***We were Rad*** Official Book submission/chat thread ***

[paulb113]

I managed to get into the local papers a couple of times

[In2bmx]

Trophy time with the Legend Mike Pardon and the guy who owned BMX Weekly , Nigel ?




Old Robinson Team bus 



First GT . Loved my dads Volvo in the background

[factory pilot]

Cheers Carl.... More great photos 

[oldschoolace]

Fantastic pics 

I had a Volvo Amazon for a few years, ace cars 

[stuntmaster]

Funny really but the old saying we say a lot is kids have it easy today is true as early 80`s we all started riding bmx and back then there was only a handful of places to ride and none were ever local to where we were , so what did a group of bmxer`s do and that was build ramps where ever they could .Back then there was a lot of disused places which after a sweep up could house a ramp of sorts , so sunday morning (the days when the shops or building places were closed) we head over to a local building merchants and see what we could have from pallets to long sheets of worn plywood ,after struggling to get the lot back from using skateboards to wheeling it back we had the wood and a place to build it , Next on the list was nails so after a quick ride back to home ,i used to fleece my dads nails and hammer (he still bring it up about how he never had any nails for anything bitd) and then we start our own homebrew style kick style ramp . by this time it was afternoon and once built we had many hours of fun riding it till we either had to go home for dinner or it got dark .
We used to do the same the next day and the day after until like all things someone spoil the party from smashing the ramp up or setting fire to it ,sad times but we just did the same the weekend again and just kept making ramps but found other places more hiding from general idiots so they stay up longer .i have some pictures somewhere of some of the ramps we built and boy they were great days     

[chrisv39]

The only BITD photo I could find after trawling through our Mam and dads loft was this one. My Curtis expert I got for Christmas 1984. This was probably taken some time in late 1985 as it has all the upgraded parts on it as opposed to the parts off my Pro star.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[factory pilot]

Awesome pic... Love the Christmas Day shots ... Ace Diadoras too

[chrisv39]

Awesome pic... Love the Christmas Day shots ... Ace Diadoras too

Thanks Ant. Diadora Masters the poor mans Borg Elite! Tacchini tracky top I also got that Christmas. Not a Christmas Day shot though taken the year after I got it with upgraded parts.

[factory pilot]

For me it's as much about the clobber as the bikes ... Just "of a time" we all loved 

[dancetothedrummersbeat]

Absolutely love it! Please keep the photos and stories (or snippets of information about the photo) coning. Lets make this happen! 

[oldschoolace]

Gonna be a pamphlet at best at this rate!
Come on lads, surely you would like to be immortalised forever in the greatest bmx book ever produced 

[paulb113]

if you decide to go down the Facebook route my group has almost 3000 people in it, may get some decent pics out if it?

[Andyboy77]

My little story is from 1996 and actually not cool at all, but maybe worth sharing here.

About 1983/1984 (I was 6 or 7 years of age) my older brother finally managed it somehow to destroy his BMX 2000 - deliberately of course, because all his friends had either skyways, haros and all the other famous bikes.
My brother was the only guy who only had a bike from a department store and felt pretty uncool. 
Our father immediately decided to buy my brother a new bike as his birthday was ahead anyway. So we went to a local shop that was the address back then if you wanted some propper stuff.
It was the shop from Dieter Klein - who later became quite famous for his MTB's and Roadbikes. About '83/'84 KLEIN started to sell high qualtity BMX frame and fork sets. If these were manufactured in his backyard or made by a particular factory - I really don't know. Any tries to find out more one these frames came to nothing up until now. The only thing they could tell me for sure was, that only 3 to 5 of these were made.

Howerver these bikes were full chromoly frame and forks of the highest quality. I can't remember all the details but it has had oval tubing for the top and down tube. The forks had oval tubing too. Furthermore, the bike was equipped with GT bars and lay back seat post - all chrome finish. Regarding all the other parts you could either go for red, white or black parts. My brother went for the chrome-red colour scheme. So the bike came with ODI Mushrooms, Kashimax seat, MX-1000 brakes and MX levers, ACS-Z-Rims with shimano hubs, a stem that looks like the pro necks,  silver powedisc (don't remember the make), Shimano chain ring - all red. Besides that it had a chrome opc and silver Shimano DX-pedals.

