Hi J,
Long time... Yeah, I'll check that other Hawaii forum out too. The pics are bringing back some great memories. Care free and no fear. We'll have to catch up sometime...


laters,

MT

Well, look what the internet dragged in:)

A fine good day, it's Michael Tyau of Cannon Club fame LOL.. welcome to the Vintage BMX party.. glad you dropped in and posted a hello! I had some real nice pics of you flying high, might have added a couple in the area named "Thee Biggest Air Thread"... check it out.

What are you doing in Cool-er-fornia? I lived in Arizona for a number of years before finding my way back to the islands.. I also found this site by a stroke of random luck..

Since you are here, I dedicate this shot to you.

MIKE TYAU:



Cannons Club.. look who is lurking in the background.. it is Jeffery Kang!

He appears to be well nursed and healthy, by way of wholesome food.


Cheers mates..

-p

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That is way cool. Fuzzy Hall, I see him on the X-Games and some Dirt/Freestyle rags. He is nuts:)

Thanks for your pics and stories, keep them coming!


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-p

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The Hawaiian roots, I remember those. Great fun memories.

Here is another one. Shot taken at construction site UH Manoa, near the baseball stadium. On this occasion I believe Mark Gentry and a couple of other guys were there and some "human being" parked a car right in front of the jump. So we ganged up on "it" and physically moved it out of the way. How efficient and "punk".. after all, this was the 70s. HAHA..

UH MANOA JUMP:



I do not know the original origin of this picture, the photographer, or anything else. I wish I had some other pics at the jump, but NO. That butt-ugly half shirt I was wearing happened to be mustard yellow and purposely cut in order to shorten it's useful life..


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Your faithful Hawaiian jump Historian..

-p


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P,

Sick pics indeed. Mark Gentry? Now thats a very cool name of the past. Lived right across from Triangles and next to Michael Woo. I went to St Patricks with him too. He rode a blue Webco right? He was very fast and raced at Kewalo Basins with a few other of us Catholic school boys.....like Paul Williams, Kip Sakuma, Cameron Camara.....The memories are coming back.

Thanks P!

Yeah.......... Michael, like P said .....you neeed the check out the Biggest Air thread too.....P aka "the faithful Hawaiian jump historian" posted some sick air of you.

By the way P nice "cut shirt". I never had the abs or tan to pull that off!

JK

IOLANI PALACE RACE early 80's. I'm not sure who the riders are. No 199 may be Miki Fernandez.

Malvert Benigno leading a trophy dash in the early 80's. Kevin Murnin and Rockne Tang follow.

From Team McCully Lisa Irei.

No. 1 Moki Fernandez takes a practice lap followed by me No. 18 and Miki Fernandez No. 384.

Buddy Ikeda at the IOLANI PALACE race early 1980's.

awesome pics! dennis and faye made a killing on the mongooses. just about everyone had one. i heard that

when they broke they didn't even send them back to chatsworth, they just gave you a new one.

a funny story about moki,...after bikes my mom got him a job at fisherman's wharf, and he used to bring

my mom flowers once a year for a couple of years. the nicest guy, and crazy fast too.

Hey P,
I remember that yellow cut-off. HAHA Yeah, those are some great pics. Got any more from Campbells races? I wish I had the ones of myself... Wasn't there a guy one race making iron-on t-shirts from photos right at the track? Next time I'm back home in Kapahulu, I'll have to dig around to see if any of my old BMX stuff didn't get trashed.

laters,
M

this a quote from lance sugimoto, a fellow mililanian of chang who recently checked out the thread.
Wow the good ol' days.Mean!!Who's this Jason Chang dude posting all kind of stuff on that forum?I saw Rory Ingano working for a Iron fencing/gating company awhile back.He recognized me and asked me if I was still riding.He said his boy was riding.---I even saw Kevin Sano riding on the bike path in Aiea when I was working over there.---You know somebody named Kirk Iwa????? who used to race.He fishes for Uluas and said he knows me from BMX days but I don't remember him.What about Lance Takeuchi from the Cambell days?I fish with him too.---Come to think of it,alot of guys say they reconize me from BMX days but only when they see me from behind.Ha ha!!

