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Privateer was a brand founded by Rob Lynch, and run in conjunction with Rob's bike shop... Peddlepower in the city of Orange, CA. Peddlepower was the seminal bike shop and base for the Rink family's Peddlepower & Powerlite brands. This thread will focus on the Lynch era of Peddlepower and the Privateer brand. Not much was known about Privateer in the collecting community. Rob used to interact with the vintage BMX community and come to local shows. A number of collectors became friends with him and used to visit and buy things directly from him. Still, somehow nobody took the extra step to really document the information. Unfortunately Rob passed away in December 2011. Recently a Privateer cruiser that had been built up by Lionel (Carbizguy) and entered in the 2007 Bike of the Year event here on the site became the focus of a long and animated discussion on the BMXsociety Facebook group. Out of this, some new revelations emerged and some very good Privateer information came out courtesy of old team riders and people who were closely connected to Lynch. I'm going to attempt to piece all that info together here in a coherent way. Some of the most informative posts were coming from Joseph Tippit and Darren Martin, and of course Lionel was posting some really interesting Privateer bikes. Privateer was active from 1986 to 1992 Privateer frame sets were made by different manufacturers and we will do our best to compile a list of all of them. Most on line discussions have suggested that Cook Bros and Voris Dixon were involved. Elf was also suggested. As it turns out JMC seems to have been involved as well - and this was a revelation. Darren Martin, a PeddlePower team rider, first mentioned it, and told the story of going to JMC with Rob to have a frame made. In the end, Joseph Tippit explained that Darren's was the first of 10 JMC made Privateers. After that... Cook Bros began making them. One distinguishing factor is that JMC made Privateers are single thickness drop outs, while the CB privateers are double thick drop outs. He went on to say that, "Dbl thick was made for maddog & the butcher for dirt jumping & rob stick with the hd for stiffness"... referring to Chris Moeller and Rich Bartlett. Bill Hohman, who was involved in some capacity with Peddlepower, told XXXX in a personal conversation on this matter, that Minis and Expert frames were made by Voris. Voris doesn't remember doing so. Bill also said that the cruisers were made by Cook Bros. On the other hand, Tippit said the Juniors were made by Elf. It is possible that both are correct - we will refine info as we are able. Pictured below, Carbizguy's Privateer Jr By the way, according to Joseph Tippit, Rob did all these custom paint jobs himself. The optic fade is killer, I have to say. There is a Privateer freestyle frame that was made by Elf according to Tippit. Photo courtesy of Lionel Greyboy's refinished 20" http://www.bmxsociety.com/topic/35789-86-privateer-pro-20/ Another Grey owned piece, he sold it in 2009, current where abouts unknown When Darren Chan submitted this frame, he mentioned that it was Cook Bros made Carbon Fiber Privateer mini... very little is known, Joseph Tippit said it was made by a road bike company and it was all kept on the down low. And here's the Darren Martin owned Privateer, I have yet to find a clear side shot of the entire bike, but we do have some detail shots. and partial side view with unfortunate photo cropping.