Yeah Craig thats aweesome. Who knew BMX would be about the memories as well as the good times or we all woulda made sure to save all that stuff.
Ive seen BMX countless times on shows like that or Americas Funniest Videos showing crashes or stunts gone wild.
Once the vid was of the gate not going down and all the riders flipping.
Funny I guess but I see that and just go ouch. Ive only been called once for jumping the gate. It was at Cedar BMX and my tire actually touched the ground on the other side of the gate before it dropped and I still didnt crash. But I got DQd.
I actually got started in BMX by watching a TV commercial in 1978 for the NBA Schwinn tour. I was sitting in my Basement watching cartoons and go Mom OMG mom you gotta take me. They are having a BMX Race in Vineland. Had no Idea what real racing was but me and my freinds rode trails and had built a drop off in the woods and a berm in the cornfield that was like 1 foot tall and more of a rut that tracked your tire but my freind who had a Mincycle magazine that had a CYC Stormer advertisement (circa 1976) told me that was called a berm. This was probably in 76 or 77.
It was that freinds bike I bought late in 77 or early 78, from Paul “dont call me Skippy” Varadi that I raced. I had just gotten one issue of “Bicycle Motocross Action” and had already bought from that issue a BMX Products Gold Stem and Blue alloy bars trying to build a Team Mongoose piece by pice lol. I put that on the Schwinn Stingray Paul had fixed up with paint and carlise knobbys and ten speed pedals and seat. Cranks- what were they 160 1 pc cranks lol? Gearing- lol what ever came on the stingray including the coaster brakes. I had the best BMX bike I had ever seen till I got to that race.
The funny thing is in 1979 in the very spot (an abandonded Cornfield) my freind showed me how to make a berm (LOL he was so far off). I ended up building a 1,000 foot practice track complete with a 2 man gate.
I have pictures of me riding it in 1980 on my Torker in my Langley’s (Vineland, NJ) Bike shop team jersey. Need to get a scanner. I also have a pic at Lawville of two freinds from Martys Bike shop team, 1 had on the Torker jersey I had given him when I got picked up by Langleys.