Vintage Bmx Collecters...

There is not a crazier bunch of people than the baby boomers. Maybe there isn't many generations I can personally compare them too, but when it comes to blowing obsessive amounts of money on things that don't really matter, the 40+ crowd has got it on lock down. It is my belief that the dirty, dirty 1980's and the Yuppies that the generation produced has over the last 20 years produced even more hoarders/collectors/yuppies.

My parents currently have a snowmobile collection which is in the mid twenty range, I've seen more "well to do" baby boomer's collecting everything from apple pottery, to knives, to the obvious vehicle collection to well.. anything that reconnects them with their youth. Yet it has been my discovery, that the most cut throat and overly obsessive hobby of the 40+ crowd is the ever DANGEROUS Vintage BMX Collector...


Take a second and examine the photo above. Not only did Haro never produce a cruiser or mini version of the ever popular Haro Master, but how do you find the person willing to cut apart and both add and subtract tubing to an easily $400 dollar frame, or how about 2 of them? Moreover, to find parts in triplicate, and in every size must have been a headache. Regardless, if whatever you're doing in your hobby spawns creativity like this, no dollar amount or self-indulgent shit talking blogger should ever stop you, what an awesome feat!

The example above is a man who obviously collects Haro Masters, and wanted every one of them possible, even if Haro never made it. Within the BMX community, I've witnessed people only collect dia-tech levers. Some people only collect threadless stems, and some, which is my favorite, only collect grips, valve caps, and patches/stickers.

There has been a lot of talk amongst the message boards about the vintage dollar being at an all-time low. Hopefully this website will get the collectors itching once again to find that crazy padset lurking under their work bench. Crazy ass BMX collectors...CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK or go to http://martin-bike.com/BikeShop/index.html

If you are a vintage collector, you already know the plethora of vintage sites which are available. If you are interesting in collecting and need motivation/a history lesson I suggest starting with THIS BLOG and then in your free time go to the greatest time killer website on the internet, BMX Movie Database. Their website is HERE and http://bmxmdb.com/. Also, they have an app for the iphone which is a must have if you're ever in an airport!

What this rant is leading up to is the fact that I am 100% the next in line to blow my money on bikes. Besides, what can a man do with more than 1 bicycle anyway? Below is my collection, I own all but 1 of the bikes pictured in this shot... Feel free to ask questions by My only response is going to be "I Love Bike Porn!"

Ted Alb

From The Vault

For awhile I was doing this series on my blog clicked called, "From The Vault". It was basically old pictures and video that I had stored away in what my wife calls "your boy treasure chest". I have this beat up old chest that I took from Point X camp when I use to work there. I have everything in there from old nudie mags, to a signed knee pad plate from Danny Way during the filming of the infamous DC video. Anyway, I was going through some old photos for my buddy Dean who's writing the book of 100 pools ridden called "You Won't", when I stumbled across these photos. I didn't take these photos, my BFF Grady sent them to me a couple years ago as a "remember this" care package. The photos are from around 2002-2003, I love them and I thought I would share.

The top two pics are of Will Bissell doing what he does best, riding weird tranny and fences. Bissell kills it all day, and at the ripe old age of 34 he's still charging it. The bottom pic is a skinny version of me at 9th street in Austin. We were in Austin for a week during the T-1/FBM contest at Ramp Ranch back in the day. That contest was so awesome, good memories fo' sho'.

New Fairdale samples.

Looks like Taj and Odyssey are turning Fiardale into a full on brand. The samples look really good. I will rock one for sure.

Head over to the Fairdale site for more info. http://odysseybmx.com/fairdale/2010/09/fairdale-bicycles/

BMX Action -- July 1983

Toby Henderson out front of the cruiser class of the Memphis NBL Wars of the Stars race. Always good to see the cruiser class making the cover.

I remember this race coverage and seem to wonder how big of a race this must have been to be getting almost ten pages of coverage. Such good race coverage at the time. I think at this point is where I became more aware of brands and who was my favorite was.

Nice photo of Bubba Hayes power out of one the turns that the Memphis track had. If you look at the layout of the track, that is about all it had.

Great photo of Greg Hill looking BEAT after a tough semi. And another really cool one of  6 year old Willie Huebner and his dad walking off the track after his sew up rolled off the rim. Classic Bob Osborn. Also take note of the tracks layout. At least it had "The World's Biggest Berm."

I just had to post this for two reason. First, the rock walk is the first trick I ever leaned. An second, every time I see that classic Taco Bell sign, I just have to eat there. Damn you Buff!

This issue has a great interview withe Brent and Brian Patterson. Lots of excellent photos in there. this two page shot is fitting for the era and is still a true BMX classic.

It will not come to anyone who follows this Blog  surprise that I quite enjoy a good berm shot photo. This one of RL tearing into a berm, grip down  is so good. I used to have a hard telling RL and Buff apart in some of the bike test in BMX Action. You have to look at the patches on their jerseys to figure out who is who.

