30 Years of BMX in the UK

[Darren Wood]

slagharen worlds 1983 (CAN YOU NAME SOME OF THESE)

ROLE CALL


ROLLIE SATE
GRAHAM SATE holding the flag FACTORY GT
JOHN GREAVES FACTORY MONGOOSE
ALEXIA JARVIS FACTORY MONGOOSE
SAM JARVIS FACTORY MONGOOSE
SARAH JANE NICHOLS FACTORY HOTSHOT
LEE FLAVIN
IAN DIXON FACTORY GT
ALAN WOODS FACTORY ROBINSON
LOUIS MEARS FACTORY DIAMOND BACK and WORLD CHAMP 
ME  DARREN WOOD KUWAHARA 4TH IN THE WORLD 
AND RUSS SWIFT KUWAHARA

[Darren Wood]

The little FELLA in the TEAM GB PHOTO with the team COBRA top on is SEAN ROSE 


Just rememberd his last name while driving home from work 



WOODY

[58 delray]

still got this


and these

[Woz]

Pickets Lock was JAN 83 Simon Hayes had the first KUWAHARA lazer lite in the country imported by a JAP company in Kensignton High street  coolsmiley


And i got second in the Novice FREESTYLE  Grin That fooking shit quatre pipe



WOODY

PS got pickets lock on VHS

Yeah I got nowhere in the freestyle but my mate Steve Clarke won it if my memory serves me right!

[RATTY]

A race at Rom, no idea who I`m racing against 
[/quote]
The guy behing you is either Dean Miller or Glen Littlechild? Both came from Walthamstow, Its Glens Bell moto3 but it looks like Dean riding

[kdubbmx]

Seeing as Dean is 2 years younger than Billy and Glen is same age i'd say it is Glen.   

[James Nada]

Great thread so far - keep ot coming.  I have no memories of BMX untill 1984 so can't contribte I'm afraid.

[MartyC]

The first Buckmore race was early 1980 and it was on the Dirt Track, Later in the year we went back there for the second race there and it was very wet and the organisers decided to use the Tarmac Go-Kart track with wooden jumps, when i arrived there were several kids practising on the dirt track and they were completely covered in mud and weren't too happy when they were told the race was on the Tarmac!!   

I raced 14's and got 3rd behind Andy Ruffell and Sean Day (another Mongoose rider). 

Picketts Lock Lee Cooper race was in Jan 83, Craig Strong won the wheelie contest and we all got on news at 10 riding round.
I've got a great picture on my facebook of the 16+ main hitting the first jump with Me, Andy Ruffell And Tim March on the jump with Mark 'Sid' Salisbury just behind us   

Earls Court was in 81 and also 82, Stu Thomsen came to the 81 race and Gave me his Trophy and his Bike and picked me to be on the Redline Team!   

I must be a year out then LOL!

I remember the early Buckmore Park races well, the wooden ramps were a nightmare and very slippy with knobbie tyres!  The track did like to turn to mud too, I remember there being a little jump contest in a break between motos and semis, Nicki Mathews and Andy Ruffell got magazine shots out of it, I just got a muddy arse  .

[billstup]

A race at Rom, no idea who I`m racing against 

The guy behing you is either Dean Miller or Glen Littlechild? Both came from Walthamstow, Its Glens Bell moto3 but it looks like Dean riding
[/quote]

Tony, Keith, all I can remember is that the bloke behind me in the race was black, would that be right for who you`re saying it is ?

[kdubbmx]

Its defo Glen Littlechild, he wore team ace pants and i remember him spraying the Bell Moto 3 in those colours, but Glen was(is) a strawberry blonde (gingerish) fella def not black, i also recognise his riding style and i've got a pic of me riding with him (and Dean Miller) and he is wearing that Helmet and pants in my picture. Thing is Bill, Glen was pretty darn quick and it shows you must've been quick then to be in front of him, i bet you didnt think you would be WORLD NUMBER 3 30 yrs later did you!!! 

Tony, can't you remember Dean Miller was about a foot shorter than Glen and quite a bit rounder!!!   

