Ok, fellow historians, you will need to dig deep to find the truth with this one. I posted this story on another forum, and I feel as though they would have crucified me if we would have been in the same room. Anyway, the story is "The Legend Of BMX", and it is about an obscure but super-fast racer from the early 80's. His name was Larson Manuelito, and he was USBA National #1 in 1985. (20 & Cruiser both) I know there are plenty of Bona-Fide Legends and BMX Mega-Brains that visit this forum. I hope I have come to the right place.

Read "The Legend Of BMX"

The (bm)X-Files: I Want To Believe.
I've heard the story before but dismissed it as "made-up" as the guy that told me (bitd) had no names or places. You have alot more to go on.

Can I ask you where and when you heard it? (roughly).
What's (bitd)?

BITD was around 85' or 86'. I was in high school. It sounded kinda crazy so I didn;t give it much thought. I'd forgotten about the story until I saw this.

I was at the race, it was at an old drive-in. The movie screen was still up when they held the national. It had one of the biggest starting hills I have ever seen. Toby Henderson hit the gate and fell down the side of the hill.

Have you tried any BMX mags from back then that may photographed or at least reported on it?

I have searched everything I have. Not sure what else to do. In the Sept. 84 Bicycles and Dirt, Manuelito is listed winning the ABA Lumberjacks in 13x, second in the Great Lakes Nat. in 13x, Second at the ABA Lone Stars behind Veltman in 13-14 Cruiser. In 85 he won nearly every USBA National and got the title. Can't find his ABA national ranking for 85 though I know it was good. For someone so good, the coverage on him was next to nothing. It's a NM thing.

I was at a USBA Rt 66 National. I cant remember if it was 85 or 86. To help narrow the year I attended - I got 2nd in class behind David "Bigfoot" Dixon. A week or two later was a USBA National in Ogden, UT (I also raced and made the main in my cruiser class. I only raced cruiser.)

I can say, with almost certain confidence, that didn't happen the year I attended. I think I would remember watching it or talking about it. I remember the track was at the west end of town at the top of the hill at the old Rt. 66 Drive In.
But who knows maybe I did forget it happening. Ask Bigfoot if anyone can contact him (He was from TX) or just locate Larson himself.

It was 85, and you got second on Sat. ahead of Dean Hickey, but he beat you Sun. and you got third. Do you remember when Henderson fell off the gate down the side of the hill? That was what alot of people were talking about too. It seems like not that many people noticed Manuelito's race, he was riding almost normally. I seem to remember when the track official picked up Larson's wheel it had a Hutch hub. (The more squared-off ones).

True or not it makes a great bmx campfire story. It would be great to tell kids camping out at a 2 day bmx camp. The legend of manual eat o.

Mx Mug

It occured to me today. This story is a little bit like Lane Meyer skiing on one ski in Better Off Dead. If you keep this thread going long enough someone from that race will see it.

larsons a real dude!! raced him in the open class a few times, The wheel less win? never heard of it, but its intresting to say the least...

Wow so cool it has bothered me not knowing the year. See I forgot they did two races per weekend. I only remember one main in Utah. ABA's Dean Hickey huh, well I otta.
Dont remember Toby falling in fact I dont remember the Pro class at all.
I only remember making freinds with some guys at Utah from Lousiana and they had the coolest seat covers. Loved the Utah track the NM track was bland but I do remember they had the track looking killer with tires lining the entire track like in Australia. But the USBA came in and made them take them out for the national. The track looked boring after with a capital B.

Cool story. But I don't believe possible.

Dean Hickey.... Now there's a blast from the past!

I don't blame people that don't believe the story. I hardly believe it anymore myself. It sounds really impossible, but I saw it with my own two eyes. The way he powered through one of the turns was disgusting. He looped out on a tiny roller at the end but ran a little way and still won. You can't make this stuff up - too silly.

One other thing, Nico Ortiz rode for Factory Skyway in the early 80's, he and another guy Omar Villareal were talking about "The Legend", and they said Manuelito learned to ride with no wheel because when he was younger he didn't have the money to buy a new front wheel for some time. Those guys knew him pretty good.

That's wicked cool. Just think. I heard about that all the way here in FL. It just sounded too good to be true. I wonder what else has really happend?

ask jkraig over at ttbmx. may be he knows

I could swear that someone on this board used to work for Bicycle Harbor back then. I can't remember his screen name though. it might be the guy from Bullseye that pops in every now and then.

I remember Larson being at a lot of races I was at. He was very, very fast!

From the Jan/Feb 1986 ''American BMXer'' in the National year end listing:

National No.56 in 20 inch, No.43 in Cruiser. He obviously concentrated most of his energies on the USBA. In 1985 he was only on a bike shop team then Bicycle Harbor so he couldn't hit more ABA races. I do agree he is one of the more underrated racers. There was a time in 1983 he seemed to be winning every national he entered but he didn't get much publicity despite that even though it earned him a ride on Raleigh.

