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1987-1988
- Not much has changed in a year- My first 'real' freestyle bike- the Haro Sport. This
bike had REALLY thin dropouts and flip down pegs ON the forks (cool!). It came stock with
mags and a gyro. I also got quality threaded 2 inch pegs for the wheels. This was the
norm. Within the year the dropouts on the fork were broken and the pegs and axles had been
replaced about 6 times. The brakes never worked on the mags which nearly killed one of my
friends. A new rider was making headlines on the amateur scene at the AFA Masters events:
A kid riding for Skyway by the name of Matt Hoffman. There was another rider that was
dominating both the air and the ground in the pro class at most of the Masters events: A
brand new pro by the name of Dennis McCoy. Haro and GT were still the bikes of choice.
I went to my first freestyle show. If you haven't heard of Rockville BMX then you haven't
been around for a long time. Rockville BMX was one of the most recognized names in the
freestyle industry. It was a small, hole in the wall shop, that dealt exclusively with BMX
and freestyle. The people that worked there would get off at the end of the day and ride.
They new bikes and the owners would get three or four of the pro teams to come out every
year. People came out in force to see the shows. If you have seen a show then you are
probably familiar with a crowd of 100 or so people, some with their parents, standing in a
circle one row deep, comfortable amount of room around each person, watching and
(occasionally) cheering. A Rockville BMX show would be stacked 7 rows deep around the
WHOLE riding area with KIDS wanting to catch a glimpse of Eddie Fiola or Dino DeLuca. I
saw a show that year from that small Nor-Cal bike company, Skyway. I saw the expert ramp
rider that has rewritten the sport- Matt Hoffman.
- The newest bikes had done it- they were switching to 990's for braking. GT and Haro both
were putting the better brakes on their top of the line bikes. A flurry of new companies
were coming into existence. The top of the line Haro came stock with chrome plated 48
spoke rims. The Peregrine Super Pro rim was debuted. This was a turning point for brakes,
yet bicycle frame quality still sucked. A year... maybe two was the most you could hope
for from a bicycle frame.
I competed in my first contest. A 'local' Southern California event endorsed by the AFA
and sponsored by a sport drink company called Socco. The contest was right on the beach
and drew about 100 kids and a thousand spectators. The riding area was kind of bumpy and
there wasn't a separate area for people to practice. For most of the beginners their
contest run was the first time they had been on the competition surface. Probably more
than half of the riders were wearing leathers. NOBODY did a grind on anything. Street
wasn't in competitions yet... But WAS starting to make an appearance in magazines.
A company by the name of Hammer introduced shin guards that you could pull on. They did
not make use of Velcro closures to begin with but used neoprene and foam rubber. This, for
many flatland riders was a savior as most were sick of destroying their shins on pedals
(or pegs) (or stems). This design led to the Velcro design and the design of a dozen knock
off versions of the same shin guard design.
Tops in the freestyle scene were
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