Steve Blackey from Gonzopolooza '08
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Welcome to BMX Action Online! |
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By Greg Hill
I want to personally welcome you to the new site, it's going to be a lot of fun. My basic idea was to create a place where the BMX community both old and new can hang out and get in touch with one another. I want to say a big "THANK YOU" to my buddy Oz for allowing me to utilize the great name BMX ACTION and bringing it to you in a community forum type of setting. Let's have fun, there will be a lot of good times ahead so I invite you to sit back and enjoy the new site. Thanks for coming!!! |
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By Bob Osborn
This being a compilation of information published by this writer years and years ago, with a few recent authenticated modifications. Anyone interested in ripping off this article (without seeking permission) please note that much of it was copyrighted in 1982 (in BMX ACTION Magazine) by Wizard Publications and in 1984 (in THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BMX) by Wizard Publications, and that all of it in its present form was copyrighted in 2005 and 2008 by Bob Osborn.
PRECURSORS
In the early 1950's chopper motorcycles were starting to be seen on the roads of America. Wild One, a movie about motorcycle gangs, released in 1953 and starring Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin, added significantly to the growing popularity of choppers.
In the later 1950's some kids in California, using choppers as inspiration, began modifying their bicycles. High-rise handlebars, banana seats, and 20-inch wheels were favored styling components.
In 1962 the Schwinn Bicycle Company sent an engineer, Al Fritz, out to the west coast to see what these kids were up to. On his return to corporate headquarters, Fritz designed a bicycle based on what he had seen in California, and in 1963 Schwinn introduced the Sting-Ray, its motorcycle-like appearance unmistakable. By 1968 seventy percent of all bicycles sold in the United States were Sting-Rays or copies of Sting-Rays.
The steering geometry of the Sting-Ray, combined with the short wheelbase and 20-inch wheels, produced surprisingly good handling characteristics. Doing wheelies and riding dirt trails in vacant lots soon became popular.
In the late 1960's motorcycle motocross came to the United States. European stars like Roger DeCoster and Joel Robert and American racers like Gary Bailey and Brad Lackey became heroes to kids across the United States.
On December 31, 1967, after having a shot of Wild Turkey and placing a quick hundred dollar bet on a blackjack table at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Evel Kneivel went outside, got on a motorcycle, and jumped over the hotel's fountains and into the imagination of virtually every boy in America.
Suddenly, the handling characteristics and motorcycle-like appearance of the Schwinn Sting-Ray took on a whole new meaning.
THE BIRTH OF BMX
It is almost certainly true that bicycles have been raced in the dirt since the bicycle was first invented. A notable example of this is a bicycle race that was held in Holland in 1956. The race was photographed and reported in a publication called ACH LIEVE TIJD. The kids in the race rode mostly 26-inch bicycles, had paper plate number plates, and raced in the dirt.
The problem with crediting this race, or any other early bicycle dirt race, with the birth of BMX is that they were unique events that did not grow into BMX racing. In fact, relative to the 1956 Holland race, organized BMX racing did not arrive in that country until 1979, after BICYCLE MOTOCROSS ACTION was distributed there.
In the United States, on July 10, 1969, some kids in the Santa Monica vicinity of West Los Angeles, California, not being old enough to race motorcycles like their motocross idols, decided that racing bicycles in the dirt might be almost as much fun. So they rode their 20-inch bikes over to nearby Palms Park and convinced park attendant Ron Mackler to help them organize some races.
Right there, right that second, BMX was truly born!
As word spread, more and more kids showed up for the 'pedal-cross' races, as they were then called. Very soon, running the races was taken over by Rich Lee, whose daughter, Brenda, raced. For the better part of two decades Rich Lee continued to run Palms BMX track! Rich is one of the unsung pioneers of the sport of BMX!
In November of 1970 a young motorcycle racer saw a group of kids on Sting-Rays imitating motocross racers in a vacant field in Long Beach, California. He decided to try it.
