A guy nobody has ever heard of, Dale Cooper, invents a little machined aluminum thing that attaches to your stem and allows for tangle free rearbrakes. ACS markets this as THE ROTOR.
BMX Action may 1985: A couple days ago. Dale Cooper, who works down at Riverside Schwinn (over in Riverside, California), called and said he wanted to bring down his new invention for a quick preview. We yawned, scratched our heads, and finally told him to come on down. When he showed up with a Potts Mod that's built for REAR calipers, our jaws immediately dropped into our laps. Think of it! Put the Dale Mod (which is the name everyone around here has tagged onto it) together with a Potts Mod for your front caliper, and it's possible to spin the bars around FOREVER without kinking the cables. This is the best news for hard-core freestylers since the invention of the quarter-pipel
So how does this deal work? A two-piece aluminum pivot is the heart of the whole thing. The top piece has a tube that runs down through the inside of the bottom piece, and the whole thing is held together with a snap ring. That means the two pieces are connected, but can easily turn independently of each other. Now the other interesting thing is that there are two sections of brake cable. The first one runs from the brake lever to the top half of the aluminum pivot, and the second one starts at the lower halt and runs to the caliper.
Now check out the photo. See how the anchor attached to the stem's wedge bolt catches the end of the upper cable housing? And how there's another anchor on the top tube for the lower cable housing? That's so the whole aluminum pivot can move up and down to activate the rear caliper AND still pivot for days on end. Braking performance is every bit as good as normal. The only drawback to the system is that you have to run the stem about an inch higher than normal so that the aluminum pieces can slide up and down the stem shaft. No real biggie.
Right now Dale is working with ACS on gettin' these guys into production, and they'll have a complete kit available by the time you read this. The kit will come complete with an ACS stern, a Potts Mod bolt for your front caliper, and all the goodies necessary to set up the Dale Mod. Right now it looks like the whole package will go for right around 40 frogskins. Bitchenl
Freestylin november 1985: Not to be outdone, Skyway has come up with a trick and clean rear mod of its own. It works on the same principle as most of the others — the rear cable attaches to the stem-mounted mechanism, which moves up and down when the brakes are activated or released. It works. COLORS: Chrome. COST: $31.95.
Advertisement, BMX Action february 1987: NEW from SR, Spin?tech it's the optimum In freestyle trickery. Spin?Tech is spinning ? technology engineered to perfection. The Spin?Tech comes complete with its own unique stem. The cold-drawn stem pipe and heat treated stem bolt make It rigid. The double?pull mechanism insures consistent, equal cable pull, so it works as smooth as silk. And it's reliable; you can boomerang from here to Australia and it won't miss a beat. If you want the maximum freestyle equipment on your scoot, get Spin?Tech and get:
- Smooth (hang-up free) Double?Pull Action
- Two?Into?one cable system (with dual cable adjuster)
- Lightweight alloy stem (with four allen?head bolts)
- Hollow cold?drawn CrMo stem bolt
- Cold?drawn CrMo stem pipe heat treated
- Built?In crank arms
- PVC spacer
- Easy cable replacement
- Outrageous colors
Get your mitts on Spin?Tech ... and Ro-tate.
Brian Scura designed the Odyssey Gyro and rakes in a commission of $1 per Gyro made.
Freestylin october 1986: THE GYRO WORTH THE WAIT. You've no doubt seen it advertised. Maybe you've even checked down at the local shop to see if they hadone. But you've probably never actually seen one ... until now. By the time you read this, you should be able to pick up an Odyssey Gyro at your fave shop. Who's the mastermind behind the new spinning system? None other than Brian Scura, inventor of many novelties and amusing devices. Gyro cost? Nineteen gringo dollars(cheap). Colors? Obviously you're gonna find at least ONE that'll match your bike ... choose from white, black, blue, red, lavender; orange, green, pink, or gray. How does it work? Excellent. It has a split-cable system that starts as one cable coming out of the brake lever, then separates into two cables about where your crossbar is, one going to each side of the Gyro. There're also two cables on the bottom of Gyro which form into one about halfway between the rear brakes and the stem. What this amounts to is SIX cables altogether, working to give you less side load and smoother spinning action on the Gyro itself. Of course, the cables are teflon-lined for a killer feel, plus there are SEVEN different places to adjust the Gyro, which means you can get 'em completely fine-tuned. Also, you might want to note that GT bought the first production shipment of Gyros, so it's pretty obvious where you'll be seeing a lot of them soon. One place you WON'T be seeing 'em is on Red Line RL-20-IIs, 'cause the wraparound twin top tube makes installation impossible. Whether or not Odyssey will make a new model to fit RL2O-lls hasn't been determined, but we'll keep you informed. Rip down to the shop and check a Gyro out-you'll like what you see.
www.odysseybmx.com: Originally invented by Brian Scura and still manufactured by Odyssey, the Gyro is one of the most important innovations in BMX history. It's indifference to stems and headsets meant that it was the only detangler that made the transition to 1-1/8" threadless, and it is still a product that's in widespread use today. The current Gyro G3 has received changes to its cables and bearing unit over the years, and our top-of-the-line Gyro GTX-R may not look like the original, but the basic detangling cable function for all of our Gyros is still the same. The Gyro truly helped to set Odyssey apart, and it also established our reputation for following through with the development of original designs.
Rotor à roulement scellés.
