[Closed] Anyone used to ride BMX?

Yep! I traded in a gate of a GT Outpost for a new 1993 GT Vertigo, which then got chopped in for a KHE Skunk (I still bear the scar on my left knee from a crash on this 20-odd years ago 🤪 ) which was replaced by a mk1 DK General Lee... We've now got a 1997 GT Pro Performer (Euro version of the Pro Freestyle Tour) and a 2001 DK General Lee 24 (the 4130 one, not the hi-ten gas pipe one.) I had a 1999 GT Pro Series XXL a few years ago that was bloody awesome, I wish I'd kept it but that ship's sailed sadly.

I had a go on a friend's Tall Order 215 last week and it was really nice to ride- it's so light compared to the 90s tanks!

Those Premium Lagger frames were awful!

Indeed. I rode during the late 90's and early 00's.

Started on a Ruption Chogger. Then moved to a Hoffman Deebo. Had a Standard STA500 for a while, before finishing my 'career' on a Federal Division. All adorned in parts from Primo, FBM, Metal Bikes etc.

We had a decent sized group that used to ride. Get on the train and then stop at random towns to just ride street and find what we could. It was a great time to be alive!

The Road Fools series were an inspiration. Loved it.

There is a documentary on Amazon Prime about Jimmy LeVan (metal bikes owner), its really interesting and brought back so many memories. To be fair there are a number of decent documentaries on there. Also check out 'The Source Park'.

I had a Falcon Pro Sigma in around 1984. Loved it and learnt all my tricks on it. It was my introduction to the joys of ragging bikes around the woods. Was replaced by my first MTB in about 1987.
I was given a MirraCo to restore from the 90's recently and could not ride it for toffee. Makes my ankles hurt just thinking about it.

I rode BMX from around 95 to 05. Started on a Standard STA then a Lengthy, then a T1 Progression, then an S&M Stricker.

This was based in Sunderland/Newcastle but travelling all over the UK. Big up the NSF.

I had some mates who were getting regular magazine features and covers, putting out video parts the hard way i.e. making and distributing VHS and DVD's before social media. I used to ride with some of the best street riders in the country so I saw some pretty wild stuff. None of this reflects on me, I was thoroughly crap on 20" wheels.

I stuck with it for the social life. All my friends were riders. When I drifted back to MTB I lost touch with so many people. I had to start from scratch, it was like emigrating or getting a divorce.

Yeah. Started mid 90s with loads of mates, most stopped but I carried on but riding mainly on my own with one skater mate. Riding became infrequent (ride a few w/e in a row then not for 3-4 months) during late 20s but kept on riding. The in early 30s stopped for a few years just though work a relationship commitments, especially as I only rode on my own. Then started up again on 36 birthday. Now 40 and its my most ridden bike (now I don't commute). Took a lot to get comfy again and still feel bad after not riding for a few weeks but when it feels good its excellent even though I am shit. Love that you can ride anywhere, minimal fettling, ware whatever, no technology bullshit and stuff being obsolete, navel gazing about will buying x make me better? No it won't only you will make you better. Real tight older riders scene where I live (and beyond) which helps. I'd like to get another 10 years minimum out of it.

Also help me deal with living in an area of crap mtbing as I can still get a fix of fun.

There is a documentary on Amazon Prime about Jimmy LeVan (metal bikes owner), its really interesting and brought back so many memories. To be fair there are a number of decent documentaries on there. Also check out ‘The Source Park’.

Also checkout "fbm i love my bicycle" it on Vimeo.

When I drifted back to MTB I lost touch with so many people. I had to start from scratch, it was like emigrating or getting a divorce.

I can believe that. I find that if I am not riding / busy for month or so you fall out of touch, its almost a lifestyle like surfing to some extent and for many if you're not there you're not there. No malice just people drift apart.

Those Premium Lagger frames were awful!

The idea was great, when you could set one up so it worked it was good but everything was so tight and invariably not straight it made it impossible. Cable routing a nightmare, chainstay was so short which caused chain line issues and the axles never seemed to grip properly.

