kroozer 

Why is so much vintage BMX stuff so expensive? It's not even Italian! Seriously, I see a lot of frames and components on Ebay selling for hundreds of dollars, prices in line with the most expensive vintage road gear. What do people do with it? I would think that actually using it for its original purpose would beat the crap out of it, and about the only other option is to hang it on the wall.

iab

Nostalgia.

Us Gen Xers have some bank and want to recapture our glory years.

Sir_Name 

I still have my BMX, replete with S&M. I've never checked prices. That bike is still a blast to take out from time to time - though it gets my heart going much more than it used to...

Chris W.

I know right??? I had a Mongoose Kos Kruiser (in the early 80s) outfitted with Phil BMX hubs, and a Phil Wood chainring spider on the Ashtabula crank. I see that chainring spider go for huge $$$ all the time!

Cheers!

Henry III

Because it was BMX and most of that stuff was tossed and so much was lost and more rare then say most Campagnolo that was heavily mass produced. Not to mention most stuff was made in the US and in smaller quantities. I worked with a guy just recently who was heavy into old school(late 70s - early 80s) bmx. Now that stuff was pricey!

Rcrxjlb

I have visions of pink Haro frames & turquoise brake cables, ewww!

Ed.

So my Redline Proline frameset, barely ridden - hmmmmmm.

kunsunoke 

People forget that old BMX iron was welded, plated and finished here in the USA (Kuwahara and Bridgestone being prominent exceptions). Parts were made in Japan prior to endaka, so were reasonably priced and of extremely high quality.

The bikes held up to a considerable amount of abuse from knucklehead teens imitating Evel Knievel, despite being made from so-called high-tech aerospace materials like 4130 Chrome-Molybdenum steel (GT; Hutch; Mongoose; Thruster; MCS Magnum; Redline; Kuwahara) and 6061-T6 aluminum (PK Ripper; Race Inc.).

Schwinn actually had some technically interesting and highly-collectible BMX bikes, particularly the Sting (butted 4130 with beautiful fillet-brazed headtube joints). None of the kids on the block could ever understand why the Sting was priced so high back then, but it's perfectly understandable now in hindsight.

So if there's some nostalgia for old-school, it's understandable. There was a lot of promotion of the BMX scene overseas as well, so there's competition for this stuff from Europe and Japan.

OldsCOOL

My son has an '81 PK Ripper w/Landing Gear forks. We have had many at gas stations and at the track shoot offers at us to sell it. The popularity has since gone ballistic. Good ole aluminum, looptail Ripper. Grail gold.

JAG410

My 1983 Mongoose Expert is for sale cheap, just sayin' I think nostalgia is the biggest reason some of these are commanding big dollars. Now that those of us have decent jobs, it's nice to go after something we've wanted since we were kids.

72Paramount

I took my cw oval team frame and converted it to a 12" wheeled bike for my daughter to learn to ride on. Now that she's on to a 16" bike it's time to convert it back to 20" wheels and a 3 piece crank. Fun stuff, and I agree about the nostalgia, I drove down to San Diego to get the bmx bike that I had as a kid, an auburn cr20rx, better known as the green machine.

RandolphCarter

The same can be said of a vintage Bianchi with a NOS C-Record group. The difference is that with BMX, the wear and tear are probably faster. Us riders are also probably um, larger than we were back in the day.

In the past few years I've picked up several BMX bikes of various vintages, but it was bargain hunting, and they were mostly basket cases.


I flipped the 1983 Mongoose Californian thrift shop find without a second thought - I already had lots of other project bikes, and it went to someone looking to replace the bike he and his brother fought over.

Vintage BMX is going through now what the Krate / Sting Ray collectors did about 10 years ago - big spike in prices for ~35 year old bikes, due to demand from old farts looking to recapture their childhood.

