Am I in the minority?

[Flatcap]

As the title suggest but I will explain......

It seams that many of you who turned to freestyle used to race and or raced too as well as doing freestyle. I can honestly say racing never interested me one bit but I was hooked on freestyle from day one, at the very early stages too. When I first met Dave Slade at school, circa 1980/81 and he introduced me to freestyle I just couldn't think of anything else (except footy and totty obviously). I'd graduated from a red Grifter which I used to do jumps on and then got a very early Halfrauds own BMX, the chrome one with the red decals on, it was either that or a Burner but I've just never seen eye to eye with the old Burners. I'm not sure but it wouldn't surprise me if Raleigh probably made the bike I got from Halfrauds as I know they had a very close relationship at the time.

I know racing is the heart and soul of BMX and sorry to be such a heathen but racing just seemed too much like hard work and just didn't do anything for me. It was all about expression for me, being creative and different, doing your own thing. I admit I was never great when it came to competitions as I fooked about too much but when I got serious I could hold my own.

So how many of you raced first or just did Freestyle right from day one?

I think this question is mainly for the real old schoolers because I'm sure many mid/new school riders would have just started Freestyle first purely because of the coverage it got, I could be wrong though.

Thanks in advance.

Daz. 

[billstup]

Racing first, which I was shite at, then freestyle 

[oberonspacefruit]

never really that interested in racing.

but then again in my area, there was no racetrack that i knew of.

bmx was about people rockwalking around on the flags in front of the co-op.

[SaMAlex]

I raced for the first few years but that was mainly cos there was no 'freestlye' in its own right. Most racers did a bit of freestyle during the week, as we all did cos there were werent many BMX tracks. When freestyle started getting bigger, and there were more freestyle bikes I left racing behind. Infact, my 3rd bike was a Sport, which at first, was sold as a race / freestyle bike, which it why I got it. I dont think I ever raced it tho.

[se bikes]

Racing from day 1 for this chick, cos i was Rad at it    , discovered Rom this year tho so watch this space  

[MartyC]

Racing first (crap at it but got a few trophies), jumping and riding the streets was my real love, then got into freestyle 

[Trev]

Freestyle from day 1.  Got into BMX funnily enough watching the Kelloggs which was primarily racing.  I never really thought about racing though.  But saw Neil Ruffell do a no handed cherry picker and thought that was the coolest thing i had ever seen.

It was also easier to practice freestyle tricks outside my house rather than getting to a track..

[roonster]

freestyle never got into racing mainly cos my mate at the time was big into racing kept comng back black&blue must have put me off

[gossa]

Well speaking as an old school racer it was all just BMX to me so here's my view.  Before racing I just went out and wheelied and bunnyhopped my way to the woods or skateparks where I jumped.  I guess that was pre 'proper' freestyle but for me and the guys I rode with it was all just riding.  But then 'proper freestyle came along with different bikes and the racers couldn't keep up with this pace as the 'proper' freestylers developed the sport, began doing much harder tricks and thier bikes became even more specialized but as a racer I was still really into it and we still all rode together and I used to love going to the early freestyle comps to watch or ride in the very early ones. Then a bit of a rift developed, almost like the skaters verses bikers situation, there was a definite divide between the communities.  Freestylers didn't wear racepants and jerseys at this time, they wore Anarchic Adjustment and M zone t-shirts!

Then late eighties 'street riding' and backyard came along and united the freestylers and racers once again as you didn't need a specific bike, you could street ride with Comp 3's or comp st's and everyone was welcome at backyard, it didn't matter.  I think at this point the sport wasn't as big as it had been and we were all just hapy to have a big group of riders all in one place.

I loved just riding and sometimes I opted to go to a street or jump jam instead of a race but the race scene had gotten all political so we needed a change. For me it was always just about getting rad and that could come from jumping 'king kong' during a national final, thrashing stockwell or meanwhile, or all just thrashing through london doing massive kick out bunnyhops into bins and manualling across pavement sections.......... 

[adenough]

got to say, it was freestyle from the very day i got my extra burner

 

[Trev]

that's cheating, you're holding onto the window ledge.... 