I managed to get to the Backyard Jam once and had a great time at King Of Concrete where I helped judge the flatland event, was too scared (and crap) to enter myself though.

What was amazing was that I rode at Wakefield Rehab park while Jamie Bestwick was there. He used to drive up from Derby a couple of times a week as it was the nearest vert ramp he could ride. He was still an electrician then IIRC. I remember one night where he spent hours trying to learn to tailwhip over the box jump but I was positive I’d seen him do it hundreds of times. A close friend of his then let me know, after I had enquired, that he was learning all his tricks the opposite way which just blew my mind at the time as no one did that. I remember when he got full pro sponsorship with GT and he improved massively fast as he didn’t have to worry too much about getting injured as he didn’t have to get up early every day to do his electricians job. He was a really nice bloke and deserved all the success he got later on.

Rode bmx in the 80's got properly in to it in 1992 and still ride today

Too many bikes to list so ill just go with my 90's faves that i had

1991 Mk1 S&M Holmes
1992 MK2 S&M Holmes
1992 MK3 S&M Dirtbike
1994 MK3 S&M Holmes
1994 Standard STA
1994 GT Fueler (first of the 1&1/8th aheadset bmx's)
1994 S&M Fat As ****
1996 S&M MK4 Holmes

Plus many more S&M's from 1997 to 2013

Currently have 2013 S&M WTF (What The ****) that im still riding

Went to every original Backyard Jam from 93 to the last in 97

Every King Of Concrete since 1992 as its my local Skatepark and thats where i grew up riding Bmx

I had a Haro Shredder which got nicked and replaced it with a Heavy Tools Ruler. I got into it as all my buddies got into skating but I preferred 2 wheels. Mostly street riding but went to Radlands in Northampton once lol.
I was pretty cr@p at it to be fair but loved watching X Games, Props Video Magazine and whatever other videos I could get my hands on. S&M BMX Inferno is a video that really sticks in my mind, watched it to death lol.
+1 for the Jimmy Levan documentary (Go Fast, Pull Up), really good viewing.

Me and my brother and a good schoolmate started with '87 ish GT Performers, Streetbeats, Haro Masters and bashmasters, Bully Piston, GT bashguard before S&M Maddogs then going onto Dirt Bikes and Holmes, STA's and lots more cracked dented forgotten etc before going full time MTB

We were part of the Manchester Split slates street riding scene with John Taylor, Chris Hamer, Harry from Sheep, Lee Mellor, John Hall, Splodge, Marizu etc.

Used to put the ramps out at Bury Leisure centre and rode for free as well as Goshen halfpipe.

Backyard with Stu Dorkins every year, the chaos of Southsea, Northampton and Barrow comps, road trips to Livingston, annual pilgrimage to Ilfracombe/Woolacombe to ride the knackered bowls. Regular road trips to Barnstaple for the big Vert ramp and local racers at the track.
Wigan 3sisters and Coppul dicking about in National races. We rode everything - vert, dirt, races, concrete, street, all transferred to MTB and DH.

Best years of my life.

This is a brilliant watch:

https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/films/go-fast-pull-up

I was obsessed with it but before the 90's, from 1980 to 1989. Different sort of thing back then though were we just used the same bike for a bit of racing, a bit of skatepark and a bit of generally pissing about (other than those odd freestyle bikes!)

My favourite was a Greg Hill Products frame that was bought from Tim March who lived a couple of miles down the road from me.

Raced them back in the day. UK Nationals at Derby in '84 and '85.

Showing my age now.

Yeah start roughly just as ending school so about 92/93.
I remember a 4hr bus ride to go to Non Stop in notts for videos and bits.
Later started going to derby storm and made friends with a group and for years we traveled on a sat up and down the country to different parks and spots.

For a long while I was the only rider in the village but have so many good memories of riding and just friends hanging out. None of us set the world on fire but still pushed out boundaries.

As above have met Jamie Bestwick, best was a derby jam where everyone took the piss calling him "pro".

