I just bought a 1984 Mongoose Californian frame set

I like those old lugged and brazed road bike frames of the 1980s and earlier. I have one in my shed that I may refurbish some day. It's not high end, but it's not a department store bike either. It's a Puch 10-speed from the '80s, made in Japan, with a SunTour groupset and Sugino aluminum cranks.

BMX frames on the other hand, were never lugged and brazed (with a few rare exceptions). Mongoose actually pioneered heliarc welding of bike frames (they didn't invent heliarc welding of course, but they were one of the first, if not the first, to use it on bike frames), which is now standard practice for high quality steel or aluminum frames, regardless of whether it's a road bike frame, BMX frame, mountain bike frame, etc. It's better known as TIG welding these days.

For me, early to mid 1980s was the golden age of BMX, not only because that was my childhood, but also because that's when BMX was at the peak of its popularity. After that, frame tubes started getting fatter and fatter (1.5" OD top and down tubes are typical these days, whereas 1.125" and sometimes 1.25", were typical in the '80s) and longer and longer, making them look weird to me. 18.5" long top tubes were typical in the '80s (though cheap department store bikes often had top tubes as short as 14"), while 21" top tubes are typical now. I think it's strange that so many average height guys have BMXs with 21" top tubes these days. I'm 6' 2" barefoot, and I have enough room with an 18.5" top tube. I do have a more modern 21" top tube frame, and the seat is too far away from the handlebars for my liking, even though I have the handlebars adjusted to an ideal angle (approximately the same angle as the fork) and the seat is on a normal straight seat post.

The thing that annoys me most about modern BMXs is that at some point in the 1990s, chrome-plated frames all but went extinct, and that's still the case today. I was looking to buy a new frame in 1997 and none of the small or big BMX suppliers I contacted had one in any brand. In the '80s, chrome BMX frames were extremely common, and for me, chrome is the quintessential BMX finish.

I recently found out that it's not a good time for this hobby, i.e., shipping delays and so many things at all the online BMX web stores are sold out, or only available in the slow-selling colors like purple. I wanted a 44-tooth chainring, and the type I wanted was sold out. Redline Flight cranks are sold out everywhere. The tires I wanted are sold out, and so on.

I ended up ordering Profile cranks, which I like better than current production Redline Flights anyway (which aren't made in the USA anymore), but they are more expensive. And even with those it says there's a delay (unspecified period of time) for 175 and 180 mm chrome-plated versions (the most popular sizes in the most popular finish), so I have no idea when those will arrive.

In my small town in the '80s, only two kids had a BMX that wasn't a department store brand. One of them had a white 1985 Mongoose M-1 and the other had a gray 1986 Diamond Back Cool Streak. Neither of them were rich; both bikes were entry level, costing about $175 to $200, but still, that was a lot more than the $100 that most department store BMXs cost. I rode the Mongoose once, and I rode the Diamond Back lots of times because the kid who owned it lived 3 houses up the street. They were both smooth as greased glass; way better than my Western Flyer Invader 2.

Nice. My first bike (not counting a tiny hand-me-down bike with training wheels that I had when I was a toddler) was a blue 20" banana seat bike that I bought from a neighbor for $7 when I was 7 in '82. That's what I learned to ride a bike on. It had a weird top "tube" that wasn't a tube at all, but rather, it was made out of stamped sheet metal and screwed to the frame. It was made so that you could unscrew it from the seat tube and then screw it into a lower hole to make it a girl's bike.

I ended up trying to convert it to a BMX. I replaced the banana seat with a black racing style seat from Mom's 10-speed road bike that she hadn't ridden in years, and I removed the fenders, chain guard, reflectors, and kickstand. Then one day while I was at Marden's Surplus and Salvage with my parents I found some BMX parts for cheap: BMX handlebars with a cross bar, a 3-piece set of yellow vinyl BMX pads, and some yellow BMX grips. But what to do about that poor excuse for a top tube? The pad wouldn't fit on it because it wasn't even shaped like a tube. So I removed it and found a galvanized steel pipe in the shed and asked Bill if he could weld it to my frame. About 10 minutes later I had an actual top tube, complete with haphazard goose poop welds. Its raw galvanized steel color didn't match the blue frame of course, but the pad covered most of it, so I was good to go.

When Christmas came along I got a new chrome-plated Murray BMX with black pads, which was way better, but obviously it didn't compare to the good brands. Murray actually did make one BMX model that was nice: the X20c, which had a chromoly frame and various aluminum alloy parts...

https://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/murray/34813

... but most of their BMXs, including mine, were typical cheap department store quality; all mild steel and not a single aluminum component anywhere.

Looks nice. I see your a Dodge fan too.

nice !
i had a Mongoose "pro performer" back in the day,
just the frame , then i had to find bits to fill it out
skyway wheels etc

Yeah, it's a type of alloy steel containing iron and carbon (which is the basis of all types of steel) plus chromium and molybdenum. Cheaper steel bikes are made of ordinary mild steel, which is just iron and [low] carbon. Chromoly and mild steel weigh almost exactly the same for a given volume, but chromoly is a lot stronger so they can use thinner walled tubing while still having sufficient strength, which is where the weight savings come in.

Technically "alloy" refers to any mixture of metals. Chromoly is an alloy, brass is an alloy, sterling silver is an alloy, and so on, but colloquially it refers only to aluminum-based alloys, especially when talking about bike or car parts.

Looking good!
Enjoy

I like the orange car from your earlier pic👍