Old Guy BMX

Hey Team ….. today I thought I would bring you my main BMX (at the moment) ….. my 2000 Giant Mosh Expert AL.

Mosh BMX  was a division of Giant Bicycles ….. Mosh BMX was created back in 1996 with the help of Linn Kastan & AA BMX Pro Rider Jason Richardson.  Giant made bikes using the Mosh name until 2003.  Giant of course has been making bicycles of all styles for many years and had been turning out BMX bikes since 1979 starting with the GMX250.

My Mosh Expert AL BMX was built in the Giant Bicycles  Taiwan factory in November of 1999 using aircraft grade Alcoa CU-92 Aluminium tubing for the frame of the bike and came from Giant fitted with Spinner brand full chromoly fork using a 1 1/8″ threadless steerer tube.  Theses spinner forks are almost 500gram lighter than the current cro mo forks that Giant ran on the 99 / 2000 bikes.

I am still rolling the original wheelset which is Sun Z19 rims with Giants generic sealed hubs and plain steel spokes. Up front I am running Maxxis 1.85 M-Tread and out back I am running Maxxis 1.95 Ringworm.  My backup cruising wheelset for this bike is a set of Araya rims sitting on shimano DX hubs and fitted with comp 3 tyres.

Gearing is the usual 44t x 16t using the original Giant chainring but have swapped out the original Giant one piece crank for a later model Giant Method 02 – 8 spline / Euro bottom bracket and axle with Giants 175mm tubular three piece cranks. Did this swap purely for the ability to run 9/16″ SPD pedals as the original one piece crank was still running 1/2″ pedal threads.

Braking is Shimano DX Red V brakes running a right hand Tektro lever.  I did have the matching DX RH lever but somewhere along the way it went missing and if you know how expensive DX gear is these days I cant see myself relacing it. I do own a matching Red DX LH lever but i prefer to brake with my RH so it just sits on the shelf and looks pretty.

Steering was originally from a set of  Mosh 4 piece steel bars connected via the original Mosh Billet Al “tombstone” stem with MOSH grips. I believe this particular stem only ever came on the Expert AL in 2000 and never seen again and I have to say it is one of the most robust and beautiful stems ever. Just recently I replace the bars with some Haro Jack Hammer bars and Jet Black lock on grips. The plan was to have the original MOSH bars rechromed but in the mayhem of moving etc they also went missing with DX lever. The Jack Hammer bars are a little lower and narrower than the Mosh bars and pretty comfortable so for now they will stay.

One of the unique features on the bike are the threaded sliding dropout chain adjusters which only came with this years production run and were at the request of the team riders ??       ……. other unique features were the elongated top tube which runs right through the seat tube junction and allowing the seat stays to join the top tube south of the seat tube  junction as well as the heavy duty bracing of the headtube / downtube junction at the front of the frame. The 58mm down tube is massive by any BMX era standards, add to this a 44mm top tube and a fully gusseted bottom bracket chainstay junction and all this adds up to a super stiff and strong frame that can take a load of punishment. So much of the frame and its componentry also has beautiful Mosh embossing or pantographing which truly adds to it unique character

Hey Team ….. to give you an idea of where I am at and so we can all follow my progression , today I chat about the training I was doing before “life” got in the way …….

Hey Team ….. after a longggg break … we are back with Old Guy BMX

Today the Old Guy chats after wrapping up some bmx training in the shed.

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Today the Old Guy talks about riding the BMX track for the first time.

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Today the Old Guy talks about riding a 20″ BMX verses a 24″ Cruiser.

There are way too many opinions on what I should be riding  (20″ v 24″)  and then even more opinions on how my bike should be set up.  I go straight back to what Coach Craig said …. “just ride what is comfortable for you”.  For me I think the best thing is to just stick with the Mosh 20″ and leave the setup and just ride it and work on my skills.

Also on the advice of Coach Craig Jones I have gone to wider bars. As new bars are wayyyy out of my price range I resurrected some Haro Kneesavers from the parts bin and gave em a coat of paint and away we go. They will keep me at about the same height as my old narrow bars but give me an extra 60mm (approx 2.5″) of width. Trying em out at training later today.

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Today the Old Guy talks about BMX training.

Hey Team ….. well, I now had 2 bikes ready for training and racing, I had a coach lined up and I was ready to start.

