You are right. I lived about 4 miles from town out in the country. I remember the summers where I would leave home with a couple bucks, ride to town, ride all day with my buddies, and be home in time for dinner.

1 hand held gates
2 flat turns
3 having 3 motos of 16 experts at a saturday night local race.
4 race in the rain/mud.

How much slower time seemed to go. I'd practice flatland stuff in the driveway for an hour or two, but it seemed like I'd spent half the day out there. Then ride around in the streets a couple more hours, and it seemed like forever until the sun went down. Or go to a friend's house who had a halfpipe, and skate until dark. LOOOONNNGG days.

Hot pants

I miss practice on Tuesday and Thursdays. Friday nights at Boystown or Pompano. Saturday nights at Homestead and Sunday at Coral Springs. All with 60 motos or more! I miss the competetion in the Florida State Series and of course NBL Nationals at Memphis indoor, The Presidents Cup and great summer nationals in South Park, Akron and Nashville. I miss having friends all around the country, hanging out with them and sharing the common bond. I miss being on my bike everyday before and after school. I miss looking forward to getting on the track as much as possible..... basically I miss my youth.

SnapG...you mentioned the President's Cup and that hit home big time!!

I miss the Christmas Nationals back when it was still held in the old convention center. Christmas break from school was filled with hanging with the family and then spending a few days downtown with the type of friends that won't ever be matched. 10-12 guys sharing a room every year at the Hyatt was a recipe for laughter and some trouble making that I certainly miss but won't ever try to re-live again (common sense and age not only wouldn't let me, but I realize it just wouldn't be the same).

Being from Columbus, there were a couple of years that I helped build the track (with the hopes of getting some riding in). Then race the pre-race, the President's Cup and both days of the Nationals. That was always a great week! Including seeing all the superstars from the magazines hanging out right there in MY hometown!!

I miss -

hanging out at the Broad Ripple trails
hanging out at Nick's BMX
seeing Kathy Hanna in her Thruster gear
riding with my buddy Bruce Long
seeing Kathy Hanna in her Torker gear
riding to the big races in Nick's grn dodge van or his big red parts bus with the rest of the team.
spending all day riding without a care in the world
I could go on and on.........

I will tell you what I miss the most... the whole scene! There is little for BMX in Oregon right now, and back then it was jammin. I miss the cool bikes.... every race was packed with the good stuff.... JMC's, Hutch, Redline, Vans slip-ons getting flung off at every first corner crash... those were the days! Thats when a BMX bike had some authority. We were all kinda the same.. speed freaks, and always a race to go to... whether on the track, or some dude that thought his Diamond Back Silver Streak was the king of the block. You knew the racers in town... we all had our ABA plates on, and rode around terrorizing the town. It was nothing to see at least 10 JMC slim fork bikes at the track, always my favorite bike. Never had one. Hutch was another favorite... rode with the bear-trap pedals for a few seasons. Powerlite, they were way cool. Didnt like PK ripper at the time, but do now. Back then, the bikes had color... anodizing was cool.. bright rims, bars, chrome frames, even colored tires. Hard to find a "fast" guy on a painted bike. They all chose chrome... except Stu Thompsen..

I know I'm diggin' up old threads but this one is great (and I'm at work killin' time!) -

I miss:

Flipping through the sticker book at Brands Bicycles in Wantagh NY. We used to cover our bikes and race plates like crazy! Now I don't understand why the younger crowd gets a frame, peels off all the stickers and paints it flat black. Like, 8 out of 10 do this by me. It's as if they're allergic to stickers!

Riding with my skateboard on my lap and using both throughout the day at whatever spot we rode to. There wasn't this dividing line between skaters & BMX'ers where I grew up. We generally did both.

I miss Freestylin' magazine and remembered how excited I was when they'd have an article strictly on Street Riding (once every 8 months).

I'll never forget the morning I woke up on X-Mas and got a white Dyno De-Tour. My parents couldn't afford the Pro Performer but I didn't care. I rode that bike into the ground....I loved it.

I remember building ramps and boxes with PVC coping with like, wood we ummmm "found". None of this plastic ramp already made for you sh**! We would paint all of our favorite companies over it and sticker it up.

I miss being able to ride from 11 in the morning until 9 at night! I don't know how I had the energy! Last time I rode was at some 1 1/2 foot ledge and my arms, legs and lungs were KILLING me after an hour. WHAT HAPPENED!!!?

My mothers face after - A busted chin, ripped up knee, smashed elbows, twisted ankles, sprained wrists, scrapes, cuts, bruises, callouses, cheese grater'd palms (maybe not from riding), bear trap shins, at least one concussion....poor woman.

Most of all I miss -
"Do you have to jump everything with that goddamn bike??"
If I had a dollar for every time I heard that..

the innocence of our youth. no worries, bills, places to be, time frame, weird-do's or
any other problems with today's life.

