We need your stories from BITD - We Were Rad Book

[factory pilot]

Myself ( Antony Frascina ) Clint ( Old School Ace ) and Andy ( Dancetothedrummersbeat ) are currently working on a book project called ‘We were Rad’.

It’s main focus is on ordinary people like us and telling our story of what BMX meant to us BITD.

We’ve got lots of ace  photos lined up but what we’re lacking is the stories behind the photos ..
we need your stories, your memories, your funnies, your passions.. please put them in this thread

Everybody’s contribution is important to us however big or small.

As a starter ...
1. What was your first BMX?
2. When and how did you get it?
3. What bike did you really want ( your dream as a kid )?
4. Did you have a BMX idol growing up?


We can’t pay for anyone’s contribution sadly but would all really appreciate anytime or effort you make by adding to this thread.

More pictures are always welcome if you haven’t already shown them to us ...
Post them on here or on our Facebook Page .. ‘We Were Rad Book Submission Group’
Or follow us on Instagram ‘We_Were_Rad_Book’

Thanks in advance to all of you .. Ant


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[factory pilot]

Okay I’ll start us off ...



My first bmx was my Raleigh GS Burner which I got for my birthday in May 83.

We got it from the Kays catalogue shop in Worcester ( it was a shop for seconds and returns and my dad printed the catalogue in Worcester so got access to the shop ) I think Worcester was a distribution centre for Kay’s back then.

I loved that shop as I got several cool pairs of trainers from there (Puma Dallas, Puma Genua and later some Diadoras) as well as clobber by Kappa and Pierre Cardin.

Everyone on our estate had Burners .. so that’s what I wanted .. but my favourite was the Silver Ultra ... well there was no way my parents could afford that but one day in April we went to the Kay’s shop and there it was a bike that was pretty close to the Ultra but was at the bargain price of £79.99!
I couldn’t believe my luck .. I pleaded with my parents and they finally gave in and bought it.
I’d been already obsessing about BMX for months buying all the magazines and having annuals for Christmas.

I mostly bought Landar parts ( to upgrade ) as that’s all I could afford but my pride and joy was a blue Haro Flo Panel that I got from Cycling 2000 in Warndon ( the rough part of town ).
My hero was Bob Haro ( he was American, had the coolest uniforms and he could do tricks ) and just having that plate made me feel like I was him.

My dream bike was a Gen 1 Haro Freestyler ofcourse ... I loved Bob, Mike D and Ron Wilton on theirs and it was the first proper Freestyle Bike!








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[Retrodan72]

Well, if you remember my Piranha build from 2013, then you may remember the story that went with it.

I found BMX in ‘82 aged 10, did the usual thing of entering the Ready Brek and Sherbert Fountain ‘win a BMX’ comps that were promoted in Look-In magazine, but never won. Christmas morning ‘82 saw me and my Bro running downstairs and seeing the shadows of 2 bikes in the hall, I can’t speak for my Bro, but there was slight disappointment for me as the light was switched on and the Raleigh Burners I had in my head, turned out to be Team Playway Trak Trails (cheap Kay’s catalogue bikes).



With no proper BMX tracks around, and BMX Beat and the Kellogg’s TV programmes not coming for another 2 years, I rode it on local dirt tracks, ‘The Sandies’ and the ‘Burntwood’. The bike, by late ‘83/early ‘84 had evolved into some kind of BMX looking mongrel type thing. I’d taken the mudguards off, locked the front suspension off, added a Kashi Aero, Max Star or Landar Mushroom grips and some DC Tech 3’s. I’d also removed the original decals and bought one of those sticker sheets with A’me, Grab-On and SM Racing decals on, so slapped them in the frame. It wasn’t the best bike out there, but it was mine and not blowing my own trumpet, but I was a better rider/jumper than a lot of the lads on Ultra Burners etc.



So, I’d ridden this ‘gink’ as my Dad described it for 2 and a half years and in July ‘85, my Dad came home from work at Vauxhall’s in Ellesmere Port ahead of their 2 week shutdown. The company used to give the workers their 2 week holiday pal in advance, so my Dad said we could go and look at some bikes. My Mum had said that the budget was £120 for a complete. This could have got me a Super Burner from my local Raleigh dealer, but watching BMX Beat and reading Action Bike has helped me want a freestyle bike. Obviously with the DP factory up the road, one of these would have been the perfect choice, but as they were only available as a f/f option and I didn’t gave a BMX donor bike (just the gink), I really wanted a complete, something I could ride that day.

