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Great pics and history.I always thought Ruffell and Schofield were on Raleigh for much longer than a year.I knew that Ruffell rode for Robinson briefly just before he retired, but didn't know Schofield did too.It's ironic that Raleigh was responsible for helping BMX to grow by sponsoring 2 of the top riders and offering a mass produced affordable bike to the masses. Burners were everywhere! However, I think this contributed to the demise of BMX as well, as Raleigh diverted money away from real BMX companies, and Burners were so crap that people eventually moved on to mountain bikes or gave up riding altogether after they had outgrown or broken their Burner.
Paul, I love the passion of your rant Burners definitely did the sport no favours.Have you started racing again? When you coming to join us in 40+ cruiser?
Good rant Paul....lol. I agree raleigh were crap and it was so sad to see kids riding em up the quarry and couldnt jump them 6" of the floor because they were so heavy. What really put BMX down was the introduction of mountain bikes and we both went down that route ourselves (though you carried on racing longer). Raleigh tried to do the same thing with mountain bikes and its companys like that that do cycling no good at all. To add to the rant one thing that p*sses me off is the Halfords advert where they sell crap bikes but get around it by saying all the bikes and put together expertly by experts to cover how crap and faulty the bikes they sell are. They new then and still know now that its the parents (who dont have a clue) they sell to because come xmas morning the kids dont have a say in what santa brings them and Raleigh and now people like Halfords know who they advertise to.... not the kids but the parents.
Quote from: mike@dialledbikes on April 14, 2009, 01:46 PMGreat pics and history.I always thought Ruffell and Schofield were on Raleigh for much longer than a year.I knew that Ruffell rode for Robinson briefly just before he retired, but didn't know Schofield did too.It's ironic that Raleigh was responsible for helping BMX to grow by sponsoring 2 of the top riders and offering a mass produced affordable bike to the masses. Burners were everywhere! However, I think this contributed to the demise of BMX as well, as Raleigh diverted money away from real BMX companies, and Burners were so crap that people eventually moved on to mountain bikes or gave up riding altogether after they had outgrown or broken their Burner.Alright Mike,I remember that Chuck Robinson (the founder of the company) was over in the UK with Travis Chipres round about 88/89. I only met him the once at Chertsey and what a smashing bloke, it was obvious that he loved the sport and he gave us the low down on the latest starting techniques from the US. I don't know if he had anything to do with Andy and Craig getting their rides, maybe they can fill in the details? I mostly agree with your last paragraph but I'm not so sure that Raleigh helped BMX grow. The masses were already well catered for, my mates bought Puch Murray, Huffy, Pro star, Piranha etc and then moved on to real BMX bikes like GT, Redline, Mongoose when we got the chance. Andy Ruffell was a mega star on team mongoose and that partnership was great for the sport. Mongoose made serious bikes and were a real BMX company with an interest in building the sport up. As I remember it BMX was already booming here by the time Raleigh got around to launching the burner. Ruffell went to Raleigh for the money and who can blame him, Raleigh wanted Ruffell to give them credibility which they lacked. Before BMX most parents bought their kid a Raleigh bike like a Chopper or a Grifter so Raleigh had an existing customer base. They knew that parents would go with a familiar brand rather than BMX companies they'd never heard of and having Ruffel on board reinforced their position. Raleigh knew they could sell a mass produced peice of shit (the Burner an insult to BMX) and make a killing for themselves and as far as I can see they did sod all to help the sport. What did they give back? Did they put anything into the sport a grass roots level? How many races were sponsored by Raleigh? Did they promote racing etc. Not to my knowledge, Kellogg's did far more for BMX than Raleigh which says heaps. In my opinion Raleigh WAS NOT A BMX COMPANY, they were a parasite on the sport and did it no favours. I for one swore never to by a Raleigh bike again and I stand by that to this day. I enjoyed myself there, been wanting to say that for ages
Quote from: PaulGray - AQL on April 14, 2009, 08:56 PMQuote from: mike@dialledbikes on April 14, 2009, 01:46 PMGreat pics and history.I always thought Ruffell and Schofield were on Raleigh for much longer than a year.I knew that Ruffell rode for Robinson briefly just before he retired, but didn't know Schofield did too.It's ironic that Raleigh was responsible for helping BMX to grow by sponsoring 2 of the top riders and offering a mass produced affordable bike to the masses. Burners were everywhere! However, I think this contributed to the demise of BMX as well, as Raleigh diverted money away from real BMX companies, and Burners were so crap that people eventually moved on to mountain bikes or gave up riding altogether after they had outgrown or broken their Burner.Alright Mike,I remember that Chuck Robinson (the founder of the company) was over in the UK with Travis Chipres round about 88/89. I only met him the once at Chertsey and what a smashing bloke, it was obvious that he loved the sport and he gave us the low down on the latest starting techniques from the US. I don't know if he had anything to do with Andy and Craig getting their rides, maybe they can fill in the details? I mostly agree with your last paragraph but I'm not so sure that Raleigh helped BMX grow. The masses were already