Bikes and Me - Part 2.

In 1979 an episode of CHiPs hit our screens. The California Highway Patrol, with Officers Jon and Ponch. This was Saturday night essential viewing for any kid, except this particular episode featured BMX Racing. It was really the first real glance at what BMX really was, and for us kids riding our tracker bikes, with one wheel bigger than the other, or two both the same if you were lucky; owning a BMX was a dream. It must have been 1981 when I got my first one. My pester power was inspirational back then! My persistent nagging paid off and on Christmas Day I came downstairs to find my 20” Puch Murray. Not the greatest of brands but it was mine, and it was a BMX. It was the time of the Raleigh Burner, The Piranha, or if like my mate Dan, lucky enough to have a Mongoose ‘Supergoose’. 

In fact it was Dan who I’d ride with the most. His family owned the Motocross Track dating way back to the 1950's and I mentioned in Part One called Golding Barn. When Dan wasn’t away racing Motocross, the track and the Industrial Estate was our playground. We built all sorts of jumps, out of scaffold planks and pallets, and we would shred round the farm for hours. In fact Golding Barn MX Track would finally see the end of the Puch Murray after one fatal attempt at the biggest table top, and cracked the frame beyond repair. 

I’d also joined Adur Aces BMX Club at Shoreham by Sea, and this place was so good. I was pretty crap at racing back then, in fact it was not until 30+ years later that I actually found my way in BMX Racing. I reckon back then I was pretty intimidated by the whole race scene, I think I thought everyone had better bikes, better kit, they raced other events and I didn’t. I suppose I just loved riding my bike, I loved the magazines and collected them religiously but never really fell in love with racing myself, I didn’t really commit or maybe I couldn’t. My Dad worked most weekends on shifts at Brighton Marina and my Mum did what she could, when she could, and took me to racing and club meetings. 

When I look back I think I was quite a solitary BMX racer for the most part, my closest friends didn’t want to race, and I also remember being properly shy back then in those club situations and maybe a little in awe of the riders that were really good and already sponsored. Club nights at the Adur Recreation Centre were never my favourite thing to go to, as I was mostly really happy just riding around the track or hitting a few jumps.

My heroes back then were legendary Freestyler Bob Haro and racers Harry Leary and Eddie King, both American Icons of BMX Racing, so when my frame snapped riding with Dan up at the motocross track, trying to clear a pretty big table top,  I finally got my dream frame, a DiamondBack Silver Streak, and I felt like Harry Leary. The Black and Silver race kits of those two riders were just so rad, and alongside Stu Thomson (Redline), Clint Miller (Kuwahara), and the Patterson Brothers (Robinson) these were just the raddest guys in my eyes. When pictures appeared in the magazines of them racing, tucked over the bars, elbows out, open face helmets, goggles on and a JT mouthguard, well I just loved that image. WE also had the great British riders to look up to as well, like Tim March and Andy Ruffell, duelling it out in the Kellogs series on TV. Sadly my skill level was seriously lacking but I was so hooked, I had every copy of every magazine, Christmas and Birthdays were all about BMX parts, paper round money went on accessories like Number Plates, stickers or new padsets. Bob Haro, did the most amazing illustrations of BMX riders and these are now legendary, and will be remembered fondly by anyone who rode in that era. Then along came the movie E.T. with the famous bike chase, with E.T in the shopping basket and that chase was led by a stunt double who just happened to be Bob Haro. These times were amazing, BMX was Rad and it was fuelled by my love of watching motocross too, I think I mentioned that ne before too.  We’d watch the motocross at Golding Barn and then go and ride our engineless machines, stretching our legs out around berms, leaning the bikes over and turning the bars in the air like MX riders. If you could do a 360 you were king, I never could until years later and then they were still crap. 
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Back then in the early 80’s freestyle was also getting bigger, riders like Eddie Fiola who rode for GT Bikes came to 'The Level' skatepark at Brighton so we went and watched his display and would then go and practice our footplants, endos (going up on the front whhel and trying to sit on the back one), roll backs and frame whips. When I began to hangout with another local lad Andy Brooks, we’d head off to Southsea Skatepark near Portsmouth. I remember being in absolute awe of one rider there. Sponsored by Redline Bikes, he had the coolest bike, his riding kit and bike was all white, with iconic parts like white Skyway Tuff 2 wheels, polished Redline Flight Cranks, and the infamous Hutch Bear Trap Pedals (these things offered the greatest grip but as the name suggests, if you slipped a pedal, would tear your shins to pieces. He was such a cool sight for a young rider like me, and I would just watch him ride. I remember my friend Andy just had no fear, whereas I was, and still am way more reserved, in fact scared. Probably a confidence thing plus the fear of consequence, and still a little like that today.  Andy would be getting four feet of air out of the bowl, and I'd be getting one,  and this was why Andy went on to represent Peugeot on their BMX freestyle team at the height of the BMX popularity. He moved away from our village, but it was always fun riding with him while it lasted and thanks to Facebook, we were back in contact. 

Sadly the only photo of me on a BMX from this period is below getting rad (thats what I thought) on my pre-snapped Puch Murray, at Christmas, maybe 1981 with my new Skyway Tuff 2's. The rest seemed to be lost somewhere.  I rode BMX bikes until I was about 16 and then life moved on a little, but BMX was and will always be part of my life, and although I moved away from riding BMX as I entered my late teens, especially as mountain bikes became cool, it found its way back in 1995, but I’ll save that for part three of myself and bikes. Hope you enjoy and please leave some comments of you have any similar stories. Stay tuned for Part three, which began in 1995, was short lived but a legacy was left ro a fair few. ​