OK... thought Id let you all know a short background to how and why Old Fools came about.
I used to ride in the South West of England during the late 80's and all the way through the 90's until I moved to London for the lure of being a kids TV presenter for CBBC. Although the new job was ace, i started to find it impossible to find the time to ride much, and apart from the odd bmx piece on the odd CBBC show, I pretty much lost contact with the majority of the guys I used to ride with.
I never sold my bike,just used to ride the odd solo session, but It wasnt the same.
Fast Forward a few years and Im married, im a father, and living in Brighton... right next to the Level skatepark... and I decided enough was enough and it was time to find my old riding buddies.
This was late 2005 when I was in Panto in Woking as Aladdin [!!!] and was utterly fed up with being surrounded by dreadful celebrity types and no bmx influence in my life at all. So may have 2006 was the decided deadline to get the first trip organised.
I had help!
Tim Ruck is an amazing rider who runs The Boarding House in Exeter, he's been around sine the early days of bmx and he and I never lost contact, and together we planned the very first reunion. Tim found evryone from Devon/cornwall and the Oxford boys Alex Leech and Geoff asnd Doug Cain, I tracked down anyone living in London/the south, and up north thanks to my continued friendship with Northern Jon who i first met when he was at uni in Plymouth.
tim ruck
Now.. the name Old Fools... Tim Ruck had for about 4 years previous to this been using the name Old Fools for some skate/bmx trips that he ran from his shop to local paks in the South West... they had just coined the phrase and used it loosely , so Tm and I decided to set it on stone and make it as official as we could.
There was a slight hoo ha on this very site as a few guys had made a video with the same title in 2006, so i tried to change the name to Old Age Pedallers but by then the name was too stuck in the minds of the south west fraternity of 40 dd riders, and it just stuck.
Geoff Cain
alex leech
paul foster - old fools video maker
So - Old Fools BMX Roadtrip #1 happened in may have 2006, with an attendance of around 30 riders. ALL the people who I used to ride with still rode, doing the usual up and off to the park before work / before the younger riders get there', and most made it to this trip. It was amazing - and the whole intention was to make it feel like the 90's again.
No fashion, no rules, no seatpost height comments... just fun.
We rode Mount Hawke, Camborne, Newquay and Saltash... with a night at the Driftwood Spars pub in St Agnes, and a night camping with a huge bonfire in Tavistock... even though I left a day early to go and auction for celbrity X-Factor - what a waste of time!
NJ - all crossed up
Then after a hectic year of work... I decided Old Fools should be twice a year.
The first trip would welcome in the summer insome place that we'd not ridden before, then the second would see the summer off in september in the spirtiual home of Old fools - Devon/Cornwall.
Old Fools #2 was atteneded by about 30 riders again, and was in March 07 at Rob Ridges park in Dorset - and amazing weekend of riding, with even burning gas shooting out of the soping [rob is a gas engineer!]
Rob even let us sleep in the park! So we had a night ride, the a huge big screen slideshow of old school pics of us all - so cool.
Double R
Then Old Fools #3 happened [slightly later than planned due to the birth of my daughter daisy] in November of 2007. Word had spread and now about 40 riders were on the trip... which consisted of Mt Hawke, Camborne, Newquay, and one HELL of a night at the Driftwood Spars pub again.. this time with a live band playing the perfect mix of 90's Metal, hip hop and rock... amazing! Very messy...
Northern Jon wrote up that trip for Ride Magazine and it got a double page spread a few issues back.
how 90's? Helmet, bike, evrything. Brian Shell, 40 year old racing demon from devon. Also founder of AOB race 'zine.
A night to remember
And finally, after the mag coverage I started to get contact with many names I recognised from the 90's all saying how they like d the ethos of the whole trip and that they wanted in. At first i was slightly worried that it might become too big, but then, evrything has to grow and progress, and with my new found addiction of this website too, we decided to throw the doors open. And boy am I glad we did.
Old Fools #4 happened just a couple weeks back, with about 55 riders in attendance, some very old friends,some new friends made, some very well known names and just the BEST chilled atmosphere at Harrow and Romford.
And what amazes me is that there would have beenabout 70-80 riders if everyone had turned up, but here is always the cancelations and unforseen problems etc... It would have been a tight squeeze in Rom!
jay openshaw. wow.
hitchcox - what a dude!
And now... as I sit here preparing to pack for a film shoot in Sardinia, my mind is ticking over about Tim Ruck and I planning Old Fools #5 which will be in Cornwall in September, to see the summer off in style.
The trips are loosley organised - we decide where we are riding, then we book our own accommodation in the same town if we can, then we ride. Simp;e as that. I wont be hiring a venue/ramp builders/pa system just yet..... but the ways its growing , who knows!
Thanks for reading this, just wanted to get you all up to speed - hope some of you can make the nxt one - I will keep adding to this hitsry thread as each trip happens.. methinks this should be a sticky.
and let me tell you this. Once youve been on one Old Fools BMX Roadtrip - you'll be hooked! [plus youll get a free sticker - woohoo!]
Old Fools Rules!
Steve [ check the sticker on me lid - cheers Del!]
PS - the last trip will be in ride in a few issues time... Jon and I are planning the article now!
