Project: 1988 Variflex Strada 12 BMX Scooter - Barney The Big Purple Scooter

In the 1980's these scooters were relatively popular, and many companies slapped their decals on them. The scooters were essentially all the same scooter, but with different brand names and colors. They were mostly for neighborhood transportation. We don't remember these being used for serious tricks. Skatepark freestyle scooter riding didn't arrive until circa 2000 with the Razor scooter. We bought this Variflex locally and it had been in storage for a long time. It is in excellent condition and would qualify as 'survivor' condition which is original, unrestored, and presentable.

We are going to dissemble, service, clean, shine, and ride this awesome 80's purple scooter.

The first thing to do is break it all down. We took everything apart to see what we were working with. It was in great condition and all that was needed was some cleaning, polishing, and grease. And tires. As you can see here Simple Green® is the real MVP around here. It cleans, degreases, and doesn't eat metals like aluminum unlike some other cleaners. It's also non-toxic. A good professional type rubbing compound is also essential to the process.

The mag wheels were scrubbed with a microfiber towel and lots of Simple Green. The bearings in both were dry. The grease that was in there looked good, but there wasn't much of it. After cleaning the races and bearings we greased 'em down with Shimano Premium Grease (Dura Ace) our favorite stuff. Leprechauns work overtime making this magical green grease. It sticks to anything and is so slick it requires solvents to get off your hands. After putting the hubs back together we put on new 12 inch tires. Working with these tires and little mags was a total pain in the butt and we had to drop the precision strike Park Tool tire levers and use the tactical nuclear Pedro's levers to get the tires on.

Where's the grease?!

Next, we cleaned up the brake calipers and painted the deck bolts. We also cleaned the deck top, sides, and bottom using a microfiber towel and Simple Green. If you have bright steel parts or chrome parts you can use a SOS Pad (the brand name one) and water. As long as your SOS Pad has the blue soap keep scrubbing and you'll shine chrome and bright metal in one easy step. Rinse well and dry. An old biker (the Harley kind) and hot rodder taught us that trick.

Using a professional rubbing compound we polished the frame and then went over it with a spray-on ceramic coating and buffed it with a microfiber towel. The old brake line was done. The housing was like dust, so we ran a new brake cable. Before we polished the bars we had to get sticker/decal residue off. 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner is the secret. Forget that Goo Gone Goof Off citrus slime stuff. We balance our non-toxic cleaners with highly toxic ones around here. The fumes alone tell you this 3M product means business.

The headset gets leprechaun grease too. When aligning the rear tire on these scooters it is always far from perfect. The mags warp over time and these frames have some flex. Get it as close as you can. Our rear dropouts are about 1/8 inch off! Instead of period correct brake pads we switched to clear Odyssey Ghost Pads for more stopping power and less streaking on the white mags. The downside is these pads have a short life span.

The fabric cover for the handlebar crossbar pad was torn. We used an iron on patch to keep it from getting worse.

Time to reassemble. All the pieces went back together perfectly. It is twitchy to ride and our kid tester introduced himself to 1980's kids' injuries by scrapping open his heel on the end of the rear axle as he gave it kick power to go faster. He's 80's injury certified now. We were tough back then. We made it home to bleed to death with dignity in our yards before going to bed.