He retired in late 1986 after the NBL Grand Nationals I think. Never turned pro and no one knows what happened to him since then.

Oldtimer1980s

I asked John Purse if he remembered that race and or rumor. He didn't.

I saw this show on memory a year or so ago. It said that every time an old memory is brought up it is rewritten and then filed away much like you would a file on a computer. Each time, slight changes might be made to the point that 10 or 15 rewrites down the road it has changes made that in a court of law would be considered outright fabrications.

Case in point from my life and totally BMX related. In 1981 I was in a midnight caravan of Nor Cal BMXers driving from Chandler to a race in Bakersfield the following Monday which was one of the presidents holidays. Brent Patterson had just gotten a Trans Am from ABA and was driving that with his girlfriend. Vance, Brian, and Richie were in the Pattersons van, Rudy Torres had son Chris, Ronnie Anderson, and possibly RC Alderman and Bob Medrano in his van. I was riding with Jess Guymon in some little rental car I think. And there was one other van I believe. Sometime around midnight I was sleeping in the passenger seat, Jess wakes me up and points to a brand new Trans Am plowing through the desert mowing down tumbleweeds and small cacti. I don't remember who was driving, Brent or his girlfriend but whoever it was was having a short nap.

I would just about bet my life on that happening almost exactly as I just told it. I don't know if it came from something I wrote on one of the websites sometime in the last 10 years or it's a story that came from someone else but Gary Hazelhorst interviewed Brent a year or two ago and asked about it. Brent said that yes it happened but it was Brian and Rick Palmer with one of Brians cars. Again, I would be outright lying if I told you I just made that up, but both of us can't be right. I had just seen that show when I came across the interview. Now either Brent is wrong or I am, what I think maybe really happened is that Brent in fact went slightly off the road that night or was maybe just flirting with the edge of the road. Brian later did the same thing a couple of years later and maybe the combination of the 2 became my memory.

I'm not saying it didn't happen but it's highly unlikely it was as impressive as your memory. The brain is a really amazing thing.

Purse has been in a lot of races, but he was there. Below is the proof. He won Sunday in 12x.

Click to view attachment

I stick to my story! Thanks for being good sports about it, everyone.

Manual has been a skate term a lot longer than it's been used in BMX. But on the off chance that the origin name has some merit, I think the skate world might crumble to find out one of the basic tricks was named after a BMXer.

I'm not saying it didn't happen either......
I'm just saying Purse didn't remember the race or the happenings with Manuelito.

Even though i am not an eye witness to this event, it is easily more true than many of the topics we take seriously here @ vbmx.

Mx Mug

I have searched everything I have. Not sure what else to do. In the Sept. 84 Bicycles and Dirt, Manuelito is listed winning the ABA Lumberjacks in 13x, second in the Great Lakes Nat. in 13x, Second at the ABA Lone Stars behind Veltman in 13-14 Cruiser. In 85 he won nearly every USBA National and got the title. Can't find his ABA national ranking for 85 though I know it was good. For someone so good, the coverage on him was next to nothing. It's a NM thing.

From the Jan/Feb 1986 ''American BMXer'' in the National year end listing:

National No.56 in 20 inch, No.43 in Cruiser. He obviously concentrated most of his energies on the USBA. In 1985 he was only on a bike shop team then Bicycle Harbor so he couldn't hit more ABA races.

Larson Manuelito was usba national # 1 armature and national # 1 cruiser in 1986.

USBA
#1 Am
1984 Bobby Scheidel
1985 Larson Manuelito
1986 Eric Carter

#1 Cruiser
1984 Brad Boll
1985 Larson Manuelito
1986 Jason Jones

This is from wikipedia, so take it as you wish.

maybe someone should contact larson manuelito and get his side of the story. i looked on whitepages.com and found a listing..........larson w manuelito age 39 218 verdi drive gallup,new mexico 87301-4982. there is also a listing for larson o manuelito age 61 p.o. box 278 tohatchi,new mexico....owns larson plumbing 505-870-2182.....maybe larsons dad? like i said above, this came from whitepages.com so i dont know how accurate it is but its a start if anyone wants to follow up. this a facinating story and i would love to hear from the man himself.

I'd say ELFBMX needs to be the guy to make the calls since he got this party started. Maybe he could get Larson to sign on. It would be cool the hear the story from the horses mouth.

Was USBA ever a threat to the ABA or NBL as a sanction or was it just a local/regonal deal? They were after my time

Very INTERESTING

I remember hearing of Larson and that he was fast. cant remember what magazine.

