not 4x4, but old school BMX

[davidlandy]

whilst surfing the web today I stumbled across a website that has brought back so many great memories for me. Its for old school BMXers.

You may not beleive this but many years ago I used to race BMX bikes - this I started in the early 80s. I got to number one in age group in the club and 9th in england in my age group. I used to race nationally. Anyway I found a site that had many of my old BMX buddies on from West London all talking about the old times like they were yesterday. Many of them kept it going for years and I now wish that I did too.

my last bike was a Kuwahara Laser lite.

So I have joined up and will hopefully be in touch with a few of them very soon.

I feel old now!

[muddyweb]

Dave, don't worry... you're not alone..   Jake was re-living his yoof the other day too.....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnG6SwI4Bts

[lee celtic]

I had a huffy pro5 frame with diamond back crank set and plastic rims. :dance:

until I was doing a bunny hop comp after a race day and did a huge one at speed (three car tyres high and three long) landed it heavy and the bars and crank both snaped at the same time ,not saying where the seat hit :-# (but it hurt) I went into trail bikes (motorised version) after that more padding on the seats... ;)

[strapping young lad]

bmx are very popular again but the scene is a lot different now, in my day we copied people like eddie fiola and andy ruffell who were the best in freestyle and racing respectively, nowadays its totally different...

them trick bikes with no seat posts freak me out though, look very wrong

[davidlandy]

Dave, don't worry... you're not alone..   Jake was re-living his yoof the other day too.....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnG6SwI4Bts

lol - he has still got the old magic then!

SYL you're right todays bikes dont look as good as the older ones - my old Kuwahara laser lite was quite a bike in its day, mine was one of the first in the uk as I broke my old kuwahara frame. These days the old bikes seem to worth a few quid wish I had kept mine now.

I too remember Mr Ruffle - used to see him race at the old Eastway track near walthamstow in 1980ish. Also there was the big lanky chap Tim March - remember him?


Plastic Rims, werent they called ACS Z rims?    I had a set in yellow and they would bend like crazy, then pop back!

[strapping young lad]

yeh tim march was another one

neil ruffell was a freestyler wasnt he, had god awful specs on i recall

[davidlandy]

Neil , I vaguely recall him.

Did you race ?

[Tommo]

... Dyno with the black mags ...


 :lol:

[boss]

mags are rubbish! :lol: the only advantage was that if you bent them you could put them in the freezer and they would straighten out again!


how times have changed!
















just found stuff in my photo bucket album that i forgot i had!

[Bush Tucker Man]

bmx are very popular again but the scene is a lot different now

And now in line for Olympic gold with Shanaze Reade  (to go with her likely track medals)

[davidlandy]

Boss , was doin all that 25 years ago m8!   used to go the Harrow skate park which i beleive is still there, cant be many original skate parks left.

I had a set of skyway tuff IIs for messing around on and a set of mongoose proclass rims (the ones with holes in) with shimano sealed bearing hubs for racing.

Never knew anyone who did the freezer trick!

[Jake]

I was a full on street urchin back in the 80's
I got bored of racing because it all semed a bit *uniformed* so freestyle it was
Cherry pickers, high speed rolling tail whips (on the front wheel) and funky chickens were the flatland tricks of choice
Then we got into ramps and street riding and used to session hard
I used to session South Bank (London) all the time, Busking around Leicester square with Jason Lunn and Fraser Campbell (Craigs little brother)
There was a pub just up from Waterloo with bank to walls around and we used to see how high we could ride up he walls
about 6ft was the most we managed but looking back that was pretty mental
I've borrowed Carlo Griggs helmet at a competition once and have pictures of Matt Hoffman at Holeshot in 1985
We used to ride Harrow, Southsea and Romford skateparks and were doing Boomerang airs back then
I remember trying tail whips in 1986 and spending most of my time riding around on the front wheel only
I've got hundreds of pictures, one day i'll start scanning them into the pc...but i'd need a few weeks spare  :lol:
I gave up about 1991 and started Skateboarding and still have a go now and again
I did buy a brand new Haro Mirra Pro a few years ago and started sessioning the local skate park but after a bit of confidence building and some lairy jumps i realised i was a bit scared of it now
I did managed to learn some new tricks before i stopped again though
Peg stalls on a 6ft 1/4 pipe and some grind's down the small hand rail (front wheel on the rail, back peg grinding..Feeble maybe?)
These days i watch from the side lines while my kids get better and better
Advising others is so much safer
Happy days
 :dance:

[davidlandy]

forgot about romford - that was a popular place

did you ever go to apline sports in notting hill?  do you remember surrey skateboards shop in woking?

also did you ever go to the westway track nr whitecity? 

was Jason related to Nathan?

this is a small world

[Jake]

do you remember surrey skateboards shop in woking?

Dude...I used to work there  :D :D
Gavin (son of John the owner) still has the contents of the shop in a unit down here in Barnstaple
I always like to work with my hobbies
Jason (or was it Nick, i cant remember) Lunn was a Hutch sponsored rider, i dont know if he had a brother
He used to be on BMX Beat (was it called that??) a lot with Craig Campbell and Pepe Wilder (i think that was his name)
 :D

[davidlandy]

work there!  :shock:   WOW  My first Kuwahara KZ1 came from there !    it cost either £229 or £329 cant remember now and year would had been either 81 or 82. It was a red one with gold anodised bits on it. Also I think I got my first pair of Vans from there a red and black pair - wore those out then a green and black pair. I also had some chequered ones that I got from my hols in the states.

I always remember moaning (unlike me  :lol:) cos the rims where different shades of gold front and rear - I think they were Ukai, or Arayas. 

I remember the name Craig Campbell.

Did your ever know Paul Roberts ?

[davidlandy]

heres a pic Jake - I'm on the far left of the pic.

the guy leading is a factory ammaco/mongoose rider can't remember who it is though.

[Jake]

I've had a nightmare with the scanner today but i managed to scan a few images in
Here's one of me at Romford doing an Indian air (well, half a second prior it was)

As is still the case, i end up taking all the pictures and never appear in them  :roll:
Here's a couple more i took (they were stuck on my bedroom wall a few years ago hence the writing on them)
This is Graham (cant remember his surname) at the Chingford half pipe
He was a pro freestyler and rather good

This was taken at a ramp jam in a barn somewhere in Crawley


This is Zac Shaw (he still rides and was one of the characters in the Dave Mirra 2 game)

He broke his chain but was still doing 6ft airs on the mini ramp  :clap:
I've found some of the wall ride pics from South Bank but they are on contact sheets featuring 30 pictures so their very small
I'll try and blow them up and get them up here
 :D

[davidlandy]

great pics !   need more!

[diggerdog36]

Retro Phots, love 'em!!!