For one reason or another - need one little part, got to go get really good photos by a landmark, etc - I've put it off getting pictures up. Procrastinate no more. Here's the story of the rebuild of the first ridden production Street Beat.

At the 1985 AFA Freestyle Masters contest at Jack Murphy stadium in San Diego, Skyway released the first production Street Beats - one chrome and one orange. This article covers the history of the bicycle and the re-creation done by Todd Costantino and Maurice Meyer.


The night before the San Diego contest.

First advertisement for the Street Beat showing prototype stickers.

1985 was a boom year for freestyle. The AFA Masters series allowed the promoters to take their show on the road and hold contests in any flat open space. Freestyle competition was no longer limited to the few remaining 70's skateparks. Manufacturers were also getting into the game making their bid for a stake of the freestyle market with wild new bikes. The slick and fast Chrome world of BMX was about to be upended with the jutting pegs, platforms and wild colors of 80's freestyle.

During the 1984 Skyway European Tour, Skyway freestyle team rider Dave Vanderspek was testing the chrome prototype for the yet unnamed freestyle frame and fork set. Slight modifications were made for the production version and it was named the "Street Beat". As far as 80's freestyle frames went, the Street Beat was a modest frame and fork sporting more detail than overdone geometry. Details like:

* Aero top and bottom tubes
* Dimpled top tube
* Coaster brake bracket
* Gusetted head tube for brake clearance


The Street Beat took cues from Skyway's classic race bike, the TA with the use of teardrop tubes and actual TA fork dropouts. The original advertisement showed all white and all orange models with a TA-like sticker set that was replaced for the production run. The orange version - with the advertisement only stickers - was given to me for use in the San Diego contest and for the Skyway promotional video that was shot there. The chrome frame was given to Dave Vanderspek and sported TA stickers. It was never released although at least a couple have surfaced.



Competing in the San Diego AFA Masters contest.

Snapshot from the Skyway promotional video shot at the San Diego contest.

Holding a trophy at the Pleasanton AFA Masters contest.

I can't recall whether I got the Street Beat at home or at the contest but I remember putting it together just before the contest and riding with the new and slippery brake pads. The bike was loud to say the least. I felt a lot of eyes on that bike rolling out to Golden Gate Park the first time. Kinda felt like I had ride 5 times better to live up to that kind of statement. Looking back, I liked the orange bike the best out of the Street Beats because it was loud.

The Street Beat continued for several years with minor variations and paint schemes.

In 2005, a large supply of unpainted Skyway Street Beat frames was uncovered and made available through several distributors - some as cheap as $15 per frame. This prompted a Street Beat build off and one contestant - Todd Costantino - decided to reproduce the first orange Street Beat with the unique stickers. Todd contacted me to get some details and photos of the bike. I had just started work on restoring the '84 TA I had just before the orange bike and I dug out a few parts that were on that original Street Beat. I still had the pedals, seat post clamp, seat post and the worn brake pads and orange A'me grips. I had to keep the seat post for my TA project but the rest went to Todd with a list of the other parts. We communicated regularly on the progress over the months. I worked with a friend to create some graphics for the stickers but in the end, Scott Joines re-created the artwork and made the stickers from a small jpeg file. The stickers came out excellent. Todd set about getting the parts and having the frame, forks, bars, brake and power disk powder coated by Chip. Luckily Chip had a pair of early forks with the cutout droput which he traded to Todd for the unpainted solid dropout fork. Details, details, details...

Todd entered the bike in the build off but could not complete it to spec due to the $100 maximum price restriction and the need for flight cranks.

In the fall of 2006, I made a trip out to Philadelphia to see Large
Ray, the Ramp up the Jawn crew and to attend Brian Pleva's "Fall Brawl"
old school BMX BBQ. Todd and I had talked about debuting the bike and
it needed a few parts so I brought some flight cranks and the original
DX seatpost out along with a jersey and some pictures. Todd and I met at
Brian's place for the first time and finished the bike there. Later that
evening I was blown away to be the receiver of a freshly restored orange
Street Beat - my first complete old-school bike. Later that day Ray gave
me a nice red plate that I could do up with the original stickers.


Completed bike with jersey.

Todd Costantino and Maurice Meyer.

