Profile Racing’s Legacy: Week 16, 1983 Part #1.

By 1983, Profile Racing was almost complete in manufacturing an all encompassing components line for their frame, fork and bars.
The original Gyrolites were followed a year later with the High Flange Gyrolites or Gyrolite II’s. On speaking with Jim Alley, he wanted to produce a hub with a more unique “hourglass” design. With more surface area, the flanges allowed for cross drilling, adding to a more detailed aesthetic.
The Gyrolite II’s were made on the same, single, original CNC machine purchased the year before. And like the original Gyrolite Hubs, the High Flange version was complicated and extremely time consuming to produce.

Original flyer sheet for the High Flange Gyrolite II Hubs.
In hindsight (although Profile produced a large amount), one of the most rare components from our archive are the Profile Horseshoe pedals. We will actually be dedicating a whole episode of “From the Dungeon” (Episode #4) detailing all the interesting ins and outs to getting these made.
In short, the Profile Horseshoe pedals were cast in a foundry right here in St. Pete. The cast was split in two, and when pieced together, the molten aluminum was poured in to produce a total of four, crude pedal shapes. Once cast, the pedals were brought back to the factory where Profile did post production: fine tuning aesthetics, adding pin holes and pins, drilling bearings holes where both bearing and pedal spindles were tightened into place.

One of few sets of Horseshoe pedals we have here at the shop.
As we get into 1983, Profile Racing began to get quite a bit of magazine coverage. Below is a montage of our product adverts, product reviews and rider’s coverage over the course of the year.

Super Bmx Magazine: 1983.

Super Bmx Magazine: 1983.

Super Bmx Magazine: 1983.

Bmx Action, 1983.

Bmx Action, 1983.

Bmx Action, 1983.

Bmx Action, 1983.