Helped at a backyard jam there and it got to the point we were bored so would check people had the Dig chainring tattoo and studded belt before entry.

Worst is my commute to work is past asylum skate park, my younger self would kick my arse driving past it so much without going in.

Hmmm I did and I didn't

I started on MTBs while at school in the early 90s, made a few mates who rode and went from there but as we lived in the flatlands of Newark without a car we rode what we had, street and the BMX track, we then kind of moved into the BMX scene on mountain bikes, when we eventually did get transport we were straight to Leicester, Peterborough, Mansfield tracks, Ilkeston dirt jumps, there was another set on the outskirts of Nott's as well which were fun. Pretty sure I took my MTB to Storm and the Liverpool indoor park

We rode track and jumped trails on pretty much XC mountain bikes, I had a Giant ATX FS, mate had a 'Dale Beast of the East, a couple of others where jumping good sized doubles like 20foot odd on those Raleigh Dyna-wotsits that had the tubes brazed/glued into those gussets! I moved on to an Azonic DS, then a DMR Trailstar, we spent the entire weekends getting pissed and building trails around the edge of the BMX track, proper fun!

Riding brakeless, super long rhythm sections, going home to watch Road Fools or Soil, mates breaking legs trying to do Tobogans (not so good) reading Dig, NOFX, I don't think it ever rained those years either!

It's weird how some of those things stay with you, I still remember the article in the back of Dig where Rooftop was writing about 'Did I take the day off school were everyone learnt to be a ****? Good times

Raced back in the early to mid eighties, was useless but my brother was half decent so we went to all the nationals and, I think, solely by virtue of being there, got a top twenty national ranking as a seven or eight year old. 🙂 My parents, bless them, built me a decent race bike, think it had a Magnum frame and TRX forks? Only raced it a handful of times then gave up - I think my uncle bought it for my cousin to race and still has it, this thread makes me wonder how much he'd sell it back for...

Went to Redditch and hired a bike for a sesh a few years back - very different game to how it used to be!

Rode BMX properly in the late 90s in my last years of school whilst on and off between then and now. Mainly rode dirt with a little street aswell. Really wish i tried to get into BMX racing now but happy with riding MTB.

First BMX was a Diamondback Viper that cracked and got a warrenty replacement but upgraded to a race Assault Ex that i had until a few years ago, that also cracked so replaced thet frame with a Haro race pro. Its a nice setup with Profile cranks and S&M pitch forks with oldskool red Shimano DX V brakes.

I was about 10 when the bmx “craze” arrived, and had the standard Raleigh burner for a couple of years. Added CW handlebars, probably some mushroom grips and cheapo bear trap pedals, and practiced my endos 🙂

Around 84 did some racing at Shoreham, Chatham and Burgess hill, I had a really nice GT by then (I think race series? It wasn’t a performer) but was pretty average at it. My one (!) win at a race heat went to my head, and ten minutes later in the final I managed to endo the gate. That was about the pinnacle for me.

Another meet I remember, they had a dad’s race afterwards. Cue the old man coming up short on the last double, otb and claret everywhere. Happy days.

Stopped racing when I realised how much crashing was involved, to get good.

I was lucky enough to have a BMX track at the bottom of my road in the 80's. I used to hang out there envious of the bigger lads PK Rippers, Redline and Mongoose bikes as I sat on my silver Halfords Turbo. Eventually I took the plunge and entered a race, I took everyone by surprise as my decent fitness from Judo and running meant I was streets ahead of most of field from a CV perspective.............But you need more than fitness don't you. Very much the same as @crab's dad I hit the last double but didn't commit, landed between the two, slipped off the pedals and landed on the crossbar. I was so far ahead it seemed to take an age but eventually 3 riders flew past and I ended up in 4th place.

I stormed up to my parents, shouted at them that it wouldn't have happened if I was running beartrap pedals, threw my bike down and never raced again.

I also remember someone sat up at the top of the start hill having their hand too close to the start gate so that when it dropped it took one of their fingers off. Health and safety wasn't a thing back then.

