What kind of perks did factory riders get back in the day?
Endless amounts of parts and accessories?

Deanna Jamieson stated that the GT Factory team got:

1) Free Bikes
2) Entry Fees
3) Airfare to races
4) Rental cars
5) Hotels covered
6) Team Dinner on Saturday

Sometimes they even go a movie or other entertainment on Saturday. This was all back in the mid 1980's

5.00/per day for Galaga..

I was on GT B team (82-83) and was given a F/F, bars, seat, helmet, jersey, pants, gloves, pads for 200.00... I guess it was an okay deal, but that was it... I think most folks could buy that sponsor after awhile anyway. I think you had to be top 20 dist. something like that. Anyway, I was jeans/ long sleeved turtle neck the last leg of the bmx career. No regrets

Going off of Tom's number 6.

All riders were sent a check from GT prior to the national that would pay for a daily allowance for food. I think it was $50.00 daily or something like that.

Generally we never used it on food the money was spent at the local mall music store or video games. Scofield or Nelson would always pick up food from Friday-Sunday on their corporate credit card.

Those were the days.

Thanks for the responses.
As a kid, on the outside looking in it always seemed that factory teams provided the best of the best.
New equipment, new product to promote all the time.

Mongoose late 80's, pretty much same as GT. But I think it was $30 fro food per day. We did try to get the whole team in one car and as few hotel rooms as posible. 6 riders and 9 bikes plus luggage in one car. Since I did not get over to the factory as often I got a large amount of stuff at one time to bring home and save them on shipping cost. I still remember Rupe taking me to JT to get uniform. They gave me the biggest bag they made and I could chose anyting I wanted to fill it up. It was like Christmas.

Changstar

Don't forget contingencies - that added up to some big money if you hit it.

Some of my best memories were the factory days of the mid to late 70's.

Webco/Chuck Robinson helped pay our way to the first Grands ever (1975 Randall Ranch) and arranged for airfare, a place to stay, etc. Chuck and Stu picked us up at the airport. The next day we went to Bell helmets and got custom fitted, custom made helmets. They showed us the entire process of making a helmet. We played the claw game all day in the presidents office.

After that we got a tour of Webco with a cool factory bag with instructions: Go up and down the aisles and take whatever you want!

On Mongoose, we got a steady supply of bikes and parts, and the occassional airfare thrown in. It was cool to have the newest and best Mongoose parts in town. When we went to SoCal, we stayed with Skip at his big big house! Even after I retired, I was able to get an occassional bike from Russ Okawa who was a huge plus at Mongoose. His efforts in BMX are often overlooked. He was a huge part of the sport.

Those were indeed the good old days. Sponsorship was a big deal for us. I think I probably got the first factory airplane ride since no one flew to races back then! Imgaine stepping off of a plane on your very first plane filght, and there to meet you at the airport are Stu, Jeff Bottema, Rich Courteau, and Chuck Robinson. Cool stuff for a 14 year old boy.

As D stated, free everything ,bikes, parts (the best $ could by), uniforms, plates, ( I remember pulling my car up to the factory @ MCS and just going shoping, or getting boxes of Crit Plates, Vision Streetwear shoes, stickers galore delivered to my house, getting to change the color of my frame every month) etc. Plane ticktes fed-ex delivered on Wednesday's, fly out on Friday morning to where ever, and fly home Sunday night, go to school for 4 days and doing it all over again. Rental cars (wild stories here; just getting picked up at some place in TX and having my bike boxes with my 20" and 24" fly off the roof on a busy inerstate). Smash. All hotels free, Food $$. Kind of like rock star status when your a kid.


[ May 22, 2007, 07:15 AM: Message edited by: Mike'Ultimate Sin of Bmx'Crehan ]