Kev,

Thats a cool quote. I was so stoked when I came across vintage as others have done by pure chance. I almost fell out of my seat when I saw the pics and photo's Jason Chang posted. His thread helped respark my love for BMX....Thanks Jason. Isn't it cool when you run into someone with HawaiiBMX roots and you can talk about the good old days like it was yestrday.

Kevin Sano riding? Oh yeah! Sounds like a comeback is brewing.......Wicked fast rider for sure!!!!

JK

Howzit Hawaiians!!Sugimoto checking in.kevlau turned me on to this site.I saw some pictures of myself in previous post and they brought back some good memories.
A little background,I raced at Cambell,Keehi Lagoon,Hickam AFB,Koko Head,Blaisdell center,Wahiawa YMCA,even "Madusas" for the deep Mililanians.I did some free-style with Lau and Shohara as well.I know all about Tantulus,Flat Track,Pearl City Flats,Cannons,etc...Ah the good ol' days.
Let me dig through some of my old photos and see what I got.Laterz brahdahz!!

Aloha Sugi, you'll find this is a great place to hang out. Lots of BMX knowledge on this site. Sounds like you have some deep Hawaiian roots. Enjoy!

Good day JK-

Gentry, yeah. I believe it was a Webco too. You got the names down, I am still digging into my dark and dusty caverns of memory.

A wild guess as to who the CAT dragged into my air space today?

Russell Hirata. Or is it Hirota? Russ-man, sorry if I mangled your name!

I pointed out the site to him and said he raced against Fernandez brothers, Sano, Llacuna and knows Buddy and Bo Ikeda. He could drop some knowledge and bring memories back to the forefront of our scattered attention with respect to old school BMX.

Har Har, the tan thing!

Really, I was 115 lbs soaking wet, I think my ribs were mistaken for abs LOL

Here is another dog-ugly cut-shirt (I wish I had racing pics, alas I only have lame jump ones):



Pearl City Flats, around 1977 or 1978.

Raymond Motosue is 764 charging up from behind. Reid Kawamae on the far back side.


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-p


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Tyau mane!

Campbell races, I am quite short of photos.. they are simply misplaced.. I am still searching. Most pictures I have are dirt jumping kind.

But I do have this one:



This is Tod Kawakami (747) and Raymond Motosue (764) with Danny Lee wallowing in the rear. Tod is wearing a Patterson Racing jeresy!

Love that big dirt mound.. I hope you still have some BMX stuff you can dig up at home..


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-p

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Fine day Sugi-

Nice background, I hope you can dig up some photos from your diverse and well-balanced past.

Looking forward to reading and seeing more on Hawaiian BMX..


Cheers..

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-p


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Wow, this thing is growing!!! I first started this because I could not find much on Hawaii's past BMX roots. Then after a while it lost some steam as most that were chiming in were just a few and mostly those living on the mainland now. Then I get an E mail from J Kam and I see word has spread and I feel like I have met new friends and reunited with some old ones. And all with a passion to play in the red dirt.

Some history of my neighborhood. I grew up in Mililani and was part of what I think is the second wave of BMXer from there. The first wave were the guys that raced at Kewalo's and the begining of Cambells. Most fadded away and then a new crop of hungry racers emerged. This is about the early 80's. I think the first guy I met was Kevin Lau, He had a Goose with a JMC fork and one Phill wood HUb and one Bullseye. I would see this bike around and thought that was trick, and he must be a veteran racer since he had a numberplate on. Funny how we assumed things just cause there is a number plate on. We finaly met up at what we called the corner jump, we have been friends for over 30 years now. Kev and I were both novice racers and like everybody else, workin towards that first trophy. Sometime soon after that we met SUGI,who actually raced long before us but had taken a break from racing and still hit up the local jump spots. I remember he had a custom painted Premier helmet and JT race pants, in those days that was a big status symbol. He brought in a new guy who was big for his age and we dubbed him Big Lance. As opposed to Sugi who was the less tall Lance ( trying to be politicaly correct). Big Lance was a power house in a day that power ruled. This was the original group that grew to be a whole gang that also included,

