hey there kidz, scott sloan here 45yo, anyone remember racing in the orange bowl classics? they were another rubberband start. i always liked being on the outside of the rubberband starts because if you jumped a little it would cause the rubberband to hit the inside rider instead of the garbage can lid (always hated the sound it made).. anyone remember jeff "the caveman" smith, doug "manatee" sunshine, johnny "kickstand" ellis, jorge sands, dean atkins, roger or greg longo, tim "the judge" judge, bryan or greg ellis, seth bucceri, barry wendy missy mathew cooper, ross freidman and his rose colored glasses wearing stepdad [cant remember his name (he was the coolest ever with the gold conversion van)], pat davenport, TPFW owners bill and beth green and their kids jenny julie billy, alex rodriguez, carlos diaz, bill anderson, and a girl racer named cathy ?, greg and his brother ? russ, bill prince, jerry schuemaker, "cannibis" kurt caldwell, robbie celandano, bill anderson, acees icees in the grove, mark "give me liberty or give me" moorehead, and who was the guy who bit it in the half pipe at the skateboard park in cutler ridge and was either paralyzed or killed shannon something maybe i remember he had long blonde hair, then they had to close it due to the lawsuit. i think his helmet came off on his way down? ernie (ernesto) or joe palmer, park hubble, chris thompson, andy scharnagle, and the quiet dark haired kid we talked into bunny hoping the chain on miller rd. at 92nd ave. one day and he didn't make it and split his chin wide open? anyone i left off i'm sorry i'm getting a little too old. drop me a line if you are or remember or still have contact with these people..anyway my email is miami_scott_sloan@yahoo.com

also dean whitten, bobby whalen, melvin ?,

i started on a home made momoshock schwinn stingray that was red primer, at a track that was also a motorcycle motorcross track anyone remember the name it was in north hialeah or near the calder horse racing track? then south florida kart way, then i got my astabula(black) with red flower mags boy you talk about a tank, especially when you run front and rear aggressors.. thats when i started running at ives dairy and state road 84 kartway hialeah and old homestead flat track.. bradenton orlando clearwater and sarasota

I know about half the people you named, and a lot of them are on here. I raced at a lot of the same tracks, got my start at 84 and SFK. A lot of us get together a couple of times a year to bs about the good old days and show off the bikes we've restored. You'll have to come out next time we do...I think the next BBQ is in mid April.

Welcome to VBMX- Pete Bruno

Holy crap long time no see.. You still doing AC work? I worked with Roger at TPFW and raced for Bill. I still repeat some of your stories. The chick that took you home from the bar... The one with the pool... Hey man nice seeing you on here.

Steve Boyd

Wow I remeber when the closed down the skate park in cutler ridge! Shannon Williams I think his name was all the names I remeber like yesterday I grew up with the Greens I on my 1st War of the star 9 novice racing for Bill Green Then went back to moped south (KNIGHT BIKES) Red & I used to sneek in the skate park with the jugde and go crazy i was so little and those goes let me hang with them cause I could do what they did! Wow I miss them days! lol

I got my start like out at hialeah, SF Kartway and BMX84. Was in the same class with Tim Judge and Greg Ellis in those days. Tim was hard to beat but I got lucky on occasion.

I think you guys are talking about Greg/Bryan Esser...not Ellis.

Was it Shannon Williams? I raced him a few times at nationals during 1982, is he ok?

Hey guys. My name is Danny Lore. I was just doing a google image search on Moped South to see if I could find a photo of the old grey & blue jersey we used to wear and I came across this post. I rode for Bob & Moped South around 81-83. My dad had a van and he would load up as many kids as he could and take them to the Homestead & Boystown tracks whenever there was a race. One of my favorite memories with my dad was when we bought a PK Ripper frame from Moped South and built it together from the ground up, piece by piece. When I got into high school I started to skateboard and ended up skating for Bike Boutique (Bob's wife's shop in Campbell Square, Homestead) We had a little demo team... Does anyone remember the Campus Life Haunted House Demos?