A few years later Scot Breithaupt described that day to me; "It was a kick! I was completely stoked! I got the kids together and told them if they'd each pitch in a quarter, I'd go home and get my motorcycle trophies and we'd have a race." According to Scot, thirty kids raced that day and 150 showed up the following week.
Several months later Scot formed the first BMX riders' organization; the Bicycle United Motocross Society, or BUMS for short. At least that is what he told the adults who came to see what this new bicycle motocross thing was all about. All the kids knew that BUMS really got its name from the bums who slept in tin sheds in the field.
"ON ANY SUNDAY"
In the spring of 1971 Bruce Brown's motorcycle documentary movie, On Any Sunday, was released. The opening scenes showed some kids on 20-inch bicycles pretending they were motorcycle motocross racers, complete with pie-plate numbers and two-stroke expansion chamber audibles.
In 1980, when I began researching this history, I asked Bruce Brown how he came to include the bicycle scenes in the movie. He said he often would see these kids imitating motorcycle motocross racers on their bicycles in an open area down the street from his home in San Juan Capistrano. When Brown was almost finished filming the movie it dawned on him that the kids might make a cool intro.
The rest of the movie was about motorcycles…but those opening scenes fired the imaginations of a number of people who would very soon play major roles in the development of BMX.
A FEW MORE TRACKS
During the summer of 1972 a small BMX track opened at Indian Dunes, a huge motorcycle park in Valencia, California. It lasted only a short period of time. Nonetheless, Indian Dunes must be acknowledged as the third BMX track in history. It is interesting to note that at this time, the motorcycle motocross races and mini-bike races at Indian Dunes were being run by Ernie Alexander who in a few months would leave Indian Dunes to start a BMX track. Another interesting note is that this writer and his son, R.L., used to race in the motorcycle and mini-bike events Ernie and his assistant, Suzanne Claspy, ran there.
In December of 1972 Jon and Don Dryer started running BMX races in the backyard of their Malibu, California, home. After a couple months the races were stopped due to complaints from neighbors. However, by April of 1973, the Dryer brothers had reopened their track in Malibu Canyon. Attendance skyrocketed when it was learned that the new track was adjacent to the Malibu Nudist Colony!
Early in 1973 Ernie Alexander and Suzanne, having left Indian Dunes, opened a gnarly downhill BMX track at Soledad Sands Park, in Southern California. Six months later Ernie founded the National Bicycle Association, or NBA, the first nationwide BMX sanctioning body.
At the same time Ernie Alexander was building Soledad, the city of Redondo Beach, California, advertised for volunteers to build and operate a BMX track near the Torrance border. Some local Torrance kids known as the 'Arvada Street Gang' and this writer volunteered and the Dominguez BMX Track opened one month after Soledad.
By the end of 1973, BMX tracks had begun to open in states other than California, most notably Arizona, Oklahoma, and Florida.
THE FIRST BMX BIKE
There had been earlier, unsuccessful attempts to improve 20-inch bikes for racing, but the real progenitor of today's BMX bike was built late in 1973, probably in late September. It was a modified Schwinn Sting-Ray.
Originally the Sting-Ray had a short wheelbase, low bottom bracket, and 4½-inch cranks…geometry and leverage not conducive to BMX racing. The modifications consisted of removing the curved top and down tubes and replacing them with longer straight tubes, thereby extending the bike's wheelbase. Reassembly involved rotating the rear A-frame structure in order to raise the bottom bracket. This allowed the use of Schwinn Diamond 6½-inch cranks, which produced more speed and power than the original 4½-inch cranks. The longer frame kept the front wheel on the ground when the increased power was applied and made the handling of the bike more predictable under racing conditions.
Construction of this modified Schwinn Sting-Ray can be accurately traced back to Rick's Bike Shop Team, one of the first organized teams in BMX. Rick Twomey created and sponsored the team, which included such BMX legends as Thom Lund, John Palfryman, Marvin Church, David Clinton, Danny Garcher, Doug Takahashi, and others.
At this point the modified Schwinn's provenance gets murky. However, as this is an important milestone in the history of BMX, a careful squint into the murkiness seems worthwhile.
