Editor’s note: A version of this article ran in the February issue of Bicycle Retailer & Industry News. If you don’t receive our magazine (in print or digital format), please sign up for a free subscription at bicycleretailer.secure.darwin.cx/Z2COTRLB .
LAKEWOOD, Colo. (BRAIN) — Some lovers of vintage bikes work to bring them to sparkling, like-new condition.
Wakeman Massie rides the hell out of them.
Massie digs old bikes — early BMX cruisers, clunkers, late ’80s and early ’90s mountain bikes, old BMX bikes and more. But he says he’s not a collector.
“I don’t like the word, ‘collector.’ I don’t like it. It conjures up people who have wall hangers, hoarders … I’m an appreciator. These are bikes that deserve to be ridden. I mean, if you have a Steve Potts bike from 1988, that was built to last a lifetime — why not ride it? I appreciate a hand-crafted product, a nostalgic product, but I think they are still valid and useful. I don’t keep them around if they are not rideable,” he told BRAIN recently.
Massie founded House of Looptail , which sells exact duplicates of some early 26-inch mountain bike tires that had been unavailable for years. It began selling its first tires in the fall.
House of Looptail’s first product is an exact replica of the 1970’s-era Snakebelly tire in 26-inch. The Snakebelly tread was first used on a CyclePro-branded 20-inch BMX tire and later on early mountain bikes and 26-inch wheeled BMX cruisers. Massie worked with Panaracer, which made […]
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