I grew up a few blocks from Shannon Williams. He was neither paralyzed or killed in the half pipe incident mentioned here. I lived next door to him from 93-2007. We talked about Moped South and the good times we had riding for Bob. Sadly though he was killed in a motorcycle accident a few years ago. He was a good guy. He would always smile and wave when I'd see him. If he wasn't doing a 50mph wheelie down the street on his motorcycle he was out riding his horse. My parents were friends with some of his family. He is loved and missed. I'll always remember him wearing that Moped South jersey.

R.I.P. Shannon

wow,
Can't remember when I checked this board last.
I raced for moped south along with my 3 sisters from about 76-81, I remember a lot of those guys. I started out with a puch...then a blue mongoose, finally went to a thruster 2. Judge was da man, eh?
My sisters rode mongoose and cook bros. A lot of good memories back then, I lived in cutler ridge and pretty much grew up with all the ridge rats. Either racing or baseball at the khoury league, lol.
I quit racing circa 81 when my thruster 2 got ganked from me by the old happy times pizza on us1.
I still have a few pictures here and there, even got in touch with Bob Knight a couple of years ago, was nice he remembered me and my family, great guy.
Just wanted to share some nostalgia with you all.

I'm from Michigan but having raced down in Florida a lot in the 80's I remember the bigger names from the national circuit.

Just an FYI if you go on facebook about 60% of the people mentioned are on there.

Here are a couple:
Me at boystown circa 79-80


Don't know who this is, got this pic from Bob Knight a couple of years ago, he is still around!Pic is from circa 80

The Essers were Florida Icons and there were many other early players in the game...

Roland Veicht....factory Mongoose
Nelson Fulcher...found him on facebook!
Randy and Ronnie Street....not sure where they are

Hillage...Stu...you guys were there early....any other names?

just registered, old post but here's my info: i started racing when i was (1979- ABA) 12yrs old in rockville maryland and i used to switch back in forth with the rockville track and the columbia bmx track also in maryland which happen to be the local track for hutch bmx racing. I used to remember before hutch racing got big they used to take a trailer to the track and sell parts from it. I also remember some of the local hot shots racing for hutch, some moved on to be top national riders when hutch became full factory blown team. i moved to miami in (1980-NPSA-NBL) and continued my racing down here at my local track of boystown, I would race all the local tracks in south florida: South Dade YMCA, boystown, homestead, coral springs, pompano. I hit all the big state and national races in florida. I used to hang out with two crews when not racing and just street riding-one crew, donald and casey simpkins, richard limsang (rip), standford and mike williamson, jesus gonzales. Crew number two was: chris and roger longo, doug sunshine, dean witten and few others i was introduced by by chris and dean, one of them being scott sloan. So here is a shout out to all you old schoolers.

henry bermudez 53b

more pics, peachtree georgia national and in columbia maryland, my 1st race there

Congrats Scott on your Grand National win! I assume you were running dual aggressors and no brakes. Man, it's hard to believe its been well over 30 years since we started riding, jumping and racing. Great to see some of the old names on here. Great to see you on here Henry! So what happened to Richard Limsang? Terrible to hear he passed. He was a great competitor and wicked fast racer. I still have my old Hutch hanging in the garage. I hope everyone has a safe and merry Holiday. Merrychristmahappyhannukwanzaka everyone!

Doug "zebraman" "neck" "manatee" Sunshine

hey doug, happy to hear from you. I just contacted chris and will be hooking up one these days and go for a ride. I recently built up the last gt i had so i'm excited to riding with one of my old riding buddies. Insofar as richard, yes, sadly he passed away. I'm still not sure what happen, i do know they found him in his room, but i was not told any details and i felt it was not prudent for me to push the issue, so I left it at that. Richard was an awesome rider and a great guy, I used to love competing against him and I'm sure you did also. I remember me and you sprinting down the block testing each other, it was awesome, love it, every minute of it. Get your ride rolling again and go for a ride, you will feel great. Great to hear from you and don't get lost.

Henry "barracuda" Bermudez 53b

Hey doug, post some of your racing pictures, i would love to look at them.