Ask Rick Twomey and he'll tell you that he was the first one to modify a Schwinn Sting-Ray into a straight-tube, high bottom bracket BMX bike.
Ask Thom Lund, which I did in 2004, and he'll tell you he is pretty sure John Palfryman's dad built the first one. It should be noted that Palfryman's dad raced motorcycle sidehacks and had a shop where he built them…and therefore had the welding and fabricating equipment, the materiel (tubing, etc.), and the knowledge and experience necessary to easily modify a Schwinn Sting-Ray.
The first BMX bike I saw was in November of 1973 when the Rick's Bike Shop Team came to the Dominguez BMX Track in Redondo Beach, where I was acting as starter. It was Marvin Church's awesome red, white, and blue bike which had been built by his dad. I had never seen a bike like it before. So ask me and I'll tell you I thought it was Marvin Church Sr. who built the first BMX bike.
But I was wrong. In February of 2007 I talked to Marvin Church Jr. (Marvin Sr. is dead…Rest in peace, buddy. You were a good guy.) Marvin Jr. said that the red, white, and blue bike was the first built-from-scratch BMX bike, but not the first straight-tube, high bottom bracket modified Sting-Ray. Marvin Jr. did not know who actually constructed the first modified Schwinn.
A couple years before talking to Marvin, I discussed this mystery with Danny Garcher. Garcher said Rick Twomey was the one who first modified a Sting-Ray. Garcher said that Rick built several of these bikes for the team. They were painted yellow. Marvin's dad thought the welding and geometry were pretty rough on the team bikes (which is true), so he built the beautiful red, white, and blue bike that I saw. The color scheme was reminiscent of Captain America's Pan Head chopper in the 1969 Easy Rider movie.
1974: A BIG YEAR FOR BMX
Linn Kastan got involved in BMX racing with his kids. Back then his company, Red Line Engineering, manufactured speedway motorcycle frames. This gave Linn experience with motorcycle steering geometry and chrome-moly tubing fabrication.
Linn's two boys were destroying Ashtabula blade forks at the rate of one set per week, which started getting a little expensive. So one day Linn fabricated a set of tubular chrome-moly forks for his sons to try. They proved to be so bulletproof that in February of 1974 Kastan marketed them. Red Line tubular chrome-moly forks were so successful that within three years Red Line Engineering's product line was exclusively BMX.
In May of 1974 Webco, a motorcycle accessory company, introduced the first production straight-tube BMX racing frame. It was designed by Chuck Robinson who would later create Robinson Racing Products.
In June of 1974 Elaine Holt published the first issue of BMX NEWS, a soon-to-be nationally distributed tabloid about BMX racing. The publication would spread the sport of BMX across the United States. This writer freelanced for BMX NEWS for several years and in 1976 would start BICYCLE MOTOCROSS ACTION Magazine, which would spread the sport around the world.
The first major BMX race was held at Birmingham High School, in Van Nuys, California, on July 20, 1974. It was the first of a three-race series called the Yamaha Gold Cup. The Yamaha Corporation put $100,000 into the promotion and operation of the series and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED Magazine covered it. 16 year old Stu Thomsen won the Expert class, 14 year old David Clinton won the Junior class, and Bobby Watts won the Amateur class.
In September of 1974 Skip Hess designed and marketed something previously unheard of for bicycles…a 20-inch mag wheel! Called the 'Motomag', it was, like Kasten's Red Line forks, an overnight success. The Motomag was the first product of Skip's new company, BMX Products, which went on to produce the Mongoose bicycle, the most popular BMX bike in the world for many, many years.
And shortly after that BMX started growing faster than greased moose poop!
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Some of what you will find here! |
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BMX Action, BMX Racing, Racing, Bikes, Vintage, Old School, Old School BMX, GT, GHP, Hutch, Redline, Mongoose, Greg Hill, Bob Osborn, holeshot, BMX training, Stu Thomsen, Gary Ellis, Eric Rupe, Harry Leary
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