National bike sales state one thing but let's talk about where you live, when BMX racing died off & when, if ever, made it's return.

Utah has always had a strong scene but from late 87' thru late 92' it was slim pickings. We had a core group of racers & a wonderful TO who kept things going until the spring of 93' when something, don't know WHAT happened but it was like "Field of Dreams".......a bunch of people around here including myself rediscovered the local racing scene & it blew up in 94'. It's been going strong since, getting bigger & bigger by the year.

Last Saturday night at our first indoors, we had 52 moto's for a single point race. Packed gates, 16 in 28+ novice. High 40's for Sunday.

Things are good here, what about your local area?


b.

Our scene died in 1985 and never looked back. We kept the freestyle/street thing going pretty well into the early 90s and I found myself quite alone. Over in Baton Rouge where they had the cajun nationals there was always a good scene. That was a 2 hour drive for good racing action, still active to this day.

Not really sure when it died around here but I'd say 83-84? There were a few freestyle guys around but they were few and far between. Still hasn't come back!

Here in Southern California you can still find places where pogo sticks and hula hoops are peachy-keen. Nothing really dies out completely. Everything has/is a subculture. So BMX wasn't going anywhere. In the 90's some race tracks closed down, riding moved to the street/jumping, and soon after the new kids were being drawn to a new style of riding BMX bikes.

This is a place where some people will get so into wireless remote controlled motorized skateboards, you can be sure at least a core of them will still be doing it when they have grandchildren. They'll meet every Tuesday night at In-N-Out and talk about the old days when they ruled Main St. in Huntington Beach.

Orange County has no Dark Days. You can restore yo-yos and sling shots from the 50's and wouldn't be alone. We have retro boutiques for everyone.

If you want to capitalize on it, 12 years from now you'd be happy you own the rights to VintageKiteSurfing.com

[ November 23, 2006, 01:43 PM: Message edited by: RyanPartridge ]

In CT it was going strong in 88. I remember my last race before I went into the Army. We had a main in the 17 EX class. That was Trumbel track, July 11 1988.

Old-skull

I never really had a scene. I grew up in Iowa and the closest tracks (D&N and Indian Creek) were a good hour and a half away. That wasnt happening every weekend. Then i moved to South Carolina. The one "local" track was again, a good hour from home. It closed in 84-ish, and i had nothing within 3 hours for a solid decade. Now I have the problem of the two "old" guys still trying telling me i "have" to race cruisers. They just arent as fun to me. So my illustrious career consits of about 20 trophies over 20 years! (Ellis aint got nothin on me!) I am envious of all of you who got to race consistenly, but still enjoy the occasional race as much as I did when I was little.

D&N was the bomb. I was from Ottumwa, we had our own track, but it died after the 82 season really... We had a half baked 83 season, then that was it. D&N was awesome, but it was 2 hours from home. Where in Iowa were you from?

I raced in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Newton, Marshalltown, Oskaloosa, and Ottumwa. Also raced at the Armory in Rock Island Illinois...

Im from Dubuque, but moved to South Carolina in 81. D&N was the first time i had been on a track. I remember Don from Kar City letting me ride Mark Driscoll's Sting around it the first time. Scared the bejesus outta me as i was only 9, never been on a track before (let alone downhill), and on a much nicer bike than my free spirit scrambler. It was indeed the bomb.