews? I can see the LRV decal on Sodbusters and my red one is LRV although you can't see it in the picture.

It's an LRV. I know because he got that frame frome me.

Thanks for the Matthews education folks. Learn something new every day!

thanks mick, Volcano

Those forks flex like buggery, but they are very cool, I'd say it's the first one in Australia. I don't know of any others but now days the world is so small it would only take 4 or so days to get another one down here.

don't know about the color, I might play around a little I know they came in yellow or blue but I'll see. It's only paintand a decal. however the rest will be as era correct as I can get with my little knowledge. So then if I want it pure I just have to respray the frame. I do like the yellow though so we'll see.

ALSO thanks to all the guys who have posted pictures and diagrams this thread has become quite a body of Matthews knowledge.

Thanks again

Bumping this thread for several reasons. One...I like Matthews...

Two...when did they make the style with the cut-out front gusset? It has mounts for a banana seat brace and it has a hole for a kickstand. The hole looks like it could have been a modification.



Three...I suspect/hope that these are Matthews bars. They don't look like my other Matthews bars, but look like some I've seen on other supposedly original bikes. Any confirmation on this or hints on how to ID the Matthews bars?

Can't wait to see the Matthews done Christian.

If it's to the standard of your Torkers and Repco, it'll be a blinder.

Gotta love a Mono!

I have to pass props to Bill C for the Matthews ads.

Sorry for the blasphemy Christian - I woke up in the night remembering your springer is a Crossrider!!!

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I need a couple (actually three) of the chrome "fork caps"....and it appears that Rob needs one as well. It seems that the same cap works for other bikes as well. My Graco has the same cap in decent shape but I need some really good ones.

I have a Mathews monoshock that I just restored.Could someone help me with the headset size?I tried old tanges and tiogas but the headtube on the frame is bigger?It is an old MS-1 with the adjustable shock gusset. Does it need the girter fork?Did I spell that right?

I don't know the exact size but I do know that a stock Matthews mono used Wald headset components. hope this helps.

P.S. it's "girder" as in steel girder.

Thankyou for the info its gonna be fun researching that.

Google is your friend.

Wald catalog.

hey kurt, thanks for the compliment. I hope it comes out fine, going to wazza's to have all the bends and dents taken out this week end. and pick up some metal mags for it. I'm excited about this one, I may offend some people on this one but it could be going green. I know yellow and blue are the only colors it came in but I figure it's only a paint job that can be changed quite easily. the rest will be era correct!

thanks again. and thanks again guys for all the pics this is now quite a wealth of matthews stuff.