To view more visit this site. http://oldschoolmags.com/

Rejection: The Pros And Cons

I've been taking a lot of video lately with this little hand held Kodak Zi8 I got, I think Ed knows the one. It's pretty damn sweet, except for the electronic stabilizer. If you hold it in your hand it looks like Marty McFly is behind the camera. So, I made this cheap steadicam and that pretty much fixed the problem, the shitty part now is I have to lug the damn thing everywhere. Which, totally kills the whole "handy pocket cam" idea. But, since I bought the Zi8 I pretty much haven't touched my camera and that sucks, because I love shooting photos. I'm very amateur at best, but I still enjoy it.

I recently sent the pic above to ESPN to see if they were interested in it for the POTD.... Rejected. I guess it's not "crazy" enough, or "bangertastic", however, if you knew how hard it was to get on that wall from this little wedge, you'd probably think differently. One mans throw away is another mans blog post, on Mr. Koenning's site (yep, you're now in the age of "Mr. Koenning").

It seems that rejection actually works better for me, especially in the BMX world. I write stories a lot, luckily a decent amount of those stories have been published in a couple magazines, though more have been rejected than published. I don't think I would have any published if I wasn't rejected right from the get go. Then there's those times when I make an edit and I send it to the come up and it doesn't get posted, and I'm like "did you get that edit I made?" They're like, "yeah we got it"... Oh, I suppose it's not street enough for you, I guess I should have made Bissell throw them bars, and made Floyd nose wheelie a little more. Maybe I didn't wear a baggy enough T-shirt. Good old rejection has helped me look past the other sites and focus on the ones that are more important, and the ones represent what I think BMX is. I'm stoked to see Mr. Koenning constantly droppin' old BMX knowledge on us and creating this blog. Now, if I can just get him to send me that damn interview...

I only ever got two autographs

I only ever got two autographs.  In August 1984 I saw the GT team at Rockville BMX.  It was the first freestyle show I had seen.  Ron Wilkerson and Rich Avella were on the tour after being picked up by GT earlier in the year.  Ron and Rich had a great interview in the April issue of BMXA and I couldn’t wait to see these two.  They had formed the 2Hip trick team, done their own shows and gotten to the factory pro level.  They were living the dream.  Ron was killing it on the ground with fresh tricks and blasting as high or higher than Fiola. 

 

After the show I got Eddie and Ron to sign pictures I tore out of a magazine.  I’m sure I have Eddie’s somewhere but I always kept track of this one.  

Brett Downs

Birthday Wishes to the Proprietor of this Blog...

Ed Koenning was my favorite rider growing up. From the days of Homeless videos to the rock solid riding in the Poor Boy series, something about Ed's riding always drew me to his video parts and they were watched until the tapes wore out. The music was always abrasive, the rails were always long and it was a serious mix of dirt, park, and street. Riding a box jump in the parking lot of a bike shop will always hold a place in my heart that defines 90's freestyle BMX. Not only did Ed's ponytail signify the style consciousness of the time, but his sponsor list is midschool legend. King, Standard, Poor boy, Homeless, Trend, and Stray bicycles supported BMX when it was at its lowest popularity.

I would like to wish one of my greatest influences in BMX a happy 40th birthday and want him to know that he is still inspiring to this day, artistically and in riding. Good wishes to your family and I hope to buy you a beer soon enough! And also, this blog is awesome, thanks for letting me scribble all over it for a little while!


Clowns Full Of Hate from surfer_atomico on Vimeo.

Guest Bloggaz!!!

My name is Micah and I love Bmx shows. Ever since I saw my first Bmx show (Haro and Skyway dual shows at Torque Center, New Berlin Wi) I knew it was what I wanted to do with my life. By 8th grade I did my first show at a school talent show and it got me a girlfriend. Over the years I worked for a few teams as well as starting my own.

What any of this alludes to is how many pro BMX riders have done shows or are quietly spending their summers jumping in rigs and keeping the BMX dream alive.

This weekends shows are with guys almost 10 years my elder and they still have the best attitude and outlook on BMX, life, and existentialism as a whole.

Pictured below is Trevor Meyer, 3 time X games gold medalist and easily has over 10,000 shows under his belt. Still, after all these years he says he is still just trying to inspire the next group of riders. It's a wild feeling when people live up to your preconceived expectations and watching them demonstrate their perfected craft that creates a lifetime of inspiration.

September=time off.

Well, not really. It is a crazy busy month for me and I have decided to take a break from the Blog to avoid getting burned out on it. Not entirely, I will have a few post here and there, just not the usual amount. That way it gives me a fresh start in a few weeks or so to keep it fun. And in the time being I have made arrangements with a few people in and out the the biking community to make guest post on the Blog in the next couple of weeks. I am really excited about this and eager to see what some of these guys come up with. Seems better than just letting this thing go dormant for a while when I am having a siesta.

PROSIT!