Cru, pretend it's the lumber yard, go balls out

Welcome to the first installment of what I imagine will be a long process to completion. After some re-ignited interest in BMX, I have decided to restore a 1985 Mongoose Californian into a replica of the bike  Cru Jones rides in the Movie Rad, possibly one of my favorite movies of my childhood.

25 years after its release, I still watch the movie Rad with as much enthusiasm as I did when I was 6 years old, and that excitement has brought me back into the world of BMX. I began researching bikes, reading BMX forums and searching for a possible bike to purchase and start riding again and that's when I came to the conclusion that if I were going to get another bike, it should be one that paid homage to the old school BMXing that I knew and loved.

So, rather than purchase a new bike with all its technological and geometrical advancements over the old school bikes of my day, I decided that I would start this restoration process.

Now I've never built a bike from the frame up before, so I've started this blog to document the entire project from start to finish. This is what I am starting with:

So far all I have obtained is the frame, forks, and stem. I am planning on using as many orignal parts that came on the 1985 Mongoose Californian Pro Class as humanly possible, so it will take time to gather and assemble this thing piece by piece, but it will be rad when it is done!

This is what the bike should look like once completed:

Stay tuned for updates as I begin the build!