I've thinned out my collection to 2 BMX bikes - a Dyno Compe for my 10 year old daughter:


a Haro F4 for myself:

kroozer 

Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to diss BMX, I think it's pretty cool actually. BMX and MTB didn't even exist when I was a kid, just road bikes, so that's how I was imprinted. But I used to be a diver, and I can appreciate the acrobatic maneuvers and understand the high of getting launched into the air. My brother-in-law used to race BMX. I was wondering about the practical uses for a vintage BMX bike. Nowadays nobody would ride a vintage road racer in an actual race, but they still make great recreational riders, and many give good service as commuters and light tourers. I don't see that kind of parallel with BMX (or Sting-Ray's or time trialists or a lot of other bikes, for that matter). I don't know if people still take them out and jump or race them, and I don't see people using them for commuting, recreational riding, etc.

MrCoffee

Another angle of the issue, is that so many Sting Rays have been restored that their overall value has decreased significantly in the last two decades. Not all Stingray collectors are among the 50 and over crowd, either. Many in their 30's and 40's also restore them. They are purchased mostly for shows, and vintage bike cruises. I find the old-school BMX trend to be rather interesting. Perhaps the ones that are in pristine condition command so much value, because I don't see re-production parts being available like they are for the old Schwinns. So, if a rare BMX with all the original vinyl pops up, it will very likely sell for double the value of an original Krate.

I gave up on Stingrays and Krates almost two decades ago, partly due to the politics and partly due to the lack of interest from friends I had at the time. Then there was the cost of painting and re-decaling a frame, along with finding the needed period-correct parts including the seat cover and rubber. An old-school BMX would be even more of a challenge to restore and maintain because of the scarcity of components, especially the replaceable parts like the seat, tires, handlebar cushions, and other items. I often get the sinking feeling that car repairs would be cheaper than the BMX bike. A Campagnolo-equipped vintage road bike with a Reynolds 531 frame would be a far better value, while offering greater utility.

miamijim

If anyone's ever in Sacramento visit the BMX museum at Patriot Bicycles. Epic.

BMX Museum, Patriot Bicycles Inc, Citrus Heights, Sacramento, CA


I remember back in '82 or '83 a friend of mine built a full chrome Hutch with all Hutch parts. He had the first or second pair of Hutch cranks ever made. It cost him an astronomical $1,000 to build. That's got to be a 5 figure bike today....and he still owns it. Our good friend Ned owned mail order company Wes BMX.

miamijim

Not necessarily.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I remember interest in BMX peaking with the 15X class in 1983, I rode 15X. My shop days began a year later in the spring of '84 which allowed me to witness the downfall of BMX. 15X kids were graduating high school and going off to college and mountain bike were just beginning to pick up in sales. BMX was very trendy, riders wanted the latest and greatest. When sales plummeted shops were left with a lot of un-sold inventory. Inventory that's still out there. Is it pricey? Yes. But it's out there.

Don Taye

I still have my 84 Skyway ta that I used to ride as a kid. I've slowly gathered parts for it over the years. But yeah it's mostly nostalgia. My first bike that was really mine, that I worked on myself. That's worth something to me.

Wo show

I raced BMX back in the 80's and still have some of my bikes. They all need restoring, but I won't part with them. I agree people are thinking back on all the fun they had and just trying to recapture some of that. They are getting harder to find so of course the price is going up. A few bikes are up in the attic and I see them when getting Christmas decorations, putting storage up there. Up there sits a Profile Cruiser, Profile 20 inch, and a JMC 20 inch. In the basement I have a Hutch Trickstar and a nickel plated Mongoose with Tuff wheels that I found at the dump. I didn't even know what it was at the time.


My buddy ran across this that someone put out his front lawn marked free. it is an early 80's Huffy. Before I was into racing or knew anything about bikes, I thought these were cool. I cleaned it up and it turned out to be in pretty good shape.

Saffioraire

Do you still talk to Ned MiamiJim? Been trying to find old Wes' BMX stuff, like the bar pads they made etc - rare as hens teeth!
Would be pretty excited to see if there are still any around.