Between '78-85 there were a few racers I knew very well. If I remember right, they raced mostly at the Merrick track.

I raced between 1987-89 at shoreham, long island. also kingston and schenectady.

I raced at Shoreham (NBL) and Bellmore (ABA) at the end of Newbridge Rd. by the beach. They had ABA nationals there every year though the early to mid eighties. Kinda sandy as I recall, nice set of triples though.

I used to race Shoreham until 90 for the nationals.

i heard shoreham is still there

I grew up in New York and starting racing in 1980 at Pleasant Valley BMX.... then started racing Tri-City every weekend. Jockey Hill in Kingston opened up near the mid 80's, and I raced there each and every week. Met all of my best friends there... as well as my wife-to-be!
Then moved to Long Island in 88, and called Shoreham my home track until I moved here in Florida. Tri-City and Shoreham still run each week. Great tracks!

Does anyone know Gary or Billy Mac?
No,he's not a detective down in Texas.

ed, i may have known you maybe. i lived near pleasant valley and raced at jockey hill in kingston. remember that guy that moved to florida to work for like fabweld or somebody, i'm trying to remember his name...he always rode an 83 gt nora cup in 1987 and 1988.

I raced Bellmore from 81-88, regularly. It closed in 89. I came back in 93 at Shoreham, and still get there about 1 or 2 times a year. Gary Mack was a year older than me, HE WAS FAST. I would race him almost every week in open and then in 17 and over x. Bellmore was a cool track and a lot of cool people raced there. We used to race on Wednesdays and Sundays. There were a couple of Nationals there over the years, but nothing ever too big. In 85 Greg Hill and Ronnie Anderson came to the National, that was pretty cool and a rare weekend that the county would allow a PA System. Anyhow, my name is James Gaglione and my brother was Ed. Who else is out there??

Pquinn, Ed was the first one out of Jockey Hill to jump to Florida, though I dont recall his bike. I followed right after and then Dennis Neubauer came along. Not sure when Ed dragged Alisha out of there, i think he did it in the cover of darkness........

LOL... thanks Mr Knight! Yeah... I had to sneak her out so the authorities wouldn't find out! HA!
Dennis rode a GT for the longest time, before nailing the MCS sponsorship (that I helped him get! LOL). I roda a Skyway back then.
Dennis and I both work together at MCS, and I have to survive his bad jokes all day long!
He still rides an MCS (gee... I wonder why!), and I still own many Skyways (but I race an Alliant!)

I remember Gary Mack racing against mopeds and scooters around the block over and over and over. He would beat 'em every time. His legs were HUGE and all muscle.

[ March 07, 2006, 02:14 PM: Message edited by: CowasockeeSteve ]

Gary Mack could have been a National Champ. He was that fast period...

Didn't he have a partial GT sponsorship?


LIOldSchoolBMX...read your PM's

OK Shawn... this should bring back some memories of Jockey Hill! (Dennis jumping the last tabletop, while I watch...)



Pleasant Valley BMX (me... Skyway mounted... 1985)


....that's me in the Def Lep redneck t... and that's Dennis on the other side. Notice the 24" and 20" Skyway's on the bike rack!

Oh yeah.... this was a Long Island thread!

Shoreham Regional National 1987. (I'm in the blue jacket)


Last straight - Shoreham...

Ya know..... the track directors of Shoreham BMX during this time was Bob and Rita Keery. They now live about 3 blocks away from me here in Florida!

Great shots Ed, thanks.

dennis neubauer, that's him. i used to kind of hang with all those guys, from a distance kind of.

i used to go to fishkill to this bike shop and meet up with this guy who drove a yellow chevette and he would take me to schenectady sometimes. one time he was there when i broke my collarbone and he went to the hospital with me.

Pquinn
That's me!
I worked at Wheel and Heel in Fishkill.... and I drove you to Tri-City in my Yellow Chevette!

i thought that was you. hey man, you look different in that photo. remember that time we hit like this freakin' beaver or something and he freakin' died right there on route 9 or something. then, i used to talk to truckers on your cb and cuss them out. and we would get those breakfast sandwiches on a hard roll at deli's with like sausage and cheese and ketchup on there. yeah, those were the days.

Those breakfast sandwiches were freakin awesome! LOL. Man.... alot of time was spend on the CB back in the day! Remember the house speakers that I had in the back of that car........!
Man... this is sooo funny! Ya never know who you're gonna find here!
I see Dennis every day still. Our offices are next to each other and we both spend the day selling MCS bikes... and lots of other BMX stuff!
Post a pic if ya can!

I raced Shoreham in the state series from 85-87.
My home track was Tri City (Schenectady).
Dennis Neubauer, and his brother Al, were my best competition. I loved to race those guys! We were always back and forth.
Should I know you pquinn? I used to go by Iceman, (go figure), but my real name is Russ Gershon.
I cirtainly remember Ed! BTW Ed, did Dennis get to race this year? I know he wanted to. I need to get his addy again.... I lost it!

