Hey Guys -

Whatever happened to Denny Davidow? He had great ads in the mags! Big dude too!

Denny works for the city of Newport Beach and is living in Costa Mesa,CA. The last time I saw him was in 2007. Boozer Mike!!!

Oh Ben, you've been hood winked by one Joe Baumert. He wanted toss his little son Joe Jr. into a dumpster, no god no, I screamed and pleaded. I said at least let's go to a hospital or fire station. But i rescued his son from the dumpster and convinced public health officials not to toss Joe into the clink. In some small way I feel responsible for Joe having a son. It was the least I could for a man who's very very delusional, but he's my friend,my awkward socially unstable and dangerous lunatic friend. As long as he takes his meds we'll all be OK.

But Ben Joy is a beacon of light in this dreary world. A man's man and a bro. Just take everything Joe says with a grain of salt for his brain is fried and made of pop rocks and small birds.

You rock Ben but Joe well.......................................sigh.................................
................not so much.



This story has been embellished a smidge.

EDDY KING!!!

You are so cruel, and on sooo many levels.

Second from the left is the complemtary screwball above with his best friend and all around great guy at the far left.

MIne Was CLAYTON LONON Local Miami Guy who you couldnt help but look up to past away too soon, JASON JENSEN Factory Torker, Thruster, Then Jox Jag I raced him every big race & we battled like no other, He was a good kid! (we were both in the BMX Handbook..!) And the big Dogs Tim Judge he showed me alot about racing took the time to show me that I didnt have to jump everything to be fast! Harry, Stu, Greg Grubbs funny guy I remeber at Boystown we all put oakley stickers on our stomachs & layed out till we got red and walked around all weeked with a white oakley tan! Then Freestyle Mike Domingez who was the best in a skate park along with Eddie, But The Best was we had a trickteam called Twisted Stylers we did a show at the Miami Dade County Youth Fair & the GT factory Freestyle Team showed up Josh White, Martin, & Bubba we hung out rode the rides & just had a summer to remeber!

I started racing when I was 13(spring of 89), and not because my friends got me into it, but just because I had a bike and thought I was good at ridin it. When I first went to the track to race, I didn't know anybody. All of the kids there that were my age had been doin it for a while and were inters and experts and much better than me. One kid always tried to help me, Travis Younger. It was nearly a year before I got good enough to win my first local race, when I did Travis gave me one of his first place national trophies. He always helped me and rooted for me and I always think of him as the best bmxer I personally know.

Sal Zeuner

He was fast and a big name winning NBL National #1 in 1978 (though the NBL website doesnt even mention that. Said it was because it wasnt Pro. That year Pros raced with the Ams in NBL but whatever.)

He never had an attitude. Though I was just a Novice at the time he treated me like an equal on this particular day. The only time i ever went over to his house he was like 'hey, want to go with me to the Mall.'

He showed us NJ area racers we could be from our neck of the woods and still be factory or a national caliber riders by his example. Not sure why he vanished so quickly, either he just had to work a real job or he had a bad injury. Either way he is the only NJ rider to ever win the NBL or (NBA/ABA) overall National Number 1. Something not even Rich Farside could do and we all know how fast he was.

Sal, Terry and Jenny all had great attitudes and were like a family top many racers. It all started with Mr. and Mrs. Zeuner.

Kevin Harlow, Dennis Kishiyama, Pete Loncarevich
All were kool to me when I moved to SoCal. Fast but not snobby. I met some of my other Idols that year and let me tell you not all the big names out of SoCal were friendly to no-ones like me. But those three where way cool.

Man, what a great story. Kudos to Travis Younger.


Mine were Tim Judge and Ritchie Anderson. "the judge" was one of the first trick that wasnt a cross-up, most of us learned to do and once we did it, thats all we did. Ritchie just looked awesome in the Skyway unis and bikes. Him on the white cruiser with the 24" tuffs was the most raddest thing ever, to me back then.

Locally though, it was most definitely Todd Slavik. Local pro, factory ride, super fast and super cool to talk to. I was in awe every time I was in his presence.

