Now the grand old age of Forty my High school teenage years were the mid 80s,
Now the 1980s get a lot of ridicule for its fashion and pop music culture... but one of the most amazing times in cycling happened, esp for us kids at the time, it all of course started back in the early 1970s, but it was in 1982 when Steven Spielberg's blockbuster movie ET showed the chase scene with BMX bikes that here in the the UK BMX sales went ballistic, and the rest as they say was history...
If you bought one of those original Kuwahara ET replica bikes then you should have kept a hold of it, £750 just for the frame alone raise your eyebrow? yep, all those icon BMX models of the 80s are worth a small fortune, Kuwahara KZ, Mongoose Supergoose, Diamond Back Turbo, and some that i owned included the Skyway TA, Haro Freestyler, GT Pro preformer, SE Racing PK Ripper and my last bike the SE Quadangle.
They all reek with nostalgia and demand a price too on ebay...
Some of the bikes like i owned are here on this film, a few grands worth of bike porn here...
While i wait for my new fat bike for beach riding i have realised i now do not need or wish for any more mountainbikes, i have enough to keep me going to well after the next apocalypse...
A couple of classic BMXs though would be lovely, time to get saving!,
For myself i remember those teenager years riding BMX as a time of no worries.
No worries about money - you had a part time job which funded your bikes. There was no stress from it, no bills to pay (still at home!). No car to run. We cycled those wee bikes everywhere or got the train.
No drinking, and no drugs like many did... No worries about spots, riding bikes daily had you fit as hell and healthy, and lastly no hassles about relationships - oh hold on that's still the same!,
I remember those great years as it often was, A weekend down the woods digging a bomb hole with a jump and landing out of it and then riding that jump over and over until the sun went down...
Or a day trip to the local 2 BMX tracks, or a weekend at Livingstone`s infamous skate park staying at friends, and riding the park with then some real local legends in our sport...
After 23 years i think i will get another BMX, go down the woods and dig a jump and have some of that no worries fun again... my size 11 Vans waffle sole Hi Tops are sitting waiting... -;)
Available to buy on DVD is the history of BMX titled `Joe Kid on a Stingray`
Every kid rode a bike, i think my generation was lucky to ride some of the best made ever...
Here is the trailer...
In the meantime here is a photo thread form the Old School of the 80s. If you were there too i am sure memories will come flooding back. Never came across a pic of a bike with a Skyway rear wheel, wire front like i often used to ride as a set up.
Skyway Tuffs are a bit of an icon image of the 1980s BMX...
Roll the pics...
My UK BMX hero!! Tom Lynch
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/YdTBxXprdlA
http://youtu.be/pJdJ42QxF6g
Wow brings back mad memories does the old bmxing era ! My most vivid memory was me & 3 friends digging out a quarter pipe in the grassy bank down the old dump road at West Barns & my spade stopped dead as if I hit a stone but this stone was metallic !! I picked up this blob of mud with a shiny metal bit & cleaned it up to find it was an old WW2 hand grenade ! With no pin in it !! My friends & I decided to blow this thing up we started of placing the grenade on a fence post & throw stones at it.. No explosion them whacking it in turns with our spades & shovels still no explosion. So as I found it I thought my dad will know what to do so I shoved the grenade into my bodywarmer pocket & cycle up the road to show my mum& dad who were having a dinner party which ended the moment I produced my find. The grenade was treated very cautiously by the old fella & placed outside in the garden then the police were called who then contacted the bomb disposal who seemed to arrive in no time just abandoning there vehicles in the street, it was really funny as I think everyone in West Barns that night decided to go for a walk with their slippers on!! The bomb dissposal crew placed the grenade in a metal sand filled box & put into a van which sped off 'as it was now dark they could not take it down to the beach for a controlled explosion', they then asked me to show them where we found it so that they could check the scene, once there they found 7 highly explosive bomb
ReplyDeletechargers to add to the find. They said we were very very lucky the grenade never went off when we were whacking it lol. So that's my bmxing highlight a memory that will stay with me for ever. Remember Eddie Fiola ?? All the best ssbloodworm.
Cool story!, Aye Eddie Fiola - the flying banana!
ReplyDeleteany one got any pics of garry prosser team kuwahara ridine for jos conway 80-86 or news clippings ?
ReplyDeleteFantastic post Coastkid. Brings back some great memories and brought a smile to my face.
ReplyDeleteThank you
I was one of the lucky guys in Turkey to be a teenager in BMX era between mid 80's and early 90's. Being in Turkey was not very lucky as we had to dig for parts, frames and forks even for gyro cables which were not available! Once they were broken we had to repair them in funny ways or manufacture new gyro cables which never worked like originals. When I think about those days I figure that the difficult circumstances not being able to find original parts, long times spent trying to import bikes etc. made it quite interesting for us and gave us unforgottable memories. After 20 years re-building up my 1990 GT Aggressor (unique in Turkey) gave me a great pleasure and encouraged me to ride even after 36.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes my golden BMX era friends!
Really strange to see all those images, thanks Coastkid. I gave up bmx when I was 18 but for 4 years 82 - 86 i look back on it with the purest/fondest (if thats a word) memories. We choose many paths in life and with some things you can take short cuts, use different methods to achieve things but with bmx there were no short cuts, you cannot cheat your bike, if you put in the work and the pure guts it takes to master something your bike will reward you, Ive still got the scars on various parts of my body. I was into it for 4 years actively but its never left me and I still have friends that are riding today and we still have reunions. The bmx spirit lives on, good memories, x
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