Way back in the late summer of 1982 while my parents were driving through Maldon in Essex, my bored gaze out of my back seat window noticed a strange red and yellow bike hanging in a shop window. Funkiest thing i had ever seen, bright red paintwork and yellow five spoke plastic looking wheels. What on earth was it?
I didnt know but boy did i want one. Christmas was my intended plan and I couldnt wait.
A few short months later and mum's Littlewoods catalogue landed on our doorstep. After flicking through the bra and panties section (research purposes only), i thumbed my way to the toy section to see what was hiding in there. Lo and behold on the bike pages were some Raleigh Burners, a Red and Yellow standard, a Blue and Yellow Tuff and a Silver Ultra Burner (if memory serves me right). I looked at that page probably a hundred times over the next few weeks and decided i wanted one now (im a bit impatient) so a discussion with my parents and i was going to buy the Red and Yellow burner monthly out of my savings and pocket money (in debt at aged 14). I really wanted the Tuff burner but my finances wouldnt stretch to the £139 my limit just about reached the £79 for the bog standard burner but it would do me.
The next 28 days was a lifetime and it finally greeted me one day after getting back from school.
I will never forget the feeling of anticipation on my maiden voyage to the local village hang out of white Notley to show my new bike off. I noticed how soft the foam grips where and how the yellow vinyl pads and neon yellow tyres looked so ridiculously bright. But fook me I felt tastey.
That was it i was hooked and any kerb or small mound became a ramp, searching of garages for bits of wood and bricks was the main order of the day and jumping friends became the thing to do. It was when the magazines started turning up in the local newsagents that it all changed for me and seeing all the chrome exotica and flight cranks and quarter pipes and tricks, I realised the burner wasnt going to cut it. All my local bike shops had were burners and landar copies, all this stuff was new and amazing. Drooling over the Haro Freestyler then became a pastime too. but over the next year i stuck with my trusty burner (fooking credit debt) and learnt as many tricks as i could.
Now Xmas 83 was fast approaching and the burner was to be upgraded. I saw a White Redline Carerra in a shop window in Rayleigh Essex and that was my intended target, went back the following week to get it and it was gone. Knowing what i know now my folks would never have stretched to buying me that bike. So a trip to RadCity brought nothing up and i ended up getting a Mongoose Californian.
Now with a better bike and knowing a few tricks i started to go to Rom, that is when my life changed again. I loved that place back then and went every saturday for a session or two and couldnt keep away. My fav trick was a 360 fly out from the play area, but loved riding the whole place (if you could get a spot to ride as it was sooo busy). Saw a few amazing riders there and years later would get to meet them in person on this site.
Riding for me back then was all street and a day at Rom. I never raced (well not until MK2006) but wished i had now but never knew how to get into it back then. My parents worked and never followed my passion as some parents did, so never got the opportunities to get more involved.
By Xmas 1984 i was getting more into girls and house parties and the riding stopped and the bike was banished from the porch (where i used to polish it daily) to the garage and was soon forgetton and then sold.
FF to Summer 2005 and a conversation with a 20yr old guy who worked for me about BMX re-ignited my passion. A few internet searches for PK rippers and I found RADBMX. I was hooked all over again and wanted to get myself another bike.
But what was i to get. I tried to get a Californian for obvious reasons but couldnt find any, then it was Ebay searches for all the Exotica from BITD.
Then in late December 2005 i bagged this on ebay for £500:
The addiction really kicked in after a trip to Rom with Flaz to meet some of the guys (Billy, Dave, Dan, Rhys etc).
That was it, I wanted to collect some more of the bikes i had read about and seen in the magazines from 82-84 and the hunt was on and here are a few of the bikes i sourced and built up over the next few years. Nothing better than getting that winning bid on ebay, even setting my alarm for the twee hours of the morning to put a sleepy bid on ebay.com and awaking to see if i had won it in the morning.
I loved building every one of these bikes and still regret selling them.
My next build was the Redline Carrera i missed out on.
It started as a skip find by a guy in America:
Arrived to me like this
Built up like this
Then i wanted to do an ET Kuwie, after seeing Jazzchimp's at MK.
A joke bike back in the day, but an amazing bike in the flesh.
It started like this:
I turned it into an Elliot replica rather than an actual ET Kuwie
Then i got into the OS Races with Ratty and Co and went through a fair few bikes doing that:
Hutches first
The a Supergoose and Pro Class
A VDC Changa Long (never got a pic complete with Box cranks and Beartraps though
)
My final build at this time was a Looptail Ripper, arrived at work like this:
After visiting SBD and a bit of sourcing ended up like this:
Then after splitting with my g/f of seven years i started partying again, sold the bikes. Spent our house deposit money on a Mustang, drink, something else and going out.
4 year absence then the bug hits me again for the build i never done and a bike i would have loved to have built back in 1983 from all the good stuff in the magazines i had stared at:
the Gen 1
For me early 80s BMX are the best, obviously it was my era so I'm biased, but that's where it all started and thats where all the experimenting was. Some were good and some were awful but it was an amazing time to be a teenager and my Cali brought me so much freedom, joy and many memories. Something i will never grow out of and im back with my missus and she is now a lot more understanding of it!
