Robinson BMX

[hak074]

Does anyone know anything about these Robinson BMX bikes?

A friend down the road has sold his place and was getting rid of a heap of stuff, and thought our kids might like a bike. Turns out it was stored in its own bike bag and it looked pretty cool when I pulled it out.



I found a little logo on the frame that said "Robinson, handmade in the USA" (rubbish photo of that). A bit of a google and I checked the rear for the serial number.





From that I guess it was made in October 1990, the 1090 part. And the J and R would be Junior Race model. From reading the internet it sounds like Robinson got bought out by GT at some stage, and maybe that's why this one has GT front forks.



But that's about all I know. I assume its a proper serious sort of racer, and probably not suitable for kids to just bomb about on. So should I tidy it up and let kids ride it, or maybe I should hand it over to someone who is going to do racing? Or maybe just keep it and see if my kids might be interested in doing some BMX racing... I just dunno.

Have some more pics anyway.

[steveg]

It looks quite a nice bike. I don't know much about the mini frames but guess it's probably late 80's early 90's. I have a nose on ebay to see whats about and spotted a couple on there at the weekend but they were earlier ones.
Not sure if it has any value, the two I have are worth enough now I do think twice about having a quick go on them now could be worth a look on one of the BMX sites like www.radbmx.co.uk/forum/index.php to see if you can spot anything similar.

Only thing you might struggle with getting is the tyres if you need new ones. I know the old ones on one of mine started falling apart and because the Minis had narrow wheels they might not be so easy to get hold of.

There is no telling what children will like really, my six year old isn't bothered with bikes at all so I have got him a bigger go kart for now.

[jonxs]

I know nothing about them. But that's cool as hell.
24" wheels?? Or is it an illusion

[steveg]

They should be 20". I'm surprised they didn't use 16" wheels for younger riders as they had cruisers for older guys. Perhaps it was just done like that to keep the 20" wheels only for BMX bikes.

[rmad]

All the facts below are of a relatively knowledgeable outsider. I been into BMX since the early 80s but I never raced and wouldn't consider myself a collector.


Robinson was a top brand back in the day. Collectors still like the Junior/Mini race bikes, but you can't really ride them as an adult so the value is less for them generally. You could keep it as a race bike for your little'un, but it would be a bit out of date now.

The wheels are 20x1-3/8, so they're 20", although I believe they are actually very slightly larger than a standard 20x1.75 BMX wheel.

Most of the bits on it are mini-specific, so whilst they're sought after brands (Powerlite bars, Uni seat etc) most of them aren't parts that people want on a full-size bike.

I think you're right about the frame number decoding. Being a '90 puts it right on the cusp of old & mid school, so it's not the most desirable age either to a lot of people. If I were after a Robinson, I'd want and earlier gusseted model, although I don't think the Juniors ever had a gusset anyway.

If you stuck it on ebay and included the terms 'old mid school' in the title, the buyers will find it.

[courseout]

rmad is pretty spot on - Robinson was a higher end brand, eventually bought by GT (Pacific brands) and finally retired sometime in the early 2000's

Value wouldn't be great. If it was me I would clean it up and hold onto it for my little girl. I have actually been looking around for something similar - shame there is an ocean between us! Haha. Keep in mind that most mini parts have a maximum weight limit. My brother had a GT that looked a lot like that and he ended up cracking it thru the downtube, he would've been maybe 10 or 11 so the length of time your kid can actually ride it is pretty short.

As for using 20" wheels, basically the 20" wheels provide a lot better rolling resistance and stability for racing. Some kids still start out on a 16" BMX but until recently anything 16" or below has been more or less a toy and the geometry and parts quality was really average.

[hak074]

Thanks for all the replies and the extra info guys. Excellent stuff.

I might just hang onto the thing and give it a bit of a tidy up. If the kids aren't keen to give it a go (2 girls 8 and 7, boy 3, so a bit of time left to give it a go) then it'll look nice hanging in the shed. I'd feel a bit bad chucking it up on ebay seeing as the guy gave it to us.

So the next question, how do you get the rust off the chrome frame without scratching it up??

[RobMorris]

Try apple vinegar or any metal polish mate.

[steveg]

I'm testing some vinegar on some plated wheels at the moment. Other things that have been tried are coke, molasses and oxyillic acid (not sure about spelling).
I've found that rubbing the rusty area with a bit of wood helps speed things up and doesn't scratch the chrome that's left. I found an old clothes peg that does this quite well.
I will stick some pictures up if it works reasonably well.

[jpr1977]

I built up a bmx for my nephew using an old dyno frame i had picked up to rob some bits up for another project.

It's not in the best of shapes but it came up well using a mix of autosol, silvo metal poilsh and in tough areas very fine wire wool. Its also been liberally coated with WD40 which seems to have lasted well last time i saw it...

[deathgaytothemax]

Huge source of bmx info.
bmxmuseum.com/bikes

And yours I think
bmxmuseum.com/bikes/robinson/30292

[markgenesis]

Dec 1, 2015 3:21:55 GMT hak074 said:

So the next question, how do you get the rust off the chrome frame without scratching it up??

Try a Brillo soap pad, worked well on my Raleigh Chopper chrome.

[iain1970]

The 20" x 1 3/8" rims are 451mm and like old shopper bikes from Raleigh, which is about 2" bigger than a 20 x 1.75" BMX wheel. Mini Velo wheels are similar in size too.

Aluminium foil dipped in water and rubbed on the rusty bits works.