RADBMX.CO.UK
Old School BMX 1980 - 1988 => Old School Race (riders ready, pedals ready... GO!!) => Topic started by: nhoj on January 23, 2009, 09:20 PM
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Ever since I started on this site I have been meaning to visit the track where I grew up in Wetherby, West Yorkshire.
Finally got there today and took these phone pics :daumenhoch:
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/nn135/buenosnhojes/phone006.jpg)
Riders ready, pedals ready
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/nn135/buenosnhojes/phone007.jpg)
View from start gate
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/nn135/buenosnhojes/phone008.jpg)
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/nn135/buenosnhojes/phone009.jpg)
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/nn135/buenosnhojes/phone010.jpg)
It was a bit of a sad day really. My memories of the track where school summer holidays in the sun. All young kids having a laugh everyday.
Was like visiting a ghost track today in the cold and wind.
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i remember wetherby :daumenhoch:
my local track was barton, other side of the canal opposite the trafford centre .......... long gone :'(
ade :crazy2:
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Her you go ade, Barton :daumenhoch:
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/h10/fish116/barton4.jpg)
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coolio 8)
who's the shrimp on the diamond back? :D
cheers bofski :4_17_5:
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visited my local track from bitd (greetland,halifax) and had the same feeling.
had a quick ride around what was left of it.
was quite emotional. :(
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I remember Barton!!
I only went a handful of times and it used to takes 3 hours to get there on a bike!!
There used to be a big mound of gravel at the entrance with some boards going up it so people could practice tricks up it!! :daumenhoch:
Bof!! what year were those piccys?
And have you got other piccys/videos of Barton?
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I am up in Wetherby for work quite a lot,still looks worth a blast.
I will take my bike with me when the suns out 8)
another excuse to do less work......love it :LolLolLolLol:
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Wow the Wetherby track. I was one one of teh builders! haha. I too went back last summer and its in a sorry state.
But the hand prints and our names are still set in stone in the concrete coming into the second straight! :LolLolLolLol:
Nnoj - Do you remember Morgan?
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I am up in Wetherby for work quite a lot,still looks worth a blast.
I will take my bike with me when the suns out 8)
another excuse to do less work......love it :LolLolLolLol:
If you need any directions give me a shout. I wouldn't go out of your way though. The track was built (by baldbmxer) next to the old railway lines and the track today is mostly an ash/burnt coal type of surface. And it would certainly need to dry out!!! Still, on second thoughts it could be worth a trip if its in works time!! ::)
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WOW! Where did all that green stuff come from? Happy days - I dont think I have more than a couple of photos from the track (and one is just me and sky anyway), I bet my sister has more, I'll try and track them down.
The track was built by a few enthusiasts and the land was allocated after a lot of pressure on the local council, great that they gave us somewhere for a track, not so great that it was quite small and that it was more like a coal heap - lol. Lots of hard work from everyone involved and some help from local businesses meant we managed to make something of it. My dad was pretty instrumental in the whole process but I didnt get to help with building it as I had tonsilitis for two weeks when it was being built :(
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/y7/morgan505/bmx3s.jpg)
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Morgan.
Tonsilitus my arse! the word on the street was that you were playing Horace Goes Sking on you're ZX Spectrum!
:LolLolLolLol:
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LOL.
It's true though, I almost whithered away - and missed the first week of the new school term! Seriously though I must have been pretty ill to not be up at the track moaning about how it was being built wrong.
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Here's the other one. I need to get through some old photos and get em scanned in.
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/y7/morgan505/bmx1s2.jpg)
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I remember going round to your mum and dads house to get a club memership bitd.
I also remember your firebird freestyler in white and red with the cw bars. I can still remember to this day, you doing back hops on your pedals rather than pegs like most of us, infront of the bike sheds at wetherby high!!!!!! :daumenhoch:
What happened to your firebird, I aquired John Partingtons last year, pic in 'warning' thread posted tonight
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I wish my memory was as good, dont remember us having membership cards, but knowing what my dad was like I should know better, of course we would have had membership cards! Dad made a scale model of the track that was in the library window for months - I'm not sure if I haven't seen it in mums loft in the last few years.
