My Old Friend BMX…

Something came to me as I woke up this morning… BMX. Maybe it was because I saw the medal round the other night in the Olympics, I don’t know. But I used to race BMX when I was younger. I actually raced a lot. I went to every race I could, went to the state races, and even placed well in the state standings once or twice. I lived and breathed BMX. I bought the magazines, I was ALWAYS riding my bike, and when I wasn’t riding my bike, I was working on it.

I started racing with a freestyle bike that worked, but was not “suited” for dirt tracks. Then I got a sweet new GT for Christmas one year. All shiny chrome and tough as nails. I remember that Christmas morning. My friends and I setup a ramp in the front yard. Two cinder blocks on top of each other and a THIN piece of wood that was about 5 feet long. We managed to make a slingshot ramp. We would start down the block and haul ass towards this awesome, yet dangerous, contraption. When you hit it right it would shoot you straight up in the air. No kidding, the bottom of our wheels were reaching 4 and 5 feet high. The main problem was when you hit the ramp wrong, you got to do a front flip…. which I did one time. Later I got a custom painted Cycle Craft frame that I built into a pretty sweet racing bike that was almost all hand picked parts. I still have it actually. It’s sitting in my Mom’s garage in Carytown. Anyway, BMX became my life and when I moved to Boone to live with my Dad, I left BMX behind… I actually gave the word to my Mom to toss my huge box full of trophies last week.

I’m not sure why now, but for some reason getting back on a BMX bike and running in the cruiser class sounds like a really good idea. Intimidating? Yes, not only because I have not been on a BMX bike in a ton of years, but also because I am not in shape to hop on and race. Maybe that’s the motivation I need. It’s honestly one of those things I miss most when I think back about my younger years. I guess we’ll see won’t we…