Giant

Giant made bikes for lots of companies in the '80s. In Australia, the Repco Hotfoot was made by Giant from approximately 1980 to 1985 when they then swapped manufacturers to Merida. While this was going on, Giant imported bikes and sold them to other companies - RoadMaster and the Melbourne Bike Company amongst others - and even sold their own branded version.

Please browse through all of the material I have collected:

If you have any Hotfoot information or photos, please forward them to me and I will add them to the site. I am especially interested in brochures and advertisements as these are most valuable when restoring bikes back to their original glory.

Restorations



Re-Rides: Restoration of an '81 Giant GMX-250 for under $100!

The Challenge
Brenton restores, photographs and blogs about bikes on his website www.re-rides.com. A challenge he set himself was to restore an old Giant GMX-250 to its former glory for under $100. The following article is reproduced with Brenton's permission. The original article can be seen on the Re-Rides site here.
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Giving a new life to an old Giant
1981 Giant GMX 250 refound in Sydney April 2014. The 1981 Giant GMX-250 frame was an unfinished project from the previous owner, I purchased the bike in a bulk lot of BMX parts. After re-selling and re-using the bits and pieces in the sale, the frame ended up costing nothing.
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Keep the build cost down to keep the re-sale price low
From what I know and remember from back in the early 1980’s when I used to ride BMX bikes for fun the first time round, Giant built BMX frames were generally, inexpensive and at the low end of the bikes you’d find in the bike shop. Although these BMX’s are rare, they are not well known and Taiwan build quality was not as premium as US built bikes, so I was keen to rebuild this Giant GMX-250 using refurbished, low budget 80’s parts to keep the cost of the build below $100 - ultimately to ensure the re-sale cost of the bike could also be kept low.

To achieve my low budget build this I purchased two very cheap, old school girls BMX bikes to use as donors. A 1988 Phoenix YM-833 BMX $30 – a cheap Chinese made BMX and a Repco Hotfoot Girls BMX from 1995 $10 – Repco hotfoot BMX’s were also Giant made through the 1980’s, although this one was not, it still had some very useable parts. After re-selling various parts from both donor bikes I was left with most of the parts I needed to build the Giant for a total cost of $15.


  
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The Giant GMX-250 frame was purchased in pre-sand blasted and primed condition, however it had been sitting around for a while and needed to be sanded back and re-primed before spray bombing white. The forks and chain wheel from the Repco Hotfoot and MX CW style handlebars from the Phoenix BMX were also spray bombed in matching white. The Repco Hotfoot cranks, bottom bracket, stem, headset, seat and pedals along with front and back brakes and layback seat post all came from the Phoenix BMX. All donor parts were cleaned, polished and re-greased.

   
   
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The steel 28H wheel set from the Phoenix BMX were completely dismantled so I could attempt to clean off the rust for use. The top sides of rims were badly effected by rust, so they were stripped, sanded and sprayed blue to give the shiny side look. They were rebuilt using the original spokes and hubs.
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Recreate the original look and add a personal touch
I recreated the decal set from photos of other Giant GMX-250 bikes from around the web and on BMX Museum. I took a couple of liberties and added a few extra decals to the frame, chain wheel and handlebars.

New parts were purchased and added to the build: Kenda Comp 3 20×1.75 tyres, Ame Grips, Dia Compe brake levers, seat post clamp and blue brake cables and pads as well as a new white chain. The addition of all these new components pushed my build costs to $117, just over my initial budget.


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Extra Info / Links

   OldSchoolMags.com  Have you ever wished that you could go back in time to the late 70's and early 80's when you could walk into a newsagency and see the latest issues of BMX Action, BMX Plus, Super BMX and Freestylin' in the racks as crisp and clean as the day they were printed? If you said yes to any of these questions, this is the site for you ..

   BMX Works  This site has everything you will ever need to restore an old school bmx from loose parts - nuts, bolts and bearings - through to complete brake sets, cranks sets and finishing parts, such as pad sets and decals.

   Madman's BMX Painting Services  Pete's work is second to none. I have two frames painted by him - a Hotfoot Freestyle in white and a Hotfoot 24" Cruiser in Hazard Yellow - and both have come out beautifully. Pete can also handle the stripping of paint and chrome and other prep work.

   Re-Rides  Sydney Australia based BMX restoration and photography. Rebuilding retro BMX bikes from 80's old-school, 90's mid-school and 00's new-school era's.

   SDBMX  SDBMX sells a distinctive range of cast alloy BMX rims that will finish of any old-school, mid-school or even new-school build. Styles include the Blizzard, Cyclone, Hurricane, Tornado and Typhoon.

Blizzard Cyclone Hurricane Tornado Typhoon

   Vintage Mongoose  Anyone who is interested in Mongooses (Mongeese?) has probably already found this site. When I was restoring my Motomag, I found this site invaluable for information and reproductions decals and grips. Warren, who is behind this site, is a local who is passionate - no obsessive - about the Mongoose brand and it shows.