A few weeks after, Brett Downs packed the bike up for a super safe trip
and sent it across the country. It arrived in immaculate condition and
I found myself peeking at it every day before heading off to work. I
eventually replaced the wheels with a pair of coaster wheels from the
UK and detailed the bike out with grip tape, a custom front brake axle
guard I used for years in the 80's and a freshly done up number plate
with die cut stickers made by Scott Joines. The bike made its debut in
its newly completed state May 12th, 2007 at the Roseville Vintage BMX
show and seemed to be well received.

To say thanks, I wanted to come up with something a little better than a thank you card so a signed 1987 Skyway tour poster seemed appropriate!

And finally, the completed bike.

Man that's a cool looking bike! Great how it came together too. I didn't know that you had the first production Street Beat. Now you basically have it again, so awesome!!!!

Maurice,
The bike came out looking awesome! I love the rider looks with all the custom modifications & gimmicks like guards, the pads, zip-ties, straps etc. This is the best stuff there really is, personal rides from way back. I love the story and seeing the bike "getting back home".

Are those the same brake levers you had in this photo?

What are those lever covers and is there a special story for them?

Congrats on the bike, it is truly one of a kind because of the cool history it holds!
Awesome.

-Timo

Awesome build with a great story

Excellent. It's way cool when a build has sum background story too

that is a great storry and a great bike, nice job Todd

very cool piece of skyway history you have there...
looks awesome..
bob

absolutely gorgeous looking skyway. Great story!

Awesome build!

Looks great! Nice story!

Todd C. and Scott J. - 2 of the most generous people to ever enter this hobby BY FAR.

The amount of time and effort Scott spends making decals for the masses is incredible. I can honestly say he's the most generous person that I've never met - in my entire life.

Todd - major props for giving the bike to Drob as a gift. That's awesome.

The thing that makes this replica so cool is some of the parts are off the original bike! That's pretty crazy. Maurice - do you know what happened to the original frameset and some of the other parts?

I'd REALLY like to hear more about the autographed poster! Who signed the lower left corner? Is that Roman's? What did Hoffman have to say about the bike? What does he think of the vintage scene?

One more thing: Cool foot guard! Is that the original or a recently made item?

Wow,love threads like this ,Thats a special bike Maurice..........

very cool.....

Drob, in a different thread recently I said that would be a dope bike to re-do...seems I missed seeing this one the 1st time around. Extremely nice & I'm very jealous.

Good stuff.

That's the kinda project that comes together like a fairytale. Thanks, and congrats.

(Yeah, I was wondering whose signature was in the bottom left corner for a sec...until I realized that the "A" looks like the Aggroman logo.)

Thanks guys. Yeah, Todd is the man! I mean, I was psyched that he was
even doing the build at all but have it complete has me really stoked.
I'd have been happy enough to have given the parts to Todd knowing he
had done the bike and they had a good home but this really blew me away.
We kind of said "well, it you ever part it out give them back but they
should stay with the bike."

Thanks Timo, yeah I really like when you see a bike and it's ready to ride.
It's funny: even though I plan to not ride it and keep it nice, I find myself
adjusting the brakes and seeing how well they work. Those aren't the exact
same levers or covers - just the same versions. At first I thought the
black covers would be way too hard to find. They're on eBay all the time
now.

Bedlam, you are so right: Todd and Scott are way too cool. I'm really
amazed at the mutual support in the freestyle community overall. Ebay
is a necessay evil but I'd have never thought getting old bikes together
would be possible without seeing the stuff you guys do and the help from
everyone here. Since Todd did nearly all of this build, I don't know who
all to thank but wait until I get the chrome TA posted - there's a long
list of people that helped make that happen.

You know, I'm not sure what happened to all the parts. Somehow I think
the frame was either broken or given away. I suspect given away though
because Skyway got me a production stickered orange one pretty quick.
There were a lot of guys shredding at GG park in 1985.
The cranks were sold. The plate though - all my plates - remain a mystery
because I know I would not have intentionally gotten rid of them. I
still hope to find them in Mom's garage.

The foot guard is the original one. You can actually see a litle bit of
the Santa Cruz logo on it. It was on the chrome TA when I pulled
it out of the garage. I actually made it a little later than the original
orange bike but I figured that was a good home for it.

Funny thing: while doing some of the touches like that on the bike I found
myself wanting to update it a little. It was actually kind of hard to use
black ties and grip tape but that's what was on the bike so I did it.
I think white ties and clear grip tape would have looked better.

