Although back in my day I don't think the 24" cruiser had a racing class or was too big. My question is when did the 24" hit the scene and what company's were the players?

I am noticing some parts out there for them on ebay and such and thought since I am not as, let's say light, as I used to be maybe a 24" would be something nice to add to my list of things to have.

Kenny

82/83 the 24" cruiser started to take over. Mongoose for sure, and I think SE were two of the earlier companies to commit to that wheel size.

24" Cruisers came out in late 1981. RRS and DG were the first players.

Pro Cruiser Main in Summer of 1981. Brent Patterson on a KOS 26, Ben Joy on a Powerlite 26.


Local Cruiser Class in mid 1981, everyone on 26" bikes.


1980 DG Vulcan 26"


I took delivery of my DG 24 in December of 1981. In December 1981, we all ran 24" Schwinn blackwall street tires on Ukai 24x2.125 alloy hoops because no knobbies were produced yet. Must have been February 1982 when Comp IIIs were released in 24x2.125 and 24x1.75. Early 1982 we only had a couple 24s around and some of the class (Jay Graves and Ben Joy in this shot) were still on the 26" bikes.


This still sits downstairs.


Late Spring 1982, more DG 24s.


June 1982 Nationals, all of us are on 24s.

I got my PL-24 around 1985+/-. The classes were thin but the competition was strong. This is how I raced it and I still have it!!

Rad pictures Ken.

I've got a 1/82 24" GT Cruiser. Original owner.

Here's my Dad racing it at Hellyer park, San Jose:

Masking tape on the bellbottoms. I remember passing the tape roll around staging too...

I have been trying forever to remember (yes I am getting old) what the cruiser was that I raced in Hawaii was and I have finally found out. It was a Champion 26" 1980. So now I am on a mission to find one.....
http://bmxmuseum.com/image/picture_1_1514_lg.jpg
If anyone has one let me know. Maybe it might find a new home.

Kenny
http://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/champion/11650

Ken, What is the chrome Looptail? It looks like it could be a Robinson with that gusset??

The chrome Looptail above (and now below) is the 1981 DG 24

The thing that has me sold is the littel cross bar just below the top bar. The frame I had was red.

KennyClick to view attachment

I am almost to the point that I will get any cruiser from that era at this point. The one I had right before that one was a Schwinn Cruiser all dolled up.

Kenny

I had a memory of Joe Claveau and a mixed wheel size cruiser in my mind but could not find anything that had both of those elements together. Did find this though while searching:

"In 1980, Jeff Kosmola won the first ABA Cruiser title, racing on his signature model Mongoose - a 26 inch wheeled "Kos Kruiser" Premiering the last race of that same year came something that would change cruisers as they were known. A top ranked BMXer from Southern California, riding for RRS (Riverside/Redland's/Schwinn) by the name of Joe Claveau, showed up on the first cruiser with 24 inch wheels. It wasn't long before 26 inchers were tossed aside and the real BMX cruiser as we know it today was here to stay." - http://www.thebmxshop.com/purebmx/parentsguide.shtml

Could it have been a Nomura 26/24? Thats the only mixed wheel cruiser I know of...

I thought Torker came out with a 24" before 1980???

Me on my GHP 24" cruiser in '84. White wheels came of a wheel chair

Hey Kenny remember Castle Park? Everybody was on 26 cruisers. I think John Llacuna was tearing it up on a Kos. It was 1981 and that summer I was on a trip to California and went to Orange to watch the races. I saw the cruiser class dominated by 24's against the 26"s. I bought a Powerlite 24, 3 bar cruiser. At Castle Park I loaned My cruiser to Kevin Sano who raced against you and John. Can't remember what place he got but I do remember him doing very well. So about 1981 was the start of 24's taking over. I think I had the only 24 at the time, funny I never raced that bike much. I do remember getting beat by Eric Philapart who was on a Kos. Mongoose did some testing of a 24/26 wheel bike, 24 in the rear. Later they would come out with a production all 24 that looked like a scaled down Kos and soon followed up by the Pro Class 24.

Changstar

DG 24" cruiser? ridden by who? I can't even name one DG factory cruiser rider on the national circuit in 81-82.

Joe Claveau and perhaps somebody else was riding that RRS 24" cruiser that got attention in BMXA with the rotating BB chain tensioner thing. By Spring 82 most people at nationals had 24" cruisers. Not everybody though. On Mark Lopez's video there's a guy at the 82 NBL grands taking moto wins beating Jamie Tedesco in the youngest cruiser class on a 26" class. My brother got 2nd in 14-15 cruiser in 82 at Lawrenceville on a 26" Torker, beating a lot of 24" Hutch cruisers.

In 1980 I won the Maryland state championships on a JC Higgins 26" cruiser frame I found in the woods near my house. The amazing thing is I jumped it a lot and never broke the frame.

I personally have very fond memories of 26" cruisers, and there are lots of pics of 26" cruisers here.

Does the name Kevin Harlow ring a bell?

I raced 20" from 1976 until 1984 and raced 24" cruisers from 1982 until 2002. I love the way a cruiser handles, especially at high speed on a downhill track.

