Signal BMX

“How to Save Yourself from Going Over a Berm” illustration by Bob Haro from BMX Action Magazine, September 1984. Click to enlarge 3x. Alright, we’re half-way through the first ever Bob Haro week at BMX Roots, and here’s one that wasn’t a part of “Haro’s Corner”, his semi-monthly feature in BMX Action. Instead, this is a [...]

“Factoryman and Yoshi” illustration by Bob Haro from BMX Action Magazine, April 1984. Click to enlarge 3x. It is the second day of Bob Haro Week here at BMX Roots. Yesterday, I posted an introduction to this feature I’m running this week, and the illustration was of a rider popping out of a quarterpipe, doing some [...]

Bob Haro from a feature spread in BMXAction magazine in 1983. Click to see the whole page. In recognition of the first running of BMX in the Olympics, and all of the build-up and hype that surrounded it, I wanted to share some stuff that is pretty special to me. One of the best things to come [...]

Download Donny Robinson, US Olympian and Silver Medal Winner Well, even after the semi-finals were rained out, and thus, not televised as planned, the BMX events in the Olympics put on a solid 45-second (per race) show. Jill Kintner, Mike Day and Donny Robinson all medaled for the United States with bronze, silver, bronze, respectively. [...]

The BMX competition in the Olympics is only three days away, and with that, there are some lively discussions popping up all over. Since most of my time has been on the freestyle/non-racing side of BMX, I’m focusing on this side of the fence. There are plenty of other places to get the BMX racing [...]

Seat stay/framestand and bologna-cut top tube detail. Photo: George Yang Looks like there’s already quite a bit of chatter about the Knight Performer - I’ve seen it pop up on a number of the vintage BMX sites over the past couple of days. One thing that’s been discussed is the geometry of the ride, and how [...]

Raw and fresh out of the jig. Photo: George Yang The 24″ Retro Squareback Knight released last year was very well received by those looking for a cruiser with vintage styling. Modeled after the Redline squarebacks of yore, it was a fairly traditional cruiser frame, with some really nice detailing. I think that the new 24″ jam [...]

Alright, I’ll admit it, I’ve got a thing for a new bike. Not just a new bike, but a new kind of bike. See, part of the reason I started this site was because I wanted to not only explore BMX in all of its facets, but also bicycling in general. As I’ve said, I [...]

THAT, my friends is a starting hill… Photo Credit: Casey Gibson/USACycling.org As I type this, the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics are underway. Controversy aside, it is pretty amazing to see BMX recognized as an Olympic sport. Thanks to the good folks at the OS-BMX Forums, here are the broadcast schedules for the Olympic BMX [...]

Dan’s Comp has 3 of the 2,500 limited edition Freestylin’ Books from the Nike Collaboration to give away. These are much sought-after in certain circles, and I gotta say that I’d love to get my hands on one as well. You can enter once a day, and there’s no purchase necessary. Check out the details [...]

Double foot-jam tailwhip at the Kansas Action Sports Contest - rider’s name coming. Photo: Jeremy Schutte Alright, I’ll get the obvious out of the way first - August in Kansas is HOT. Not quite Texas hot, but we can get damn close. Heat and humidity combine to make some sweaty, exhausting times. So, first, props [...]

Ride Editor, Keith Mulligan’s custom-made sticker board. If you haven’t been over to ridebmx.com - aka bmxonline.com - aka bmx.transworld.net, get over there and check out their new site, which launched a couple weeks ago. Much more user-friendly, with content from the magazine and new blogs from their editors, the new site has a [...]

Phil at Super Rat is doing a cool contest of sorts to get people excited about what he’s got going on in the shop and reward them for participation - wisecracks, sarcasm and innuendo are all welcome. Basically, he’s got a small inventory of BMX parts and Super Rat schwag to give away for free. All [...]

My friend, Andy, (thanks, man) sent me a great link to the Nike Lab, a series of interviews with their designers, and there are a couple with John Martin, who led the Nike/Freestylin’ collaboration and is leading up their Olympic BMX effort. As most of you know, the 2008 Olympics in China will feature [...]

Dennis McCoy at the Pleasant Valley Skatepark BMX jam last year. Photo by Thad Allender. A short three days after I posted the photo of Dennis McCoy riding at a custom car show in 1986, he pops up in two different places in the past couple days. Thanks to Phil W., Phil K. and [...]

I shot these photos of Steve Fair (sp?) back in 1988, in the parking lot of Little Darlings, a former 7-11 in Shawnee, KS that had been converted into a dance studio. This spot was a favorite mellow bank to flat that was a lot of fun to pop out of. Plus there was (is) [...]

I’ve been using the new scanner a lot over this weekend, so here’s some samples of the goodness I keep digging up. Click on any of them to enlarge. Above is a shot of Dennis McCoy doing a lookback in 1986 during a Darryl Starbird custom car show at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, MO, taken [...]

I just found out about a skatepark jam/contest coming up this Saturday, July 12 in Topeka, KS. Teams of riders from different cities will compete against each other in a sort of advanced game of B.I.K.E. This is all going down starting at 10AM, at the Rip-On public skatepark. From MySpace user TY! (sorry, I don’t [...]

I’ve known about the Internet Archive for a long time, and have used it for work and personal research for years. Between the Wayback Machine (a website archive - here, check out RideBMX’s site from Sunday, June 18, 2000), and the Live Music Archive, you can literally spend hours finding hidden gems of all sorts.The [...]