Source: BMX Action, December 1986, pages 30–31
Article title: 1977
Transcription method: Manual review of the supplied two-page scan.
Editorial rule: Visible wording is preserved. No missing text has been invented.
John George was awesome. Never has there been a guy who could show up at a national after a six month vacation, smoke the comp, hibernate for another six months, and then repeat another gnarly win.
It finally happened! They started an organized pro class. In the August 1977 issue of Bicycle Motocross Action, there was an article on the Professional Racing Organization (PRO). Money was now at stake. BMX could finally be considered a full-time job.
From that list, notice that Stu and Harry are the main dudes that have remained on top to this day. Tinker is still sorta up there, racing on special occasions, and Hadley, Bottema, Breithaupt, Perry, Clinton, and Byron are all still into the BMX industry in one way or another. Not bad, huh?
During this time, we saw some of the most radical tracks start-up, which meant that some of the most radical racing took place on them.
All DG equipped, this kid had only just begun. Eddy King.
Weinert Mountain, Rancho San Diego, and Corona were the gnarliest!
Kevin McNeal was the man to beat at Corona. Matter of fact, the Corona locals used to take up a weekly collection for the first person to beat the “Corona Kid.” Week after week, the money piled up and so did Kevin’s first place trophy collection. So, who finally beat McNeal? No one remembers . . .
The hot bike at this time would have to be the FMF. Maybe having Scot, Jeff Utterback, and Stompin’ Stu on the team helped. The FMF was also one of the most highly copied frames in its time. Laguna and Race Inc. weren’t too original, if you get my drift. Real FMF’s have a small oval in the gussett.
Speedo forks were also the hot set-up. Although they might not have caught on in EVERY area of the states, the team did great, thus making the fork legendary. Brent and Brian Patterson, John Crews, Scott Clark, Richie Anderson, and Mike Koran made up one AWESOME team.
Stu claims to have invented the no-hander/no-footer in 1977, when he was on FMF. We won’t argue with that.
The sight was a U-shaped jump in the Simi Valley. You would start on one side, look both ways for cars, push off, fly down the side of the hill, bunny hop up and onto the street, cross the road doing about 20 mph, jump down into a ditch, start going up the other side of the hill, and LAUNCH.
If all went well up to that point, you’d find yourself about twenty feet in the air with more air time than you ever knew what to do with. Cross it up. Pitch it into a table-top. Kick ’er out. Whatever.
Buildin Leapin’ Jones, a.k.a. Donny Jones, was BMXA’s first full tilt test thrasher. He rose to fame quickly, showing the world a wide array of insane jumps, and is probably best known as being the perfector of the table-top. B.L.J. is legendary—the man who brought madness to many a page of BMX ACTION.
Also making his ’77 world debut was a short and pudgy baldheaded BMX trainer with a red mustache, name o’ Charlie Narly. He was the owner of Narly’s Training Camp and was solely responsible for Scot Breithaupt getting his 1976 NBA National No. 1 title. In the August issue of BMXA, Charlie’s secret training methods were finally revealed. Scot told of how Charlie helped Stu Thomsen, Perry Kramer, Billy MacIntyre, “Dirt Clod” O’Hare, and himself get ready for the up coming summer race tour.
The whole method was to “get Narly”—just a simple game of hide ’n seek. The barnstorming bunch of bonzai bermbusters would look around, see Charlie, chase after him, and if someone was lucky, they’d “get Narly.”
According to the article, Stu was the closest to “get Narly.” But to this day no one has yet. The legend of Charlie still lives on . . .
In those days, the most hip duds at the track were JT pants and gloves. Anyone who was someone adorned the giant JT logo across their butt. Anything less, and they’d be considered a squid.
Dennis Dain and Steve Ruiz dominated sidehacks in ’77. The number plate said it all.
Look at how tricky out test riders were about not getting their pants stuck in the chain . . . Also check out the brand new ’77 Red Line Pro Line—the first Red Line to not have a front gusset. And check out the custom test uniforms! BMXA’s first test crew—the Arvada Street Gang (Ike, R.L., and Donny “Buildin’ Leapin’ Jones”).
Scott Clark when he was on Speedo, right? Yeah, I’d recognize that bite-the-tongue-and-make-googley-eyes style anywhere! That’s why they invented mouth guards!
Mr. DG himself, Jeffrey Bottema. He jammed back then and in years to come, but started to slow down after some chick cut his hair.