[harris]

first was just riding riding jumping and more riding wwith me mates being a hooley.
then i raced for about 4 years ,spent at least 2 hours at the track after it all ended
lining up on a berm to inturn jump the big step up at ipswich track getting silly n busted bones
then got picked to ride in a team and never raced again .then just rode on my own or with a very few mates
up and down the country riding anything we drove past   "STOP"  something caught someones eye..a sesh followed
then hit parks mini ramps and anything available    that me

[adenough]

DOHHHHHHHH 

[MartyC]

Well speaking as an old school racer it was all just BMX to me so here's my view.  Before racing I just went out and wheelied and bunnyhopped my way to the woods or skateparks where I jumped.  I guess that was pre 'proper' freestyle but for me and the guys I rode with it was all just riding.  But then 'proper freestyle came along with different bikes and the racers couldn't keep up with this pace as the 'proper' freestylers developed the sport, began doing much harder tricks and thier bikes became even more specialized but as a racer I was still really into it and we still all rode together and I used to love going to the early freestyle comps to watch or ride in the very early ones. Then a bit of a rift developed, almost like the skaters verses bikers situation, there was a definite divide between the communities.  Freestylers didn't wear racepants and jerseys at this time, they wore Anarchic Adjustment and M zone t-shirts!

Clive, whereabouts are you from originally?  I thought I read somewhere that you used to ride with Grotbags, did you ever ride over at Haydon Hall in Eastcote?

[superbikedan]

well work this one out

raced for superbike and won a few trophys and loved it  BUT

was a better freestyler and won fook all   i think i entered one of the first freestyle comps ever

was against andy ruffel at pickets lock and rode shit, but still loved my freesyle and got much better

so my true love is freestyle   even though i raced all the time and loved that

now my son,  billy-bmx has raced and looked good but he's not a racer, his only love is freestyle and he's

won more comps and been placed higher and won more prizes then i ever did   now work that one out

[the_cyclops]

When I got my first BMX in '79 (at the tender age of 9) we didnt know any different BMX was BMX and jumps were jumps!

I basically rode whatever I could.......home made tracks, Golf course bunker jumps, bits of plywood on milk crates...... anything really

I evolved from my Monarch BMX to a Kuwahara Lazerlite for Christmas (probably '82 or '83) and again just rode everything in front of me with my best mate Bobby (He had an ET Kuwie)

I went racing a couple of times when they built Bruntwood BMX track but never did any good and preffered just jumping the Camels between Motos

Then one day I was riding home from school and there it was.........A quarterpipe! in someones drive (the someone actually turned out to be Tim Stamp who was riding at the time a PK Ripper and would later be sponsored by Hutch)

There was a few older guys riding it, tanking across the road and up Tims drive and up the QP.....I was really intimidated because they were a lot older than me and started to take the p*ss out of my bike (for some reason!?!) anyway that evening I got home and decided to make my own QP (out of dirt in the back garden!)  

A while later I became friends with Tim Stamp and met guys like Andy Preston, Mike Pardon, Chris Chapwood and a rad guy called Winston

I sold my Kuwie and Bought a Haro Freestyler and never looked back.....I never stopped riding BMX bikes and had some of the most amazing times and met some of the best people all the way through to 1994 when I stopped riding!

So basically what im trying to say is I never considered myself a racer or a freestyler as far as I was concerned I was a BMXer and thats all that mattered!

[gossa]

Well speaking as an old school racer it was all just BMX to me so here's my view.  Before racing I just went out and wheelied and bunnyhopped my way to the woods or skateparks where I jumped.  I guess that was pre 'proper' freestyle but for me and the guys I rode with it was all just riding.  But then 'proper freestyle came along with different bikes and the racers couldn't keep up with this pace as the 'proper' freestylers developed the sport, began doing much harder tricks and thier bikes became even more specialized but as a racer I was still really into it and we still all rode together and I used to love going to the early freestyle comps to watch or ride in the very early ones. Then a bit of a rift developed, almost like the skaters verses bikers situation, there was a definite divide between the communities.  Freestylers didn't wear racepants and jerseys at this time, they wore Anarchic Adjustment and M zone t-shirts!

