Technical & Reference Section > Tech and Restoration

New Year Build - It's Ross MX-Time!!

(1/7) > >>

Mikku:
Being based in Japan, I’m always on the look-out for interesting Japanese-made frames, which usually means something from the Tange or Koizumi factories, so when I spotted this for sale over on the Museum, I snapped it up! I knew nothing about Ross Bicycles but upon further investigation it seems that in amongst the lower quality bikes they were known for, there was a decent bike in the form of the oddly-named MX-Time.  Not to be confused with the lower-spec Piranha or Pantera, this was a short-lived but high-end model with quality, Japanese components. There is a good test on the bike in the July ’83 edition of BMX Plus, and a picture of one adorns the front cover:-



There’s also a great advert for the complete bike in the Feb '83 edition of BMX Action:-



This frameset was sourced from the States but originally assembled in the Tange factory [edit:- see comments below for further discussion on this!] in September 1982. I say assembled because the interesting thing about this frame is that it uses Ishiwata tubing, which was also used for the first batch of Skyway T/As. :daumenhoch:

It has some oval tubes and similar dropouts to my Laserlite. However, what sets it apart is the Redline-esque small gusset behind the bottom of the headtube. The condition of the frame is lovely and the welds are, as you’d expect from Tange, excellent. Likewise the bologna cut forks. Here are a few pics of the frameset:-

















This bike was found complete and matched the spec of the bike in the BMX Plus test. Subsequently parted-out, I grabbed the frameset and Takagi Tourney AD 3-piece crankset, and had them shipped back to their homeland. I also had the chance to buy the original Arayas but passed them up due to reliability concerns over the Maillard Helicomatic hubs, which was one of the main criticisms of the bike in the July ’83 test.

So with most of the og parts gone and no desire to go for a factory build, I’ve chosen a mixture of largely Japanese-made parts, in keeping with the spirit of the original spec, though with a few concessions to get the bike up and running. Here's a teaser pic:-



At the moment I'm undecided whether to go with the silver Arayas that I've been using on my recent builds ('84 Free Agent and '84 Motobecane) or "borrow" the black Z-rims from my Laserlite. In any case I'm hoping, or rather, I need to get this done this month, so watch this space! :daumenhoch:

MartyC:
Same main tubes and gusset as Procraft which also used Ishiwata tubing, very similar forks too although the Procraft has a 5 inch head tube but you can see the similarities in the front triangle.

Mikku:
Yeah, I was eyeing up one those recently as well! They have smoother-looking dropouts than the "normal" Tange offering! Very nice! :daumenhoch:

dancetothedrummersbeat:
A great find and an interesting read. I've never heard of these before. Top work so far  :daumenhoch:

insectbones:
Nice looking frame and forks Mick  :daumenhoch:

What bars are you gonna use?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page