I miss the 70's more. BMX was so fresh and fun. Man, being a kid was awesome.

I miss full gate mains.
I miss riding all day and being upset cause it got dark when we almost had the jump dialed in.
I miss the innocence of my youth.
I miss my riding buddies who I've lost contact with.
I miss developing new style jumps and thinking we were the gods of BMX.

This is a great thread thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Peace

Thanks, Strike...glad someone was "listening."

M

I miss all my old riding buddies
I miss getting a gang of riders from the neighborhood and riding for miles to a set of trails you heard about on the other side of town and then loosing track of time, and having to call someone's parents to pick us all up cause it was way to dark to ride home
I miss hanging out at the local trails seems there was always 25-30 of us there at any given time,
I miss Local races with 60-100 motos semi's and mains and all the canopy set up around the track,
I miss going to nationals with everyone from the Local area, and setting up camp together seemed like one big family
I miss the Uniforms, BMX uniforms Look Stupid Now
I miss the state championships when Kentucky had 13 tracks and 6 different State qualifers at 6 different tracks
I miss double header double point races in Henderson/Evansville, Madisonville/Hopkinsville, Louisville/Lexington
I miss being out at all hours of the night playing tag on our bikes in some parking lot
I miss cleaning and re-greesing my bikes the night before a national or local race, I can still smell the Phil Wood
I miss BMX ACTION and the feeling I got when I got a new Issue, Oh and those others Super BMX and BMX Plus
I miss a cooler full of Gatorade in glass bottles and 3 flavors
I miss the sound of the starters at the local and National tracks
I miss chrome frames/forks
I miss 6 inch numbers on number plates
I miss National Numbers in the Expert class only and just the top 20,
I miss not having a care in the world
I miss having friends all over the country that you seen at nationals
I miss watching the old guys race and laughing cause they were slow as hell, now I'am the one the kids are laughing at
I miss dirt berms and flat turns you could throw your foot off in
I miss being able to peddle in a straight then jumping then peddle another straight then jump again, not that way any more
I miss throwing some style over a good set of doubles while leading a race
I guess I just miss it all the carefree days, Being in shape, Friends, good comp at Local races and a ton of comp at Nationals, a reason to become a better racer/rider, I miss 80's BMX

Alot of you posted pretty much all of my awnsers, but i'd like to add:

I miss racing on the streets with our homemade track.
I miss going to 7-11 and buying slurpees with my buddies after a long day of riding.
I miss riding with my buddies in unfamiliar territory.
I miss waking up in the morning and seeing all of my bmx trophies in my room.
I miss my bike that was stolen out of my garage.
I miss Kristen Eggers ( a teammate of mine that I had a HUGE crush ! )

I miss fresh skinwalled Comp III tires with the white mold release powder still on them.

I miss having the stones to jump 10 trash cans at the local park just like the Fonz!

I miss being competitive on the track.

I miss the feeling of the first time I put on my Main Bikes Jersey.

I miss taking my bike apart in the house and leaving bearing ring grease prints on the carpeting.

I miss using my dads tools and leaving them in the dirt.

BMX Action or the number plates.

Wearing my race jersey to school.

Racing side-hacks!

The FONZ Crashed when he tried to jump those cans,,,,LOL

Man I miss riding 5 miles across town to pick up a buddy just to ride 5 miles back to my house. Then head out to pick up another buddy on the other end of town.

Tuesday night practice and Friday nights race. The trips out of town to go race.

My Dad driving me all over the country to go and race some of the best guys in the country just to make me a little better.

Priceless, well played

I didn't BMX after 81 so I cant really say I miss much of anything from the 80's I do miss a flat turns of the 70's tho

When you're old, you never seem to miss so much until someone reminds you...

I miss : My buddies
Layin' on my stomach and drinkin' from a cool spring on hot days of riding
Scavenging for returnable bottles to get slurpies at the 7-11
Knowing which Coke machines your arm would fit in to wrestle a drink out of
Ridin' along a busy road with 30 of my compadres 14 miles to the nearest track
Stopping for a swim at the rock quarry
Goosenecks and Anodised frames

Oh yeah. The Fonz did crash. I guess that explains alot. LOL

To me it has to be 2 things.....


1) (as Louisvillebmx mentioned) Uniforms, bitd our race uniforms were special and teams looked the part. These days all the uniforms look stupid. I am not going into the debate about clips v flats, but nobody can tell me that disco shoes paired with a set of short, elasicated motocross derived pants look better that a set of classic Vans paired with a pair of Haro/BW/Aero/Gear pants.

2) Number plates, WTF has happened to number plates? I used to love having a new number plate, we used them as badges of pride and they were an integral part of your BMX. These days most (obvious exceptions such as HRP) number plates are an afterthought, I have even seen incredibly expensive race bikes with a disposable paper plate number plate attached (badly) to the front.

Amen on the uniforms and number plates. And what is up with sweat pants these days? That I do not get either.