[RATTY]

Its defo Glen Littlechild, he wore team ace pants and i remember him spraying the Bell Moto 3 in those colours, but Glen was(is) a strawberry blonde (gingerish) fella def not black, i also recognise his riding style and i've got a pic of me riding with him (and Dean Miller) and he is wearing that Helmet and pants in my picture. Thing is Bill, Glen was pretty darn quick and it shows you must've been quick then to be in front of him, i bet you didnt think you would be WORLD NUMBER 3 30 yrs later did you!!! 

Tony, can't you remember Dean Miller was about a foot shorter than Glen and quite a bit rounder!!!   

I can, and yes Dean was younger than Billy so it must be Glen.
Dean came into my shop a couple of years ago, is now a building site manager. I did mention Rad to him but he hasnt found his way here yet.

[superbikedan]

not the first twelve months but this was the first pic of me at the new rom track and it wasnt

finished, 

[superbikedan]

here keith, check this, roms track being built with the digger in the back ground

and me trying out the course

[58 delray]

nice pics dan 

[Pro Star Boy]

Good to see so many names I remember. I'm new to this site and have spent the past hour or so reading some of the posts.

Keith I remember very well.

I raced in what I think was the first organised BMX race in the UK. It was on a school field in Woking with pyramid shaped wooden ramps and a guy waving a union jack to start us. There were no classes, if you had a bmx you could race. That was in July 1979.

I raced At Buckmore and the old Ipswitch track on the hillside in 1980 several times. That was all before UKBMX existed, that came about for the 1981 season. That was the year Tim started and Pete chased the race ref at Buckmore with a hammer.

I remember Earls Court 82 very well too. We had to sit and watch the mongoose riders practice the track because Ammaco had paid for the space. I was so fired up at not getting the same practice time as the Mongoose 'stars' I beat Andy in the 15 main.

In 83 I helped organise the Pickets lock event. Still have contact with Richard Grant (owner editor of BMX Action Bike) to this day. Later I worked on the Kelloggs etc and raced superclass. But nothing was like those early days. I used to get stopped by kids my own age and asked what the funny little wheeled bike I had was all about. They had never seen one before. Five years later every snotty little kid had one.

The first BMX bike in the Uk was a DG rooster. You could buy it from the DG motocross calalogue from 1976 onward to 1979. It was on the inside back cover. When I saw it I thought all my prayers had been answered and wanted one so badly I used to draw pictures of it on my school books in class.

Love to all who pioneered and then evolved our little sport.  Jay Hardy.

[RATTY]

Welcome to Rad Jay, I remember your name from back then, Im sure we raced against each other a couple of times.
I didnt realise you beat Andy at Earls court, fair play to ya.

Tony Waye

[Pro Star Boy]

Thanks matey. I can't believe you guys have stayed true to the faith for all these years. I have nothing other than total respect for going that far beyond the call of duty.

I have to admit I turned to the dark side and raced mountain bikes in the late eighties early nineties before my poor old battered body finally had too much metal bits to carry on.

One last mention for another pioneer who does not get mentioned anywhere in these posts.......James (Jim) Black.

He was there from the very start as a racer and after getting a job on the 'new' BMX official magazine and on to BMX Action Bike. Jim played so many vital roles in growing BMX in the UK. I don't know how many of you guys realise it, but the introduction of BMX to the UK was a well planned exercise masterminded by several figures we would all remember from back then. But it was Jim who modified the scene, got the yanks to come over and race, got US companies to put money into UK riders and events. If it wasn't for Jim convincing Bob Hadley to get the US stars to come to the Kelloggs it would never have happened. Jim Black was the style side of the plan and BMX in the UK would have been very different if not for him.

As I said earlier, love to all of you who have carried the torch for so so long. It still burns bright. Its an Olympic sport.......who'd have thought it!

Jay Hardy.

[kdubbmx]

Welcome to Rad Jay, still waiting for you to come and ride my track!! I've moved house but still only about 12 miles from you!! 

[Pro Star Boy]

I'd love to Keith, but the only bikes I own are a full sus enduro MTB and a road bike. To be honest old old friend, just to meet up and see a face from back then and chat would be so great in itself.

Plus my riding is very sketchy nowadays (no jokes about nothing changing please).

Jay Hardy.

