Two Wheel Blogs

Did you ever think about that?

Where are you from? Or, to put it another way, how did you get started cycling?

For me, I got hooked riding around the neighborhood with a guy named Paul Six. He was into motor bikes, but he also introduced me into BMX. I learned to do my first wheelie with help from Paul...a year or two later we started building jumps. First, it was dirt bumps in the gravel road, but later we began building elaborate dirt and wood jumps.

Paul was a couple years older than me, and at some point he became more interested in motor bikes, and I became more serious about BMX. I started racing and freestyling...and that is when I figured out that this was a life long addiction. I started hanging out with a guy named Sam...and the jumps got bigger....a lot bigger. Sam had some wooden ramps in his front yard and we would routinely park car(s) in between...I wish we had some pictures of that...

Sam and I traveled to a lot of races together, here is one of the few pictures of how silly I looked in those days.

There are almost zero photographs of me in the BMX days and the ones that do exist have been shared here before, but heck, it is MY story so I will post them again...

I love that one...I have not caught air like that in a long time...

So anyhow, years progressed and I raced BMX more and more and got pretty good at it. At some point I started to become more interested in freestyle and riding ramps and pools (this activity was illegal in this area at that time...ramps were often burned, or torn down by authorities and riding freestyle on city streets was considered loitering). It is funny to look back on those times as an "outlaw"...in all seriousness, I was brought home to my parents several times by the local police...luckily my parents thought a lot like I did and snickered a bit.

My brushes with the law were fairly innocent (I was riding, they did not like it...so they took me home...end of story). A few times we decided to bolt to avoid the hassle of having our ride ended early. I guess some of my friends decided to make evading the law a career...last I heard, Sam was serving a long trip in a federal pen. (drugs suck...don't be fooled into thinking anything to the contrary).

A few years later I discovered cars and girls. That had my bikes sitting in the corner of the garage for SEVERAL years until I neared the end of my college career...sad, isn't it. At that point I bought a MTB to get to and from campus, ride on the trails a bit, and to do a bit of urban trials riding between classes (I sucked, but thought it was cool to try). I could not ride my BMX bike, because that would have been a major fashion faux-pas...no self respecting young adult would ride a 20" bike (stupid, wasn't I?).

Later still, I decided that road riding was where it was at. The speed. I need not say much more. Zipping along at 20+ MPH was very appealing.

Now, I have come full circle. I am back to a single speed rigid bike very similar to my first BMX bike...except that the wheels are much larger than 20". I may not go as big with the jumps, but the feeling of flight is still very appealing (even if it is low altitude...very low).

What is next? Looking back I see that I have tried a lot, and I can only guess that I will try a few other disciplines in the 2 wheeled genre before I hang it up for good. How about you?