For years I was drooling over that bike until '88 when we moved down to the south of Germany, and my brother quited riding. Shortly after that he gave the bike to me as a birthday gift. I rode it until 1990 when I bought my '85 Performer (used). Because we didn't have enough room in our garage for two bikes I had to disassamble the KLEIN and stored it in the tiny loft above the garage. As the bike was still very dear to me I unpacked it once or twice a year and gave it a real good cleaning/polish, and also took care of all the bearings (hubs and bottom bracket).
I used to repeat this whole procedure until 1995 - at that time I left my parents house. In spring of 1996 I went to my parents to pick the KLEIN up. But I couldn't find it anymore. My mum told me then that our stepfather asked my brother to find a better place for the bike because he needed the room in the loft. It turned out that my brother gave the lovely bike away ( or that old piece of crap - as he called it) for a crate of beer to some young bloke who lived in the same village. I managed it to find out who it was and was about to claim my bike back. So I went there instantly.

This is the part in this story, that is hard to grasp if you never experienced that kind of heartbreaking event. As soon as I touched the garden door I thought "Wow, interesting tubing!" I asked the guy that was in the garden about the bike and he pointed to the garden door and said " Oh, do you mean this? ....long story short the bike (frame) turned into a garden door and all the parts had already disappeared too. 

Up until today I'm still struggeling with that experience. Last year when I came back into BMX, I couldn't resist to hand over a list to my brother with all the e-bay prices of the parts he gave away for a crate of beer. Just as a little return  at least he turned ashen faced.

This story is maybe not as cool as the others above, but it is the only real BMX story I can tell that is older than a year. 

[dancetothedrummersbeat]

Cool story 
I think most of us can relate to your story in many ways. My bike had been promised to a younger friend of mine by my Auntie. I didn't want to give it away, but couldn't really say no as i didn't use it very much - i was 16 at the time. Sadly the bike is long gone, and was probably hardly used by my friend 

[Andyboy77]

Cool story 
I think most of us can relate to your story in many ways. My bike had been promised to a younger friend of mine by my Auntie. I didn't want to give it away, but couldn't really say no as i didn't use it very much - i was 16 at the time. Sadly the bike is long gone, and was probably hardly used by my friend 

Which is really sad too.    Did your Auntie ask you before she gave it away?

[dancetothedrummersbeat]

No, not really. She promised it to him without asking me first. She was only trying to do something nice, as my friend didn't have much. I couldn't be too angry, as she's like a mum to me and i love her 

[Andyboy77]

No, not really. She promised it to him without asking me first. She was only trying to do something nice, as my friend didn't have much. I couldn't be too angry, as she's like a mum to me and i love her 

So at least a good deed in the end. 

My brother only wanted to get rid of it, but that's part of his nature in many regards unfortunately. 

If I ever get back there I will try to find that house and take a picture of that garden door - or even better buy it and put it on the wall in the cave. 

[OrgasmDonor]

Hartlepool bmx track in 1984

[dancetothedrummersbeat]

Some of the best pics i've seen. Love them! 

[factory pilot]

This is going to be done book!!!
Can't wait to get on this properly and push things forward boys!!

Please please please keep these pictures coming 

[In2bmx]

Looking forward to this 

[oldschoolace]

I can only reiterate what Andy and Ant have said. Keep em coming guys, We need your stories too dont forget 

[ED209]

I'm still really up for this ... just need to find the time!

[Gashead]

I will talk to Bubbs, he has some great pics of when he and Pete were in a local freestyle team, he has stories too

[dancetothedrummersbeat]

I will talk to Bubbs, he has some great pics of when he and Pete were in a local freestyle team, he has stories too

Thanks Nick