Let's examine this classic Bob Osborn photo. You know Bob. He ran a magazine called Bicycle Motocross Action. We can talk about that later.
For now though, let's get microscopic this 1984 photo of Maurice Meyer of Curb Dogs fame, going full on back to basics style with a straight up front endo, most likely at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. That is the end of the obvious stuff.
The first oddity you may see are the brake levers. They look all motocross-ey, like they came off a dirt bike. Let me decode them for you. He is running Dia-Compe Tech 3's, but he has added a few mods. First off is the red plastic tubes that are squeezed onto the lever portion. I had these things on a bunch of bikes. They basically beef up the overall diameter of the actual lever, which makes for a bit more comfortable and thus tighter pull. Next he is running some kind of rubber dust/dirt guard over the top most portion of the lever and the clamp. These accesories probably did come from motocross. Never ever ever seen this exact model marketed to bike riders. Terrycable had something similar, a flexible plastic guard that just sort of flapped over the middle of the lever and clamp.
Working downward we have the CW bars and number plate. I've seen racing number plates used for freestyle by putting your actual name on the front, but this is the first and only time I've seen one used to promote a "crew". Yeah man, SF guys always future forward.
He is riding a Kuwahara racing frame (1984 was just before every company in the world came out with a dedicated freestyle model) and running a Hutch tall headset lock. Maurice gave it a personal touch with the MM initials under the head tube sticker.
The dual color Dia-Compe MX 1000 brakes are an interesting detail that may have snuck past you though. This was a common mid eighties mod where you got a front and rear brake, each two different colors, and took them apart, then reassembled them half one color, half the other. Easy Peasy! If you took the time to do that you probably also took the time to put lubrication between the brake arm contact points, and all of the associated washers and spacers. This made the already strong classic brake set work even better. After a while I started using 900's instead of 1000's. The only difference was the tire clearance, the 900's were smaller. Ah, the good old days before V-Brakes. I hate V-brakes.
Did you notice that he is running a Cycle Pro Snakebelly tire on the front? Ha...he has it mounted backwards.
The whole rig is "pre-potts mod" which means he can only turn the handlebars a certain amount before the front brake arm rams into the frame. Potts, which allowed the front brake cable to route through a hollow stem bolt, and allowed turning the bars 360 degrees, hadn't been invented yet and we were quite a way from rotors/gyros at this time. Don't let that stop you, Maurice didn't.
That's pretty much all there is except I'm wondering if the guy on the PK Ripper behind and to the right of him is Brian Scura. I'm not trying to hate on Brian Scura but he is a guy who was able to make an already "safe" sport so sanitized that...well I don't even know how to explain it. Actually I can explain it but I'll make that an individual post, because this one is already long enough.
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