Page three of the Product guide brings you to more innovative ideas and designs that stuck around throughout the 80's and were seen on almost every scoot you could find. Let's take a look...

ACS Z Rims ACS blew doors when they introduced a rim made of Duponts Zytel plastic. Able to take some flex and snap right back to true with some minimal spoke tightening from time to time, they made bent rims a thing of the past. The only drawback was that they lacked the braking ability of a chrome plated rim. Made eternally famous for the rumor that you could put them in the freezer and they would straighten on thier own.	ACS Z-48's ACS took thier 36 hole wonder rim a step further and introduced the 48 spoke hole model soon after the first had proven it's sucess. More spokes = less flex. A brillant evolution with the original versions atvantages of lightweight and tweakable demeanor. Available only in white.	Skyway Tuff Wheel 2 THE wheel of wheels. This is the big brother of the Tuff 1 used by many 70's Mongoose owners for racing and jumping radness. The Tuff 2 featured a new hub design and was offered with a variety of front hubs as the wheel evolved. It originally came with a narrow metal looseball hub, later it came with a wider alloy design with bearing races and eventually the plastic model shown here. Made of the Dupont Zytel plastic these wheels instantly transformed your racing bike into a sano styler. Available in coaster brake or freewheel with a rainbow of fruity colors to boot.
Dia-Compe MX 1000 brake The brake that made stopping an art. This caliper became instantly known as the OEM brake for all production bikes in the early 80's. Following in the footsteps of the 901, it featured a quick release for easy wheel removal, the famous Wienmann quick adjust tuning knob, and a lower profile for downtube clearance when used a front brake.	Hutch Foot gaurd Based on the ground braking design by Mike Buff, Hutch released a version of Mikes cut-up number plate idea to protect your foot from the dreaded brake bolt. This was a great way to save those Vans you had just bought if you were doing tailwhips or what is now called a "foot jam" endo. Just zip tie it on and viola!, no more bolt.	Dia-Compe 883 Nippon This is the caliper that everyone used before the 990's were available. Beefy caliper arms allowed ZERO flex. They were offered as front and rear specific with the front caliper already set up for potts mod cable routing and sometimes with a recessed brake bolt that was flush with the back of your fork. Still sporting the quick release and the Weinmann quick adjust knob, this is the brake that stopped the world.
Tuf Neck Brought over from the racing world, the Tuf Neck stem provided a solid clamp for all conditions. Later offered with a hollow stem bolt and a shorter reach specifically for freestyle, this stem is the strongest and most widely recognized stem ever made. Sano stock componentry on many early 80's freestyle bikes including GT's and early Haro Sports.	ACS Rotor 45 ACS came out with a stem that was specifically designed to work in conjuction with the Rotor. A drilled hole through the clamping area provided a barrel adjuster to thread in and the Rotor cable to be routed out of the way from knees and shins. Endorsed by Brett Downs for it's strength, this stem started a production trend that lasted for years.	ACS Rotor 55 ACS updated the ever popular 45 stem and solved what became a problem with Rotor. The stem had to be raised considerably to allow the Rotor to operate correctly. This stem lowered the handlebars without losing the stem shaft height required to run the Rotor. Unfortunetly, these also became famous for the hairline cracks that would appear in the clamp bolt holes where the stem slants downwards.
Tioga Beartrap 2 FS Tioga's revolutionary Beartrap 2 headset forever ended the rider habit of reaching down and tightening the headset after a couple of blocks. The patented lockring design featured "teeth" that bit into the lower nut and was sandwiched by an upper piece that held fast with a rubber seal to cushion it from vibrations that could cause it to loosen. Offered with an upper bearing cup with built in cable guide for ACS Rotors, this colorful headset was loved by many.	Hutch Pro Freestyle stem The legendary Hutch Pro race stem made the cross over from racing as smoothly as the Tuf neck. Modified with TWO threaded holes for barrel adjusters to route a cable to your choice of ACS OR Skyway rear mods. Available in all the Hutch colors and sure to put your bars out over your front axle. It's no wonder Hutch also made the stem stiffener for this baby. With it's long reach it's very prone to flex.	Vector bars In the pursuit of a lightwieght race bike, Vector decided to do away with the need for a stem altogether. This all in one design was made popular by Bob Haro and Mike Dominguez in the early days. I've never seen it, but I suppose you could still run a rear brake mod on these if you dared to give up the anchoring strength of having them mounted deep in the fork. This was a phenomenal design that noone copied.

So there you have it. The first edition of the OldSchoolFreestyle.com Product guide to the legendary parts of the early 80's. We will be looking at more components in upcoming months and welcome your suggestions as to what should be posted. Pictures of the desired part are greatly welcomed but can be found in our vast library of Freestylin' and BMX Action magizines. Hope this gave you some insight on the innovative designs that were offered during this period.

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