BOOM !!! ….. the very week in March 2022 that I was set to start training, our city of Brisbane experienced some of it’s worst flooding since the floods of 2011.  Everything went underwater including the track at Caboolture BMX Club.

Caboolture BMX (north of Brisbane City) was the club that I had joined and through the club I had been introduced to the Club Coach, Craig Jones from Tri Five Fitness 

In response to the track being under water, Coach Craig from Tri Five set up some coaching sessions away from the track and after a week or two delay I was off and training BMX.  Right from the start I rode my 24″ Diamondback RM24 and also right from the start I just could not get comfortable with it.  After a lifetime of riding all sorts, shapes and sizes of bikes and being pretty able to just jump on any bike and ride, the RM24 just wasn’t doing it for me.   I immediately switched to my 20″ Mosh Expert AL and felt pretty good right away.  For the remainder of this initial Tri Five training session and for my own training during the next week I jumped back and forth between the RM24 and the Mosh and it was becoming clear that I was enjoying the little bike much more than the RM24.

Everyone I spoke to kept telling me I was wrong and that all old guys should be on a long top tube 24″ cruiser bmx …… I think Coach Craig hit the nail on the head when he said “just ride what you feel most comfortable on”.  By the end of the first 2 weeks I had pretty much made the decision that I would stick it out with the Mosh and learn my skills on that bike and then introduce the 24″ Cruiser further down the road if I wanted to race an additional class.

April 5th 2022 –   Todays session was a mix of sprints and bike control doing weaving drills around witches hats and holding the bike in a straight line through witches hats.

April 10th 2022 –  Todays session was a hugeeeee breakout for me as Coach Craig declared that all riders had to be on flat pedals for this session.  I have been clipped into my pedals for almost 30 years and even though I have tried flat pedals from time to time, it is not something that I have used for serious training or riding. I guess my saving grace is the time we spend in Japan riding Mama Chari commuter bikes which of course have flat pedals …. but that is a long cry from punting a BMX at speed on flat pedals when you ain’t used to it.

I settled for some old Redline pedals which had some pretty good long pins on them and then used my Dunlop Volley Canvas shoes which have a nice flat grippy sole.  I spent a longggg time warming up and trying to get a feel for not being clipped in and even during the warmup I slipped my pedals a few times.  I decided that this would be a great learning session for me and that I should stay relaxed and not go to hard during this training set.

The “flat pedal” session was the usual sprints and bike control ……… but then Coach Craig switched it up and we all had turns in wooden bike stands getting a feel for being in the “manual” position whilst being stationary and being assisted to remain in the manual pose.  Next up was doing actual real manuals and it was here that I was pretty happy to be on flats. For anyone that has tried doing manual or wheelies you will know how often you will “loop out” and that is a time you don’t want to be clipped in !!  We finished the session with a manual challenge over a marked course of 1 to 20 ……. I was pretty happy to manual a 12 out of 20.  This was a great session for me and as always I learnt heaps and have heaps to work on.

See ya back here for more shortly

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Today the Old Guy picks up where he left off and goes over my current BMX bikes and whats happening.

Hey Team …. after a break, I was ready to start sorting out whether I would be riding 20″ or 24″ BMX.

Of course …… 20″ BMX is the standard and had been for many many years. The 20″ we refer to is actually the wheel size with most 20″ BMX bikes also being 20″ in the top tube length. As soon as I started asking questions, the overwhelming advice was that as an older guy , I should get myself a 24″ (wheel size) Cruiser BMX with a longgggg top tube of at least 21″ 

This is where the problems start …. first up, new cruiser BMX’s are incredibly expensive (in my opinion) and second hand cruiser bikes are even more overpriced for what they are.  After weeks of chasing up second hand 24″ cruiser bikes, I found a beat up and battered 2003 – 24″ Diamondback RM24 frame with a few of the original parts coming with the frame set including the DB fork. 

Well after a week of scrubbing and polishing and accumulating parts, the frame was ready for assembly 

The finished Diamondback RM24 was one sweet looking ride …. but yet to be tested in training or racing.

My other option was my 20″ Giant Mosh Expert AL which I had owned several years and had only ridden occasionally

With both bikes prepped and ready …. it was time to start training and find out which bike was the right one for me.

Subscribe to the Coach Jeff Podcast HERE

Check out our old shows on The Coach Jeff Podcast Archives

Check out our book …. Running for Donuts