OK so I was reading a post the other night about Brookshire, while I was doing some internet research, and I remember it fondly. My name is Travis and I grew up in West Houston off of Dairy Ashford and Memorial. I attended Stratford High School and started racing BMX in the Fall of 1981 at age 13. I had been racing motocross for Hurst Yamaha since 1976 but that's another long story.

My BMX career began late in the Summer of 1981 when I bought my first real race bicycle, a blue and gold "Race Inc.". When I bought it that year I remember it cost $659 and that was a lot of dough for a 13 year old to shell out all on his own. I had a paper route that paid just $300 a month and I delivered every morning before school so it was "HARD" earned cash.

I remember showing up to my first race at the Conroe track only a few days after I had bought it and meeting a few guys that I became friends with over the next few years of racing. Guys like Shay Baker, and Ian and Sasha Martin. I found out right away that Ian Martin lived just a few blocks from me so we became great friends. His younger brother Sasha had been on a fast track to a racing career as he had a factory ride from Skyway at only age 10. I remember those days of racing my YZ80 at the motocross track across the river in the morning then at the BMX track in the evening that very same day.

As luck would have it Shay Baker was a rich kid from Memorial and his father starter a racing company just so his son could have a full factory ride. I can't remember exactly if it was Bear Racing or if it was Baker Racing but they were the sole distributors for Cook Brothers in Texas at the time. So over the years I got free sets of Cook Brothers cranks in 180mm and Skyway graphite Tuff II's from Sasha as I needed them. Those were the days of uber light race bikes as my frame weighed just under 3 lbs and the complete bike tipped the scales at 16.5 lbs.

At first the only shop worth its salt was "Bikers and Hikers" over on Memorial and Nottingham Oaks Trail west of Dairy Ashford near St. Johns catholic church. These guys were the BMX shop! I remember a guy that worked there was much older then me, maybe 18, made from scratch an aluminum copy of an SE Quadangle for a kid they sponsored that raced with Sasha Martin in the 9-10 semi-pro class. The frame weighed just under 2 lbs.

These guys carried the best of the best of every BMX race part on the market in 1981. They must of had a dozen broken Mongoose Mag wheels hanging on the walls as trophies. Skyway was the hottest ride on the planet back then but that Race Inc. caught my eye and I had to have it. Funny thing is I still have it to this day.

I remember the shop somehow lost its lease or there was some reason that they moved over a couple of blocks to Dairy Ashford and became Dairy Ashford Schwinn. It was also the home of Damian Herbert and Gulf Coast Skate which later became South Shore Skate distribution. I remember John Gibson worked there part time with Damian. Back then Freestyle BMX was just in it's infant stages but we shared all the home made half pipes with the skate crews. Hell I remember building a few half pipes myself.

Wow what a flash back and its only been what, 26 years or so. I know but I'm creeping up on 40 and it does seem like a lifetime ago.

On a totally different note, I'm trying to find out what font was used for numbers back in the early 80's. In particular was the fat curvy numbers by, I think, Answer or ZeroNine. I know you guys know which ones I'm refering to. They were sometimes white with a colored outline and as wide as they were tall. I remember if you had a 3 digit national number you'd have to overlap them on your plate, which kind of looked cool as well.

Help me out if you can as I'm planning on making some if I have to.

Thanks and later Travis

Travis, that is a great story! Sounds like you have some really good stories. Do you have any pics of the Race Inc? There are some guys on this site that are really knowledgeable about them. Would really love to see it!

Oh ya...... Welcome to the site! There are a lot of really great people here!

Well unfortunately no pictures and it went through several transformations over the years and I'd probly be damned to hell for what I did to it in my younger years. When I was 16 the bike was stolen by some neighborhood hoodlum and it was missing for several weeks. This kid rattle canned it flat black and a friend saw him riding it and kicked his you know what and brought it back to me.

It was trashed! I spent a week cleaning the paint off all the parts and unfortunately the paint remover also removed some of the anodizing from the frame. My father, trying to fix a bad situation, thought it would look cool with a polished frame and helped me strip the remaining anodizing with oven cleaner. Then over a week of sanding with finer and finer grit paper and then a complete buff from a polishing shop. It looked super cool but the humidity in Texas was too much. In less than a year it was totally oxidized so I just seemed to loose interest.

I bought a baby blue PK Ripper that year and had that bike about 2 weeks before it was stolen. That one was never found and soon after I lost all interest in BMX as I started road racing a new 1986 GSXR-750RR at Texas World Speedway.

Later when I was in College I needed a donor for a "Finishing" class I was taking for my degree and I thought I've got an old bike rusting away in the garage, I'll just use it. So the process we were working on was powder coating. I picked a really off the wall color of copper metallic. After sand blasting the frame clean, I coated the frame in powder and put it in the oven at 400 degrees. Only thing was I forgot to pull it out after the required 20 minutes. I just shut down the heat cycle and it really cooked the powder and it came out baby poop brown. In hindsight I kind of liked the brown.

So as a last try I stripped it one more time and powder coated it lime green. It was the only color left in any quanity. It worked but man is it bright! That bike has sat in my garage for over 12 years with the current green color and a set of black Z-Rims wheels on it with a Pro Neck and a pair of Powerlite bars with the turned out grip area, oh and a broken Uni Seat. I've even got some NOS IRC tires on it and some new Skyway Tuff pads that have been barely used. Who knows maybe someday I'll strip it all down, restore it and give it to my nephew when he turns 10 in about 8 years.

I recently moved to Orange County CA and currently everything I own is in storage in Denver CO until I can find a house to buy to put it all in.

I wish I had some pictures of it. I'm sure my mom does somewhere in our attic back home in Houston. It's funny how certain events in life your parents think were more important to remember and they took pictures of those things but what you thought was important never got photographed. I think I have about a dozen pictures of my 13 year career of motocross racing. I think my mom was so afraid of me crashing and getting hurt that she seldom thought of a pictorial moment while I was on the track taking 30ft doubles on a YZ80. I think I've got just about as many pictures of BMX racing as well.

That's a shame cause all it is is a memory now for me. A fond memory, but just a memory.

I may need some help with frame decals at some point and a set of Race Inc forks as those are long gone! Now that I think about it the Pro-Neck got canibalized for a chopper project several years ago so I might need one of those as well. I own a business currently called Iron Spade Cycles. We build stretch low-rider cruiser bicycles and limited number motorcycles.

Anyway talk soon. Travis

Hey man, great stories. There are a few here from Houston BITD. Great to hear your history. I lived an entirely separate life of BMX here in Houston as well on the North side. I worked at Northwest and Bear Creek Schwinn from 1986-1988, when Mark Neagli owned those as well as Katy Schwinn. Super nice guy. I'm pretty sure a member of his family still owns Southwest Schwinn. There's a couple other members on here who were from Houston back then as well. Smokin Steve Tyler worked with me at BC Schwinn.

I raced a Skyway from 83-85 and frequented Armadillo Downs, Cross-Up BMX in Spring, Super BMX on 1960 and Excelleration BMX which if I remember right, was over near Antoine. Started freestylin' in 85 and did shows all over Houston. Was co-sponsored by Dyno from 86-88. Me and my BMX buds were the Northwest Schwinn Trick Team, also known as "Quik Trix". We were pretty much the reason the GT Trick Team Tour came to BC Schwinn in 1988. We hounded our manager until he OK'd it...

Anyway, still here in Houston. Still in to BMX! Bought a race bike last year, now I just need to get my arse out to Pearland and Conroe and get racing! I'll be in the 38 novice class...

Welcome to the site.

Michael