I've been thinking about this for the last couple of days. This is a great topic, and so I feel the need to finish the story. When I started racing Travis was one of the fastest locals. I was inspired. I could only dream of being as fast as him. But he left bmx not long after my first novice win. I moved up to inter and expert quickly after that and my goal was to make an expert national main. I continued in bmx until I was 17 or so, but when I left, I felt like I had unfinished business. Not because I never made a main, but because I knew I was never as fast as Travis was. He worked harder than everybody else, practiced harder, paid attention to detail, and was more aggressive. This is what really inspired me and is why I continue to ride/race now. I think it really help to make me the man I am now.
I doubt he remembers me, but what an impact he made on me.

STU

http://www.bangpictures.com/tv/stu_teaser.html

That is gonna be a great film. There should be something in there for nearly every era of BMX. I know for a fact there is some great footage from the 70s that his dad took.

OMG!

That film looks so freaking awesome! I hope we don't have to wait much longer for it to be released.

I had a chance to talk with Stu in Rockford this year....he is a great and humble man.
We are all lucky to have him in our sport.

Let's stop posting about the Stu movie here...it needs it's own thread (so somebody please start it!)

Mine would be 2 riders. Judge......winning the worlds as a privateer on a GT with Shimano jersey and jeans. Rock on.
Piant. When he was on DG, watched him power wheelie [ I mean POWER] the whole first straight at the Grands in Evansville.

Great topic Mike.....give yourself on of them there T.O.F. shirts.

MaGoo/365

Bob Osborn, even though I didn't realize who he really was as a kid, man what an influence he had.

Bob Haro, I envied him and loved his products from the beginning.

Stu Thomsen, I can't count the number of times I pretended to be Stu at my local dirt trail. Stu was like a BMX superhero.

Jim McMahon, former owner of Sundance Cycle and one time operator of Elgin BMX. I wasn't that great when I started racing but the guy kept me at it, gave me and my brother nicknames and made us feel like track celebrities which gave us both the confidence to keep going. I've been going up to Elgin lately to watch and thinking about racing again and it made me miss Jim even more. Anyone know whatever happened to him?

For me it would be two guys...First up was Richie Anderson met him at a Nationals in Indiana when I was riding my nickel Patterson and he let me hang out in their tent for the afternoon with him, Brian and Brent and wound up giving me his 15x 1st place trophy (I was probably 12 at the time) at the end of the day...Richie was a cool dude as well as fast..The other that had a big impact on my riding was Darrell Young. I loved his riding style and jumping abilities the dude could launch and be so smooth...

I always Idolized and looked up to the pros. Stu was my hero.. In the summer of 1983, Edmonton, Alberta Canada, Hosted the Fantasyland Nationals attracting some International riders and teams. I was 17 intermediate class. I won my main and got put into the trophy dash with all the 17 and over winners, Beginner, myself, Expert and of Course Pro. Im on the starting gate next to Mike Miranda. My heart was probably ready to jump right out of my chest. I was breathing so hard, my googles fogged over. The gate dropped and i was behind mike all the way around the track.. I never looked back.. I crossed the line and almost fell off my redline.. Mike looks back and says great race kid you deserve this and hands me the trophy.. about 4 feet tall. I still have it at my moms house.. its my prized posession.
after that.. not much else compared. Mike Miranda was such an influence after that.. I did the same thing.. I always gave my trophies to the little kids...
I loved seeing their faces.

Great story, Miranda was one of the cooler Pros for sure. I'll jump on the bandwagon and say Stu was the one I admired most. But there were a bunch of others that I wanted to see win at the Nats. Andy Patterson, DY, Bart McDaniel, also local Pros Leo Rantanen and Joey Guerra were fast/smooth. Always watched their lines at the track.

this is what got me when i was a kid.



The ad alone got me hooked. I dont know why but when i first saw this as a kid it was like CRACK. i had to know what a quadangle was. i never wanted to be like any other kids in the neighborhood and a Quad would fulfill my dream to be different. Once i got it i felt i could never go anywhere with it because it seemd everyone wanted it. I had to keep an eye on it like a hawk.

on a side note some of the other influences are Ron Wilkerson, Brian Blyther, and Mike Dominguez,

For me 2 guys stood out and still stand out to this day for me. Eric Big E Bartoldus and Jered Raflik They never have wavered from bmx too far to this very day! Both younger than me but I still look up to them in that respect

Who made an impact for me? I've got a few...