Iceman

Yo Iceman.... you'll be proud of Dennis! He is riding all the time now, and he'll be hitting the races again. He's one of those natural types.... he can stay off the bike for a few years and come back and kick everybody's butt! I hate him for that! LOL...

This is my all-time favorite "Action shot" of Dennis..... lol

not a great shot... I only have a few pics from Tri-City... this is one of them. First jump. That's me on the cruiser...

Heheheh! Great pic!! For God's sake, don't go in there!!

I hope he has fun, and does well at the races.
Thanx for the addy, Ed. As usual, you're the man!

(I remember when he had hair.... Lol!)

Iceman

Imagine that!


yellow chevette. huh huh huh...........
house speakers. Oh man.......classic. Cool that you 'meet' again so many years later.

I'm from Tarrytown NY, and raced Bellmore when they did Double/Triple point races and the Nationals. I raced for JV and SMB at the time. I was ABA NY-2 #1 for a year two back then also. The name Gaglione is diffently familiar...The triples were sweet and so was the reverse step before turn 2(?). PA system was non existend if I remember correctly. There was also that huge mound of dirt behind the starting area that everyone threw down on...in my memory it was 20 ft tall, in reality it was probably 3 ft. Funny how that works!

Ken Martin

So, how is it that all of us are FORMER New Yorkers?
In other words: How did you end up where you are now?

[ December 16, 2005, 12:29 PM: Message edited by: CowasockeeSteve ]

i raced on long island from 1982-86 i hung with the BMX Country gang and worked in the shop for tony for about five years. for all those who race in the bellmore national i have the tape of practice, every moto and the mains.

i think tarrytown was where the deli was with the breakfast sandwiches. ha ha

oldpro,
How can a fellow New Yorker get a copy of that???
Please let me know!!!!!!!

pquinn,
Could be....no Deli's in Ohio, Damn I miss NY....

To answer the question as to why I left NY, work...
I Manage the Suspension/Handling Development group at Honda R+D Americas (auto) and run the driver training program here as well. After college I wanted to work in the auto industry and I somehow convinced Honda I was a good engineer and next thing you know I'm in lovely Central Ohio....

Kmart

I was from Iowa and my wife, from Missouri, she worked at East Fishkill IBM, as a contractor with a division of Motorola. We were luke warm on living in NY since we were midwestern folks. We got a shot at transferring to Austin TX. Motorola. { well, she got the transfer} So we took it in 1990. We figured TX would be more like the midwest, which it is out here in the country where I live, we have cows in our back yard. But, big city folk are movin' in left and right. Upstate NY is really cool with the mountains and all, but we just were not happy there I guess.

k mart

also on that same tape is the woodward national from 85, I took second on day two in 15 nov. I have thought about having it put onto a disk and then having copys made.

if you put all that on a dvd i'm sure there would be interest in it, any old school stuff is cool to watch

oldpro,

I'll take that one two. 4th in 14x (that no good McDonalds eatin Monte Gray took me out on the first jump) and I don't rember where I ended up in open (could not have been too good!). Let me know how to make the copies happen....

Kmart

I bought my Skyway 300TA from Tony at BMX Country. He is doing well.... I just talked with him a couple weeks ago.... and just received his Christmas card today!

Mr Quinn.... I recall you freaking out about my driving skills while going through New York City once! LOL! Ahhh... good times!
I'm heading back up to Long Island for Christmas... can't wait!

More Long Island pics.......

Robbie Morales - at Clinton trails - 1989


Ronnie Gaska - at Clinton trails - 1989

I ended up leaving NY in 87 because I just missed Alaska, my friends, and my family that are up here. Simple as that.
I have lots of friends, family, and roots in NY too, but that's just the way I felt at the time.
I moved back to NY with my wife and kids in 93, but wifie's heart was up here, so back to Alaska I went in 95. It's a looooong drive!!
Moving sucks! lol!


Cool shots, Ed.

Iceman

Nice picture of Robbie. We were friends BITD and raced alot together....It was cool to see him go on and make a name for himself racing and dirt jumping after I got out of it.

Kmart

Ed, you and the cab drivers in NYC, it was freakin' wild!! Texas has the worst freakin drivers ever on the face of the earth. At least in NY they would get in the fast lane and haul butt. In Texas, they go, the traffic comes to a complete stop for no reason, they all pile up, they get mad. They honk at you for getting over to the right, putting on your signal, and turning right. You have no right to turn into any shopping plaza or anything. It's freakin' nuts. NYC driving is way better than Austin TX.