Late one Saturday afternoon, we went in my Dad’s Chevette to Stevenson’s Discount Cycles in Buckley, 2 miles away from where we lived. They had low end Freestyle bikes, fully built and ready to go. My Dad was trying to aim me towards a Meteor-Lite, but it was the luggage rack type and I wasn’t fussed at all with them. What I did like was the Piranha Freestyler that Ray Stevenson had there and at £99, was well within budget. It had CW type bars, a layback, whitewall tyres, all the things that were deemed as cool back then. My Dad paid Ray and after he did a few safety checks, I rode it home, all down hill and it was a blistering hot day - it was the best bike ride of my life, simply perfect.

It didn’t take me long to start putting my own identity to the bike. The ‘hot’ colours were really in now, and I’d started with a green Sharp BB boot, pink Sharp lever grips, lavender Sharp grip locks and later painted the stem top orange, upgraded the brakes to DC and added a Potts Mod with pink Clark’s Powerglide cables. I thought it was the business.



Sadly though, in November ‘85, is come home from school and dumped my bike on the front lawn and later that night a guy lost control of his MG on the bend about 150 yards from my Mum’s house and he hit the oak tree in my Mum’s garden, flipping the MG upside down and crushing the Piranha. Unfortunately, the poor chap lost his life and my Mum’s garden was ruined. We were advised to claim off this poor guys insurance for a new garden and a new bike for me. The Piranha got tucked away at the back of my Dad’s garage till my Dad “could take a look at it”, I can only imagine what he had to wipe off it. I borrowed my Cousin’s Mk1 Grifter for my paper round for the next few months.

A replica of the bike I had in 1985, black  Tuffs instead of white Zytecs



The insurance company sent my Parents a cheque, so it was back to Stevenson’s and this time I went for a green Fox 4 Styler with white OGK’s, whitewall’s, chrome twin top (EZ type) bars. My Dad had straightened up and cleaned the Piranha, so now I had 2 bikes. I can’t actually remember what happened to the Piranha, but I cracked the frame on the Fox and Ray Stevenson replaced it with a chrome Aero Pro copy frameset. We’re probably into 1987 now, and I was slowly losing interest in bikes and gaining more interest in ice skating and girls that hung around the ice rink. I actually don’t recall what happened to the chrome BMX, probably the tip.

As for heroes, the usual i suppose, Andy Ruffell and Craig Schof initially, then Eddie in 85/5 then I think I loved seeing Neil Ruff on the Kellogg’s programne in ‘85 on ‘that’ Beat. I think though, my biggest hero was a guy 2 years above me in school, Carl Eccles, he was amazing on a bike, won a jump comp at school that got on to the Welsh regional news then a further TV appearance on Saturday Superstore at one of Cheggers’ outside broadcasts. Carl only lives a short walk from me now, it’s great to bump into him and talk about my bikes.

As for BMX wish list back then, I can only remember having a desire for Chris Roberts’ DP freestyler and Alan Ballard’s blue GT Performer, so I guess this is why I had to build 2 of each of those when I got back in, in 2008.











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[factory pilot]

This is brilliant Dan ... thanks so much for sharing 
Awesome words and pictures 

[DazA]

Your welcome to use any of my intro I wrote. 

http://www.radbmx.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,191647.0.html

[factory pilot]

Your welcome to use any of my intro I wrote. 

http://www.radbmx.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,191647.0.html

Wow ... totally awesome mate .. fantastic stuff .. love this dude! 

[Spen69]

After what felt like years of riding a Grifter, in late '82 the local rich-kid upgraded to a gusset chrome Supergoose for his birthday and his old white & red Ammaco 202 was mine for I think about £40. This kid also had a black Cycle-pro with yellow OGKs on and my brother got that one practically the same day.

We rode the shit out of them and just over a year later Christmas lists were being written and £100 was our limit. I had spent the afternoon at Two Wheels in Stourbridge and decided a frame and forks was the way forwards, with a Curtis or Mongoose as top of the list for the budget. My brother had picked the "Chrome Burner" complete bike as his OGKs were fooked 

Christmas eve saw me and my dad stripping my old Ammaco down ready to build up onto the Mongoose f&f I was hoping for the next day. What arrived the next morning though was a moment I will never forget, as somehow my parents had bust the bank and bought me a complete Mongoose Califronian and my brother had a complete Tange-built Chromo Burner...... which the lucky bigger still has sat in his house over in Australia 

We lived and breathed BMX every day and the adventures, accidents and scrapes we got into for a couple of years because of those bikes will be with me as memories till the day I shuffle off this mortal coil. For me it wasn't about anything other than freedom and adventure and the thrill was only replaced years later with girls. Once they arrived, my BMX got sold and I spent it on a holiday

