This one has probably been done before, but I'll ask anyway. What do you miss most about BMX in the 1980's?

I'll go first. I miss walking into the LBS and seeing brand new Hutchs.

Tryin' to look cool for the chicks.

Having lots of time...... to do anything.


To be able to lose track of the days again, not caring if it was Monday, or Thursday. Just go out and ride.


ahh.. memories..

I miss the explosion of it all.

In the mid 80's, it seemed like every week we'd go to the local dirt jumps, and there'd be somebody new, with some new bike, some new part, or that could do some new trick... I'd be sick to my stomach waiting for my BMXA to come because it was sure to feature some new development, or the LBS would get something new and exotic in the counter showcase. There were always new quarter pipes or half pipes going up to ride to in the next town over, new tracks to check out, etc.

It'll never be like that again.

The bikes were great but they can still be bought. What I miss most is just blasting around the neighborhood on my bike with my friends with no worries and no bills. I also miss the 5 mile bike rides to my local bike shop which is still there and working on our BMX track in my neighborhood until it was too dark to see.

Bikes from the '70s....

In every neighborhood there were jumps or small make-shift tracks in vacant lots. At the local middle school there was a track that ran small organized events, and you could always find a straightaway-jump-burm set up within a couple of minutes from anyone's house. Now it's all been developed and concrete hurts more when you fall.

Being able to leave on my hutch @ 10:00 in the am, and not come home 'til 10:00 pm, and not have my mom worry at all.

(our kids will never get to experience that freedom.....and that sucks!!!!)


Being able to leave on my hutch @ 10:00 in the am, and not come home 'til 10:00 pm, and not have my mom worry at all.

(our kids will never get to experience that freedom.....and that sucks!!!!)

Saddleback and Corona!!!!!!!!!!!!

word.

I miss that too...and I miss that the best local trails and jumps were right next to a DairyQueen(about a mile and a half away from home).

We would be at the trails working from 9:00 AM till 12:00 PM, then we'd buy a sandwich or hot-dog or Blizzard with change, then go back to the trails and ride till 5:00 PM......then go home (to whomevers parents would feed the masses of us...we pretty much all took turns) and eat dinner(hot-dogs....daily), then go back to the trails till about 8:00, then come back to my house and swim till 10:00.

That was a DAILY routine....every summer year after year.
I miss that daily routine the most.


I also miss jumping my old Torker cruiser. I don't know what it was, but even though it was heavy as hell, I could jump that thing SOOOOO high!!

Jay:

I agree. I used to leave the house around 10:00 (after sleeping nearly 12 hours) and would ride with my friends until after dark. My mom and dad never worried. Now I'm scared to let me 3 year old out of sight.

I used to never wear a helmet either, but since my nasty crash on my mountain bike back in 2004, my son will never know the joy and freedom of going lidless.

I miss being young. Man, we are getting OLD!!

One thing I miss in this instant information "google it" era is the way we (in the midwest at least) used to starve for information. Whenever the latest BMXA or BMXPlus...heck even SuperBMX came out I'd read it from cover to cover, then read it again and again.

Now that info is instant, it's kind of lost that special feeling...at least to me it has.

just riding in the neighborhoods with my friends looking for new riding spots and jumps. the simple things.

+1 on what strike said. thank god my mom never threw them away, i still have them all.
and obviously what most have said. no bills, no worrys, be gone all day into the night, no big deal.

I miss all my old friends ,i been racing again and it isnt quite the same without all my old buddys .But its a heck of alot better then the late 90s seemed like noone oldschool that quit was racing again then..

I miss spending most of my life on my BMX bike.
I miss riding all day and most of the night with a great riding buddy that I can't even locate today.
I miss the excitement of new stuff!!!
I miss the way BMX consumed my life and had few other concerns and worries.
I REALLY miss being in the physical condition I was in when I spent so much time riding......

I miss my parents RIP.

Yelling for me over the fence, doing whatever it took to get me and my brother to races, picking me up after crashes and tending to my wounds. Laughing late at night with them and my friends. More times than not roughing it with no hotel and winning with little money or support from sponsors. The trust they gave to let me ride all day. To go on trips with friends to races or by myself. To help me understand responsibility and the importance of being resourceful, healthy, working hard, and determined.

