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.

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