[deeman]

Ant/ Clint / Andy...i am happy to contribute in any way i can if my story is worth printing!
To answer the 4 questions...
1. A Dragon freestyler (heavy twin tt Tai freestyler) although i was learning BMX tricks on my Strika before that!
2. the fella my mum was seeing after my parents split bought it for me from LBS in Dunstable, was a custom build but I only had a choice of 2 freestyle frames ...Dragon and Meteor lite! It was that or a Burner!! i picked the Dragon! nice parts OGK mags, ACS Stoker stem...thing was HEAVY though...was defo some time in 84. It was soon superceded by my PR styler...which i really count as my first BMX and have stories about building that
3. i would have given my left ball for a white Skyway T/a just like Craig Campbell rode in 83/4
4. i had a few idols...mainly Craig Campbell.  cos my dad met him at the GT World tour in 85 and was asking him advice about a bike for me as the Dragon was too heavy...he came away impressed and reckoned he was a nice lad which was high praise indeed from my dad!...i guess Jess Dyrenforth, Carlo Griggs and Ron wilkerson

give me a shout if you want/ need anything...
Damo 

[factory pilot]

Cheers to both Spen and Damo... top stories and info ..... love this ... exactly what we need 

[oldschoolace]

great stories guys 
we have some awesome pics but not as much in the way of text content, these are perfect!

[griff]

 

http://www.radbmx.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,189762.0.html

[factory pilot]

http://www.radbmx.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,189762.0.html

Thanks Griff  ..... this is more a short/sweet section focused on the above questions  but feel free to add stories/pictures in either thread lads

[dancetothedrummersbeat]

Thanks for starting this thread Ant, and thanks to those who have replied so far. Please keep your stories coming 

[Mikku]

I’ve already supplied some stories to Clint, but my answers to those 4 questions are as follows:-

1.Like Spen, my route into BMX was the iconic tank that is the Raleigh Grifter, a metallic blue one of which I rode around on in the late 70s. But my first BMX was an old Cycle Pro frameset with a mish-mash of secondhand if not thirdhand parts.
2.I bought the Cycle Pro in or around 1981/2 from a guy who lived near me. Thereafter was the familiar story of constant swapping and upgrading of first parts, then later on frames, as and when they broke and/or paper round money allowed.
3.My dream bike was a Kuwahara Laserlite. It took me over 30 years to finally get one and I still love (and ride) it now!!
4.My idols were Tim March and Andy Ruffell. I can’t remember now who was my favourite back then but in their very different ways, they were both BMX Gods to me.

[dancetothedrummersbeat]

My first and only BMX bitd was a Falcon Pro Kappa. It was bought for my 7th birthday, but i got it exactly a month before on 28th April 1984. I’d been aware of BMX for about a year before. I loved the blue/yellow colour scheme, and wanted a blue Raleigh Tuff burner, but they were £125 in my local bike shop (CMA cycles, St Helens), and my Dad wouldn’t pay more than £100. He saw the Falcon Pro in the shop, pointed out the colours, and that was that. £99.95, and i instantly fell in love with it. I can remember that it was a Saturday afternoon, and the number 1 single in the UK charts was Lionel Richie’s Hello. It was playing on the radio as my dad was paying for the bike, and it’s the song i associate the most with OS BMX. The bike came with chang star two finger tech 2 style levers but i couldn’t pull them, so my dad swapped them with generic levers in black (similar style to mk1 burner levers). The photo below shows myself with my Nan, minutes after we got the bike home. I hadn’t tried to ride it at this point, so the original levers are still fitted. A few years ago, fellow radster BigBadSam had a CMA cycles bike shop sticker on a frame that he was selling. I asked if i could have it, and got Del to make me some reproductions that are the finishing touch to a few of my bikes. My dream bike bitd was a Skyway T/A, but knew i would never be able to get one back then. It was the first BMX i bought when i got back into it in 2009. Like most others, Andy Ruffell was my BMX hero bitd, but I liked Mike Pardon & Andy Preston too, and used to watch their trick tips on Saturday mornings on the Wide Awake Club.

[OrgasmDonor]

Spent all summer 1984 at  hartlepool track

[factory pilot]

Great pics mate ... thanks for sharing 

[dancetothedrummersbeat]

Super cool pics. Thanks for sharing 

[QUADROPHENIA]

  Speak to chum, he will go on and on and on and on, he might even tell you the story about the day he bit a dog turd. Or you could try Essex chum, Superbike Dan, he can also waffle on