Alans BMX: 1984 vs 2024 Skyway Street Beat Comparison

So whats changed in 40 years? Adam takes you through the changes between an oreiginal 1984 Skyway Street Beat and the new 2024 version from Skyway.

Watch the full build of a Chrome Skyway Street Beat here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNtDLOybBqw&ab_channel=AlansBMX

Check out our full Frame Kit unboxing video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reQ-et7DGos&ab_channel=AlansBMX

Although the frames visually look very similar there is some big changes to make the new 2024 bike perform as good as the modern bikes particularly in the braking performance along with other touches to bring it into the modern era of BMX!

You can pick up your own Skyway Street Beat frame here: https://alansbmx.com/search?q=street*%20beat*&type=article,page,product

Or want a custom build? Go here: https://alansbmx.com/products/skyway-street-beat-2024-complete-bike?_pos=1&_sid=662c97a97&_ss=r

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Want to come see us? We are located at 49 Wallgate, Wigan, WN1 1BE in the UK. We have a full retail store and would love to see you.

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Hi and I’m Adam with Alan’s BMX and today we’re going to compare the new Skyway street beat 2024 reissue frames this green one with an original 1984 I believe the customer told me street beat frame there are a few differences we’re going to go through them with you this

Guy want just dropped this off with me the other day to get some work done he’d managed to strip the thread off his Forks when he was trying to fit the headset I’ve recut the threads in for him I’ve got the headset fitted and he’s giving me permission to use his frame

For this video So there’s a few differences you can see just visually firstly the new one uses modern geometry and as such it is a lot longer this is a 21 in top tube from the seat tube to the head tube is 21 in whereas The Originals were closer to 18

Or 18.5 so it’s a much longer frame straight out secondly the mechanical components of how it all goes together again the newer models the 2024’s these modern components because theyve built these to actually be ridden these are not built as a show piece you could take

These to the skap park if you wanted to so firstly we’ll start with the front and work our way backwards the headset on the rearo frame is an integrated modern headset 1 and 1/8 and you can tell that because the cups are actually built into the frame whereas if you

Compare it to the original you’ll see I’ve used the Tang uh MX 320 headset here with the cups uh pressed in separately and this uses a 1in fork so a narrower fork steerer with a threaded top and the new one uses a standard 1 and8 Fork with a uh smooth steering no

Threads it’s for a modern clamp on stem secondly at the front end here uh we’ve got obviously the 8990 brake mounts here for a traditional modern U braake uh compared to just the whole drilled through the forks here for mx890 mx0 the standard old caliper um also I’ve just

Noticed as I’ve laid these out here if we compare the dropouts we can see they’ve beefed out the dropouts on the new one significantly there’s a lot more weld here compared to here I’d say you’ve got an extra inch and a half of weld there quite quite a lot so that’s nice uh

Moving backwards um the actual body of the frame itself underneath here it’s going to be difficult for you to see uh but you actually get mounts for the brake cable whereas in the 80s you get a velcro strap or a a zip tie whatever you

Want and you just tie uh the cable to the frame on this you actually get the removable Mount so you can root your cable down here and it looks nice and neat the new ones also in the 2024 again might be difficult to pick up on camera

But along the platform so along here and here typically where you’re going to jam your feet up for the flat land stuff is actually nled on the frame you get a little bit of texture uh to Aid with the added grip it’s a little bit wet or your

Shoes are a little bit slick that nerling just helps gives you a little bit of grip didn’t get that on the original you got it flattened out so you still got the uh the flat platforms to stand on but no nerling and obviously no brake mounts under here

Uh moving backwards again I suppose the back end here um on the 1984 I have is just uh a standard welded tube with nothing extra there basically but on the new ones again this is something I just noticed today comparing these two uh you actually get an extra sort of piece of

Metal here with a nice Skyway logo stamped into the metal so that’s nice a little bit something extra to stand on next uh is seat post so on the old original 1984 you’re going to have the standard 22.2 seat post which will accept a 25.4 seat clamp on the new one

Again modern components so it uses a modern 25.4 post and a 28.6 seat clamp that’s how they’re going to go together for you and again at the back end we have the 990 mounts here for a much stronger uh separately spring you got two Springs on each well one spring

On each side for two Springs total on the U so much much stronger brake and again on the 84 just a standard hole drill through the metal for your mx890 your MX th000 your Bulldog whatever you want to run uh what else have we got of course

The bottom bracket that’s a big one so this uh modern reproduction the 2024 reissue of the Skyway uses a modern mid bottom bracket now that is just the bearing that pushes into the frame the old one uses something you’re probably more familiar with which is the American

Or US size bottom bracket now I believe the mid bottom bracket will measure in at 41 mm across I believe I’m right in saying this and the American is 51 mm across so what that means is on the old ones you’d have to have a separate cup

That pushed into the frame and then the bearing pushed into the cup on the new one we foro the cup we just take that bearing out and we press it straight into the frame so a little bit stronger little bit less to go wrong better again designed to be built also on the

New ones uh this is something obviously they didn’t need on the old ones because on the older ones the back end of the frame where where the rear wheel goes in where it sort of Parts out there is much narrower because back in the day 2.4 tires didn’t

Exist you didn’t need that room so they made them much much narrower which in turn meant you can run a big 44 to chain ring which is what you used to see in 4416 standard gearing right modern bra don’t use 44s they use 259 now that is the exact same gear

Ratio you’re getting the exact same output it’s just smaller Rings designed that way so you’d stop hooking up your you know your sprocket on the on the coping and stuff they just made everything smaller it’s a little bit better however Skyway thrown as a bone with these reissues you’ll see this

Little divot here which means although this is a modern frame and you could run a259 they’ve also given you the option to run a 4416 and in tandem with that they’ve left the rear dropouts 10 mm standard for old school you want to call pait of skyways on there knock yourself out

Typically modern frames use a 14 mm Dropout this uses a 10 so you could still get the option of uh you know you want to run 4416 make it look old school brilliant it’s a showpiece you want to run $259 tiets to the SC uh skate park

Brilliant so I believe that is uh really all of the differences there are some small things obviously this new one comes with gyro tabs here so if you wanted to run a gyro you don’t need to run that bottom plate in fact you can’t with an integrated headset that’s why

They’ve done it whereas the modern one obviously you’d have to use that bottom Cup and the uh the bottom um plate sorry and that’ be held in by the headset cup um but yeah really really nice frames I mean you can look at them um they’ve

Done a really good job You’ still got the gusset here you still got the nice platform at the back end with that odd shaped dip you’ve still got the coaster mounts as well on both so if you wanted to run a coaster rear break you can do that’s excellent yeah really fantastic

Reissues been quite impressed with these if you want to see me build one up in detail check out one of our previous videos uh on this channel it’s me building up well me and my colleague Tom we build up one of the Chrome Skyway reissues we did a full build on that

Went in depth a little bit more if you want to watch that please feel free check out the channel you can find it if you want to order one of these they’re going to be available on Allens bmx.com and if you want us to build it for you

Just was a list of parts I’ll throw it together it’s not a problem we can deliver it as a complete bike ready to ride away check out alens bmx.com check out the YouTube channel we’re always uploading stuff check out the Instagram and uh yeah thanks very much I’ve been Adam for Alan BMX