BMXmuseum.com Bikes / Boss bicycles / 1988 Boss Competition Freestyler (Vander Tribute RIP)

This bike was built and restored from the remains of a used black Boss Competition FS frame with stock Boss "step ladder" bars, stock Odyssey stem and Tracer sprocket. 

The unique wheel covers were created by using enlarged version of the 1988 Dave Vanderspek memorial sticker image which back then were handed out free with FAT 'Zine. The large decals were custom made with kind permission from Maurice Meyer to use large scan of the original '88 memorial sticker drawing as a template for these one-of-a-kind wheelcover decals.

The top tube has custom hand painted logo saying "Vander" on both sides of the top tube to make the bike even more distinctive. The building process was completed in about six months.

There's bunch of quality parts like Sugino cranks, Tioga BB, Viscount DynaMax seat, Avocet FasGrip tires.. to name a few. But this is not so much about parts but the sum of them and how they all work together. The black & white combo is a bit boring, i must admit that, but on the other hand it makes the graphics in both the wheel covers and frame decals stand out real nicely.

I wanted to make a custom dedication and unique feature by hand painting the nickname "Vander" on to the top tube with a font that resembles the letters used in the frame decals. I did that also because the frame was missing the original "Competition Freestyler" decal.

Around the time this project was finished the bike was also added to Maurice Meyer's Curb Dogs web site into the "Memorials" page: http://www.mauricemeyer.com/curb_dogs/memorial.html

To me this was sort of a very emotional project that came more and more important as i was progressing. Although i never got the chance to know let alone meet Vander personally i think with this build i managed to capture a small piece of what he lived for, fun. We all know he rode for Boss during his final years and that's why i figured the Boss Comp FS would be perfect candidate for this build and perfect bike to honor his memory.

Here's the original article/bike introduction i wrote at vintagebmx.com:

The project that started around december '05 has finally come to an end. This bike is dedicated to Dave Vanderspek and Curb Dogs and is my way of honoring the freestyle legend.
This bike isn't a Vanderspek replica. Nevertheless a '88 Boss Competition FS survivor frame which i wanted to dedicate to Vanderspek because he used to ride for Boss, like we all well know.
Originally, I was supposed to buy the Boss bars and the Odyssey stem, that's all. But because of such a good deal and no one interested in the frame and the misc. factory parts i thought "why not start an all-new project?" and went for it.
The frame was in somewhat beat up condition. The paint had scars everywhere and the headtube & toptube decals were missing ..how convenient. The existing decals however were in decent shape and i was happy with them. Now i'm not sure whether the Boss decal set i found was repro or not (probably they were, judging by neon yellow) but it didn't matter to me, they looked good anyway. Although i didn't start the project from scratch there were still lots of right style parts missing and lots of touching up to do with the frame's beat up paint job. The factory stock bike had 6-spoke Tuffs, but instead i ended up putting all white Hi-Caliber 48's (which are basicly just unknown rims with Joy Tech "sealed tech" hubs) with custom wheel discs. The wheels were likely from a pink Hutch Windstyler or similiar when i asked about it from the seller.
The wheel discs are whole another story. This is the first time ever i have wheel discs on any of my bikes so, the experience was all-new to me. The idea of large Curb Dogs/Vander memorial stickers on each side just came to me one night and i started playing with the idea and making rough sketches from a low-res image. I thought immediately it would be a unique way to honor Vanderspek's memory and make a standard beat up Boss FS stand out from being the star of the typical "survivor bike brought back to life" -story. I then emailed Maurice to ask if this was ok with him to reproduce the images for this purpose and whether it would be possible to use the hi-res image of the original. He said yes and because of that i'm forever grateful to him because of trusting me in this. Thank you again!
I had to enlarge the black bar on the background of the image so what i did i basicly "stretched" it to make room for hub openings on the discs. I had to adjust the brightness/contrast of the images to get good quality print but that was the only thing that was modified, every graphic detail was left as they appeared on the original. On top of that i wanted to add the copyright mark and the year '88 with maurice's name to make it more "legit" in case someone asks about it.
At first i thought the discs would make the wheels stand out a little "too much" from the black/white theme and that it would look too "downhill". But after few sketches i really strated to like the idea and the looks. The resized Vander images is without a doubt the real "catch" in this build, for me atleast. From the beginning i was very exited about the idea and couldn't wait to see it done.
The four 39cm by 18cm decals (15.3/8" x 7") however cost me a fortune to make custom. The shop ofcourse suggested me that if i had like hundred of them it would be cheaper. True, but the idea is was to be unique, not mass-producing wheel discs. Now applying the stickers on to the discs was easier than the guy at decal shop had first predicted and warned me about when i had told him they were going on to a convex wheel discs.
Installing the actual wheel covers on the other hand was sheer nightmare because of the 48 spokes giving me hard time fitting the discs. The 6 mounting bolts per wheel seemed far less than enough, really felt like there should've been 12 of them or something. The wheel discs really felt like they were meant to be on 36-spoke rims. In all it took me five hours per wheel to fit the discs in snuggly without bumps or loose spots on the edges and they really taught me how to work with hidden zip-ties inside them.
However, so far this has been THE most exciting build i've yet made because of the special "Vander aspect". It is truly now the most special bike in my collection because of the idea and the work involved, not so much of the money because the bike was relatively cheap with all the parts combined, well excluding the sticker, and all the parts were pretty easy to get ahold of.. except for the damn regular black Odyssey layback seatpost for 50 something US dollars total... almost as much as i paid for the frame alone without shipping! Crazy.
It would've been perfect ofcourse if i had had the bike done by Vander's birthday, but better late than never they say. I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Parts & Specs:

• Frame: 1988 Boss Competition Freestyler 100% Chro-Moly w/original paint & decals
• Serial#: T7061346
• Fork: Boss type  1" powdercoated w/thread-in peg bosses
• Bars: Boss "Step Ladder" Freestyle bars 29" w/"performer" pad for the looks
• Stem: Odyssey freestyle 6-bolt 21.1mm quill
• Grips: A'me Round bubble font logo
• Seatpost: Odyssey layback 22.2mm
• Seat: Viscount dynaMAX
• Seatpost clamp: Odyssey RX-2
• Levers: Dia-Compe Tech-77 w/locking buttons
• Front brake/pads: Hi-Caliber FS2001 w/Odyssey -adjuster, Skyway FS Tuff pads
• Rear brake/pads: Hi-Caliber FS2001 w/Odyssey -adjuster, Skyway FS Tuff pads
• Gyro: original Odyssey Gyro 1"
• Gyro cables: Odyssey
• Front brake cable: Odyssey Slick cable, "Peregrine" housing (= generic white housing)
• Headset: Tioga MX-2
• Cranks: Sugino 1 pc. 175mm Cro-Mo NOS
• Pedals: KNP KP-111 (MKS Grafight-X copies) 1/2" purchased in used condition
• Sprocket: alloy Profile power disc with steel "Tracer" 44T sprocket, Sugino fixing bolts
• Bottom bracket: Tioga "Beartrap" BB-220BT 24T NOS
• Chain: Izumi "zebra" chain ½" x 1/8" NOS
• Freewheel: Mongoose 16T
• Wheels: Hi-Caliber 48H single wall rims w/JoyTech "Sealed System" high flange hubs
• Pegs: Rear: used but very well preserved threaded Odyssey Hollow bullets 26T, Front: NOS Spinner thread-in fork pegs
• Wheel covers: Taiwanese, made by "CO-Union Industry" transformed into custom made "Dave Vanderspek/Curb Dogs" memorial discs.
• Tires: Avocet FasGrip Freestyle, 20 x 1.75 black/skinwall 100PSI NOS
• Tubes: Kenda 20 x 1.75-2.125
• Original Retail price: $280.00 (Source: BMX Plus! Boss Competition Freestyler review jan 1989)
• Approximate value: priceless

Fresh updates:

• Switched from the white A'me Rounds to Tri's.
• Turned the seatguts around for better seat placement/aesthetics, solely for the looks, no effect to rideability. 
• Removed the misaligned Odyssey sticker from the Odyssey seatpost and replaced it with "Curb Dogs - Freestyle" sticker to match better with the overall color and theme (black/white/blue). 
• The fork pegs are now mounted into the upper peg bosses - for the fun of it.

Previous updates:

• Generic "Performer" handlebar pad added on june 11th 2007.
• Used KNP KP-111 pedals (MKS Grafight-X imitations) from a pink Boss Comp FS, january 2007.
• NOS Avocet FasGrip Freestyle tires in july 2006.

This bike was a part of the VintageBMX.com 2008 Freestyle Calendar.