Dan Watanabe (Spanky)
Jesse Ramiscal
Matt Burns, sometimes older bro Damon
Darin Higuchi(Guch) Cali transplant and Orange local.
Andy & Randy Shohara
Davey Uemura
Shane Sakuoka, (he was alot younger so just at the races)
Eric & Scott Higa
and probably more that escapes my memory right now. We all rode together every day. As each did a little better at the races it seemed to rub off on the others and everyone got better. At one time we all had made it to the Expert class and holding our own. One of our best seasons Big Lance, Shane, Kev, and me made the top ten. I always thought how cool it was that 4 out of the top ten were friends that rode together all the time. Yea Mililani took our share of trophy's. We also did the big ride to town, along the way picking up Kevin Sano, Adrian Lee and Todd Takano at the Great outdoors. Only to meet up with 10 -20 town guys. We were street riding before the term STREET was invented. And I have story's of every one of them, and I am sure they have many about me too. Cruising through Ala mo's and Waikiki, bike tag at Washington inter, and of course riding down Tantalus.

I am still working with the state to open a new track at Sand Island. I hope some of you old futs can still pedal enough to jump in and race the old man class. 36-40, 41-45 cruiser, and 35 & over twenty inch. With the 5 year spread in cruiser alot of us can now race each other and would not have back in the day. So let the trash talkin begin, because we all know that "When the gate drops, the bull [I tried to cheat the filter] stops. But untill then we can all talk about how fast we USED to be.

Changstar

Changstar,

I am hoping that you are successful with the Sand Island track. If it does become a reality I'll be the first "old fart" to.....TRY and throw down. In my mind I am still fast . Well according to Rockne Tang I was never really that fast......Yeah 35 & over 20" count me in.

I agree with what you said with a second wave of BMX as I am unfamiliar with most of the names you mentioned excluding: Kevin Sano, Adrian Lee, and yourself. Alot of us from the dawn of Hawaii BMX just sort of faded out as we got older and faced new challenges in life. I am proud to have been a part of those times and have made many friends. Hopefully, BMX in hawaii will face a new era with all of us old timers coming back for nostalgia reasons and having kids of our own that want to ride.

Here is a photo you and your fellow Mililani riders may appreciate. This was kindly provided by JT of Safari Cycles:

"Rich Long & Baron Lee of B&L Bikes in Mililani (SEP 1984)".

"Kev and I were both novice racers and like everybody else"

chango,

novice? at least i didn't have bent cranks on my bike! chang had a practice starting gate at his house where we used to do hundreds of gate starts. i have no idea why we practiced one pedal starts so much with 43/16 gearing.

paiea,

lets see your road race bike.

kl

As opposed to Sugi who was the less tall Lance ( trying to be politicaly correct).
[/quote]
I thought about using "Small Lance"as my user ID after I had allready registered.Too late I guess.That would've gave the ol' skool Mililanians a good laugh.

I'll go check at my mom's house and dig up some pictures from the tracks.I remember I was on the front page of the newspaper in a race at Castle Park.IIRC I had the infamous Jofa on in the picture.

The reason for my small break from racing was My bike got stolen.The sick part was my sisters bike also got stolen and it was a complete "California Special" DG.I think that was what it was called.It was all black and gold.

Couple more guys:Paul Telles,Henry Weeks.

BTW,my son wants to race so when you get the track going,give me a call.

Aloha guys,

I forgot to post these pics from JTof Safari Cycles. Here they are.....You Keehi racers should appreciate these cool shots. Thanks again JT!

Barry Uyeno Keehi Sep-84



Ken and Bo Keehi Sep 84

GUESS WHO?

Just for history sake. The original sanction in Hawaii was "Hawaii BMX" First run by Dennis and Faye Saiki, then later by Toku.
To my best memory the holders of the number one plate were.....
1976 Rory Ingano
77 John Llacuna
78 Moki Fernandez
79 Rockne Tang
80 Rockne Tang
81 Kevin Sano
Second half of 1981 Oahu went ABA and Kevin never got to run his #1 plate. All these guys were heros to me. They are the legends that inspired many many generations of racers.

Changstar

I have a couple ABA #1 plates from Hawaii. I show them to Leasure all the time. hehehehehe.......

Since you mentioned no. 1 plate holers. Here is Rockne Tang no. 19 and Rolland Tang No. 10 BITD! Rockne and Rolland had stenciled on the back of their mongoose jerseys.....The Tangs...Rock & Roll. I know most everyone in their classes only saw the back of those jerseys. Including me.

jk

The First No. 1! Legendary Hawaiian Rory Ingano when he rode for The Bike Shop on a mongoose.

