wicked wrenching customs

in 1997 I had a part time job at a shop called Cranks. They had one location at the time, but it quickly grew to three and I eventually worked full time in the new locations as well. Cranks was originally owned by Steve Nesbitt, and he sold the Roseville location to Ross Williams, who had a career in Sydney Ferries at the time. Ross was a fantastic boss to work for, and it was very saddening when he suddenly passed away from memory at the young age of 41. His family sold the stores, and a lot of the original staff had also moved on, so eventually I did as well. 

​

Back in the 90's on Sydney's north shore there were (in my mind anyways) two premier shops that you had to check out- Cyclery Northside and Cranks. Northside was known for it's size and huge amounts of bikes, and they had Specialized and from memory Diamondback which were very popular. Cranks was smaller but a bit more boutique, with brands like Cannondale and Proflex. 

 

I was very impressed with the Pro-Flex bikes. I really liked how the oversized elevated swing arm looked like a dirt bike, and the Easton tubing made for a very light dual suspension bike for the time. It was just as capable of downhill as cross country, and I liked that. Pro Flex bikes also had some wild paint schemes, there were the 'Animal' and Reptile' models, which looked like the paint had been applied by the guys who made the Mortal Kombat games...

​

Once again as with most of my bikes it took me a fair few years to eventually own a Pro-Flex, but a good friend of mine Andrew did have a beautiful Ferrari red 856 that I got to try out every now and then. Eventually I bought this 955 cheap, and preceded to kit it out with XTR M900. Finding New Old Stock 900 components was easy in 2003, it's not that easy anymore! The frame had lost most of the original decals, so I removed what was left and liked the minimalist look, so the only decal that went back on was a XTR logo on the downtube. Other notable bits were the Judy DH forks (the internals were upgraded to a set of White Bros springs), some Ringle small bits and a nice titanium cockpit. It was a brilliant bike, even if it had a bad rap with others. Iv'e heard of many complaints of frame failure, and names like 'Pro-Snap' come to mind...but I guess I don't ride hard enough because I (or Andrew) have yet to break one for ourselves.