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I had all day to think about what you said in that other post I started and decided it might be a good time to provide a little history of myself and my life in and around BMX. I am just like thousands of other kids that rode around in the 60s and 70s with a few exceptions. I owe my life changing direction to my Dad. All the BMX, all the bike riding, all the car racing, all the collecting; he is why it all happened. Please allow me to start at the beginning.
I was born into a normal family but we eventually grew to nine total; seven kids and Mom and Dad. I was second. In the mid 60s, StingRays hit and so did clones. My neighbors got Sears 20” bikes. I had my 50 pound, 1949, 26” balloon tire Schwinn. Dad got it for $5 from a guy at work. I was 8 or 9 when I got it. My brother and I rode bikes all over and like Dad with his Pontiacs, we drag raced (only we did it with bikes).
Around 1967 or so, we set up a tenth mile track on our street. My big Schwinn was slow to get rolling but strong on the top. It got to be that I was becoming very strong for a small kid. Others rode their small bikes but Dad refused to buy us what he called a “baby bike”. This is important to remember as it sets the tone for my entire life on bikes.
We rode the big bikes all the time but moved away from my childhood pals in 1970. There, I met new pals (the Pooles) and we rode all over again. We did everything and I did it all on that 26” bike. We rode in dirt and had races in the snow. We built a track around the house and we made berms from the snow. My neighbor motocrossed and in 1971, he had a 125 cc Penton. My brother and I went MX racing with him and acted as his pit crew. We also rode our bikes a lot more on dirt and found trails to ride on. We made a swing arm front suspension, 24” bike for Bob my brother which broke and broke his arm very badly. We built a monoshock which still exists somewhere in St. Louis. The big 26” bike was still all I had. It was tough to throw around but fast on long runs.
I got a job working for Gary at Gary’s Bike Mart in 1973. I built myself a 27” 10 speed Gitane to get me back and forth to work in 1973. It was about a six mile ride. I used to ride my 26” single speed Schwinn but had to graduate to the Gitane. JC Penney called to hire me away in 1974 so that put me in the retail bike repair business (and eventually, I got to build and sell the Silver Fox suspension bikes.) I also got very good with the Shimano disc brake and that is why I still use them today. But, a local shop named “Fast Eddies” in Grandview, Missouri had the BMX race in this area. It was fall of 1973. Eddie had built a long, basically downhill track out of a motorcycle trail. The poles and the Hands and couple of other went form Raytown to Grandview to race at our First real BMX race. We had big bikes other shad their small ones. Mark Poole had the tricked out 26”Schwinn we had built. I used the 26”Schwinn and ran in the open class, others had their baby bikes. It turned out to be very easy to beat up on the small bikes on those long runs and to top it off, the ride was much smoother with 26” tires. Sounds like we predated the mountain bike!!! All of us Raytown big bike riders had great success at Eddie’s track confirming what Dad had taught us, the “baby bikes” were for, well babies.
As BMX really took off, it was obvious the Eddie-style of track was not going to be typical. So, we graduated to the smaller 20” bikes and built tracks to work with them. We had a small track behind the 10505 Blue Ridge Gary’s track and we had races that drew a lot of local kids. We outgrew the track and mostly the parking and we then got hooked up in a small park area not far from Gary’s track at Kernoodle’s Park in Grandview. We had a clean slate to work with so we built our own semi-downhill track with enough speed for all and a few jumps, not large killer ones but exciting enough all could have fun. It was so much fun to build and I can still smell the trees we cut and the grass we mowed and the hot dogs we cooked over the wood we burned. We dug dirt and trimmed trees and plowed. What a grand time to be 19 years old.
Yamaha Dirt Days came to our Dragstrip in 1975. I helped by volunteering there but not as many kids came as should have it. It was fun but not as successful as they wished it was.
All the while we were getting more and truer BMX parts. I had a Webco frame in 1975. Swapped it for DG in 1976. Mark was running the two speed automatic Sachs Duomatic hub. We had aluminum handle bars (that broke) and all the trick parts we could afford. Remember, we had come from larger heavy bikes so to us, the little ones were light and really fast even though we ran the 105 gauge spokes and heavy steel parts.
I went to California in 1976. Went to many races, hung with Elaine Holt and the BMX staff for a while. Went out to eat seafood (first lobster ever, still will not eat it) with Elaine Holt and Tom Siefert at Mathews. Went to a bike convention at the Anaheim Convention Center. I still have my name tag. Met lots of people who would turn out to be famous but not sure I can name them.
It all ended around 1977. Mark got his Barracuda, I had my Dart and we got into Drag Racing and street racing/cruising. The BMX hobby fell silent in the area until it blossomed into a full grown track in the 1980s (I think) and it was sanctioned.
I was out by 1977 but wished I was not. The Job took all the time and then a wife and kids and car habits and you all know the rest.
So what did you all learn from this?
• Baby bikes are for babies. That is until you start BMX’ing them.
• Big bikes took a lot of power to ride but developed very strong legs and stronger (bent cranks and pulled the handlebars out of shape form racing my Schwinn).
• As side note, I could ride a wheelie on my Schwinn for 1/8 mile. I know for a fact it was that far; we snuck into the drag strip and I rode it on the track. Easy to figure length that way.
• Keep your cool things from when you are a kid
• Keep your magazines and literature and keep it safe and dry. I have all my BMX News papers and that is why I had Bill Curtin scan them all. I want others to enjoy the fun I had.
• Be ready to get your tail handed to you when other kids learn to ride small bikes faster, crazier, and more unsafe than you do. I never, ever broke a bone or had a stitch from riding. But, I got whooped towards the end by kids willing to risk it all to win. Not me, I am chicken and hate blood and needles. Second place to Mark Poole and others was fine with me.
I will try to get photos up to go along with the story.
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This post has been edited by Tom Hand: 13 May 2009 - 05:25 AM
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