Friday, September 17, 2010

Vintage Bmx Collecters...

There is not a crazier bunch of people than the baby boomers. Maybe there isn't many generations I can personally compare them too, but when it comes to blowing obsessive amounts of money on things that don't really matter, the 40+ crowd has got it on lock down. It is my belief that the dirty, dirty 1980's and the Yuppies that the generation produced has over the last 20 years produced even more hoarders/collectors/yuppies.

My parents currently have a snowmobile collection which is in the mid twenty range, I've seen more "well to do" baby boomer's collecting everything from apple pottery, to knives, to the obvious vehicle collection to well.. anything that reconnects them with their youth. Yet it has been my discovery, that the most cut throat and overly obsessive hobby of the 40+ crowd is the ever DANGEROUS Vintage BMX Collector...


Take a second and examine the photo above. Not only did Haro never produce a cruiser or mini version of the ever popular Haro Master, but how do you find the person willing to cut apart and both add and subtract tubing to an easily $400 dollar frame, or how about 2 of them? Moreover, to find parts in triplicate, and in every size must have been a headache. Regardless, if whatever you're doing in your hobby spawns creativity like this, no dollar amount or self-indulgent shit talking blogger should ever stop you, what an awesome feat!

The example above is a man who obviously collects Haro Masters, and wanted every one of them possible, even if Haro never made it. Within the BMX community, I've witnessed people only collect dia-tech levers. Some people only collect threadless stems, and some, which is my favorite, only collect grips, valve caps, and patches/stickers.

There has been a lot of talk amongst the message boards about the vintage dollar being at an all-time low. Hopefully this website will get the collectors itching once again to find that crazy padset lurking under their work bench. Crazy ass BMX collectors...CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK or go to http://martin-bike.com/BikeShop/index.html

If you are a vintage collector, you already know the plethora of vintage sites which are available. If you are interesting in collecting and need motivation/a history lesson I suggest starting with THIS BLOG and then in your free time go to the greatest time killer website on the internet, BMX Movie Database. Their website is HERE and http://bmxmdb.com/. Also, they have an app for the iphone which is a must have if you're ever in an airport!

What this rant is leading up to is the fact that I am 100% the next in line to blow my money on bikes. Besides, what can a man do with more than 1 bicycle anyway? Below is my collection, I own all but 1 of the bikes pictured in this shot... Feel free to ask questions by My only response is going to be "I Love Bike Porn!"

2 comments:

Nick said...

cheers for the link up, you can get the iPhone app at http://iphone.bmxmdb.com and just add it to your homescreen

Kate said...

Just ran across this page, four years late I know, so maybe no one will see this and my confession is in the dark, so be it.

I stumbled across why? Because I'm looking up information on a Redline BMX I just bought off Craigslist.

Now my tenth bike. MY S.O> doesn't even know about it yet. Its hidden somewhere else.

Yeah, I know you think, "Oh you are harkening back to your youth when you were a young kid on a BMX."

No. I never rode a BMX bike in my life. Although I always wanted to. I'm a girl. In the late 70's and 80's in the kind of household I grew up in girls only sighed from windowsills while looking at boys having all the fun.

But I do ride bikes. I don't collect just BMX. It started with mountain bikes. Which I ride. Then a couple old ten speeds, one to a fixie, two to cyclo-cross type things.

Then a downhiller. But you see, I ride my bikes. At least that's what I always said.

I guess I'm going to have to ride my new BMX bike because otherwise, if I don't, I'm just a ridiculous, obsessive collector and no, I won't go there, not in a million bike years!

Oh and by the way -- I thought I invented the term "Bike Porn!" because I thought ONLY I could look at bikes on the internet, research bikes and oogle over old bikes for hours.

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