here’s a bit of ramblin’. Maybe there’s a few folks out there that might enjoy this bit of history. It’s two fold cause it’s about my new toy buddy Randall and my new bike. Some of you may now I’ve gone nuts again about bmx. I’ve ridden off and on thru out my getting longer life. Starting with mt first Huffy thunder out in death valley, riding the red clay hills in Central Valley (now swallowed up by Redding i do believe), racing and sucking at it in the east bay and other northern parts. Never once winning a trophy rarely even making it out of my first moto. i have distinct memories of never coming in last, painful fright of doubles, and doing things like running over another kids head. Never last cause somebody always crashed or there was one kid (maraculously (spell check please)) slower than me or even more odd, more scared. I moved into skateboarding around the early 80′s and never looked back til adulthood where i had a string of bmx’s in all shapes and sizes, thru bad luck and I think a lot of carelessness all stolen. Ending with my firemans 26 getting ripped off my front porch. turdball cut the iron railing it was locked up to instead of the lock since it was easier. Fart forward 6 years of no bmx to last summer. I got an old granny three speed in Pasadena to ride when I drove down to San Diego for Comic Con. Something felt really right. I had been riding a single speed, which had eventually turned into a fixie for the past 6 years and just wasn’t having fun and somehow the granny bike just brought it back out. i started hunting for another 26 bmx. Bought a vintage laguna 3 bar. great fun for cruising. i started actually trying some tricks on it going out for a late-night bunny hop session here and there after my family went to sleep. but that old laguna was way too stretched out for that. I was hooked and went nuts. I got another 26 firemans which i dubbed the beast. I love it and have the notion that this is made for a giant, scored a DC 26 quad, geometry is a little better in the front, not real happy with the quality. i bought a retro 26 GJS, but gotta be honest, that thing wasn’t made with care or for shredding, the back end is 10 feet long. Switched over to some 24 cruisers. Both of these I love, an L&S (my daily rider, or my once a week night time rider i should say), and an old S&M Challenger. Really dig both of these bikes.
my obsession with BMX and 26 continued on though, and I thought it was time to just get what i wanted. US made, and as local as possible. i wanted something that blended the new kid “Plus Size” bmx like a Black Market Mob with the vintage Bikes I love to actually ride. So here it is… Work in progress…A vintage 3 bar cruiser based specifically on an old Panda 26 Raider, with modern geometry and welds that can handle just about anything. the forks are modified S&M 26. there’s a few details to work out and welds to make, but she’s almost ready- the prototype Bearturds 26″
if i like it as much as i think I’m gonna and some of you guys out there like it too, we’ll make a short run of these fun bikes.
Now for some deeper nerding out. A big part of BMX for me is nostalga and style. Not quite sure how to explain this, but here’s how I came to Bearturds. i have a deep love for northern california, so i started looking (a lot) at the old northern cali BMX companies- Patterson, Skyway, Boss, and the magic hit, Panda. Panda was based originally in Concord California. this place was so close to many of my old homes. i sepnt countless hours ditching school and riding the bart bus to concord from my old shitehole Oakley to ride the bart banks, steal magazines from Tower records, look at toys at the Toys R US, and ride the backyard pools of concord, pleasant hill and walnut creek. Those were some fun days. Panda, thru my understanding was eventually bought out by Boss, based in Oakland. this made for the double found memories of my dad, RIP, a hillbilly from Kentucky would take me to raiders games when they were the og Oakland Raiders. Another moment of retarded brilliancy hits and this bear character i had been struggling with for two years gets his magic. ye olde raiders eyepatch and a hillbilly hat. So out of total nerdness i get two things that i absoluetly love now. my new randall the bear, and the bearturds 26. Wow that was a lot of wind.
Tag Archive for 'bmx'
days are getting cold, and very damp. But always some cool shit to do. here are some pics from one of our local bike shops. Oregon bike(I think) on stark and 78th. Yer regular bike shop with a few good bits of taste, nice friendly owners, and these awesome vintage bmx bikes. i think we have only more coffee shops than bike shops here.
