BMX Plus February 1983

 

There have been so many memorable magazine covers from the likes of BMX Plus and BMX Action, but there was always one from BMX Plus that stood out to me. And remembering the first time seeing this as a twelve-year-old at my friend Adam's house. WOW! Bob Haro, playing peek-a-boo on that chrome Haro Master, riding in some futuristic world, this cover was it!  And at the time when Star Wars Return of The Jedi were coming out with other 1983 classics like War Games and Krull, this was the perfect cover for the time. And forget about all of us needing those Graphite Skyway Tuff Wheels after seeing those gold hubs! 

It was always nice to see a little more freestyle making it to the pages of magazines during this time. I can still remember trying these bar hops in our gravel driveway out in the country. Hahaha! And I'm still looking through a few old boxes of stuff hoping to find my copy of Bob Haro's Freestyle Moves book. But it looks like that might be lost along with all of those copies of that Atari Video games.

Now, there is so much to unpack here. When I was doing these post regularly, I would not normally do a post of three pictures from a "bike test", but this one was too good to pass up. And as a huge bike and automotive nerd, the history of the Steyr-Daimler-Puch brand is something that is an all-day research fest and a possible call to one James May from The Grand Tour.

Now mixed into all of the "rich" Daimler-Puch" history, there was an agreement with a New Jersey frame builder named Speed Unlimited. These American produced frames to the naked eye look to be just a normal run of frames from this era of BMX, but upon closer look, they have a list of amazing frame building features. Ovalized top and down tubes, gussets at the seat and chain stays, plate gussets with logo embossed into them, and tubular brake mounts. Nicely produced frames, and I would love to see one of these in person.

Nelson Canada and D.D. Leona battling it out in a tough 17x main from the Huffy/ABA Grand Nationals. Looks like D.D. Leona took the win, and a very fast Steve Veltman took the Amateur and Cruiser Titles. 

Heavy Metal Thunder

Finally uploaded this classic Poorboy video. So much random footage in this video, always cool to see Steve Veltman clips though. That guy was so fast is was incredible.

Heavy Metal Thunder from edward koenning on Vimeo.

Park Tool BBB-2 The Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair - 2nd Edition
Park Tool PZT-1 Big Wheel Pizza Tool
Park Tool CT-7 Chain Tool for BMX and Freestyle Chains

BMX Plus---August 1984

BMX Plus always had a way of cramming as much as they could onto their covers. Also, their use of the color spectrum has always been over the top. But there is no beating those grabbing cover tag lines like "Kuwahara's World Champ Laser: Can it Zap You To The Top?" Classic Plus.

There is just something that is so perfect about that chrome Kuwahara Laser Lite. The set up that Gary Ellis is running in that shot are the perfect combination of chrome and gold. Great set up. And when did Kuwahara change it from the "Lazer" to the "Laser"?

I remember walking something like 6 miles after middle school to our local bike shop and being absolutely blown away by one of these Quadangles. Such an awesome frame and one of the all time classics.

The race coverage was always something that seemed to be a little lacking in some of the issues of Plus. Not sure why, but they seemed to prefer more of the smaller black and white shots over the full page color shots. But every once and a while they would have some really great full page photos. Like this shot of Steve Veltman holding a tight inside line at the Lumberjack Nationals.

This seemed to be more in tuned with how they laid out their race coverage. Still some great photography though. And look at that shot of Patterson racer Cody Smart  checking to see how close he is to that tire.

When this issue showed up in our mail box I did the same thing that I always did. Ran inside and read it over end to end. And after seeing this picture of Woody Itson sitting on his handle bars like that I ran out and tried to figure out how to do it. My neighbors must have thought I was crazy. I might have been, but I don't think I ever figured out how to do that trick. 

BMX Plus
Rad TV The Sequel (VHS) BMX PLUS

BMX Plus February 1983.

Bob Haro this time on the cover of BMX Plus February 1983. This bike he is riding has to be one of the most copied builds for Old School BMX collectors of Haro bikes. I can see why, it was a cool set up for sure.

Test of the Champion 24" cruiser. very cool looking bike with that added cross brace between the top and down tubes. Just looked like a really large build compared to some other cruisers around this time. This is the write up that made me want to learn "Hanna's".

Nice shot of the cut away of that added tube. Nice to see they had them welded in and not just shoved in and tacked to the down tube. Very cool. Also a great shot of Martin Aparijo doing the visor buzzer version of the "Hanna".

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Another jump I went out and learned after reading this test. For a "Flatlander" Martin was also a pretty good dirt jumper.

Rad Gallery with two berm slides! I have said it before, and will say it again. What BMX needs now-a-days are more berm shots. BBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

Update!!!! Forgot one scan. Had to come back and add it. Really cool shot of Steve Veltman going fast as usual, and of Brian Patterson. Big race for Patterson, he had a triple win here. Really impressive to just get a double, I think he even won the title that year also. I wonder if Steve knew that he and I were on the same team for awhile? I doubt it. I was just a kook on a freestyle bike.