Wow Roland had a lower number than Rockne? I would like to hear what Rockne thinks of BMX today. Would he jump on a bike today and give it a try? Of course new skills will have to learned, we no longer need to bunny hop or power slide. Now it is all about getting the snap, pumping backsides and manualing. Even though frames have changed you can still find bikes that ride the way you want it to. I have heard a few old school guys say that new bikes have a heavy front end. My FORMULA is a wheelie monster and I like it that way.

Changstar

Changstar,

I agree with that thinking. I picked up a used "new school" redline. The front is very pard to get up to me. To the point where I don't find it fun to ride. The threadless fork makes it impossible to adjust the bar height too. I just ordered some slam bars. I'm hoping that will help some...the haro bars I have seem really small to me.

As far as what Rock thinks of BMX today. Maybe ask him on bmxhawaii. He lurks there daily. Snap? Rockne had one of the fastest starts I have seen. He would probably get a great gate and crash at the first jump.

I'm still trying to get him to dig his bike out of storage so we can go ride. He's getting back into the whole nostalgia thing. I also showed him some videos of when we both raced 14X. He said he stayed up till 2am watching it over and over. Hopefully, I can get him back on his bike......Maybe not to race but at least to have some fun.

jk

You can adjust the height of the stem by adding spacers (alum washers) under stem. As long as fork is into stem all the way. Just take the spacers that are on top the stem and switch them around. Redlines come with very low bars. We all ran our bars very high by todays standard. I am using S&M race cruiser bars, the taller ones, they make two. Also run your chain as short as possible, take out some links. My cruiser has a very short back end so my front comes up easy. I probably run my bars about one inch higher than the average guy today. I tried a modern Redline and that was one thing I did not like, the front felt like it had a 100 pound front wheel on it. Also try a 24 X 1.75 front tire. I think the Redlines come with the fat 24 X 2.125 front tire. These will all help lighten the front. The best thing I can advise is to ride many different bikes and keep trac of what you like and don't like, then go shopping. If we hook up some time you can try my cruiser. If you like it I can get you one, I still am sponsored by FORMULA. Check out www.formulabicycles.com

Changstar

Jason,

Forgot to tell you the Redline is a 20. The stem is maxed out already. The only way I could raise the stem is getting a new fork with a longer steerer tube then adding the spacers. The bars are very low. I had the redline next to the Team Jag I am building and there is a big difference. Just a question but why are the bars so low today? Seems awkward to me. Especially being larger than I am when I raced.

jk

I think the low bars is for more pulling power. Most have adjusted to the heavier front end. Plus you can pump the backside of jumps harder without fear of looping out. It is tough finding just the right bar height. Lots of experimenting. Most want the power to get out front early. Shortning your chain will still help. Call me anytime and I can help or just to talk story. For my 20 inch I like the S&M Slam bars, you will want a 8 inch rise bar, many riders today are on them but with the stem as low as can go, or they run 7 inch bars. One inch will make a huge difference. A 1/4 inch is enough to feel. The days of just putting on new parts and getting used to them are long gone. Now there are tons of size choices in bars, stems, and frames, finding the right combo is the key.

Changstar
808 625-7827

Changstar,

Thanks for all the tips. I did get some Slam bars off Ebay. Just waiting for them to get here. I do like the newer frame lengths. I just need to adapt to the new lower front end. On the redline I just can't seem to find the "sweet spot" when pulling up on the front end. I thought it was me. I'm glad that you mentioned that other old schoolers think the front end feels heavy too. It's frustrating trying to learn to manual when I have a hard time getting the front end up. There's alot of "catching" up to do after not riding for 20something years. I'll try and call soon.....You can guide me in the right direction I'm sure. By the way still waiting for you to post some on bmxhawaii.

