The Rockford trip - my perspective

[subwax]

I flew BMI business class from Manchester to Chicago - I got a great deal, 1200 quid I think. Lay flat beds and everything. Its easy to go much cheaper though. The flight is 8 hours, and goes by pretty quickly.

USA customs is something else - they even wanted to know the size of my testicles!!! Once I managed to get myself through customs, I was picked up by Willinois (Bret Schroeder). We then went to an Italian restaurant run by Georg, where we had a 3 or 4 course meal with drinks. Georg would not accept a single penny for the meal, and even made us a pizza for our trip then next day after a tour of his restaurant. What a fantastic introduction to the Rockford experience, and i was only there 2 or 3 hours.

i spent the night with Willinois and his family. The next day we started to build the 7 or so bikes that had been sitting in Bret's basement for some time - there was a DY there that I had not seen in the 3 years since I won it on Ebay. There really wasnt much time to spend much time building the bikes, so we did as much as we possibly could. We then squeezed 9 bikes into Bret's car and took the 2 hour trip to Rockford.

We went straight to the track for the swapmeet on friday afternoon. The scale of the site is something to behold. Not only were there old school, but there was also a regional race meet there too. The campervan's (RV's) these guys have got are just astounding. Humungous great big things. The swapmeet thing was funny. Everyone would be hanging about, chewing the fat, when someone would turn up with a car full of parts. There would be a mad scurry to get the best bits, and then they'd return to talking crap until the next load turned up. Too funny.

We stayed in the Clock Tower hotel for Friday and Saturday night - £50 a night. Fantastic value, if you ask me. After leaving the track and checking in, we found out that Juan had arranged a do with free drinks, pizza and a karaoke session. We are all asked to sign the back of a race plate - when we turned it round it was a Hutch plate - crazy!!!

Now to ask me to explain Saturday is going to to a tough call. Basically, we set up our bikes at about 8ish - some had been there since 05:30. Then spent 8 hours walking round, looking at some fantastic builds and talking to loads to people. Its not really fair for me to mention those names I can remember, because there will be so many more that need to be mentioned too. Its easy for me to say that its impossible to remember them all. Everyone was really interested in my perspective, in the UK scene, and in particular our slang - they REALLY loved that. Once they heard it once, I'd hear it quite a few times again, usually wrong though, which made it even more funny.

A rain storm was predicted about 10 mins before judging finished, and I have never seen such organised packing away in my life. i blinked, and were there were loads of bikes previously, there were now a handful. I guess these guys are used to this type of thing. We went back to the hotel, showered and changed and then made our way to the Japanese restaurant where the presentation was to be made. Again, it was done with impressive organisation. For anyone reading this that actually went there, the barlady with the black dress was something else. Wow!!!

Woody Itson's presentation was made using his personal pics and relics from BITD, so nobody has ever seen any of it. I didnt really understand most of it, as I wasnt part of the US scene, although he did mention a trip  to South Africa, with pics too, which was cool. Mike Dominguez was there, and I think they travelled about quite a bit, so there were plenty of stories and jokes about their travels. Afterwards, they held a raffle, giving away some pretty funky prizes, including an 85 Haro Master, I think. There were loads of prizes too - the raffle must have taken 45 mins to an hour.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel fora few beers and more chinwagging / pisstaking at the fact that I say "gis a fag" when I wanted a ciggie. I think I eventually got to bed at 4am.

Next day, Sunday, we had breakfast, and then made our way back to Waukegan, where we unloaded the car, had a quick bite and then headed to the airport for my flight home. No rest for the wicked. Now just dealing with the jet lag, but its all worth it.

So in closing, its a hectic weekend, for sure. Not much sleep to be had, and I didnt do the stripclubs like some of the other guys. There were some rough looking faces on Saturday morning, thats for sure. Also missed Hooters evening on Thursday evening, which sounded like it could be interesting!!! There's always next time though. Also there's Elysian park on the west coast the week before, which doesnt have quite the competitive edge that Rockford does, but it equally as good, apparently.

