Rich,
Great to hear from ya. Sounds like you are on a comeback mission. If anyone can do it, you can. Ferg has been filling me in recently about your comeback. I heard thru the grapevine that Jud is going to kick your butt, any truth to that?....lol. Good luck! I know the guys in 35-39 hated to see your name on the moto sheets. I have no intentions of a BMX comeback, I am having a lot of fun racing on the road and mtn bike still. Keep in touch.

Does it get any better than this?Old BMX'ers never lose the fire!!!!Go Farside,kick some Jersey butt.............AGAIN!

Hi Rich,
It was great to see you again and meet your daughter in Columbus. Good luck on your racing this year as i'm sure you'll do great. I hear you when you mentioned whether you wanted to get back into it hard core or not. i feel the same way but am really enjoying riding again.

Speak to you soon. Tell Taylor i said hello.

Deanna

Great stuff! Brad, you are an inspiration to myself and I'm sure many others that remember you from back in the day. Reading through this thread sure does bring back a lot of memories...... Does anyone here remember racing in Tinton Falls? That's where I got my start when I was 9. And of course Howell, Flemington and Egg Harbor were regular tracks later on for me. How about the short lived track in Long Branch with the manual drop gate? (Quick aside, the man that ran that track (He was known as Ducky) also ran The Peddaler bike shops in LB and Eatontown died of a heart attack on the way to work a few years ago. He was always very nice to us, and will be missed). I remember getting my first BMXA and it had an interview with the Zueners and since that day on I was hooked! Got my first brand new BMX ('til then, they'd been all used) at Mahon Bros. in Eatontown which was a GT Pro. I remember the guy saying they were the first ones made and at that time I was 12 so that would be around 82 or 83. In typical NJ fashion, it got stolen from my basement from a guy who is now a cop in my town! A few guys I remember were Dave Nettles (Craig Nettles is a former Yankee, Salamai!) Eddie Clark, Jarrett J., The Ludens, Tommy Webber, Bill Bohren, Ryan Mackey (and the rest of the DJ's Bikes crew) and many more that I was lucky enough to ride with over the years. Salami, I can quell your Pork Roll craving....go to my web site www.gardenstategifts.com and click on Pork Roll/ Taylor Ham. Brett, I'd like to add your site link to mine if that's OK w/ you. I'll post more later when time and memory allows. Hope this thread keeps going!

Holy SH*T, Mahon bros, lol...I was in there a few times...
Of course you can link to my site, in fact anyone who wants to link to my site out there go ahead.
Just wanna spread the BMX buttah...

Brad D. Do you remember a Thruster rider named Brad Birdwell, I have an 85/86 20" Thruster Bi-Power complete bike that was owned by him. It has some unusual cranks on it... 3 piece with single pinch bolt ...kinda oval arms.....threaded spindle with 3/4 round 1/4 flat ends. Kinda like Grove Hot Rod cranks had. The bike is 100% mint and as it was when it was retired in 86. Was Thruster messing with making some cranks, was Bill Grove moonlighting/consulting while working for Hutch????
NO...it does not have Thruster pedals!!!!!!

I also was told by one of the last Thruster Factory riders that they were allowed to run either CW or JMC forks on their bikes if they didn't want to Use Thruster forks, is that true?

Can you answer any of these?

Greg,

I remember Brad Birdwell well from '83 when he was one of my younger teammates. I stopped racing in mid ’84, but I do know for sure that Birdwell was riding for Murray in ’85.

As far as the cranks, I do know that there was some talk about them, but I never really got to see anything. They may have got around to make a prototype, but I'm not 100%. We could run pretty much any setup on our bikes. I used GT pro bars (the Thruster bars were too small) and the whole team had co-sponsorship from DK, so we all used their stems which were much better than the Power-stems Thruster made.

I had no reason not to use any other forks, but if someone did run a different brand, I don't think there would have been a big problem by the management...they weren't that picky, they were more interested in our results on track.

I’d really like to see a pic of those cranks…

Hey Guys,
i am trying desperately to get my mom to get me the boxes of photos, magazines and who knows what else that is lying around in the attic at the zeuner household!

I am also asking tons of questions regarding the early days of the race scene back in jersey. I know that Sal has a ton of info regarding the early days of MCS and Thruster and since i was such a youngster i dont remember much of that. Hit me up with questions and i will see what i can find out.

Cheers
jen

Pat ,you're a stud!I started at Tinton Falls(NBA)Yeah,yeah Dave Nettles.Dude ,I'm 38, with how many concussions?hahahaha!Good name droppin' I'm crying over here!GO DEVILS!

Salami,
Go Tinton Falls...you are killing me!!!Just spent 8 days of sweet ride time in Sedona with Elke B, your name was brought up on occassion, no big surprise there!!!!

Brad, nice interview, do you remember the time that you and Frankie Chirlo were pretending to burglarize your house and you scared the crap out of your sister and I???So many ramdom memories!!!!

Salami,
Go Tinton Falls...you are killing me!!!Just spent 8 days of sweet ride time in Sedona with Elke B, your name was brought up on occassion, no big surprise there!!!!

Brad, nice interview, do you remember the time that you and Frankie Chirlo were pretending to burglarize your house and you scared the crap out of your sister and I???So many ramdom memories!!!!

I'll get some pics pf the bike as it sits awaiting re-assembly .I took the bike apart to polish everything as it was kinda dull and starting to show it's age from storage. It had a Square corner DK STD. stem, DK 3 piece hubs, Ambrosio rims, DK headlock, DK seat post clamp, DK and Zeronine padset, Hutch pedals with DK cages and some DX pedals. Knurled handle bars that had a Thruster Rub on decal, but the bars are not like any Thruster bars I have seen.

The bike looks as though it had little or no use, which makes sense if Birdwell switched sponsors in 85.

I raced in the same class as Birdwell. I think he was from Alabama...I think it was 83 at the Middletown NY National he was riding a Neon Orange Thruster. It was pretty sweet.....

Jen,

I hadn't thought about that prank in a long time... We all went out riding and me, Chirlo and another buddy got home a few mins. earlier and hid upstairs. When Jen and my sister Darcee got back, they had no idea where we were. I came running downstairs with my dad's robe on, a pair of nylon stockings over my head and a 12" Knife yelling like 'Jason'. Darcee and Jen and took off down the street screaming. That was so funny...but my neighbor didn’t think so who came back with them to see what was going on with a hockey stick. We really scared the crap out of both you!

local eht had some good riders back in the day, your occasional visits by Farside and Lynch here and there for the big events but the regular locals had some quality skills. Joe Layton, John Cella, James and William Teller, William Magruder, Clay Goldsmith, very strong riders. I also remember when i was 15 or 16 that NJ had a ton of little kids around 7-10 years old who dominated the expert classes both locally and nationally. Im racing 35-39 cruiser now for fun and it is amazing how stacked with talent the class is. Rich Farside turned 40(sorry Rich) and now that class(40-44) is just as hard as the 35-39 class.

**Mod Note**

Removed due to derogatory statement.


Admin Warning to FactoryJMC, Do not post anything questionable again.

[ July 05, 2006, 06:03 PM: Message edited by: Hal ]