jk

I registered at "bmxhawaii" but still have not recieved an activation code. I have emailed them and clicked on the resend activation code several times with no luck. Maybe it is because I am on AOL. Maybe you can shoot them an E mail too. I have be checking it out and want to post on many of the topics. Especialy since I am one of the few who has kept in touch with BMX over the years. Not many have ridden since the days of steel wheels and coaster brakes all the way to being clipped in. Yes I have raced with the new dancing slippers. I hope more of the members on BMXHawaii update their bios, I would like to know who some of those screen names are. Yes you are right about thelonger frames giving us more knee room, but the longer the front end the harder it will to pull up too. I am 5 foot 8 and most guys today would be on a frame with a top tube of 21 inches, and the old bikes I rode had a top tube of 20 inches. So I went in the middle. My frame has a top tube of 20.5. This gives me a little more leg room and still does not weigh down the front. It is easier to set things up if you are taller. As far as learning to manual, get your body back with your but over the back tire, it is very hard to do trying to do it just standing where you are comfortable. Just shift your body back a little more. Thats what helped me, I was trying to do it with my body to far forward. You should be able to pull the front end up enough to flipover backwards, so you should be just concentrating on balance, not fighting to even pull it up.

Changstar

Changstar,

Thanks for the tips and advice. I'll try and post something with admin on the bmxhawaii side.

JK

Here's more awesome shots of the race held on Iolani Palace grounds. No.1 Moki Fernandez (TGO) followed by no. 316 Jeff Wandell (TBS). Photo by JT of Safari Cycles.

Iolani Palace Race 1980. No 3 Buddy Ikeda, No 85 Eric Phillipart, No 496 Kevin Murnin. Photo by JT of Safari Cycles.

Iolani Palace Race 1980. No 2 Rockne Tang (TBS), no 63 Roger Nitta (Waipahu Bicycle).
Photo by JT of Safari Cycles.

Here's one of Safari Cycle riders Daryl Saiki and Dale Farias taken at Hawaii Racewaay Park in the late 70's. The guy in the middle is from REDLINE. Photo from JT of Safari Cycles.

ANYONE KNOW WHO THE GUY IN THE MIDDLE IS?

I don't know what he looked like back then, but my guess is that would be Linn Kastan, owner and designer for Redline. Funny all my years racing and I never owned a Redline till 1999. I just was too short to ride their bikes. My guess is you would have to be 5 foot 10 or more to be comfortable. And the cruiser was even bigger, I ended up switching to a Robinson cruiser, with RL stickers of course. I learned to look at the factory teams riders and finding riders that were the same size as me before choosing a frame. If the factory team were giants I knew that their frames would be to big for me. I am 5 foot 8 and trying to ride a bike made for Stu, duh. I didn't race Iolani palace but watched it. awesome pictures. I remember a Redline dude going real fast that day, may have been James Katasako.

Changstar

may have been James Katasako.

wasn't katasako on kuwahara? i remember he had the cleanest bike. and he always had a loud freewheel.

kl

That's not Linn Kastan for sure.

I think before James got on Kuwahara he was on Redline with Graphite tuffs. He looked totaly factory. Eki riders always looked like factory riders, except Scott Iha. I never understood why he had a factory Robinson jersey with all black BW pants or maybe they were JT. I always wanted to see Scott race against Ritchie Anderson, may Jon Sandberg can chime in, he has raced both of them.

Changstar

Maybe it was not James, but Alex Adams? Hows that for an old name, and how about these........

Gabe Cruz
Andy Lee
Bobby Lee
Craig Gomes
Toby Tsukamoto
Jody Char
Chriss Cole
Rommel Estepa
Stu Domingo
Steve Capps
Stuart Saito
Eric Kono
Duane Kondo
Jon Ichimura
Kenny Draves

Changstar

Hey Jason, It's Broc... I know Steve Capps is racing in California on a cruiser and may have 20in also he is in touch with most of all the old riders from Kaneohe base. Do any of you remember racing there on Kbay?
Aloha Broc!

I remember that race well. I loved the track. Go check out bmxhawaii if you haven't already. Some old school hawaii riders posting there too.

jk

Hey Broc, still have that Meno helmet? Wow last I saw Steve was at a naional in Arizona in 1995. I raced the K bay track once, was there only one race there that was open to the public? I remember Scott Iha and Buddy Ikeda doing a match race. I think Buddy won the older group trophy dash and Scott won the younger, then they were supposed to give Scott a headstart based on their lap times. But Scott had a lap time almost the same as the older guys so they just raced straight up. Or something like that. I remember the first part of the track was cool but the end half was too skinny to pass, so just hog up space and you were safe.

Changstar

Here is latest news on Hawaii's next BMX track, from our local newspaper.


http://starbulletin.com/2008/03/20/news/kokualine.html

Changstar