My last race was August of 85, busted leg at Waterford practicing for the Grands. It seems to me that sport just died after that summer. I know the lack of any indoor tracks helped kill it here for sure. What top pros from the early to mid 80's were still racing? Top ams still at it. It looks like the Midwest came on hard in that era? Post anything you have. Thanks

I would say it was a slow time for BMX

i think the mid school section would have more info on that era.
mike

Really? Maybe industry wise but I thought the competition was as good as any other period of time to me. Some of the top amateurs in 85 were the top pros in the early 90s so I'll throw them all together (even though there's way too many)...Pete Loncarevich, Gary Ellis, Billy Griggs, Mike King, Eric Carter, Matt Haden, Terry Tennette, Darwin Griffin, Charles Townsend, Kevin Hull, Brian Foster...Man, there's no way I could name them all.

Midwest guys that come to mind? I'll put the team that comes to mind when I think of the rider, not necessarily their only or biggest sponsor...

Travis McGhee- Coastal / Missouri
Billy Au- DK? / Ohio (I think)
The Kiniyalocts brothers-I picture Mike on World Class/Ohio (sorry if I misspelled it)
Doni Hier- Titan (I think)
Craig Reynolds from Illinois/MCS...
Derek Fink- Coastal /Missouri
Tim Kikaraus- Freshour
Todd Lyons- CW
Where's Barry McManus from? He was always going at it.
Was Doug Jicha (World Class) midwest? (RIP)
There used to be this LITTLE guy- Chase Didget, that was crazy fast and used to go up against Shelby James...
Also Coastal had another kid in Shelby's class, Alan something. Maybe Hale or something like that. He was very fast as well.

There's plenty more.

Where's Bernard Gant from? Probably Florida. I remember him at the Ohio Christmas race one year. Just ridiculously fast and powerful.

Yeah, Cheez, don't let anyone tell you it died. I liked that time period as much as any other and a lot of it had to do with being from the midwest and seeing a lot of guys from the area stomp on some of the West Coast factory guys and not get much press but still get the respect at the races. Every up on the gate knew who to pay attention to (not me!)

I really dug that underdog vibe.

This is the time frame that I did most of my racing. It was a blast. There were a ton of fast guys, most of them listed above. We had 80+ motos at locals and 300+ at nationals. I think it was a period that saw alot of change in the sport, track design, equipment, and alot of the riders that were there from the beginning were getting out and there weren't enough riders to replace the ones leaving.

it was a good time.. not the golden age of 1980..but to make the the older am mains at NBl nats in 85-88, you head to be a BAD ^%$. I remember doing a local at Hillard ohio NBL and we all had NAT ## ranked 2-20. it was like a mini national. some of the fastest ams came from the midwest during this time period. it may have been slow for the techno, aspect of the sport, but not for the comp...

I raced Billy Au and the younger Kiniocolyts when they were on DK, I also remember Don Hier. I got some great phots of me and Mike King in my 1/4's and semis from Waterford in 85. Ohio had some really fast guys. I remember Travis Mghee on Vector. He was olde than me, buy him and Tim Kakourus killed it in 85. I was happy to see guys like Gary Debacker went pro in the early 90's. That kid was always fast, but how did he do as a pro? Did Brian Colegrove ever go Superclass?

The whole ohio/midwest scene rocked for awhile..i would travel down to dayton often to hit locals just because the comp was soo fast, There was another dk'er Doug Zimmer that was tuff too.......debacker not sure, but colegrove went superclass and had some good results..

Yeah, I forgot about Zimmer.
Florida was pretty rough around that time too. The whole Eagle Snacks squad, (Ronnie Walker, Sean Riblet, Bernard Gant, Percy Owens...can't forget Todd Corbit. When you think about the guys we mentioned from the midwest, plus these Florida guys, once you add in the Cali boys, (Tennette, Griffin, Johns, King,) that's a REALLY tough class.

I think if you would have thrown factory jerseys on everyone and gave them as much press as the west coast crew, they would have had more of that golden age mystique. The results were definitely there.

There are a bunch of mags from that period that you can download from here:

http://hosted.filefront.com/JohnnyRingo813

You can see for yourself what was happening and who was still racing.

that rules!!

Yeah, you guys are really getting all the fast guys from that late-80s era. I quit in 88 to go to school, but raced many of them. I was a slighly better than mid- pack rider as an am, but turned pro in 87 and some fun in Pro Cruiser and B-Pro - remember racing a number of those guys.

Being from OH, I was a bit biased, but you nailed it when you mention how fas the Tom and Mike K, Billy A, Doug Zimmer, and Doni Hier were. My pictures from back then have a lot of Billy in them, usually in front of me if we were in the same moto. We still see his parents 6 or so times a year. Wonderful family.

Chris,

I hear you on the bias thing. I'm the same way with the St. Louis crew. Travis McGhee was one of my best friends (we still speak) at the time and those were the guys he battled constantly. When he was really on top of his game, he always had a certain respect for those Ohio guys. Seemed like they were all pretty cool. He got along with Tennette, Townsend, Johns all of them but when he had to race the Cali boys he was even more intense. Corbitt too since he got a lot of press. He would get so worked up like "I'm going to kill these guys..." It was kind of funny, especially when he did it. I always dug watching those guys go at it so hard, come off the track and crack jokes with each other.

Tim Kikaraus was similar but far more intense all of the time. He once told me "I don't just want to win, I want to beat them as badly as possible" (even at locals).

