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slowfiveoh

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  1. Big Claims Incoming (Sorry for the necro, but if I know BMX guys from the 80's and 90's, this story will make them remember the good ol' days.) I had a later model Hanter 777. It was the Salmon Pink one with black tires that had brown sidewalls, and a salmon or grey seat with the Hanter logo, and the really stupid looking Hanter bars with the extremely high crossbar. (This is the BMX model, and not the Freestyle/Flatland bike, as it did not have the extension beyond the seat tube, no welded in stand gussets, or welded in front pegs) My pops bought it for me when I was 8 or 9 years old (1988? 1989?), as someone stole my banana-seat, spray painted black, piece of crap, Schwinn. I grew into the bike, and rode it extensively throughout the entirety of my teenage years. From the time I was 10 or 11, my parents let me ride around my Citrus Heights neighborhood on my Hanter, and set outer boundaries (Can't go past Mesa Verde, Zinfandel, etc.), with the boundaries to expand as I remained responsible and reliable. I rode it everywhere, but usually to the local off-path BMX tracks in the fields or woods near my Auburn Blvd house, or to Sylvan Middle School, as that school had a nice flat basketball court area with a very wide, short, but steep ramp to an upper area. It was here I first felt the awesomeness of leaving the ground on my BMX. First was a mid-speed crank up the ramp, and maybe 4-5 inches of air, tops. From there, you guys know how it is, the challenge is now bigger and bigger air. I used to go there after school and there was always some guys on Flovals, Diamondbacks, PK's, and even a couple of Hutch bikes on occasion clearing air off of the large ramp. I was always the "weird one" because nobody even had any idea what my bike was. ("Bro! Look at the downtube! It's a Skyway knockoff! Except, the gusset is all wrong and the forks aren't right...") For those who don't know, a Hanter 777 will have a teardrop shaped bottom tube, a normal (cylindrical) top, and a small lower gusset with (if I recall correctly) 3 holes at the steering stem. I used to look at these guys bikes, and really admired some of the hardware. - Sick Odyssey "Black Widow" pedals.... - DK or GT necks... - 3-piece cranks... - GT or Profile/Redline sprockets... - Araya Rims... I'd look down at mine, and notice why my feet kept slipping off the pegs (crappy OEM pedals with the extremely small nipples on a smooth contact surface), why I kept bending 1-piece cranks (no joke), the annoying location of the stock crossbar, the uncomfortable and unfashionable seat, bars that no matter how tight the neck was, would occasionally pull back, etc. So naturally, like any BMX fan of the era (Gary Ellis and I share a last name, by the way, and he was a big name at the time.), upgrades were due. At some point, I had the opportunity to strip down the Hanter frame, and compare its weight to a few of my buddies bare frames. Compared to Redline, Mongoose, Diamondback, GT, and other frames, the Hanter 777 was surprisingly on par or slightly lighter in weight. I remember picking up a buddies PK Ripper frame, however, and thinking, "How in the hell is it possible to be this big and this light?!?!" With the hand and accurate (lel) "lift test", the PK was noticeably lighter. I decided to paint the frame, and so stripped it in the garage of my home on Auburn Blvd, and did a quite excellent, orange-peel-free light, almost neon green color, and removal of all decals. It really did look like a factory "matte green", and was quite sick looking in a period of 80's and 90's paint jobs. I was spending all of my allowance and doing menial jobs for family and friends to get parts for this bike. Eventually, I got rid of the stock bars, seat, crank, front sprocket, and neck, replacing them with: - DK neck - GT Bars - GT seat (The black plastic one, not narrow though. Standard width) - GT One Piece crank - GT Alloy Sprocket - Odyssey Black Widow pedals I retained the stock Sun rims and generic hubs (don't recall the name?), as even though I had come down hard and crashed numerous times (~145lbs of me at the time), they never ONE TIME warped, bent, or came untrue. An "upgrade" to better hubs and rims was just not necessary. I rode it this way for 4-5 years. At one point, this bike (and this is not a joke) was used as an alternative commuter (it or my Schwinn LeTour) for my commute from Stanford Ranch in Rocklin, to Watt and Q St., North Highlands, where I would then leave Watt/Q., and head to Old Auburn/Sylvan to either ride, or play basketball, OR, to Oak Creek BMX for a few laps, then back home to Stanford Ranch. I did this 5 days a week, and usually chose the BMX bike as it was more comfortable to "chill" on once stopped, and although not as fast as the LeTour, allowed me to screw around on rough terrain, or walls, etc, or lackadaisically peddle in a upright and relaxed position while coasting, without a pencil thin seat hurting my ass. It was also vastly superior in the rain. Somewhere around 1996, I came off of a big jump, as I had done hundreds of times before, over easily 1000 miles of riding this bike around, through multiple sets of tires, and endless sets of 1 piece cranks I would inevitably bend, and I ate it fairly hard. I couldn't understand why at first, as I landed it perfectly, as I had done, again, many other times. Then I picked my bike up... The teardrop shaped downtube had separated from the neck, and was pointing like a long finger at the top of the front tire. The top tube had a decently noticeable little bend in it. Kind of hard to maintain steering geometry when the frame is no longer attached. As I recall, I was able to call for a ride home at a payphone (remember those?). My Hanter 777 had had it. I removed all of the salvageable components. I legit had a bit of sadness as eventually this frame, and its twisted, contorted body was cast in the trash bin, and summarily hauled to the dump. The good news, is I had slipped a buddy $20 for his old Diamondback frame (It had the SMALL diamond in the gusset, not the large one!) as he had upgraded to something else, so I merely swapped all of my components onto the Diamondback, and I really enjoyed that bike although it felt noticeably :heavier" than the Hanter. At least I didn't have a bunch of turds trying to tell me I was riding a Skyway, when I knew better... Anyways, just figured you guys would like this recollection, and a "true story" of someone who rode and enjoyed a Hanter 777 for about 5-6 years, heavily abusing the damn thing.
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