Monday, July 14, 2008

BMX GPV bikes.

1988 Hutch HPV Superbike
"Hutch teamed up with downhill BMX racer Dan Hanebrink in the late eighties and decided to take a tangent from their legendary line of BMX trick bikes such as the Trick Star and Wind Styler. They developed three bikes which pushed bicycle aerodynamics and speed to a whole new level. The GPV (Gravity Powered Vehicle) was a super-stretched, pedal-free bike almost fully enveloped in fiberglass fairings. These downhill-race-only bikes were rumoured to approach 100MPH and were not made publicly available. Instead, the HPV was released in incredibly small quantities to mimic the speed of the GPV on a bit more user-friendly of a platform. The littlest brother, the FZ-1, was no more than a BMX bike with a shoddy fairing, and never went over well with buyers."
The HPV was an experiment of sorts, and besides its outlandish appearance, has a MASSIVE 63 or 64-tooth front sprocket running to a 6-speed rear cassette, which through word of mouth (and the internet nowadays) is said to make this bike blindingly fast! A stretched rear, wheel covers and (at the time) top quality brakes, shifter, and deraileur made this one-of-a-kind cycle likely scary to pilot downhill at well over 40-50mph.
Before Hutch: The 1974~78 Huffy GPV Superbike (via: hell for leather)
"A 26inch wheeled "gravity bike" would have the right diameter wheels for speed but the center of gravity would be outta whack , unless you rode prone & steered from inside of the front diamond section of the frame & had pegs on the rear wheels."
(above and two below picts via: vintagebmx)


1 comment:

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