Ronald Rutledge and Kenny Hanley, two Long Beach, Mississippi firemen and motorcycle racers who watched us kids racing our modified Schwinn BX bikes and Yamaha Motobikes on our secret track in the woods and built and ran the first BMX track in Mississippi in 1976. They could not find anyone who would insure an event like that, so they got insurance from Lloyds of London. Thanks guys.

Larry Johnson, TV news anchor, bicycle shop owner, and BMX track operator in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Larry and his girlfriend Liz made sure that Barry Page, my brother Mike, and I had anything and everything we needed to race BMX successfully in the late 1970s. Uniforms, alloy wheels, new tires... the hottest parts. He also even promoted BMX through WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg.

Russell Rheaume, owner of the Wheel House in Long Beach. Russell sponsored my brother Mike and me and everything BMX that you could imagine from 1980 until 1986 when I moved to Georgia. Russell provided the trophies for several of the BMX tracks that I built and ran from 1980 until 1984 including the practice track next to my house that we turned into a full-fledged BMX track when so many kids kept showing up wanting to race. Russell and I had a BMX mail order business together where we distributed catalogs when we went to races throughout the Southeast. We also sold BMX stickers and Mongoose Californian bicycles through mail order in the classified ad section of Boys Life Magazine until Mongoose forced sales only through authorized dealers to insure that they were assembled correctly.

Scot Breithaupt who, when I called his home phone number in 1977, invited me to come on tour with him that summer. Of course, I would need to cough up about $600... in 1977? Mowing lawns? I was broke, so I declined. Instead, he sent me a box of BMX News papers along with some Minicycle Action mags, various catalogs and tons of stickers. He also included the first few issues of Bicycle Motocross Action... we all read those magazines until they were tatters and the names and images of the sport's stars were burned into our minds.

Elaine Holt, who took a chance on our new sport and created the greatest direct line of communication from southern California's BMX scene to the rest of the brotherhood scattered all around the world. She gave us brief words and lots of pics. Race results with the winners' mug shots and action. Just what we wanted. Everyone else stood on the shoulders of this diminutive giant when it came to BMX journalism.

I thank these people, who took the time to make BMX happen. They supported BMX because they enjoyed it and because it was important. I will always be indebted to them for their role in early BMX, and for giving me great BMX memories.

Richard Vogt
bmxmountainbiker

i cant name one person, but.....

mike dominguez (sp?). i have never met him, i just always liked how he pushed the envelope.

and two locals. mike ellis and damon shelton. riding/racing with them made me a lot better. and mainly their non-acceptance of losing is what made them good.

cecil johns for his jumping ability.

and last but not least... dennis mccoy.

today i would have to say stephen murray.

edit: and oops i forgot. pete and debbie kelley. i cant thank them enough, even though i got into it with their son quite often. they are still great memories.

although I ran to the fence everytime the pro's of my era (79 to 82) were on the gate, I will never forget the first time I watched Brian Barlow of Michigan ride. I hoped someday to be as good as him, before long we were trading wins at all of our local tracks, even when I beat him occasionally, I looked up to him. just my 2 cents.

As a kid I split my time between SoCal and the Pacific Northwest. Being from the Northwest, you obviously had to look up to Gary Ellis; and another was Bart McDaniel. Bart and I ended up riding for the same bike shop team in the late 90's and we became aquaintences (sp?). I still see him occasionally at the local MTB trails.
There was a SoCal Pro in the early-mid 80's whose name I can't quite remember. I think it was Steve and he either rode for Skyway or Pro Neck. Anyway, he was always really cool to me.

I always looked up to and admired the following people:

1) Woody Itson - Class person. His niceness and genuiness came through off the pages of
BMX Action, Plus! and Freestylin'. Since interacting with him through VBMX, he
has proven that my gut feeling was right. He is a great guy and a true role
model.

2) R.L. Osborn - I really admired his charisma. He always appeared so poised and professional.
Just always seemed like the kind of guy you'd want as a friend and hang out with.

3) Eddie Fiola - Always seemed down to earth and real. And he was short, which I could relate to.

Ken Pliska