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...