well catered for, my mates bought Puch Murray, Huffy, Pro star, Piranha etc and then moved on to real BMX bikes like GT, Redline, Mongoose when we got the chance. Andy Ruffell was a mega star on team mongoose and that partnership was great for the sport. Mongoose made serious bikes and were a real BMX company with an interest in building the sport up. As I remember it BMX was already booming here by the time Raleigh got around to launching the burner. Ruffell went to Raleigh for the money and who can blame him, Raleigh wanted Ruffell to give them credibility which they lacked. Before BMX most parents bought their kid a Raleigh bike like a Chopper or a Grifter so Raleigh had an existing customer base. They knew that parents would go with a familiar brand rather than BMX companies they'd never heard of and having Ruffel on board reinforced their position. Raleigh knew they could sell a mass produced peice of shit (the Burner an insult to BMX) and make a killing for themselves and as far as I can see they did sod all to help the sport. What did they give back? Did they put anything into the sport a grass roots level? How many races were sponsored by Raleigh? Did they promote racing etc. Not to my knowledge, Kellogg's did far more for BMX than Raleigh which says heaps. In my opinion Raleigh WAS NOT A BMX COMPANY, they were a parasite on the sport and did it no favours. I for one swore never to by a Raleigh bike again and I stand by that to this day. I enjoyed myself there, been wanting to say that for ages It is ironic that both GT & Mongoose are now seen as just as bad as Raleigh for selling out and making naff products Same with Haro too.OS GTs were nice, but don't forget Hutch and Skyways etc were nice bikes too.The rebirth of BMX from S&M and Standard in the early 90s was born out of all the naff products being made and just a get up and build jumps and ride for the hell of it type of attitude, I guess you could add hoffman too. Racing is in the Olympics now too, so some money must be going back into it?. America has always had BMX racing too I think?Think Dan used to ride a Burner up the quary & loved it or so he told me, but you never can tell if Dans actually just saying stuff for a laugh, haha. Dan could ride the quary smooth like - Mike and Ste used to look up to his style alot in the early 90s.
I agree with comments about Raleigh for the most part guys, but I believe Raleigh DID do BMX a great favour.. BMX certainly was NOT "Booming" when Raleigh got involved early 1982... they had already a successful US team with Jeff Bottema and Toby Henderson />at the turn of the decade, so they were by no means jumping on the bandwagon.... they were/are a massive corporate so any decisions were obviously financial (not for the love of it).... Yes,BMX was chugging along nicely in the UK thanks to the likes of Halfords and Ammaco but it wasnt until Raleigh (and their brightly coloured) Factory Team and National Ad campaign came along that BMX really exploded....thousands upon thousands of kids had burners of every description on the streets and at the tracks.... when they realised for the most part the bikes were not up to it, they upgraded to their Mongoose', Diamond Back, Kuwaharas etc then the more "in crowd" grabbed the exotica like JMC, GT etc....Guys I saw all this unfold first hand throughout the years 81-86 when i "retired" from working in a Raleigh Main Dealer bike shop weekends and holidays as their resident BMX "Specialist"... it wasnt a local thing either, this was happening Nationally.Raleigh (as a business) of course were in it for the money....but no-one can say they didnt do the sport any favours along the way. They gave BMX massive exposure through their national advertising.... since when did you see JMC, HUTCH, GT...advertising BMX products in the SUN or MIRROR newspapers back then? Raleigh BMX's were in there every week dragging people into the sport...who eventually would trade up to those "proper" BMX's they would otherwise probably never heard about....and with the average Burner lasting around 50 Bunny Hops before it cracked ..wasn't long! ...and I know from all the irate parents and warranty claims!Anyway, just thought I'd chip in...loved the original topic here guys.Awesome read.
(sorry for stringing out the off topic..just contributing..)Back on track....Regards Travis Chipres, i saw him in 84 in the U.S. tearing everyone up.... how long did he race over here for/how did that come about/did any other U.S. notables visit after most of us left after the "Glory Years" 82-86...??So many Questions.....
Paul, i can remember something i read BITD that if you turned Pro in BMX, that it meant that you would also have to be a professional in any other sport that you may wish to take up later in life. Can't remember which mag it was in? Say if you now took up veterans track & field, how the hell would anyone in that organisation know that you were once a Pro BMX rider? Can you shed any light on this please?
OK this is from 89 and no more Pro class so it was called SilverClass racing or something silly like that.This was my final year of racing Me 6 and Jamie 54 out front in a moto.
Quote from: PaulGray - AQL on March 24, 2009, 04:47 PMOK this is from 89 and no more Pro class so it was called SilverClass racing or something silly like that.This was my final year of racing Me 6 and Jamie 54 out front in a moto.small snippet of info, no.1S is noel cowan, who i believe was the first rider to be a number one racer and number one in the bfa freestyle rankings for his age, now works for mtv.no.55 is david wright, who is a member on here also.another item in the pro/superclass debate was the fact that superclass couldn't win anymore than £125 (i think) and it still kept your amateur status.i won some money once at pontins in a freestyle contest and had to hand it back in exchange for vouchers.