Richard Vogt
bmxmountainbiker

Nice GHP there man - still got it?


I think everyone would agree the Mongoose Two Four really set the 24" scene off - it was the bike that went to the masses and it rode well.

After that you have the SE Floval Flyer, GT 24, Hutch XL24 as the early top performers.

Everybody pretty much made a 24" in 83 although a few of the big players left 24"s off the list for a while - most notably Diamond Back who didn't really hit with a 24" until 85.

RRS was pretty much the first, and after they got the coverage in BMXA, as the 82 season was opening many companies were coming out simultaneously with 24" cruisers, so I can't say exactly. I rode a Torker 24" cruiser by early '82. Other companies coming out with 24" cruisers very early: GT, probably CW, MCS, Thruster. The Hutch 24" cruiser was out by the summer nationals. I can't pinpoint exactly when it came out. Mongoose had a 24" cruiser by summer 82. Not sure about Powerlite. probably SE. Also Profile was out there too. I think there were a lot of one off type bikes that didn't get widespread usage.
I raced cruiser a lot in 81-82 in the Eastern US. I can't recall ever racing somebody on a DG.

Nomura also had a 26-24 cruiser maybe even in 81.

I have a video of him racing a 26" Powerlite at Vineland in 1980. He probably wasn't at any East Coast nationals and didn't get much magazine coverage on a 24" DG BITD. I mean he was not at the NBL 82 Grands or stuff like that.

Kos Wins Vineland

OM swoops Harlow on a Powerlite right in front of my camera.

I got a Torker 24 when it first came out. It was probably early Spring 82. At Indy of the winter of 81/82 just about everybody was still on 26" cruisers as far as I can tell. I mean 24" bikes existed before that, but people weren't racing them. RRS was the first one at races in late 81 that got attention.

Kevin Harlow didn't race too much east coast... The only race I really remember him attending in the early 1980s was the Powder Springs national in Georgia... Does anyone else know if DG raced any other NBL or east coast nationals?

Richard Vogt
bmxmountainbiker

I think in Cali you would see more since many of the factory's were there and they were testing. Also to see top factory riders at the local track had to have made a lot of noise while on secret one off prototypes. I think then news would spread eastward. All the 26 cruiser racers probably felt comfortable and waited to race against a 24 to see which is better. If you have built up your full race 26, the idea of now having to buy a new frame and wheels could be expensive for the average racer. So I bet many stuck with the 26 as long as they could even after the 24's showed up. I still remember Toby debuting the Hutch 24, it was big news. Does anyone remember that at first cruisers were not accepted by all, many felt it was not true BMX. The first cruisers were beach type with BMX parts on it. Almost like starting over again in the 20 inch, with the Schwinn Scrambler type frame. Those days were so much fun, seeing innovations that today are common.

Changstar

Larry,

That video of you racing in Middletown, Maryland reminds me of a trip I made in 1976 to race the grand opening of a track in Knoxville, Tennessee. The track was basically a downhill, very fast, modified U. Long first straight downhill really fast with 4 or 5 jumps and drops, one big turn (berm) and a kink or chicane with some whoops in it and then two or three jumps to the finish line doing about 35 or 40 mph.

Hard packed red clay, very, very fast... 36 lb. Mongooses with Motomags racing FMFs and DGs that weighed 15 lbs. less. Totally flying with tons of momentum slipping and sliding through the one and only real turn. I slid out in one of my motos and dropped down on my right kneecap and still have a scar to this day where I tore through my blue jeans and ground all the skin off!

Richard Vogt
bmxmountainbiker

These were on the original reply but when the old hosting site crashed, many were lost. This DG Cruiser (serial number 60) is from 1981. We did run them on the national circuit on the west coast in 1981 and 1982.

Larry is my brother. I posted and revised my other auld skool BMX youtube vids, so view this and click on the video response and you can cycle through all of them.

Auld Skool Western Maryland BMX video

I also have a bunch of auld skool BMX pics on Facebook under Bob VonMoss

Yeah still got it. It's my brothers , unfortunately it's been painted silver and purple and looks terrible.I'll try to put some pics up soon.

I loved 24" cruisers......

I first raced a 24" RRS back in '82 (11 expert).

This shot is from Alpenrose Dairy, clearing the camel back.

I sold it when I finally started to grow and then raced a 24" JMC.

Thankfully it still safely hang's in my garage.

Click to view attachment




The JMC that is.........

Now that I think about it, there was a lack of tires for the 24, so I feel that slowed the growth. Comp III had a 26 tire but took a while to make a 24. once the 24 was available the end of the 26 was here to stay.

Changstar

Same bike over 20 years later
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

I owned a 81 GT 24'' for a while and now a good friend has it.I remember 82 being the year for 24'' in my area. Hey Ken who else was factory DG on cruisers in 81 82? also got any idea when they shut the doors?

Here's some RRS 24 info. Unfortunately I don't have the date of the ad.







And here's a gratuitous shot of mine...

My brothers GHP 24" he's owned it since the mid 80's. He's restoring it back to its original colour. Just needs some decals.




The last pic is my brother racing it last weekend at a Retro Race meeting in Sydney.