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falcon8

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falcon8 last won the day on August 18 2016

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  1. You're correct. ABA Actions. I've got all issues from Oct. '80 thru the end of '84.
  2. Probably? Definitely not a Harbor plate. Too many 00's for one of our riders. I'll post some pics of the ones we made prior to Finney plates soon. Don't want to step on this Blacklite thread with # plate stuff. Let me know if you want it posted here or elsewhere.
  3. He's at it again! Stopped by there on the way back home and he presented me with his card. He doesn't have much yet but looks like he going to give it another try.
  4. If I remember correctly, The Blazer build was already in the hands of my 4 yr old daughter when Bicycles and Dirt first showed up. I'll check my info at home when I get there next week. I also have a message to the Bartley boys to see if they have any old Bicycle Harbor pics. I know we took one of the Blazer hanging on the scales, showing it was under 10 1/2 pounds.
  5. I just found some video of the first mention of Blacklite at the '82 Winternationals. Merle Menninga was announcing, mentioned Blacklite in a couple of races, and says something like," I've never heard of them." I tried posting on here, but it doesn't work. It works ok on the FB Society page. Funny thing about it is one of the riders is on a mini Blazer and has what looks like a GT jersey on. More than a few factory riders were riding different decals on their other brand frames. The manufacturers had to keep their brand out on the track until the new models or modifications were made.
  6. Jeff, I found this tread after you ask about the Goodwill story. I don't remember the McLaughlin's, but as far as Connelly, there was a kid named Lance Connelly who raced locally. I don't remember any connection with CW though. I've probably got some local race video of him so I'll get that to you. This bike appears to be '84 or later. He could have connected with CW after we left.
  7. I like the part about the inner 14 year old kid. That is about the age most kids were being told to go out and buy your own parts if you want something changed. Prior to that, younger kids didn't give a crap what the bike looked like and the dads' main concern was how much that new "cool" looking part was going to cost, and would it make their kid that much faster. My suggestion as far as your dilemma: Give the bike to one of your buddies, and tell him to take it for 1 month, and make one small change he would do if it was his. Tell him when he returns it, wrap it up to where you can't see what change has been made. Look at the package for awhile before you unwrap it. As you're looking, you'll start hoping he did this, or that...This will tell you what you really want. Build it the way you want. Not to impress someone. You're not going to please all of the critics around here.
  8. I just looked at the helmet you're asking about in the ad. It was the first one made. It had "NAVAJO" written in sticks with a headband and feather in the back. Looked pretty cool. The hottest thing was the t-shirt. They sold a lot of them. I hope I find it with all of the other Arizona Western and Bike Harbor clothing and accessories. Bob
  9. This site doesn't want to add my video to my post. You can view it at the Chandler BMX Reunion site, along with all of the other BH stuff.
  10. Hey Dub, Here's the video of Carl and the team receiving the trophy in your pic at the start of the thread. Let me know if you need any other BH or J Roos vids.
  11. After rereading Dub's articles, it looks like Black Lite made the ti frame Carl used for his build. I saw where Bartley's Bicycles advertised a Titan mini under 10 lbs. for around $750.00. Bike Harbor was well over $1000.00 into the Blazer build, not counting the frame. I'm not sure what the arrangement was between Carl and Mike Mayberry. In the article, the price is noted as being over $1000.00 for a Black Lite mini.
  12. A few people get Blacklite and Harbor Lite confused. Which one was more successful, or which frame is more rare?
  13. Hey Dubplatestyle, shed some light on this and correct me if I'm wrong. Bike Harbor's first light experiment was with a Blazer mini ('82), followed by this Blacklight build ( after mid '84), and finally the Titan build after that. Wasn't the Titan the lightest of them all? I have the first reference of a Blacklight rider on video of the '82 Winternationals. Merl Menninga made some comment about someone riding for Blacklight..."Never heard of them". I'll try to post it when I find it again. Titan showed up later with the ti frame, and I think that would have been the lightest build. Does anybody know if other shops were experimenting with weight like Carl Bartley at Bicycle Harbor?
  14. Thanks for sharing you discussion with us. If he is still in AZ, I'd like to have him meet with Bud Trower ( Chandler Track director in the 70's and 80's) and myself for breakfast and lunch. I think he did some welding for Bud at the the track. We're also planning to meet at the track during a race to talk about the old days. If you talk to him, see if he would mind me getting ahold of him. Good work on finding him. He is probably the most informative contact you can get on your unanswered questions about Blazer. I'd like to hear more about the Navajo and Harbor Lite connection if there was one.
  15. Oct. '79 pretty much educates me on AZ connection to Dave's Blazer company. We didn't start racing until summer of '80. I know nothing of BMX prior to that. Trent's first bike was a 16" converted Rampar. When we went to Bike Harbor to upgrade, GT, and JMC were the choices of little tykes rides. We went with a 14 lb JMC. This was my first meeting with Carl Bartley. If BH carried Blazer then, we wouldn't have looked into it due to them not offering a mini. We raced the JMC in the '81 Winternationals, joined the Bike Harbor team soon after that, and Carl decided he was going to build Trent a lighter bike. He went with a GT mini because it was the lightest frame around at the time, and no sign of Blazer's mini yet. We played with the GT until we got the Blazer mini from Mike soon after the '82 Winters.That one was much lighter than anything else so Carl just went Frankenstein with it. Exotic plastic, ti, aluminum, etc. parts. During that time I never felt that Blazer was a company in trouble. As I stated before, it looked like Mike was there interested in finding riders, especially Justin Roos. Dub, you would know when the first pics of him riding for JMC would be. I guess it to be right around this time. I'm not around any of my newsletters to reference the timeline for ads, but I will look into it when I get home in Oct. I thought the Chandler address was after the TX split, but obviously prior.
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