Clive, whereabouts are you from originally?  I thought I read somewhere that you used to ride with Grotbags, did you ever ride over at Haydon Hall in Eastcote?

I'm a londoner, rode around Croydon as a yoof but raced all over.  Grotbags and I were arch rivals for ever, he used to phone my mum the night before a national and tell her how hard he'd been training that week to physch me out, he never knew that my mum never told me what he said.......I love Paul a lot, we were fierce riivals but now I can look back at all the good stuff he's done, but I appereciate his style and apparently he's hardly left Stephen Murrays side since the accident so i'm glad to know someone like that.  He's a better dancer than me too!

[MartyC]

Clive, whereabouts are you from originally?  I thought I read somewhere that you used to ride with Grotbags, did you ever ride over at Haydon Hall in Eastcote?

I'm a londoner, rode around Croydon as a yoof but raced all over.  Grotbags and I were arch rivals for ever, he used to phone my mum the night before a national and tell her how hard he'd been training that week to physch me out, he never knew that my mum never told me what he said.......I love Paul a lot, we were fierce riivals but now I can look back at all the good stuff he's done, but I appereciate his style and apparently he's hardly left Stephen Murrays side since the accident so i'm glad to know someone like that.  He's a better dancer than me too!

Cool, I knew Paul when he was a little scrote on his bitsa bike, an old Mongoose with a Rear Skyway and ACS Z Rim front, all different colours and parts from everyone .  He used to hang around Haydon Hall and Harrow Skatepark with us bitd, he's done good since I knew him and has been a rock for the Murray family  .

[bmxmatt1974]

started off racing then got into freestyle. When i got back into riding in 1996 was more into freestyle side of it but am now more into racing

[gossa]

Clive, whereabouts are you from originally?  I thought I read somewhere that you used to ride with Grotbags, did you ever ride over at Haydon Hall in Eastcote?

I'm a londoner, rode around Croydon as a yoof but raced all over.  Grotbags and I were arch rivals for ever, he used to phone my mum the night before a national and tell her how hard he'd been training that week to physch me out, he never knew that my mum never told me what he said.......I love Paul a lot, we were fierce riivals but now I can look back at all the good stuff he's done, but I appereciate his style and apparently he's hardly left Stephen Murrays side since the accident so i'm glad to know someone like that.  He's a better dancer than me too!

Cool, I knew Paul when he was a little scrote on his bitsa bike, an old Mongoose with a Rear Skyway and ACS Z Rim front, all different colours and parts from everyone .  He used to hang around Haydon Hall and Harrow Skatepark with us bitd, he's done good since I knew him and has been a rock for the Murray family  .

What do you mean WHEN he was a scrote with a bitsa bike!!! just kidding, Paul's one of a kind and I have a lot of time for him......

[stidds]

I was a racer through and through, didn't like freestyle and wasn't interested in it at all. 

Was a jealousy thing though, I just wasn't skilled enough 



I was pretty good at racing though.

[jT Racing]

well you had to do something on yer bike.

[TwoBobRob]

Only ever freestyle for me. I was never competitive enough as a person to want to race, If I had been I would have raced MX as I gave that up to ride BMX...

A bit like riding dirt now, if I'm gonna do that, it'll be on a bike with an engine!   

For me, it was all about Bob Haro   

[kennyhunter6061]

Racing for the first couple of years ('81-'83), but racing was always just a weekend activity - During the week all the guys where I lived would be out trying new tricks and jumps we'd seen in the mags, like most other kids I imagine.  A back injury has forced me to curtail my freestyle riding now, skateparks just kill my lower back, so it's racing from now on for me.  It's all BMX to me and I'm just happy to be able to keep involved.

[OrgasmDonor]

raced  every now n then just for fun never really heavily into freestyle either to be honest, rollbacks, bunnyhops, rockwalks all pavement stuff, but what i did love was jumping, h/pool had a great track, huge whoops n tabletop and before that in the very early eighties there was building work in the suburbs and some fantastically large mounds to fly off, just enjoyin bein a part of the odd os racin now as its the geatest excuse to keep ridin