You may know Brooklyn Dom from his legendary streetwear brand and skate shop, Brooklyn Projects. Or maybe you know him as the wild MTV VJ that hit the road with the likes of Metallica, Slayer, and Marilyn Manson for decades of debauchery. But before all of that, you could find Dom on his bike, both winning races on the track and freestyling in the streets and parks across the country.

When you walk into Brooklyn Projects on Melrose, it isn’t the racks of t-shirts you notice first, or even the pond filled with koi fish that may or may not be on steroids. Hell, it isn’t even the wall of Dunks or all the newest decks. No, it’s without a doubt the collection of rare vintage BMX bikes hanging from the ceiling. Dom’s collection is talked about like he’s housing a piece of stolen art from a heist back in the day. “Have you seen it? Crazy.”

Ahead of the release of The Hundreds X Brooklyn Projects on February 6th, we caught up with Brooklyn Dom at his Melrose Mancave to get an exclusive look at his collection and force him to pick his three favorites. That last part was difficult.

Rebel Racing

“I’ve always wanted this bike, I had this weird fixation with it when I was younger. There were a couple of kids that would beat me on the regular and they were always sponsored by these random bike companies I couldn’t get on with. I always wanted to get some of those bikes to have a piece of my childhood, like Bandito and Thruster — I actually have a Thruster now — and another one of those bikes for me was the Rebel Racing one.”

“Then one day, I was on this old school BMX Facebook page and they were raffling one of them off. This bike is worth three or four grand, and I ended up winning the raffle after only putting in like 40 bucks. The only thing that wasn’t original on it was the seat, and I finally just found an unused original seat for it from the ‘80s. Unfortunately, I had to spend $200 on a seat for a bike I got for $40, but I’m excited to finally have this thing.”

“And it’s funny, there were some people who saw this thing out front while I was trying to clean it up and said I had a racist bike because it has the Confederate Flag on it. I’m just like dude, it’s Rebel Racing. Is General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard racist? It’s a BMX bike. People are too uptight, it’s a bike from the ‘80s, give me a break.”

Z Frame

“This is my actual racing bike, and nothing has changed on it since I won my last title, which was National #28 in 16 Expert. This bike is just the way it was in 1985.”

“The only thing I’ve changed is the tires because those get old and cruddy. Also, I changed the grips and the brake cable because the originals rotted. But other than that, it’s the same bike. It’s got the lightning bolt downtube and the bear trap pedals, which people called “shin biters” back then. I have a lot of scars on my shins from those pedals. Those were the pedals to get back then, they were like $150, which is like a $1,000 pedal today.”

Torker

“When I started putting together the Torker, I had the frame and fork. One of my favorite freestyle riders growing up, Mike Dominguez, who was really young and rode for Haro, was the king of the skatepark at the time. He was like 14 and was crushing all of the pros, and he had this exact bike.”

“Exactly how I built this one, is how Mike’s was back then, except his Torker was black and blue and mine is red and black because it’s hard to find blue parts. This was a passion project I’ve put together over the years, one of the bikes I couldn’t get when I was a kid… so I got it now.”

After our tour through the annals of BMX history, it was time for Brooklyn Dom’s prized possessions to go back up on the ceiling where they can be appreciated like the fine art they are. But don’t get it twisted, they’re always within arm’s reach in case Dom wants to rip one on the ramp out back behind the shop.