1993 GT Pro Freestyle Tour Build
This was a really fun build that is very near to my heart. This is the bike that I bought when I was in college. My friends and I would ride all over the streets. I would go up to Baton Rouge and ride on campus with all my buddies up at LSU. After my time in New Orleans I moved to Hattiesburg, MS. to go to Southern Miss. The bike came with me along with meeting new friends in the freestyle community. After college I moved to Virginia and the bike quickly went into storage. This is something I regret, I wish I would have never stopped riding. Now, 29 years later I decided to build it back in a way that I could never afford back in the day on a college budget. So here it is with a combination of "old scool" and "new school" parts. Thank to many companies and people that I met online to make this happen. Dan's Comp, Albe's, Source BMX, Porkchop BMX, J&R Bycicles, Ape Labs
I left the pegs and the front brake off to reduce weight. The final weigh in is 26.4lbs. This is lighter than my current Kink Whip BMX.
So this 1993 decal set was extremely hard to find. I eventually found a guy who restored the exact same frame. I reached out to him and inquired about the decal set. He sent me to a guy in the UK that immediately returned my email with the set. He had them printed and delivered to the house in a week. A huge thank you to him because without these decals the bike would not have made any sense. This really puts the bike back in time.
I replace the unsealed caged bearing headset with a Tange BMX 320 sealed headset. The sealed haedsets are so much easier to dial in.
Sun Rhino Lite rims. These are great 36 spoke rims that came with a flip flop hub on the rear to have either a 13,14,15, or 16 tooth freewheel. I will explain below.
Sealed hubs on the front and rear. I had to get rid of my original GT forks because they were bent. I found these 1991 - 1996 Pitchforks that looked very similar in design. The dropouts are very long to accommodate for pegs.
These were the 3 piece cranks that I always wanted but could never afford. These are a throwback to the originals. 3 piece cranks with a 22mm spindle. The biggest difference from the originals is that you can ride them right or left drive. The old school cranks were only right drive.
I put a half link chain on to be able to dial in the rear dropouts. To be honest, I don't know why you would not ride with a half link.
I removed the old pitbull brake that was on the rear. This frame does not have 990 mounts. It was one of the few years were they were removed to put on the pitbull brake. I never really like the pitbull brake so I started to look at options. At first, this was not going to work with a 44 tooth sprocket because the pull would have hit the teeth. This is why I put on a 13 tooth freewheel to be able to have a much smaller 36 tooth chainring. the 44/16 ratio is very close to a 36/13 gear ratio. I was thrilled that I was able to get this to work.
Black Ops sealed pedals. These are really strong and light pedals.
Cool Stop brake pads. These are probably the best in the market.
This is the only original piece on the bike. I did replace the bolt as the older one was rusted. I had to keep something original on the bike.
I always liked to ride with high pressure in my tires. The original GT 20" X 1.75 only held 60 lbs. of pressure. The Panaracer holds 85 lbs. This makes for a much nicer ride.
Of course you have to have that Gyro dialed in perfectly.
All the major parts on this build are 4130 Chromoly. I hope you enjoyed the Facebook posts on this build. I rode it yesterday and it feels really smooth.