I started 82ish. Rode Chingford rom Knebworth I still ride bmx and I'm 53 this year. Love riding with bmx riding buddy's but now on mtb. Zach Shaw Atkins et al

Started in 1981. Grew up with the sadly missed Scott Carroll.
Giant GMX 175
Raleigh Tuff Burner
Raleigh Aero Pro
Skyway TA
MRD Badlander
Hutch Trickstar (loved that bike)
1988 Haro Master
1988 Haro Soort
Mongoose Hooigan
Hoffman Condor
Hoffman Taj
Dragonfly DMX
BSD Trailorpark
BSD Forever - still got that along with a Bontrager Warthog and a Bontrager Cruiser.
Go to Unit 23 occasionally on the BSD to feel really, really old!

Late 90's to 2016 rode BMX exclusively, picked up MTB in the winter of 2016 and primarily ride that now, the BMX was retired for awhile but then did a lot of indoor skatepark riding in the winter before Covid which was super fun, also snuck in the odd early morning trails session last summer and looking to get that going again soon.

First bike was a Haro Shredder I got after riding my mates Ruption Newboy and preferring it to whatever bike my parents had that I'd ride around town and trash attempting trials & jumps/gaps etc, I only picked up frames after that:

Federal Division
Volume Destroyer
Standard Cashius
S&M Bennett
Standard Trls 250
S&M LAF
FBM Capone
S&M LTF
Sunday Forecaster
Sunday Funday
Tall Order 315

Picked the Tall Order 315 up recently since LLS on the MTB got me thinking if at 6'1 a 21.8 might suit me better then the 21's Ive ridden for ages! Yet to actually build it up, hoping to get some time to do it this week as the trails should be dry by now

I’d like to give it another go sometime but trying to find a new bike with a front brake, well that’s more tricky than I expected!!

I’d like to give it another go sometime but trying to find a new bike with a front brake, well that’s more tricky than I expected!!

You wont find a new bike with a U brake fitted, most come without u brake forks these days, even rear brake mounts are removable

You will have to buy some brake mount forks, a front brake (some brands U brakes dont work on the front due to clearance issues) and a brake lever and cable of course

https://winstanleysbmx.com/bmx-parts/steering/bmx-forks/colony-sweet-tooth-forks-with-brake-mounts

https://winstanleysbmx.com/bmx-parts/steering/bmx-forks/odyssey-f32-fork

https://www.sourcebmx.com/collections/bmx-forks/products/saltplus-hq-fork-with-mounts?nosto_source=cmp&nosto=607d44b460b2cad831821f30&currency=gbp

https://www.sourcebmx.com/collections/bmx-forks/products/hoffman-bikes-super-forks-with-990-brake-mounts?nosto_source=cmp&nosto=607d44b460b2cad831821f30&currency=gbp

Funnily enough, I used to ride around 94-2005-ish. By the end I just got fed up with the people and more into VWs and motorbikes. Had a few dabbles since, but never could rekindle the Stoke!
I started out with a Falcon Pro I swapped for a Sex Pistols tape then progressed to;
95 Mongoose Villain
ProLite Dirt Bike, which was a powdercoated and stickered Curtis Pro! God, I wish I knew where that was!
95 S&M HAF (terrible!)
1" Reynolds Racing Fresh 40 (toooooo long)
1" S&M Dirt Bike
1" S&M Holmes
Dyno Slammer
Schwinn XS race bike
1 1/8" S&M Dirt Bike
Volume Helion
S&M late Challenger (stolen, and my favourite one)
S&M earlier Challenger
Dirt Bros Trail R Park
SE Floval Flyer (just felt dead)
Hoffman Flash.
Loads then, I never kept anything for very long. That was various jump spots and homemade ramps around Ashford and Canterbury, though most are gone now. I preferred the dead, diy years, there just seemed to be a better attitude, then it got all too serious.
Oddly enough, I recently bought an old Specialized Fatboy frame with a view to building up for pump tracks, manuals etc.