I am already planning what to do next year, so if anyone is interested in going, let me know.

[harris]

one to remembr then sub
nice to think they take in the uk chaps and make them feel welcome.
sounded like a great trip and always jars me when someone goes and i didnt make the effort.
im not much of a jet setter but nearly made it to andy shoharas bash but wasnt aloud to go due to my
recent operations but will be trying again soon.

[subwax]

Honestly, they were absolutely stoked that Waza and I had made the trip from England / Australia, respectively. We even got a special mention at the dinner, which was really cool. They loved it. Its also given me a better perspective on what it is to be part of this hobby, about friendship despite international borders.

[Waxintaxin]

Sounds real good

now get your arse to MK

[subwax]

Just remembered something - one of the guys there, Pep, asked me if I wanted a set of GHP pads. At the time I didnt have the cash on me so I turned it down. He disappeared for a few seconds, emerging with said padset in his hand which he gave to me. Wouldnt take a cent for it either.

Then there's Waza, who came up to say hi, and gave me a Mongoose shirt.

The best, though, was one of the guys who worked for GHP. He noticed I had a Pro 1 frame and forks, and came over for a chat. He told me he was looking for the rub  on stickers, which I happened to have on me at the time, so I gave him a few. He wanted to pay for it, but there's no way I would accept any money for a few signature decals. He went off and appeared 5 mins later with a copy of the new GHP "insignia", which Greg Hill himself had not yet seen. Unbelievable. It was a real honour to beat Greg to something - not exactly something I could ever imagine doing at all.

[stuntmaster]

nice to tell us the story and any pictures you can show us  and yeah would love to go as greame always used to go about it and make me jealous . good to see you on here as well

[PHIPPSIO]

Sounds like a cracking trip. I must admit,after reading Neils account and seeing the pictures,  i really fancy going next year, maybe a couple of weeks taking in the west coast show and doing some travelling, perhaps a bit of vegas

[subwax]

Some of my scores were a set of Forklifter bars for $40, also got a couple of Hutch stems, Star bars, GHP post, Proline forks and an RL20A with pegs.

There were plenty more - StevenBven scored some Aerospeed cranks and some Son-Lite hubs, I think. Plenty of TA's, Rippers, etc. Problem is bringing it all back.

[billstup]

Did the Star bars have any `knurling` on them Neil 

[Mattdub]

Sounds like a cool trip , I see Waza was at El Dorado the week before too . In an ideal world both events would be awesome  .

[subwax]

Did the Star bars have any `knurling` on them Neil 

lol - yes, they did, thanks William.

 

[QuadPaul]

Sounds like an awesome weekend, thanks for sharing the story

Any pics??

[diesel]

  Sounds like a hectic but fun time

[QUADROPHENIA]

cheers for that neil, bit fooking expensive on the flight tho 

[subwax]

That was nearly a 5 grand seat I got for 1200, so it was a fantastic deal. The champagne might have been on tap, but you're still sitting in a bit of aluminium (or aluminum, as my US chums would say), breathing in everyone else's farts

There are much better tickets on the market though - if you book early enough, you can get a return into Chicago for about 500 quid. If you shop around, maybe less. I am sure I have seen them really cheap. The accomodation out there is really cheap - the Clock Tower was great, and it was only 50 quid a night.

I have it on the rumour mill that next year, El Dorado and Rockford will happen on the same weekend. What a bummer - its either one of the other.

[SaMAlex]

That was nearly a 5 grand seat I got for 1200, so it was a fantastic deal.

I didnt read the whole thread, and the first part of the last post made me think you had paid £1200 for a 5 grand BMX Seat! 
That would have to be some kind of NOS to be worth 5K 

[greentoad]

Hiya Sub

Great story and thanks for sharing. It must of been the experience of a lifetime.

Hoping that all is well, and hope to see you and some of your rides at a UK event soon.

J.