The poster signing was a blast. The first stop was at Oscar Gonzalez' house.
Hugo, Oscar and I met there and signed the posters (for ourselves as well)
then put them in the can and sent them to Mat, Scott and Eddie. Yup, Eddie
put the Aggroman sign on only Todd's poster. Eddie has the Aggroman suit
by the way... One of the coolest things about that poster signing was that
it got us all talking about a 20 year Skyway reunion. Since that was Mat's
first tour, this is his 20 years on the road marker. I was surprised that Mat
was actually really into it. Scheduling has been tough but it's looking
like it might happen at Interbike. I didn't talk to him much about the vintage
stuff going on but Mat's super jazzed on BMX all the way around so I'm sure
he'd be blown away with a lot of this. Man, I have to say I was sweating the
post office putting all our posters in that tube for 4 separate trips through
the postal system.

Tino, I remember seeing that post and having the keep the cat in the bag a
little until I could get the whole thing done with photos. Same with the
Chrome TA and the personal build thread. I'll get that one up soon too.

Awsome bike and a great job rebuilding it. Top marks all round.

awesome

maurice, its great seeing the bike done and knowing all the history behind it, im happy to say i was a part of the building of it (more than one time) and am glad to see it finally in your hands....

some of us knew it was going to be there a long time ago

Fantastic bike/build. Great attention to detail.
2fresh beat me to the question about the brake levers with covers. What brand are they?? I remember seeing them first in THAT photo in Freestylin' issue 1 and always wondered who made them.
Again, well done.

As I've said before in person, great job on the bike. I fealt very fortunate to have helped with such a significant build.
-Chip

I got to see it in progress. Nice to see it done, Maurice.

I think Chip summed this up well that this is a significant build. I'm pleased to read the story behind it as I didn't know any of the history and if it has people talking to each other about reunions then it's even better. Some pretty famous names have worn the Skyway jerseys.

the lever covers look like vintage honda......

Beaver Dam, you're right. I think they are XR70 covers. I have the bags with the part numbers saved. There are a lot of repro ones on eBay now too. I bought the originals at the motorcycle shop back in the day trying to mimic Damon Frost who pretty much started that trend and the CW bars trend for freestylers in GG park.

Brian, Chip and everyone else who helped build it - THANKS A MILLION. This is one of the two bikes that I will never part with. I've been trying to get it up into the house but it's a tough sell with the wife but I'm going to make sure to get it a better display in the garage and out and around to more shows.

Great Job Drob, Todd, et. all. Love the story behind the build. Thanks for sharing. I think Drob is a fine embassador for the Vintage BMX scene.

Great Build!!!! I am very happy to have a part on that build! I donated the Turbo stem to Todd.....feels like yesterday i was talking to Todd when he first started this build. He had a few "hard to get parts" to find to replicate this build for you. He found those "hard to get parts" in 2 phone calls the same day!!!! Me for the turbo stem and he found the NOS hutch stem lock from Smokin Endo (who i hang out with just about everyday....and live a whopping 15 minutes away!!! LOL!!) Very cool!!! I love the FINAL product...i hope to meet you at the next Brian P event and get the chance to see this killer build in person!!!!

Nice job guys!!!!


Jon

Jon,

That was actually just one phone call. If I recall, I called Endo and you happen to be there playing cards. One call, two impossible to find parts!

Tears in eyes now seeing this thread. Just so happy, don't know what else to say.

Thanks to everyone who helped me get it together to the point of handing it off:

Chip on powder and one abused set of MX 1000's which are now shinny orange and foil stickered
Jainbaby's tires
Jon - one very hard to find DB Turbo stem
Endo - also hard to find Hutch med stem lock
rcrscott - intence attention to detail for reproducing decals (email from the engineer of "Project Grasshopper" who hand cut the original decals said they were dead on!)
Bedlam - gear and disc
BrianP - putting up with my usually annoying self because I had to ask him every 10 minutes for another tool at the last BBQ
Anybody I forgot
Last But Not Least - Maurice "Drob" Meyer - A nice guy!
That poster will be in my last will and testament!

That bike is finally where it belongs.

Now can't wait to see the TA!

-Todd

Wow, what a great bike. Thanks, Maurice, for all that information.

That's an awesome read and killer bike! I didn't know the significance of it until now. I have new appreciation for those TA'esque decals as I had assumed they were custom. Great job Todd, Maurice, Scott and everyone else involved.

Hey Maurice,

I have some video I shot of you and Todd showing the bike off at Brian P's bbq. Want me to upload to youtube so you can link to it?