I swapped my firebird with Paul Maddens GT, he immediately broke the forks on the firebird and I broke the head tube on the GT. I seem to remember the firebird getting a respray either green or blue (again - shit memory) which was done by David Poole.
I'm off to have a look at that pic right now.
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I've been mad busy today scanning in and uploading photos from the track, these are all 1985.
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_41.jpg)
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_45.jpg)
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_50.jpg)
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_51.jpg)
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_56.jpg)
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_57.jpg)
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_60.jpg)
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(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/wetherby%20news.jpg)
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Great pics :daumenhoch:
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cool pics, never see at jmc bitd, and never knew wetherby was a real place
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aye it does exist, funny place though - :LolLolLolLol:
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(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_44.jpg)
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gotta luv a GT
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a closer look at that jmc
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_47.jpg)
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wish i still had me GT and all the gear too :(
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i want a GT too :(
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Brilliant, top work!!!!!!!!!! :4_17_5:
Never thought I'd see all these pictures when I started the thread and quite suprised that there's peeps on here that even know the track, never mind 'built it ' ::)
That's the sort of thing that makes this site so good :daumenhoch:
Did you dabble with racing and freestyle Morgan?
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yeah i got fed up when the track was built and we didnt have funds for any ramps (there was supposed to be a half pipe on the space to the left before you got to the track) so swapped the firebird for the GT.
here's various incarnations of my bikes to that point.
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_01.jpg)
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_09.jpg)
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_11.jpg)
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_17.jpg)
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That was Ammaco Team Special, got the CW bars & skyways, snapped the frame, got the firebird f&f swapped all the parts over, cant remember whether i snapped the fame or swapped the stickers (too many nights out since then) but got the dp bars and upgraded bits as i went on. i would love to own all that stuff still, what a great thing that would be, to have all the stuff, even the broken bits.
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This thread just gets better!!!! :)
At least you still have pics of your bikes and stuff, I cant find diddly :'(
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great thread, been to a few old tracks over the years and had the same ghostly feeling but I love thinking about what went on on them, I think 70's skateparks have a similar effect.
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i must go down to the track at wetherby, i cycled down to wetherby and back on Monday (on the mountainbike) this week but didnt have time to go up to the track, bet it will be a weird feeling.
heres a shot of phil carey, just before his mongoose got nicked.
(http://morgan-photography.co.uk/personal/bmxgallery/images/bmx_13.jpg)
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proper old school ramp
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great thread, been to a few old tracks over the years and had the same ghostly feeling but I love thinking about what went on on them, I think 70's skateparks have a similar effect.
Yeah its hard to describe the feelings I had when I got there. It must be 25 years since I had been there last. Don't know what I expected to find but I just felt sad really :'(
Oh well, chin up, life goes on and we still have our memories, might have to take my son down and show him what its all about!!! :daumenhoch:
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that newspaper clipping was from 1984 :(
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oh and if you want a hi res of the newspaper, just let me know.
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i must go down to the track at wetherby, i cycled down to wetherby and back on Monday (on the mountainbike) this week but didnt have time to go up to the track, bet it will be a weird feeling.
heres a shot of phil carey, just before his mongoose got nicked.
It will certainly be a wierd feeling, the place just isn't how your memory remembers it......................be warned ;)
On the subject of nicked bikes, do you remember the tale of Dan Jones's nicked pk ripper?
Story went, as I heard it, that his gran was loaded and bought him the best(most expensive bike) you could get, I saw it, I remember the camo pads but didn't know much about rippers at the time, anyway, he had to 'lend' it to the hardest lad in the year at school who went into town on it and it was never seen again!!
I think he said that he left it outside the arcade and when he came back it was gone!!! Dan couldn't say too much as he was one of the hardest lads in the school with a reputation!!
That was the sort of hard-knock-life we led in Wetherby!!!!!! ::)
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lol yeah thats true that. dans gran got him the ripper and we were all like wooah! i got in touch with him a few years ago to ask if he wanted to sell it and he told me the story of it getting nicked, i knew said hardest lad too, pretty well in fact but i dont know what really happened to dans bike, sad old carry on.