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1987 S&M K-9 D-ZINE



I came upon this bike not sure exactly of what it was. it had partial mad dog decals on it but several things didnt add up. for one, it didnt have a chain stay bridge and it had single thick drop outs with no serial number.

i decided to hit up chris moeller, and he told me that he wasnt sure of what it was. he doesnt have much memory of early s&m history. after talking to him he told me that the only differences between the mad dog and the k-9, was the k-9's had smaller diameter tubing and the tubing was also thinner. when they went to the mad dog, the tubing got fatter and thicker. chris couldn't remember if k-9 d-zines or early mad dogs had chain stay braces or not. he also has no recolection if early s&ms had serial numbers.
interview confirming: (thanks bmxsociety)



i decided to go to the only guy who has a k-9 d-zine... scott from patriot cycles. (you know the yellow one from the picture) after talking with scott about his, i found out that his has no chain stay brace and no serial number. after conversating with him, and sending him pictures, he felt pretty confident that mine was a k-9. but i needed to do more research before i could get excited. only problem? ...  his HAS double thick dropouts.
Scott's k-9: (thanks doug)



so that had me scratching my head, because i originally thought there were only 25  k-9 d-zines. but after further talks with moeller, he says there were less than 100 k-9's made... the 25 that i was referring to was the first batch/proto-types. so therefore, there must have been another batch of k-9's right?
interview confirming: (thanks bmxsociety)



this lead me to talking with ryan partridge. he showed me a flyer... the flyer says standard and pro k-9's now available. also says theyre available in red and white... boom that was the bomb shell.   as i have seen from other s&m flyers, the standard s&m's had single thick drop outs front and rear. also standard s&ms had 18.5 tt's, and the pro xl's had 19.5" tt's... mine has an 18.5 tt. so i atleast solved the question as to why this has single thick drops... because its a standard model s&m.
here is the ad: (thanks ryan partridge)




now that brings me back to the whole "thinner and smaller tubing." i decided to measure all of my tubing's circumphrence. turns out my bottom tube measures 4 inches around. i asked a bunch of members with early mad dogs to measure their bottom tubes... all measure 4 1/2 inches. after asking moeller about this, he said mine is most likely a k-9, because mad dogs didnt have 4" circumphrence tubing. now we're gettin somewhere!
Measurements:



during our conversation, i told moeller that this bike was bought at a swap meet at pearl sooner bmx race track in 1992. he told me that this bike may have belonged to his old friend charlie long. i decided to call up charlie and asked him about this bike. while converating with him, i found that charlie was good friends with chris moeller back in 87, and when chris came up with his own company, charlie was one of the first to get a bike. He said that he had one of the first s&m's. it was red with the cook brothers bridge. he couldn't remember much about it other than that. wicked sweet!

so the only thing that is still left unanswered- why the mad dog decals? well as i said earlier, charlie and chris were good friends. most likely, he was sportin the mad dog decal to help promote s&m's new frame. hell im sure most of you remember seeing that robinson frame with a k-9 sticker. its not too far fetched to think someone changed the sticker to "the newer model"



for me, the mystery is put to rest and im happy to own this bike. since it is virtually impossible to get a nos k-9 decal, i just had one made. the red paint is OG.

with that i give you the 1987 S&M K-9 D-Zine (sorry its dirty as hell)