Upside Down Ones And Graphite Wheels

The undeniable perfection of this picture from a time when GT Bikes and The King Eddie Fiola where on top of the BMX world. Many an old school BMX bike collector would love to get their hands on that chrome Performer that Eddie is riding there and add it to their stable of bikes. 

October Is Here -- BMX Action October 1983

The year seems to be flying by, so here is the first post for October.Sometime ago, January 28, 2010 to be exact, I listed this issue's cover as one of my top favorites. And that still hold trues. Amazing shot of Rich Sigur on the cover.

And I had to include this photo of Richie Anderson and Charlie Williams racing the 16-17x cruiser class. The caption of the photo mentioned Return Of The Jedi and the speeder chase on Endor. When Star Wars crosses over to BMX, AWESOME!

http://edwardkoenning.blogspot.com/2010/01/favorite-magazine-covers.html

King Of The Skateparks June 1985 Issue Of BMX Plus

Rich Sigur -- Del Mar -- One Hand One Foot

From the October 1983 issue of BMX Action. Throwback to a post back from January 2010 and some of my favorite magazine covers.

http://edwardkoenning.blogspot.com/2012/01/bmx-action-july-1984-mongoose-pro-class.html

http://edwardkoenning.blogspot.com/2011/09/bmx-action-january-1984-part-one.html

The Curse of Lono

Happy Birthday To Eddie Fiola

Happy Birthday to the King Of The Skateparks. The caption in this photo says it all.

View more at this link Eddie Fiola post from the past.

Mike Dominquez Del Mar KOTS Round Two

Here is run one from Mike Dominquez. I hope to have run two up later today.

Mike Dominquez--Del Mar Skatepark 1984 from edward koenning on Vimeo.

Ted Emmer Del Mar KOTS Round Two

Here is a video clip to go with the Ted Emmer post from January.

Ted Emmer--Del Mar Skatepark 1984 from edward koenning on Vimeo.

Del Mar skatepark footage.

Eddie Fiola footage.

He always had the best color combo bikes. Yeah, and he good ride pretty good also.

BMX Action June 1984

Been slacking getting the updates going. Long Memorial Day weekend filled with a bunch of projects to get done. Managed to get a bunch finished, which is nice. Now time for a throwback.

I can honestly say that I read this issue of BMX Action over a million times when it came out. Another classic cover shot from Bob Osborn, and another good issue with a ton of good content. On the cover, Donovan Ritter tips his hat and runs his number 1 sideways. Hey, Eddie Fiola ran his upside down. Looks good to me. Do a search online about those two. Some interesting rants from Donovan about Eddie.

When a bunch of us in the neighborhood saw this photo, we all decided to go ride our bikes into a pond in the subdivision across the street from a local ditch we would ride all the time. Much to our surprise, not as fun if you don't have a ramp. Hey, we didn't care, it was summer in Texas, we needed to cool off.

Two of the best styles ever. Hands down. Brian Blyther on the left with a "tuck" air  at the usual Blyther height. Guy went so high and was always so smooth. And Mike Dominquez on the right with a proper look back. I must have driven Mr. Sanders at Action Bikes mad all the times I would call him. "Do you have white Tuff Wheels with the blue hubs?" I called so much the number is burned into my brain. 

Tons of good coverage from this contest. Eddie being a hard ass riding with a cast on. Brian Beam's one handed fence plant is crazy especially where he was doing it. And well, more awesomeness from Dominquez.

Big upset over the highest air contest. The side by side photos on the left show Eddie and Mike's highest airs. There has always been some question as to how Eddie won, and if he should have one. Biggest question was where do you measure? Always the lowest point of the bike. It looked to me that Mike might have really won that contest. The judges wouldn't break up a MF team now would they?

A while back I had posted something about the time line of "The Judge" jump. This was Tim Judges response to all the hoopla. DAMN! That would make even Vic Murphy proud.

Freestylin' July 1985

This was such a good issue of Freesylin' magazine. So many good pictures and articles. And the coverage from that Del Mar contest was so crazy. It also looked like it might have been the starting point for the world take over by Skyway. Their riders were all over this issue.

Two Skyway riders on the cover. Not bad. You know, as soon as everyone saw those orange Tuff Wheels on Scotty Freeman's bike, they were going to go out and get a set. I opted for the lavender.

Objective Rad? Sure. Vector Bars might have been cool (I had a set or two), but every set I had and I think every set everyone else had cracked. And as much of a game changer as the "Rotor" was in the BMX industry, you would have thought they could have used something better than an exhaust c-clamp as a cable stop. Good for them for only letting this go for a short time and coming out with that headset cup that had the stop built into it.

 

Del Mar Skatepark  was always such a cool looking place. With it's crazy long snake run, and all of the different bowls. Bummer it was kinda of the younger stepbrother to the Pipeline Skatepark. I wish it would have gotten more coverage before they bulldozed it. Did Jeff Carroll land in that frame stand, or did he go back to the pedals before landing?

Classic Hugo Gonzales. This is the reason I would set up 3 foot tall pieces of plywood by a ditch and learned 360's over them. Hugo is the man!

Magazine Monday

Gotta' say, I really like the site http://oldschoolmags.com/index.html. So many good scans of old magazines there. Always good to look at some of these older photos and articles that helped shape our little BMX world into what it is today. And of course it is also good to see some of the more fruitier things that came out of BMX from these times. What we need now-a-days is more three way jumps over cheesy bands with full crotch shots. And of course more robots. We could always use more robots. Aaron Ross would be stoked. 

Super BMX  February 1984. I wonder if The King of the Skateparks thought this was a good idea? The guys in the band looked happy to be there. "Hey guys, we have a big photo shoot today. Make sure and wear your tightest shorts."

How much cool stuff could they cram into one issue of Super BMX? As much as they wanted to apparently. I would have been more stoked to win the robot. Mongoose always seem to have some kind of weird promotion in this magazine. I recall something with CHiPs from around the same time. Larry Wilcox was big into BMX back then.

Dyno add from Freestylin' January 1986. I wasn't to picky when I was a kid so noticing little things in ads was never my thing. One would hope that the companies would work with the ad agencies and make sure they got some kind of accurate ad out for their product. Who would want to buy a fork with no threads on the steerer tube? Where did the rest of the steer tube go?  And does Bob Morales really think we would believe him that he rode into that trick? Come on Bob. Front brake down? Bars behind seat? Beyond Basics is what they missed.  Who cares though? I want that green Dyno Compe frame.

Freestylin' July 1985. I think at one point it was mandatory to have the "Camarillo" style roll in on your ramp. I recall at least 6 ramps in San Antonio that had one of these on it. Love the black and white shot of this ramp. Many a days was spent in someone's backyard fooling around on one of these ramps. good times.