Well as some of you might know back in 98 derby storm skate park opened its doors, the park was mega and quickly grew an awesome scene in and around derby at the time i was just a 14 year old kid but we used to ride there weekly and got to know the older guys that rode there aswell including jamie,
He was allways happy to chat to us and was a proper down to earth cool dude, he had so much flow around the park it was a pleasure to watch and seeing him in the rafters out of the hugh vert ramp was just amazing the whole park used to stop to watch,
Then in 1999 jamie made the decision to move to the usa and my mates dad who used to drive us to the skatepark was talking to jamie and he mentioned he was selling some of his old parts including his old blue GT tour frame forks and bars as he was now ridding a red 1999 tour, so a deal was done and my mate built and rode the bike like it was just a normal bike for the next few years then when he stopped riding it was just left it the garage for the next 14 years, so when i started collecting/restoring a couple of years ago i asked him if he would sell it me but he wanted to keep it but asked if id help him to restore it, i was happy to help and started on the hunt for various parts, slowly i found a few bits and pieces but also my mate is a car painter so he dealt with repainting it as it had been powdercoated red as when he rode it back in 99 he made it look like jamies current bike at the time,
Then he started his own business and it just sat in his office with fresh paint and a few parts next to it i obviously still wanted to buy it but didn't want to badger him for it but then a few weeks ago i got the txt if been waiting for!
"You want to buy the tour still?"
Simple reply
"HELL YEAH how much?"
Well a deal was done and i now own it
Also when they bought the bike jamie gave him a jersey and his old helmet
My mate said i could also have them with the bike but the helmet he had let another mate borrow it when we all went motoxing together about 5 years ago and hadn't seen it since and the lad who borrowed it hadn't been seen for a good few years either but when he spoke to him last year it was still in his mums garage!
He gave me a number he thought was still the lads right number so i got on the case of getting hold of him
Which i managed to do but he had moved along way from our town but luckly the week i spoke to him he was coming back to visit his parents that weekend! So i managed to meet up with him and retrive the helmet
I was over the moon to get it
Still has his original decals on it including the bicycle union ones
Heres a few pics of jamie on the bike including the front cover pic (dec 98 bmx plus) of him at the ESPN B3 comp
And some pics uk sponge jay allen sent me of jamie building the bike when he first recieved it