Jeff

jeff, upload both the vids.....
just cut out some of the wedge action so people dont loose interest

Brian, you got it.. Ill get that up.

Jeff

Include Drob's 540 if it's on there.

-Todd

For a look of the bike in action check out Drob at 1:43 (yep, 43!) into this video.

Drob in Hayward 1985!

I was there at Brian P's house when you were still putting that bad boy together.
Great story.

Hey Maurice, you forgot this pic... the Downs twins tuning it up before being shipped.


Kelly is turning the cranks and Jack is checking the chain tension....can you guess what happened next?

RobQ

Oh no! Really? Did he get his hand caught in there?

That video is cool. I've never seen that before! I see some old faces. Tony Murray is one of the best quarter-pipe riders ever. That contest was actually in Pleasanton. First time I met Dennis. I think it was his first AFA. He was ripping in practice but it was a super-slippery floor and he was sliding out. He got instant respect from me because he did like a front wheel 540 and I was way into the spinning tricks. I think Pete A. won 17x then Robert, then me. Might have been the first time I placed.

I see a young Karl Rothe in the first copy and some Oleg on the TA although they don't show any of his really innovative stuff there.

Jeff, yeah, let's see the video of the BBQ. I thought Mark Eaton was making something too. I want to link some of this stuff up on my page with the bike story. I'll update it with the names of people that contributed.

Yeah, I was really blown away that you guys had the stem. When Todd asked what parts I was like "Oh man, this isn't going to be easy." I still haven't even seen a US orange coaster for sale and I passed up a NOS set a few years ago! I swapped out the new school tuff for some UK orange ones but I still want to get the US ones someday. Just put a Kashimax Aero copy on it.

Thanks again you guys. Way, way cool. I plan to show off your work as often as I can. I love that bike. I really want to workout another trip with some riding involved. NYC would be the too cool.

This is one of the coolest stories to come out of this site in my opinion.
Of course I am also a little biased being that I'm a BIG Skyway fan and had a small part in this bike.

I'm so glad you put this up Maurice. This bike has allot of history and it was great to finally hear it all. Those old pics with the original bike are priceless.
It's cool to see the way the members here respect the history of freestyle and those who were involved in it.

I've never met Todd, but I have a ton of respect for him for building a significant bike like this and then simply giving it to Maurice. Just goes to show why this community is the greatest on earth.

I've been fortunate enough to meet Maurice now although just briefly and all I can say is he's one of the nicest bros I've ever met. I've even gotten a part or 2 from him for some of my Streetbeats. His love of this hobby/sport is just as strong as ever. I hope we get to chat some more very soon.

I'm glad I got to be part of this bike even if it was just a small amount. I had no idea the signifigance of it at the time, but now with this post, it makes me proud that I was able to contribute.

I want to say thanks to Todd and Maurice for trusting me to make the decals.

And I want to thank all those in this thread that made such cool comments about me and my decals. I really don't make these things for the money but more the satisfaction of seeing them on a completed bike and knowing that maybe I helped someone with something they couldn't otherwise get.

I dig this place. My wife calls me a throw back now that I'm back into my 80's freestyle stuff. But I wouldn't give up the time I've spent and all the cool friends I've made here for anything in the world.
Hopefully some day I'll get a chance to go to the "Brawl" or to Rockford and get chance to meet some more members.... and maybe even go for a ride.
HA! Me riding with you guys...Now there's a scary thought.

Man, I have not been on Vintage in a while but after going through this thread and looking at that bike again in detail I can't believe how clean and original it is,.. it's crazy. I asked Mat (Hoffman) this week for suggestions on a 20" for me and have all intentions of getting one very soon (after a LONG time). Josh White is getting one too and we will be riding this Summer - rusty, but riding skateparks in Portland/Seattle. Drob: that is a great idea for a NYC ride... I promise I would make time to be ther with you. I always loved riding in NYC, and to have everyone together (Brian P, Bedlam, Blyther, Jeff S, Ray, Eaton, Warren, you, many others..) would be epic.

This site kicks ***.


that's all for now.

Scott, can I go?

I promise not to get any flats, ride thru dog poo, hit any cars (I still say Mike cut me off! And I promise my brakes will be in working order) or have any asthma attacks!

Please!

-Todd

P.S.

Drob and I were just emailing the other day about your footage on the Skyway promos and that you had to do your bar endos and miami hoppers one footed

P.P.S.

Bedlam, didn't you once say you hated Scotty Freeman when you were a kid?