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1982 PMX Club

Early 80's german "PMX CLUB" brand. Built during july-august in 2008. In memory of Paavo the koolkat R.I.P.

The frame and the few odd parts arrived from Hilden, Germany and cost about $70 (thanks Linda!) What once used to be a bike came with a badly scarred Akisu fork, way short 1pc cranks, mutilated pedals, completely disintegrated bottom bracket, steel sprocket, steel 36 spoke wheelset with coaster brake, rusty no name bars, scarred HL stem, headset, some horrible mid 90's mountain bike seat, a short piece of some mangled steel tube acting as a "seatpost", generic and beat up anodized blue seatpost clamp and a mismatch set of comp III type tires. Phew. They were all part of the deal so i couldn't say "hey i need just the frame and fork thanks" because that would've been rude. Ultimately, the only parts i found uselful were just the frame and stem. Even the fork which at first glance looked OK was left unused because it was so beat up.
So the box arrived. A BIG box. And the first thing i noticed were the rear drop outs sticking out of it. hmmm... The frame was ok though, no damage to it during transit. Not much rust either apart from the usual areas around the welds. The drop outs only had mild chewing marks and were true. One thing that got me slightly worried was the top of the frame's seat tube that had been cracked and re-welded, right under where seatpost clamp goes, where the top tube and seat stays meet, the very typical place for such a crack. It would have been too perfect unless something like that hadn't come up. However, i was reliefed to find out the repair weld was made well and it felt solid so i didn't let it bother me. Besides, the repair weld seam turned out nice and shiny after polish and is now barely noticeable after polish so.. No problemo.
The Akisu forks which came with the frame were abused beyond help so i decided i wasn't going to bother restoring them as it would have been too much work and too expensive for my current budget. They had been treated very badly and had several scars and dings allover and on top of that, the threads were chewed up. All i did, I just cleaned them and threw them in my ever-expanding box of "miscellaneous parts i want to keep, but don't have any real use for" and began searching for some decent, era and style correct forks and eventually found with a nice re-chromed TX-1200's from the UK for really good price.
The bottom bracket seemed like original stock for sure. It takes years of abuse for a bb to get in such condition with pieces of bearing cages falling off and with bearing cones completely destroyed. So i just installed new polished bottom bracket and voilá! The cranks were likely taken from some child's bike because they were very short, shorter that you'd expect to see even in a bike this old. Or maybe the bike came like that, i don't know. Same with the steel sprocket and plastic pedals.
Oh yeah.. The pedals...
The left side pedal was unlike anything i had ever seen. I mean i have seen all kinds of broken and deliberately destroyed parts but this.. this, was beyond them all. It looked like the previous owner had experienced hard time getting the left side pedal off the cranks. So what do you do when you have a stuck pedal? Try turning the wrench "the other way" and some lubricant? No. Instead this guy had completely hacked off the pedal cage thinking it will "slide thru" the bb once it is slim fitted. Clever thinking but didn't work. I solved this by simply turning the wrench "the right way" with only little force and off it came. "Lefty tightey, rightey loosey goosey" ..or was it the other way around?
Bars were some knock offs from some dept. store bike, not much use for them but since i had the OA dip going on i did them too for fun. The grips were just pieces of hard plastic tubes left sitting on the ends of the bars. You can't really call them grips. And, there was the caliper brake axle left of the forks which came in handy and some no name mountain bike lever etc. etc. Long story short, looks like the bike had been assembled with whatever parts the previous owner could catch. Understanable, but looked like shit. It was truly a mix of all styles and eras and did no justice for the otherwise cool looking, decent quality frame. It is light weight so i am assuming it is chromoly. Then again it might not be.


Assembly.
I already had the mags, cranks, spider, chain ring bolts, bottom bracket, seatpost, seatpost clamp, front brake, cable and lever so there wasn't much stuff left to be acquired because like i said, i couldn't / wouldn't want to spend too much money. I have a soft spot for these burly looking late 70's BMX bikes so you will probably see a lot of influences in this build. The project was a quick one, it was completed in about a month (for me that's quick anyway) and it went thru the usual oxalic acid dip and polishing phase. I have no idea what the original frame decals might have once looked like but i kinda like the frame in bare blingin' chrome. Besides, there is so much going on with all the red pads so i'm happy without the stickers.