Thanks Mom and Dad you are forever missed

What's a hutch?

I miss not seeing Hutchs. Very few people in Nor Cal raced those POS. I'd like to return to those days please. Scrap steel prices are way up, might be worth a look.

LOL on the Hutches. I just remember how good those black and chrome bikes looked compared to my Team Murray!

I miss the innocence of feeling free on my bike, like I could ride anywhere I wanted. I used to prented that I was riding my bmx bike in the Tour de France and winning - this was back when Miguel Indurain dominated the race.

i agree 100% .................even the old riding buddies are lost.

I miss the five minute recovery time after a crash. Now, it's a five-day minimum, sometimes five weeks.

- I miss hanging out at the "park" (dirt jumps right next to my house) with all my friends.

- Having jumping competitions, and having your line be the farthest away from the jump.

- Seeing someone a block away and being able to tell exactly what type of bike they were riding.

- Feeling how cool it was to be able to wheelie down the street

- Being free to ride all day with no worries...

I miss seeing the development of better equipment. It seems there were so many more diverse ideas about making a beter mouse trap. How radical it was to see the first DX pedals. Heck to go more back, to me the skinwall tire was crazy. Same with riding technique, more diverse styles back then, now they all look alike and the bikes all look alike. Only clips were the big change, but that never seemed as trick.

Changstar

I grew up in the middle of no where so I didn't have all the bmx buddies to ride around the hood with, only at the track. My dad built me a near full size track on our farm with a gate and everything so I used to race around it by myself and I was always my own announcer and I would race against every rider in that months magazines and I would always have a come from behind win at the Grand Nationals in my own back yard to win the #1 plate against the top riders of the day.

Many of you on this message board raced me everyday in my backyard you just didn't know it. That is my favorite good 'ole day memories

Riding all day

New frames and parts at the local store

Bike parts that are not black

Trophy Girls

Plastic seats and how we were excited to ride in the rain if we had to .



Tony
Bicycle Junkie

Everything!!!!!

Always having something fun to do, without worries....

I agree with all of your sentiments. I miss riding all day with my friends and not calling it a "Play Date"; how gay is that? I miss riding in the park until dark. I read BMXA and plus cover to cover - especially the product ads - wishin I couldl buy a Hutch or PK Ripper. I'm starting to miss being young (can you say midlife crisis) and riding without feeling like sh#t the next day. Now I ride thinking about the damage I'm doing to my body - not good.

I do recapture some of what I miss when I ride with my 7 yr old around the park and stree looking for jumps. Usually he is riding his retro PK with me riding my OM Flyer. I finally got that PK Ripper 30 yrs later.

Its nice to have a place to talk about old times especially when everyone currently in your life cannot relate.

This thread has been certified an official VintageBMX "Topic On Fire," earning bwl007 a limited edition T-Shirt for starting the thread.


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My youth

I miss like most guys, the freedom of our youth. Heading out after breakfast with my bike on a summer day and not coming home until supper time....loading the bikes up in the family wagon to go to a race.....hangin my bike above my bed in the winters dreaming for summer......



BMX was a great.

I miss all of it.

I miss Wheeler Dealer, I miss wheelies, I miss riding all day and not minding a hard plastic seat, I miss being in good enough shape to ride all day, I miss skidding as far as I could (I love coaster brakes!), I miss racing my friends, I miss jumping plywood ramps built w/ bricks (the sound is so final), I miss taking my bike apart and cleaning it almost weekly, I miss ghost riding my bike , I miss hopping the fence at our local track and riding until we got caught or were too tired to ride anymore, I miss the feel of brand new mushroom grips, I miss peddling backwards, I miss riding w/ no hands, and a bunch more.

This is a good topic. I should try to recapture some of these things.

Skyway mags for me - they were so radical.

I agree. More specifically, Tuff 2s. I had Tuff 1s on my bike, but always wanted Tuff 2s.

You hit it right on the nose bro! I'm with you right there all the way......

I hear you bro! And our set ups within minutes from the house had Bob Medrano(factory Skyway, Patterson, and BOSS rider) as our builder......

Ace thread.

