It all started with reading Mats excellent biography “Ride of my lifeâ€. I had been riding about 4 years mostly with the local lads from Henley travelling all over the place to different skate parks with my car as the main mode of transport they were good times as always on a 20â€it would seem. But gradually they were all going away to university, College travelling etc. I was not progressing with my riding as I had hoped for I bought the biography off the net, whilst reading it I gained a fresh motivation to my riding I found the book very inspiring and felt having read the fight Mat had to set up the company and keep freestyle alive, that I would like to own one of the first Condors as some kind of tribute to his efforts.
That’s where the trouble began I started searching the bay and various other places for a Early Condor but after a couple of months it wasn’t looking good .It would appear that although 70’s and 80’s bikes were made in great numbers in general and therefore there was stock left over, because of the state of the sport in the early 90’s only limited numbers of bikes were built, and they were ridden to death.
That’s when I discovered RadBmx.I kept posting in the “for sale or wants†section and following leads but all to no avail. Then Two Bob Rob contacted me and said that a friend of his Darren Claggitt had a frame that he bought as a frame and forks from Backyard in Hastings in 92 and had ridden constantly till the end of 2004 during which time he had won Prince of concrete at Southsea on it.
I was warned that it needed quite a bit of work to sort it out as the dropouts had been ground out to accept a Rekka hub that had a 17mm axle! Also that it may have a crack in the headtube area. A meeting was arranged and I became the owner of an Early Condor frame. It is one of the first batch made for Hoffman by S.E.Racing with the 70-degree headtube angle. (They later changed to a more normal 74 to make it more streetable)
The frame had been on top of the ramp at Charlton since Darren stopped riding it in favour of a T1 so was pretty scruffy when I got it.
The dropouts also needed some work and there were several dents to be dealt with.
So the first thing to do was getting the various layers of paint off the frame and get it down to my friends at Robinson Race Cars near Reading.
There Luke Robinson the son of the owner jigged up the rear end of the frame and cut away most of the dropouts and replaced them with new fabricated ones in 4130.
He made a sweet job, as you would expect from people more used to building 230 mph Pro-Mod Drag racecars.
Whist this was going on I was busy tracking down a pair of forks I eventually found a pair almost by accident in the background of a picture on e-bay of a person selling a more modern pair of Hoffman forks I had to by both pairs to get them.
When they arrived one leg was slightly bent back and the other was damaged at the bottom from miss timed peg tricks.
I got these dechromed and off to the racecar shop as well, where they cut the bottom open reshaped and then capped the end off again.
I found a set of Peregrine sealed 48 spoke wheels in the states plus a pair of Comp st tyres and also a Tnt stem and Dia-compe 883 QR front brake.
The Tech 77 levers came from Vert-Ego and the chain from Rude Wheels.
The AD990 of the correct period came from Lazarou from the site.
The Hoffman Patriot bars came via Two Bob Rob from a friend in Romford.
The seat post was Nos from a very helpful O.T Cycles in Dartford.
The Redline Cranks came from Darren Claggitt (the original owner) and are the actual ones from the bike back in the day. The same also goes for both the pedal spindles and one of the pedals (the other came from the states).
The cranks needed stripping and polishing before rechroming by Woburn plating and polishing.
The pedals were all stripped and rebuilt using the best components from 2 sets. I installed a pair of my own design of end cap as I intent to ride the bike occasionally and it would be wrong to damage Nos ones.
The forks and frame were all magnafluxed for cracks and the head tube issue turned out not to be a problem. But I had them press in a reinforcing tube into the bottom of the steerer tube to support the weak spot where the bottom bearing fits.
Once the frame was filled and prepped by Les of Ewelme Coachworks and forks were finished they were both sprayed by Paul of Ewelme Coachworks with Peugeot Indigo Blue, which was the nearest match to the original USPS blue that Hoffman used.
The bear trap headset came from Allan’s who were also very helpful.
The bike then came together pretty quickly
Now all we needed was a seat and a sticker set.
Stodgy found the seat in the States and organised its delivery for me as a Christmas present (Thanks mate!)
The Final almost insurmountable problem was the sticker set. After a lot of searching eventually it came down to RadBmx members all pulling together to help me out.
Bren Gunn really went out of his way to get his set of multicolour ones scanned to disc for me and sent down to me also allowing me to photograph his Condor all over at Romford. Stuntmaster kindly loaned his spare headtube sticker for matching.
Then the genius that is Stodgy completely changed all the colours and redrew them on his Apple Mac, also making up a correct period seatube sticker.
Stodgy also organised the production of the stickers by one of his suppliers.
Finally after 9 mths the Condor emerged and has been test ridden at the Barn first by me then by Gerry Galley who banged out a couple of 7ft airs and a table to die for.
Jobs a Good Un.
Special thanks to in no particular order: -
Two Bob Rob. For finding the frame and Bars and advice
Darren Claggitt, for all the frame, cranks and help and encouragement.
Stuntmaster, for the loan of the stickers
Bren Gunn, for the scan of his sticker set.
Lazarou, for the rear brake and help and advice
Hutchman, for the chain wheel and help
Andy & Luke Robinson, of Robinson Race Cars
http://www.robinson-race-cars.co.uk/ for all the fantastic work and importing the wheels.
John,Les & Paul of Ewelme Coachworks.
Mark Owen at Hoffman, for his advice
Stodgy, for the seat, Hours of his own time on the stickers and encouragement when it all seemed impossible.
The bike was entered for the show and shine at the Epic Gathering where I was shocked to win Best of Show which was a tribute to all the help I was given in its restoration.
After the show and shine Darren Claggit the Guy who originally bought the frame and fork set from Backyard in 92 took it for a run and was soon airing the Quater.Mission acumplished.
There is a 14 year gap between these 2 pictures.
Finally thanks to Mat Hoffman for having the vision and commitment to help save the sport that I am now enjoying so much.
RIDE ON!