In a nutshell the USBA was ex ABA staffers and was very much a threat. It was just as dialed to the racer as the ABA and took about half the tracks. It really hurt both the ABA and USBA though and had little effect on the NBL.
The USBA ended up folding back into the ABA. It lasted 1984-86.

Larson Manuelito earned both am. and cruiser #1 plates for his riding in the 1985 season. He ran the #1 plates in the 1986 season.

Turbo is a hater. Viva La Larson!

he may not have wheelie walked the whole drive-in theatre, but it is confirmed that Ol' Larson was the number One armature

ar·ma·ture
Pronunciation: \ˈär-mə-ˌchu̇r, -chər, -ˌtyu̇r, -ˌtu̇r\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, armor, from Latin armatura armor, equipment, from armatus
Date: 15th century
1 : an organ or structure (as teeth or thorns) for offense or defense
2 a : a piece of soft iron or steel that connects the poles of a magnet or of adjacent magnets b : a usually rotating part of an electric machine (as a generator or motor) which consists essentially of coils of wire around a metal core and in which electric current is induced or in which the input current interacts with a magnetic field to produce torque c : the movable part of an electromagnetic device (as a loudspeaker) d

That was excellent, mxmug.

I don't think it took half the tracks. In the July 1985 issue of Super BMX & Freestyle on page 67 The ABA is listed as having 420 tracks while the USBA had only 125, a good chunk admittedly. The NBL had 290. And for most of its history it had a hard time attracting members and the Nationals, at least as described in the magazines, were poorly run and under attended. The ABA under Bernie Anderson and another investor bought the ABA and installed Clayton Jone as its third and last President in early 1986.

Oldtimer 1980s

I did this one time in a race except my back wheel came off and I rode the rest of the race on my front wheel. Just Kidding,

Great story it would be cool to know if it really did happen

Yeah I dont know what the exact number but it was darn close to half lol or it just seemed that way at the time.
Dont go just by the track directory. I bet the ABA list shows some tracks that had already went USBA or never even opened.

Here is a interesting story about the USBA. Most of that stuff I never knew.
I only know Im still waiting for the USBA to mail me my trophies from the Utah National
I really liked the USBA alot though. Not sure if I liked it more then the ABA but it had some things I did like more then the other sanctions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States...oss_Association

I remember all of those guys. I remember racing against Manuelito at the National in Salt Lake 1985ish in 15x. He had some piece meal bike, but was faster than crap, and smooth as silk. He was Native American and lived in New Mexico from what I remember. We hung out the weekend together. Memories.....It's been a long time since I heard those names.

cool story. I believe it true, as I have seen some amazing moves on a bmx track with my own two eyes. I am sure that Mario Soto could manual a track from start to finish; he used to do no footers w clips!

jd

OK let me get this straight, His name is Manualito, and he rode with one wheel . . . Makes sense, manual with one wheel. Now if he used to play an instrument in the rhythm section it would all be complete.

This story is more real than any thing we talk about at vintage.

Mx Mug

Listen, someone has to call this guy... I can't take it anymore. I hope this is true, it's way too cool. Someone should turn this story into a pixar movie.
in 83' I saw a big crash at my local track. the guy that was right behind the leaders bunnyhopped over the others that crashed! Seemed like 6 feet hight 20 foot long...I was so amazed at the hop, I didn't pay much attention to who actually won the race, but I bet it was him. That was one of the craziest thing I ever saw at a race. Somebody call this guy... Today!... right now!

Sorry, but this is not a true story. I was there (won 14x on Sat) and raced Larson many times. He was certainly fast, smooth and flew relatively under the radar despite 2 USBA national #1 titles and a factory ride with Raleigh in the 83-84 range. He really was a stud. Quiet as a church mouse.

That national was held at an old drive in theater as mentioned in a previous post. It was hotter than hell that weekend, the track was long and also very soft in the turns due to sand. The 2nd and 3rd turns encompassed a total of 270 degrees.

If Larson had ridden the entire track with no front tire, he would have been running a gear not seen on even a trials bike.

Great story, but bogus.

Mr. Hoadley:

While you are truly one of the BMX greats, I cannot allow you to dismiss my story so easily.

There were many people at the 1985 USBA 66 Nationals with no recollection whatsoever of the "Legend".

Multiple accounts of this same story have been heard across the country.

I would not like to believe my sanity is in question.

Thus, I must insist that the "Legend" is in fact, a complety plausible (for him) story.

I understand your argument of Manuelito's "gear ratio". You are correct that the reduced rotating mass would result in a lower overall "ratio" of mass to force. However, the overall ratio of 44:16 - Front:Rear would remain the same.

Perhaps, you just didn't see the race in question, having just finished your own moto?

The term "Bogus" just seems wrong to me.