- I miss the thrill of racing. I was never superfast and tended to blow hot and cold, but every so often it would all click together and I'd be damn near unbeatable. That happened a few times and I really miss that.

- The other thing I really, really loved about BMX is a little harder to explain. BITD my dad was always obsessive about his cars and they were always immaculate. We usually went out for a spin after he'd finished waxing and I knew he felt cool cruising in his immaculate car. Well, I got that on my bikes...I remember spending all day polishing every square inch of my GT then changing into my coolest gear just so I could go cruising into town of a Saturday evening popping wheelies and noticing other kids checking my ride. It felt like I was rolling past in a 911... fantastic memories. Thinking about it, BMX taught me how to look after my stuff.

- and finally, I miss covering everything I own with BMX stickers!

Ttfn, Bob

+1 on this sentiment. I have very fond memories of riding all day long and Mom never worried a bit. In the current environment, however, my children won't have the same experiences I had. That's a shame.

I miss 75-80 moto's on a Wednesday night at the Orange Y. 100's of people every where you looked and every class had a full gate, usually x2. I also miss the fact that I seemed to heal up almost instantly after a crash. Now it hurts for weeks on end when I fall.

I miss having a sponsor that helps make you as fast as you can be .

i miss being 15-17yrs old on summer mornings, my mom waking me up and telling me the neighborhood kids wanted to know if "we" were going riding today...i was the neighborhood "racer", there was 15-20 of them, ages 5-12.....i miss those care free, bill free, days of summer

I dont know how many times I have though that exact same thing to the letter.

^^^^^^^^^^
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Ding...Ding.... Ding.... that is so true!

My best friends Dad helped us build a kick turn ramp in their driveway. We got the specs out of BMXA and painted it up with Haro colors and stickered it up. We would suit up and ride that thing all day, all summer long while blaring the 80's from the ghetto box we would set up outside.

We were superstars in our own minds and were only encouraged by his little brother and his friends. They also had bikes and they'd fill in as our adoring "crowd". I miss those days, but I'm fortunate to still have one of those recorded on tape after Mom came over with our new video recorder.

I can also remember being in the passenger seat while Mom was driving me to the local BMX track and being able to see the last turn from about a mile down the road. As soon as I could see people rounding the track, I would get an excitement I will always remember!! Don't take that the wrong way....you sicko's!!

Looking at the smuggled in BMXA front to back in English class and picking elbow scabs clean at my desk in school.....

I miss the above statements...

And how even on a 52 degree rainy day we would say we weren't going to ride, we'd work on our bikes in the garage and then someone would take their bike out of the garage for a quick loop in the driveway; 10 minutes later we all (3 or 4 of us) would be riding in the rain!

I also miss the colors and the passion to make your one & only ride the best all purpose bike.

I miss being able to race three classes with 3 motos, 1/32, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, semi, main, and still have the energy to ride around Charlote Motor Speedway. I still have all three of the heavy marble trophies. That's when a national was over two days, and not every weekend, all year long. They need to understand if your not a national every weekend, state races and locals can have a chance to thrive with good riders to look up to. I remember when people started out as beginers and wanted to become experts. I remember only 20 national plates. The fast guys earned them. That was before you could hit the easy nationals or regionals to inflate your points. I miss all of you!

I miss that I wanted to win 24/7, not just when I got to the track and my schedule allowed being able to do something about it. Getting on the gate still makes me feel like time stood still for 20 years and makes all the stress of work and responsibilities go away for a couple minutes. I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it is tough to swallow that I'll never be able to give BMX the attention for any kind of training. I am lucky to get on a bike once/twice a week.

I miss that going to a BMX race you saw more of your friends than any day at school - your best friends were there, your girl friend might have been there and raced too, your parents friends were there.

I miss, as Eddy noted, that you could race a couple classes a day - each with semis +, and you still wanted to ride all night even knowing you were doing it all over again the next day.

I miss that feeling in your stomach when you earned enough money or your parents helped out and you went to the bike store for whatever the cool new part was.

Tons of memories from BMX. I can't believe I literally left the sport behind for 19 years. I am really enjoying being back. I just have to keep it in the context of today's life vs that of a teenager.