KMart,
The mound of dirt that we all jumped was huge, maybe not 20 feet but more than 3. That track was just cool. In the old days it was hardcore old school with an axe handle push down gate. I think it was 1983 when it received a make over including a real gate. The first straight had a couple speed jumps into a flat turn. The second straight had 2 jumps and a set of washboards into a tight high berm. The third straight had a set of triples right out of the berm, a step up, a camel back and a speed jump into another berm and the last straight had a giant set of doubles that you needed some speed to clear. I loved that track, I have a lot of good memories from those days. There was a lot of political support for the track. It didn't have to close. We had a really great T.O. for several years in Red West. I guess he just got out of it and noone wanted to do it. I spoke to a guy a few years back with some connections and he told me that the County would still be behind a track. The county has actually built several nice skate parks over the last few years. There was another cool track in Canarsie Brooklyn in 1980 and 81. Again, hardcore oldschool with a pushdown gate. We raced there on Saturdays. It was great to have 2 tracks within 15 minutes from my house, not to mention Braddock and the Armory. Anyone that has ever lived in Long Island or Brooklyn would agree that we are a unique group of people. Early BMX in the area was certainly filled with some characters that made the scene real fun. I am always amazed that Long Island and Brooklyn is very rarely brought up here. The scene goes back to the mid to late 70's and was huge. We would have over 100 motos every Sunday, it was amazing. I went to Shorham a few weeks ago and there was less than 20 motos, but the kids were still rocking it. Anyone who raced back then would know who my brother, Ed Gaglione, was. He used to give the factory boys a run for there money when we would hit the Jersey tracks. He was actually a district champ in NY-3 District the year the ABA had that wacky 4 season set up. We rode for Cliffside Cycle for a few years. There were a lot of good riders on that team. Anyhow, it would be great if the race scene got big again here. My kids should be ready in a couple of years to race.
James Gaglione
Long Island Old School

LIOS,
Good to know the ol' memory still works. I had the NY-2 #1 the year before the 4 season deal then had a couple seasonal #1's. Your guys names are so familiar I'm sure I would recognize you if I saw some picks. I raced alot of the NYC boys, was it Pops or something like that, that used to drive them out to the Armory? I rember sitting in the BK on the way to Braddock watching the NYC boys riding there bikes to the track. Speaking of BK I did run a trophy dash at Braddock with a BK crown on....it was a good look.
Did Pete W_____muth (sorry for the spelling) also ride for Cliffside?

Good writin James. Brought back a memory or two.

Kmart,
Pete W did ride for Cliffside, he was very good. I can't recall the name of the guy who drove the NYC boys either, maybe Carl, not sure. Back then Cliffside was 1 of several really good NJ based shop teams including JV, Clifton, Action Wheels and several others I can't recall right now. In NYC and Long Island we had Brands, Team Brooklyn (Gateway Bikes), Larry's, Marine Park Bikes and of course BMX Country. The best thing about 80's BMX , at least in this region, was that all you needed were a couple of friends with the same uniform and you had a team. We had teams at Bellmore that were just guys who had the same bike and uniforms, that was cool. My guess is kids don't think that is cool anymore. I remember a group of guys out of Rockville Center who all had Moto Fox uniforms and called themselves team Moto Fox. They weren't really sponsored. There were some Jag guys and couple of CW guys. I don't think these guys even had a shop co sponsor deal, they just had the uniforms. I have some pics, not many. I don't have a scanner yet so I can't post right now. If anyone has Bellmore pictures I would love to see them. There was a girl who used to take pics and sell them at Bellmore. I think she rode for BMX Country, maybe someone knows her.
James

Kmart,
Pete W did ride for Cliffside, he was very good. I can't recall the name of the guy who drove the NYC boys either, maybe Carl, not sure. Back then Cliffside was 1 of several really good NJ based shop teams including JV, Clifton, Action Wheels and several others I can't recall right now. In NYC and Long Island we had Brands, Team Brooklyn (Gateway Bikes), Larry's, Marine Park Bikes and of course BMX Country. The best thing about 80's BMX , at least in this region, was that all you needed were a couple of friends with the same uniform and you had a team. We had teams at Bellmore that were just guys who had the same bike and uniforms, that was cool. My guess is kids don't think that is cool anymore. I remember a group of guys out of Rockville Center who all had Moto Fox uniforms and called themselves team Moto Fox. They weren't really sponsored. There were some Jag guys and couple of CW guys. I don't think these guys even had a shop co sponsor deal, they just had the uniforms. I have some pics, not many. I don't have a scanner yet so I can't post right now. If anyone has Bellmore pictures I would love to see them. There was a girl who used to take pics and sell them at Bellmore. I think she rode for BMX Country, maybe someone knows her.
James

James,
Kids today!!!
I remember Kenny Hogg was rockin the Jag colors and I was never sure if he was factory, support or anything. My first "sponsor" was County Cycle in Yonkers. The always cut me a deal when I was in there so I had some iron-on lettering done up on my Max jersey and some generic stick on letters on my number plate to show my support. Then on to JV and SMB (Steves Moped in Dumont NJ) run by John Shackle before going to TNT.

Cliffside had that father and son thing going on. I forget their names but the son always raced against Jimmy Gnecco and was about twice the size and the dad rolled 35 and over cruiser.

Some of my pics are posted on the Brokespokes.net site if you want to check them out. No Bellmore yet. Working on it.

Later
Kmart

Hey Guys,

We have an old school New Yorker racing here in Indiana that hauls the mail rather well. I am sure he was probably winning back then too.

Anyone know a guy named Darin Lord?

He is a flippin great guy, way too much fun to hang out with.

RC