Say your prayers.

Melburn.

I don't ride BMX, never really did. I had a few, my last blue BMX (cause I wanted to be Goose) was reversed over by my Grandpa, smashing the bars in the process.

BMX Bandits - Even in German it's rad.

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After Grandpa crushed my Mongoose 'Goose look-a-like' my next bike was a mountain bike which was adult sized so I'd 'grow into it'.

It was solid plumbing pipe, Shimano thumbies with SIS, steel rims and spokes. Descended extremely well.

I do remember the kid on my street who had a beautiful Apollo Kosciosko. It was white, with Pro Hart splattering of pink, lime and blues. We'd tow friends on skateboards on our MTBs with a length of cord tied to the post and see how fast we could go before they got speed wobbles and stacked gloriously.

It was a time when Apollo made some of the best mountain bikes you could get. The Kosciosko was a sweet ride - my Hallmark in contrast was like riding a Massey-Ferguson.

Cuddles himself was a sponsored Apollo team rider and before Cadel was riding for Apollo, The Lord built him his first mountain bike.

When I met The Lord, he had the most impressive stable of classic and twisted TRACK bikes. Mint Hillmans, Kenevans, Paconi's with complete gruppo's and ensembles.

The Lord had even pimped out a Paconi which to date is still arguably the maddest TRACK bike ever.

Paconi Pista with custom machined Profile Widowmaker chainring on Profile Cromo BMX 165's so they didn't flog out from torquing in two directions, Profile Titanium spindle, Phil wood High Flange, Titanium spokes, Mavic Open Pros, Cinelli , Nitto NJS , Thomson, Concor, Chris King, Wipperman, Michelin. MAD!

The Lord commuted 20km to and from 'the lab' on it and had mastered no hand track skids long before they ever appeared on Youtube.

This was a time when track bikes were an unknown on the street. The 'old set' used them for training/winter/race bikes back in the day up until the 70's but other than the Velodrome, you wouldn't see track bikes anywhere other than hanging in sheds gathering dust in the off season.

If you've been following fyx for a while you'll remember this project.

I thought so little of the Carter steel frame that I gave it to Gonz thinking it was worthless. When I did his eyes lit up like a child on Christmas as he'd always dreamed of owning a pursuit bike - and fortunately it was his size.

They're mad to look at - horrible to ride, but it wasn't about building a bike TO ride.

One year later, and with colour coded Deep V's before Velocity themselves were producing them in PINK - the Gonz Lab pursuit was finished.

Colour coded SYNTACE bars, Skull dust caps, and NOS Dura Ace Pista Ensemble.

From this point on I knew that if I was going to restore and build bikes it was the Gonz way - or the Highway.

No cutting corners, no half hearted measures.

Old Skool.

I'd been stowing a bike of Gonz's that he dropped off 2 years prior. Again, I'd thought it belonged in the trash. I didn't know what it was, and more importantly what it meant.

'It's even better than I remember it!' he drooled.

I thought he was joking. It's pitted to the bone, frayed cables, covered in cobwebs, aluminum resembling a teenagers face. How good could it be?

The story goes that in 1989 Gonz built this GT Pro Series for a friend. The frame along was $450.

20 years ago, $450 was a lot of money. When you had a paper run as your income, that was a LOT of papers to deliver to make $450.

Add to that the componentry of highly desirable BMX candy you could buy in 1989 that Gonz has assembled it with.

S&M fork / Suzue hubs to UKAI rims / Dia Compe lever and Dia Compe Nippon caliper with Weinmann Semi Automatic barrel adjuster and Scott-Mathauser pas / Haro tyres / GT Cromo bars and stem / GT grips / EPOCH headset / Sugino Cromo crankset - Vans stickers which Gonz has applied when the bike sold / Shimano DX pedals / Shimano Freewheel / Izumi chain

2 years ago, that same friend who had neglected this beast by abandoning it outdoors, returned it to Gonz as an offering.

So much like the sequence of the Carter rebirth, Gonz shed light on this rusty dunger and what it meant to own one in 1989.