[kdubbmx]

I'd love to Keith, but the only bikes I own are a full sus enduro MTB and a road bike. To be honest old old friend, just to meet up and see a face from back then and chat would be so great in itself.

Plus my riding is very sketchy nowadays (no jokes about nothing changing please).

Jay Hardy.

Sketchy?   

Jay Hardy, one of the very fastest/best riders in the UK at the very begining of bmx racing!!!  I recently saw a magazine shot on here of the first turn in the Main at one of the first races at Buckmore Park late 1980, it was 6 rider gate then,
four riders were hitting the first turn together, number 188 ANDY RUFFELL, number 507 JAY HARDY, number 520 ME, and number 214 CRAIG STRONG,
The edge of the track was heaving with people watching and clearly visible is TONY WAYE (RATTY) jumping in the air screaming at us!!!   

Fast forward about 10-12 years and Jay Hardy was again one of the very first riders riding/racing DH montainbikes and racing at world cup level (the pinnacle of the sport) and beating riders that became the most succesfull riders the UK ever produced and became household names.   

Jay starred in (and helped produce i think) some of the early Mountainbike videos that paved the way for the whole mountainbike video/dvd scene that followed!!   

Jay was also the driving force behind the biggest Bike race/festival ever seen in the UK   

This just scratches the surface on Jays achievments within dirt biking and his influence on it is still felt to this day with many people getting involved because of racing at an event organised by him   

Oh yeah akmost forgot!! He held the halfpipe up at the NEC 1983 when BOB HARO and BILLY STUPPLE and ANDY RUFFELL were riding it!!!!   

[Pro Star Boy]

Thanks Keith you make me sound really important! The truth is I was lucky to have been in the right place at the right time in many instances.

However I made lots of mistakes along the way. The NEC thing you mentioned brings to mind one of them. I was in Bob Haro's hotel room one night the week before the event and he said he wanted my opinion on something. Out of his kit bag he pulled the first prototype pair of Haro race pants. Complete with chevron on the knee that we all know so well as the Haro corporate device now. He said I'm thinking of branching out from number plates and I've had these made, what do you think? So I considered it for a moment and told him I didn't think he should do race pants, perhaps rear plates (do you remember them) would be a better way. So what the hell do I know.

The other thing to remember is that this story sounds like, wow, hanging out with Bob Haro in the day. But at the time Bob was driving a Honda Civic and sleeping on a camp bed upstairs in the lock up he ran the business from. We were all just in this little thing called BMX that was exploding in our faces and we didn't have a clue that 30 years later it would even still exists, let alone be an Olympic sport.

Thanks for the nice words Keith, very kind.

Jay Hardy.

[kdubbmx]

You weren't that wrong Jay as we have to use side plates at all the bigger races now so the photo-finish camera can identify us!!! 

[kevin (A.K.A) kai riviere]

Only just seen this thread & great to see some old names, even better to see that Bmx has stayed with them. The mention or Buckmore Park & Earls court still makes me go goosey, 1979 to 81 were fantastic years in the development of bmx & for me the most fun filled & here's my pictorial contribution. Buckmore Park (the 2nd time), wooden ramps on the cart track, Raleigh Grifter, old pair of fishing gloves, skate board knee pads, Doctor Marten boots (i used to call them my power boots lol) sporting our Team Rapid sweat shirts with iron on letters. Those were the days.

[m5 paul]

Superb thread this. I go past Buckmore every day on the M2 (live three miles from there) and always look over at the kart track and still remember that fantastic track. Had a school photo taken two days after jumping the first berm and hitting the deck hard and when face meets flint it looks like mince . Loved that track, got my first BMX from there as well - happy days. Jeez, 30 years ago makes me feel very old. Wish the track was still there for my kids to enjoy .

[58 delray]

Superb thread this. I go past Buckmore every day on the M2 (live three miles from there) and always look over at the kart track and still remember that fantastic track. Had a school photo taken two days after jumping the first berm and hitting the deck hard and when face meets flint it looks like mince . Loved that track, got my first BMX from there as well - happy days. Jeez, 30 years ago makes me feel very old. Wish the track was still there for my kids to enjoy .

now

then