The first ride.
I was surprised on how small the bike feels. Then again i'm tall dude but the frame seems pro size so i guess it's the combination of sloppy steering angle (guesstimate 72) and the narrower-than-what-i'm-normally-used-to Nitto bars. I refused to put on a layback post because it wouldn't have suited with the style i had in mind and like we all know, "style is everything", "fashion before function" and so forth.
Getting used to the coaster brake seemed to take a while. That's why i assembled the front caliper to act as a "lifesaver" in case i don't have the time to react and backpedal or, if my cranks aren't in the "right" position for quick braking. And with the Bendix being practically unused there is only so much slack (practically none) so the the brake engages from the slightest crank movement including accidental, so therefore it is now a bit pain to use but i will get used to it. After a few good rides it is already much better. Updated thoughts of 2013: Funny how things change. These days i have coaster brake on most of my 20" bikes excluding the daily flatland ride (the white Street Beat) and some other freestyle builds. I am so used to coaster brake these days that i couldn't even imagine a bike without one, especially this one.
The 45/16 gearing is heavier than what i had normally put on my bikes. However i noticed the average cruise speed increased because i simply can't pedal slow if i know i can go faster. The bike weighs a lot but once you get the speed and momentum going there's no stopping! The last time i had rat-trap pedals was on my Carraro years and years ago and i hated them. I am definitely not a big fan of them but they were the correct style for this bike so here we go again, style is everything, functionality comes in second it seems. However, they feel surprisingly good under feet, no complains. The steering response is sluggish, as expected, and the narrow bars and fat tires doesn't make it any quicker responding either. The bike as a whole feels very solid, heavy and in fact, bomb proof. The fat knobby tires are slow but man i dig how they look combined with mags and the sound they make when rolling on asphalt or concrete.. YEAH!
It's funny, no matter how carefully you think you have everything adjusted there is always something coming loose during first rides. I thought i adjusted the bottom bracket properly only to find out the cranks make noise from being so loose i was embarrassed. Same with pedals with factory adjustments, can't trust that. Everything else has held up fine and i was really surprised about the O.G.K. grips and how nice they actually felt in the end, especially since every grip i've have ever ridden has been either A'me or ODI. Little did i know these funky pentagon shaped grips would be so comfortable.


Parts:
* Frame: 1982 (?) PMX Club

* Serial#: A25078 ..that would be january 1982 if there's any logic to it? If there isn't i have no idea what year exactly this is, so this is all based on my assumption looking at the gusset and the overall style of the frame.

* Fork: Tange TX-1200 beautifully re-chromed by the previous owner in the UK Stamped Tange "2L" for dec 1982. Threaded.

* Headset: mixed, mostly Tioga parts, caged bearings

* Stem: HL Hsin Lung quill 21.1mm

* Stem pad: Pro Neck vinyl snap pad... Thanks Stevenbeven!

* Bars: Nitto V-bar Cro-Mo

* Handlebar pad: Norco BMX snap-on vinyl pad

* Grips: O.G.K. as in Osaka Grip MFG Co. ltd. "Non-slip" Hex grip model #77-17AR, made in Japan

* Number plate: O.G.K. oval plate "made in japan" with custom handcut number "2"

* Seat: Centurion branded "Aero" type seat with checker print on padded vinyl, chrome plated rails and polished guts. Basicly a cheap but very stylish taiwanese seat and it is surprisingly comfortable.

* Seatpost: generic 22.2mm chromoly post, has knurlings for seat guts

* Seatpost clamp: Sicur Brevettato steel clamp

* Cranks: Sugino 175mm Cro-Mo one piece, stamped '83

* Bottom bracket: generic USABB 24T w/custom rubber seal modification to keep the dust outside

* Pedals: "Warrior BMX" branded steel rat-traps made by Wellgo w/½" spindle

* Spider: SR Sakae BMX, steel 110bcd, chrome plated steel

* Chain: KMC 410 single speed chain

* Chainring: Addicks 45-Teeth of nylon POWER!!!

* Chainring bolts: steel unbranded, black/chrome

* Wheels: '83 Troxel TrakMaster 5-spoke star mags w/Bendix 76 coaster brake on rear. Both wheels date stamped "TROXEL 5-20-83"

* Cog: Bendix 16T

* Tires: "Motocross Grip" brutal knobbies made by Duro 20x2.125 max inflation pressure 35PSI but these can handle up to 70PSI without any problems

* Frame pad: CK = Coast King snap-on vinyl pad

* Tubes: 20x2.0-2.125 w/schrader valve


Previous Updates:
* June 2009: Changed the DK seatpost clamp to a more era & style correct simple steel clamp stamped as "Sicur Brevettato".
* Drivetrain updated with a red 45T Addicks nylon chainring to replace the aluminum 45T SR chainring. Why? Just because. I felt the bottombracket area needed some more red and the black chain/red chainring goes well together with the black tires/red mags theme don't you think?
* Sticker toss! Matching colour vintage Vans Off The Wall sticker on the seat (thanks COASTY!), b&w Rock-ville-ford BMX 2008 sticker and Minnesota Faction support groupie sticker (thanks Mikkopeters!) and a pair of homemade black-on-red glitter lightningbolts on the plate. Yeah!
* November 2008: Replaced the checker CalLite nylon stem pad with solid red Pro Neck vinyl stem pad with snap buttons. Now the bike has whole set of vinyl pads although each being different "brand" but who cares, they look good nonetheless.
* October 2008: removed the front brake (for now) for cleaner looks and for the fact i wanted to try out what's it like to have just a rear coster brake. I might put the front brake back on but for now it's off. Also finished off the numberplate by adding handmade red glitter lightning bolt stickers, a Minnesota Faction and Rockville 2008 stickers. Huge thanks for those Mikkopeters!
* September 2008: New custom headtube decal for ultimate radness.