Publication: BMX Action
Issue: December 1986
Pages: 32–33
Feature: Retrospective year entry titled “1978”
Supplied source record: ../source-images/source-001-1978-bmx-action-spread.png
The transcription follows the visible article in approximate reading order. Headings, quotations, and captions are identified. Line wrapping from the printed columns has been normalized. Original wording is preserved, including period terminology and informal style.
The year of Bobby Encinas, Red Line V-bars, custom numbers, the ABA, Mongooses, and Addicks sprockets.
Large left-page action photograph:
“Up ’til now, the hotties were basically from California. It took awhile for everyone else to catch on. But when the dudes east of the So. Cal. border caught on, they CAUGHT ON! All the way from Oklahoma, came Jeff Ruminer.”
Upper-right left-page action photograph:
“The big guy, Stu, gettin’ rad in Irvine.”
The winner of the 1978 NORA Cup—the very first NORA Cup ever, was factory Shimano racer Bobby Encinas.
Chuck Robinson had just bailed from LRV (or vice-versa), and started his own company, Robinson Racing Products. They had a real winning team going towards the end of the year. Do the names Scott Clark, Jeff Ruminer, Gary Renteria, Bryan Webb, Bill Anderson, and Larry Ruiz sound familiar? Some may. Some better. All were rad—take our word for it.
Portrait caption:
“Winner of the very first NORA Cup, Bobby Encinas.”
In ’78, you were definitely a nobody unless you had a pair of Red Line V-bars clamped to your stem. Your stem was probably an Ashtabula (if you were short on cash), or a Mongoose or Cook Bros. (if you were rich). Still, no matter what your cash flow was, Red Line V’s were HOT items.
The hot bike was a Mongoose. Tinker Juarez, Brian Curnell, Jeff Kosmala, Kenny Knachman, and Dan Oakley were the Factory ’Goose squad. All of those guys ripped. It wasn’t unusual to see four or five Mongoose riders on the gate for a main. Bobby Encinas (Shimano) and Stanley Robinson (Kings BMX track in Modesto—soon to be factory ’Goose) had been Mongoose mounted for the last couple of years, too.
“More major races will be won this year on a Mongoose than on any other single brand.”
BMX ACTION, August 1978.
Steve Skibel portrait caption:
“There are very few LITTLE guys who get respect from the pros. Steve Skibel was one of the few exceptions. He won nearly every time, had his own signature frame put out by DG, got on the cover of BMX ACTION, and retired at an early age.”
Stu Thomsen and Perry Kramer, both on SE, rode on Mongooses until SE came out with some production bikes (the STR-1 for Stu and the P.K. Ripper for you-know-who).
I’m tellin’ ya—Mongoose was HOT. Could such a HUGE team have done it? Or maybe it was those two-page center spread poster/ads with a different team member each month?
Jag also arrived on the scene in 1978. Anthony Sewell was the main man. Other less notable Jag riders were Tommy Brackens and Turnell Henry. You do know that the first Jags were basically Mongooses with different decals, right?
“You mean for the top riders to get paid for using and endorsing products? . . . It’s coming.”
Stu Thomsen, BMX ACTION, June 1978.
Number-plate photograph caption:
“We’re only going to give you one clue as to who this guy is. LOOK at the number plate. Now . . . who would make rad numbers like that?”
Fads and fashions this year mostly consisted of a new craze to make your bike look tricker than everyone else’s—as compared to the past where you WANTED your bike to look like everyone else’s. 1978 brought out an individualistic view in BMX. Like, “I don’t want the same bike as Stu Thomsen’s . . . mine’s gonna look unique.”
One of the best ways to show your own personal style was to trick out your number plate with custom numbers (custom NUMBER if you were good enough). The entire BMX world found this to be quite fun. Bob Haro found this to be quite profitable.
Addicks sprockets came and went during this time, too. They were hotter than the radiator on the SE Tour Bus when they first hit the market. Another must-have. But then they started twanging and twinking when torque-ing. President of the nylon sprocket company, Lyle Addicks (now you know where the name came from) came out with Addicks II—a less holier version and in colors even! Word was out that he was paying people to try to break them.
“The NBA did their usual almost zilch job of promoting. Either that, or because it was close to Halloween, an awful lot of people came dressed as empty seats.”
BMX ACTION, November 1978.
The pro purses were growing. Stu was averaging $300 for first at every race he went to. Everyone freaked out when the ABA offered $1000 for the pro purse at their Phoenix Nationals halfway through the year. And then they toppled that over by offering $1500 the next month in Amarillo, Texas.
The Open class back then was slightly different from what we now know as the Pro Open, where B pros can race A pros. With only one type of pro, the 16 Over Open classes of old consisted of experts AND pros. Sounds fun, don’t it?
14-year-old Jeff Utterback and 13-year-old Greg Hill, were THE fastest amateurs around. Those two guys, both on SE towards the beginning of ’78 (Greg went to Schwinn later on), were totally untouchable.
Doug Davis photograph caption:
“For about three or four years, the Wheels ’N Things bike shop, out of San Diego, had a KILLER team. They launched quite a few kids to super stardom, such as this guy—lil’ Doug Davis.”
The last races of the year, of course, are the Grandnationals. The NBA Grands in ’78 were held inside a coliseum for a change. After being held at some of the finest tracks in the U.S., the move to concrete floors and wooden jumps was a cool change. Pro purse here? Biggest yet—THREE THOU. David Clinton flew in for the win, beating out five of the fastest pros in the country—Kosmala, McNeal, Stu, Brent, and Harry.