[PlanetX]

lboorse2, on Jun 4 2009, 12:57 PM, said:

That's a lot of good info right there X!

I do what I can.

[dayride]

Here is some of the DK stuff I have accumulated. I have a poster somehwere too.

[dayride]

Couple more pics. If my scanner was not broken I would scan in the pages of the catalog. The first page is DK stuff and the rest have prices for other stuff they distrubuted like Free Agent, Bullseye, Powerlite etc..







You can't really tell in this picture, but the edges of the black stem are more square than the polished one.





I have some of the second generation hubs laced to some wheels. I have been trying to get a square K&G stamped stem off a guy for a while. He will not part with it. Shoot me a price Redline I will see if it is in my ballpark.

[rumblerdave]

Wow, nice stuff dayride! Diggin' the hell out of that black padset... would love to see the rest of that catalog!!!

[dayride]

I am thinking about running that padset on my DK Octane. The frame pad does not have DK on it. Makes me wonder if it is the original pad. The catalog is from 87. The price for stems is like 18.00. The round edge I have in the picture still has a price tag on it for 38.00. A 20.00 markup.

This post has been edited by dayride: 05 June 2009 - 06:31 AM

[J-Rad]

Super cool thread!
Hello my name is Jered and I've worked at dk since 87. Here are some tips to ID your early stems.

Here is an early square back pro sized dk with the keyed pin. The very first stems had hollow pins, then a solid the pin was used until 85.


Early DK's also used a steel wedge until mid 1980, you can see the wedge angle increased w/ the change to the aluminum wedge. DK received a lot of criticism switching to the alloy wedge, old timers said an alloy wedge would never work,(it actually worked better!) the alloy wedge later became an industry standard. Also in this photo you can see the early knurling vs: the tighter smaller pattern.

more to come later....

I love DK !

[rumblerdave]

Wow, great stuff Jered!!! Thank you! You've worked there since '87?!?!? Must be cool to have been at such a great company for so long.

Got a couple of questions for you:

What year did they stop making square stems? Was it an exact year or was it a transition- seems like I've seen square base with rounded caps, etc...?

What year did the lo-flange mid school hubs come out? Were they all imported/foreign made?

Do you know anything more about the early high flange hubs? (other than whats already been posted here)

Thanks!
Dave

[MikeR]

Nice survivor to bump this thread back to the top:


Mike (sr)

[PlanetX]

rumblerdave, on Jun 6 2009, 08:26 AM, said:

Wow, great stuff Jered!!! Thank you! You've worked there since '87?!?!? Must be cool to have been at such a great company for so long.

Got a couple of questions for you:

What year did they stop making square stems? Was it an exact year or was it a transition- seems like I've seen square base with rounded caps, etc...?

What year did the lo-flange mid school hubs come out? Were they all imported/foreign made?

Do you know anything more about the early high flange hubs? (other than whats already been posted here)

Thanks!
Dave

I got my info from Jered, but didn't name him 'cause I know he likes to keep a low profile. He may know more though--his father-in-law is Charlie Danishek. I've been friends with Jered since about 1982. Glad he chimed in. He's good people.

[84profile]

a bit of DK flavour on my Profile...the frustrating part is I just need the 2 like DK decals that came on both the 2'n'1 and the seat clamp...to totally finish the build..

I've always thought DK stuff was underated...

[PlanetX]

84profile, on Jun 18 2009, 08:21 PM, said:

a bit of DK flavour on my Profile...the frustrating part is I just need the 2 like DK decals that came on both the 2'n'1 and the seat clamp...to totally finish the build..

I've always thought DK stuff was underated...

I loves me a nice black Profile.

The seat clamp is killer, too. Don't see those very often. I bought a Torker from pics and I thought it had one of those on it. Turned out to be the next ones--the two-bolt variety. I put it on my 1984 Robinson, even if it is a little too new for the bike.

[84profile]

yeah, they were my favorite clamp back in the day



I ran this DK XXL for a while on my GT, then I learnt that it was the wrong area...they were a great stem to help a short frame....

[92gli]

oops

This post has been edited by 92gli: 19 June 2009 - 06:32 PM

[92gli]

dayride, on Jun 4 2009, 09:33 PM, said:

Is the clamp of that inverted stem recessed so you can drop the stem all the way down on the headset ?

I loved me those non-con single bolt seat clamps. I had one of those bitd that made it on to 6 or 7 different frames. I have a thin double bolt one of my rider now but its not the same.

Anybody got a used non-con you'd let go of for a reasonable price ?

[MikeR]

[lboorse2]

Bumping this back up -- I need to learn a few things for a potential project next year...

Can we hammer down when the rounded corner stems arrived?
When did the seat clamps go from 1-bolt to 2-bolt?
When did the new logo arrive?

[PsychoDuddy]

Some insight on on this version would be great as well. I have 2 identical to this one. One I've had for a while, the other I bought from a member here. I forget which is which. The stampings were so light on these ones, if you ran a stem pad for any length of time they virtually disappeared. This particular one it is definitely hand engraved, not stamped or mechanically done. You can see the stop and start points. And before anyone asks....yes it it real.

[aaronmjr]

Here's mine. Bought it from my LBS as a kid. I plan on polishing it.

[lboorse2]

1985 DK Brochure - Courtesy of J-Rad. Enjoy! Thanks J-Rad.

Interestingly, notice only white and black along with polished were the only colors offered this year for stems, yet in the 81 ad, it's noted that they came in red and blue as well. Also take note to the "Special Pro" model stem. Aluminum shaft instead of the usual Chromoly.

[Surf911S]