Does anyone remember Richard (Roman) Roth? Used to hang out with Derek Fink at the races...He's originally from Downey, California, used to race at Orange County Y. He moved to St. Louis in 85 or so. Very fast. He was picked up by Free Agent while he was B (A) pro. Moved back to California (Huntington Beach) several years later and started a career in photography. Had a bunch of pictures and covers for a lot of the mountain bike magazines. He's doing well. Blah, blah, blah...

I don't dispute what you are saying but I know that there were a number of tracks around AZ that were closed by the Mid 80's. In my little corner of the world BMX was not as popular as it had been in the 70's and early 80's

I never said it died I said it was slow there's a big difference

Sorry to misquote you, I didn't mean anything by it.
The statement just took me by surprise. BMX was still going strong in St. Louis and the nationals I attended seemed to be fairly large. Locally we all raced ABA but nationally it was usually NBL and the annual Memphis and Ohio races were still pretty packed back then.

I remeber getting my free eagle snacks at national events in 1985. Did Todd Lyons race for them? Didnt Todd Corbitt get picked up on Murray with Brad Birdwell in 1985? I gues I shouldnt use the word died. I think the rest of the US caught up to California and statred getting coverage. It was rare to see anyone with an east coast uniform on in the pages of BMXA. One of the last ones I bought was from the summer of 85 and there is coverage of Memphis and there is a big old shot of Travis maghee and a vector rider on the opening spread for the race coverage. I saw on another post here about Rich Farside being AA? I never knew he went pro. I knew Matt Haden went pro ( was in my 15 ex moto at South Park ) and Terry Tennette, but what about guys like Doug Davis, Tim Kikorous, Todd Corbitt, aka really fast older ams of the late 80's or what little ones went pro. I remeber seeing Donny Robinson at the Christmas Classic in 96 and thinking this kid is gonna be killer. So what about some of the little quick ones like Mitch Watkins, Koby Moody, Shelby Jmaes, George Seevers, did any of them stick it out and turn pro>

Travis never went pro but Kikaraus did. Turned B pro and then had a recurring shoulder injury that pretty much finished his bmx career. After that he started racing cross country mountain bikes and road bikes (still does).

The sport was just fine....................

Galen Ruled his class,
And was the King of all Mullett's

Many things about the good old days are better then today .I miss all my old friends and have gotten a chance to catch up with many of them thanks to racing again and this website.Thanks to joe sears and galin starlin i can still relive some of the "old days"check out my u tube for some old memories .My big pc is dead right now as well as my dvd software but i plan to upload all the expert racing from the memphis footage this winter when its cold/snowy and nothing else to do.Steve

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24K3-cbo2OY

89 aba grands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPAHQPd_T0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wNDnRSoMxo

Do u need another memphis DVD ?
Free of Charge For My buddy Steve Smith,
this one will have all the mains on it,,,Send your address to me aaagain in a PM,

Oh and I would agree OHIO Had some real fast dudes in the Late 80's
Don't get me wrong they were fast in the early 80's also
But if you watch any of the footage that Steve Smith put on you tube from the 1986 Memphis DVD I sent Him, there is a rider from OHIO in about every main on Sat and Sun,

I think 1991 was the best year ever!!! I won 16x and 16 cruiser NBL national titles, and world #1 in 20in. and world #2 in Cruiser. The sport was good!!!

Colegrove

So your one of the guys who I was chasing behind all that year!!! LOL. I was 16x that same year. That was the last year I raced.

(In old man voice) It started as a grand wonderful and glorious time I'd say. Frame manufacturers popping out of the wood work and a Tuff-Neck was still occasionally around. Lots of kids riding their older brothers bmx bike and JMC's and Hutchs were fairly common place, I tell ya. Strange looking frames were being made by MCS, Boss and even Free Agent tried to make a flatland bike. Bullseye cranks were about but sort of hard to find and Redline made frames with funny colors, I tell you what. Company in Tenessee started offering custom paint for nominal fee. Heard some guys around these parts just recently bought it.

Races were kind of small, but there was still plenty of riff-raff. Bikes gettin' stolen became a major problem at big races, and later, the best BMX mag closed it's doors. Left us all sad and confused I tell ya. As the years wore on it got little bit darker. Clarence Perry would occasionally pop up in races up north. Some tall feller in Washington was scooping up lots of wins.

Then a couple guys started making frames called Dirt Bikes and Holmes. Even made some bars and a stem too. Made some crazy cranks named after some kind of weird genital mutilation. Danged thing you'd ever see, I tell ya. Things started piking up a bit, kids were racin' and havin' all kinds of fun. Everything was goin' just fine till dang ol' Chinese companies and Canadian companies start buying everything up and ruinin' peoples quality reputations, by god.

The sport was kind of dead from 86-91, especially in states that were small in population. Freestyle had come along, and even in farm states kids figured out they could do tricks on ramps in their back yard, without spending money to race.

However, I moved to TX in 1990 and Bufallo Vy was a strong track in like 1991-92 in San Antonio. It was great. It eventually closed in the mid-1990's, though. So, if there was a population around the track, it could make it. If you ask anybody into bmx racing in the late 1980's and early 1990's, it was scary how it was dying.

I lived in upstate NY in 1988 and 1989, and it was ok there, NBL. Fairly good. Not wonderful moto counts. Freestyle was the rage.

being the iowa boy that I am I'm going to mention lawan cunningham. oh yeah, and the scene was dying compared with 1983, but it never really died totally. except in iowa , where it did die totally. ha ha { the farm states had troubles. too sparsley populated}

I think we may see something like the" bust of bmx" now, with the economy.