if like me you rode bmx in the mid 1980`s then you will remmember the bikes of the time...
redline,haro,skyway,mongoose,schwinn,torker,kuwahara,hutch,paterson,dp racing,GT,huffy,diamond back,curtis,and here in the UK the household raliegh burner range to name a few...
alot of these 1980`s bikes are worth a small fortune nowadays, there is a massive following and renaissance for these old steeds...
watch this reunion film...some guys in this film are pushing the big five-o and check them riding!
my last bmx i sold in 1987..a 1984 looptail s.e racing quadangle...kinda looked a bit like this one...
and yeah i really regret selling it now but at the time something else was eating me up and it wasnt girls or booze (yet) but i was also being sucked into the addiction of riding big 2 stroke motocross bikes and at 16 bought a husqvarna 500 like this...
back to the mid 1980s and it was a big time for bmx and it started to split into different areas of riding...there was bmx racing on dirt, freestyle on ramps and skateparks and the then new flatland riding...
for me the se racing quadangle was the best bmx of the time as it could be raced (on dirt bmx tracks) and ridden at skateparks like livingstone and kelvingrove in glasgow...of course i already had owned a skyway ta which could do it all but everyone had one and while the white skyways were the knights in shining, the se racing team with there camo race shirts and the army style frame lettering and camoflage frame pads fitted my rebal teenager profile...
i built up the quadangle myself with secondhand parts over 2 years swapping out 2 complete bikes and parts-always swapping and selling (including an se racing pk ripper,haro mk1 freestyler & skyway ta,and GT pro preformer!),i spent £700 building my dream bmx...and this was in 1986...i made the money caddying at gullane where i later served my greenkeeping aprenticeship and selling golf balls found on the golf course to golfers in the local hotel bars...and buying and selling other bmx parts...
a year later leaving school in 1987 i was earning £57 a week as an apprentice greenkeeper so you can see £700 was to me alot of money earned...something im still proud of doing now...
a bmx like that brand new to build to the spec i did would have cost around £1600...it was for me the dream bmx...
it had the works done and looked amazing when finished...
the spec included redline cranks,2 sets of wheels-black skyways with whitewall slicks for livingstone skatepark and gold araya rimmed wheels with large flange gold suzi hubs with comp 3 tyres,hutch beartrap pedals (why my shins are rippled now..)...
anyway se racing are of course still alive and kicking and `keeping it real` and they have just released this 26" wheeled quadangle!..yep a big boys toy...
i have no reason to need one of these or can really afford one or could justify one but really really want one!...and if i somehow come into some money i will be buying one then custom paint it...
im thinking baby blue frame with black decals,black fork with gold decals,and all gold wheels and parts with camoflage se pads...rocking the old school...oh yeah!
after i sold my quadangle i traded a raleigh team replica racing bike for a 6 month old raleigh 15 speed maverick s mountainbike and the rest as they say is history...
but i never forgot my roots in bmx and through my twentys would get glared at by impatiant girlfriends as i stood looking through bmx magazines in newsagents...
bmx went underground as sponsers pulled out during the early 1990`s but one guy took the riding to a whole new level...re-wrote the rule book of what is possible on a bicycle then started a company producing his own bikes while everyone looked on thinking he was nuts...and helped get bmx into the X games in 1995...the condor had arrived...heres the most fun you can proberly have with some plywood....
bmx kicked off in around 1970 after a few years of american kids riding schwinn stingrays around tracks similar to motocross tracks and its been great growing up alongside an amazing sport and watching it transform...from a young bob haro who did most of the stunts in the film ET who went on to start haro bikes and invent freestyle and later one of his team haro riders, matt hoffman who would again turn the sport on its head with his riding skills...
a couple of years ago this film was released which i bought....if you have any interest in bmx you want to watch this film..."joe kid on a stingray- the history of bmx"...bring round some cider and you can watch it at my place...
a film on where it all started and where it has got to today with bmx in the X Games and bmx racing at the olympics...heres a teaser...as they say-keep the rubber side down...
I can still remember riding my BMX when i was a kid. It was the memory of this bike that encouraged me to go single speed with my road bikes.
ReplyDeleteSadly I never rode the BMX anywhere except up and down the flat smooth road outside my house. Which helps explain alot why i'm rubbish at MTBing now i've grown up.
The BMX reunion video was great. Brought back some of my old BMX memories! Later as an adult working at the bike shop in Indiana, I had the pleasure of chatting with Dave Voelker when he did a GT BMX trick show for us. Cool guy.
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