Rufuz and his BMX Mods and buddies.

 

Recently I purchased my second BMX. My first BMX I had 3 years ago – a very cheap and nasty version from Toy’s R us. The brakes didn’t work, the pegs were pink and it was not great at all.

Then I bought a Haro Mirra 540 Air. Which was sweet. But as I am modification geek I have slightly altered the original Specification and this page will tell you what I have done so far:

 

First thing I took off all the reflective gear on the bike – to make it look less of a kids BMX and more stunt like. Plus I set up the bike (well more like it came setup!) Flip Flop, which surprisingly a lot of people notice.

 

Then I changed the front chain wheel from the 36 tooth Haro number to a 44 tooth Odyssey Black Widow. Why? Because I liked the spider print on the front – no real other reason. I find the higher teeth ratio easier to ride too, which is unusual. Because of the new tooth ratio I have to buy a new chain and went for a wienerspinner, even though I wanted a KMC cool chain, because I wanted to ride my bike that evening and the shops where shutting so I bought the first BMX chain available.

 

Then I changed grips and added new brake levers after my tecktrouble ones broke – the threaded cable tightener bent, squashed then sheared! So after a ong hard decision – like 5 minutes I ordered an Odyssey Modulever pair because of all the cable modifications it provides. And I got to say they are the fattest brake levers I have even seen. They are so chuck and stable it is unbelievable and they are gorgeously adjustable with an inch diameter cable adjuster compared to the half-inch techtro ones. I have used the double cable gyro route for the rear brakes using the supplied Odyssey cables – which are slick as. The grips are Odyssey Dual which were chosen due to them being dual compound so a lot easier on the palms when riding.

 

After a couple of weeks I spent more money on a set of Odyssey Evolver Brakes for the rear (I would have purchased two at the same time but I heard there could be a problem in fitting the Evolvers on the rear of the Mirra 540 Frame. But no it was a perfect fit, a bit fiddley trying to tightened up some of the screws but apart from that it was sweet. Then the modification that I would recommend any rider doing. The Dual cable (London Mod) setup. This involves running two cables from the Gyro to the rear brakes. This makes the braking so powerful and instant. I love this mod. I had to canabalise my front brake to get the right treaded parts for the gyro connection and had to file down the cable ends for it to fit on the gyro and not catch when turning (yes I would have used the provide knarps but the We The People brake cables I now use are to chucky (hey I like everything on my bike chunky) I modified the brake cables to fit. Plus the WTP cables are so smooth, I don’t know how I coped with the standard ones.

 

I upgraded my pedals too, replacing the standard DMR V8 copies, with the DMR V12 real things. And the difference is definitely felt, in the effortlessness pedalling and in the grip on the DCs. Maybe I get a decent Bunnyhop height now.

 

Now today I have fitted an Evolver to the front and I really have to be careful not to throw myself off the bike with the amount of brake grip I am getting.

 

My next mods won’t be for a while until I save enough money, but I am thinking of new bottom bracket and cranks. I like the look of the WTP or Snafu cranks but have heard rather negative reviews on them. So might go from the Primo Powerbite or Profile SS ones or maybe Demolition – but this is an expensive mod and will need lots of saving. When not modding my own bike I am trying to make a different bike out of all the spares I have knocking around an random bits of of BMX I find around. At the moment I need a frame, back wheel and 2 tires, some handle bars and a hub and some forks (so pretty much all the main parts I am missing, but I got a lot of spares off my upgrades. So if anyone would like to donate to this worthy cause…….

 

I will add photos once I take them to each section so you can see the modifications.

But for now you will just have to cope with a text format!

Soon I will add Petes and Dai’s Bikes to this section.