From about 1982 to 1989, I pretty much lived and breathed BMX racing. Even into adulthood, I’ve occasionally sought to relive my Cru Jones fantasies, though I’ve found pretty quickly that jumping and wreaking hurts a lot worse than it used to, and that my main “skill” on any bike seems to be pedaling in a straight line and staying upright.

But even though I’ve since become more of a road and mountain biker than a BMX racer, I think the approach I had to BMX riding and racing as a kid has a lot of relevance to the riding I want to do today.  What I mean by that is that whether a ride is short or long, if I don’t have a smile on my face at the end of the ride, then I need to be doing something different.

If you are getting bored on the road, buy a mountain bike, or visa versa. Or better yet, get yourself a bike that allows you to mix it up, combining both road and dirt. Whether it’s fixed gear, cyclocross, or back country exploring, I want all the cycling I do to be a form of play, much like it was when I raced BMX as a kid.

That doesn’t mean I don’t take satisfaction in long and challenging rides from time to time where I’m pretty wiped out at the end, and any smile I might have might be confused with a whimper. But the days when I would take a more industrial and regimented approach to training are long gone.

So to salute the old BMX spirit and the power of biking as whimsical play, here are a some retro BMX builds I did a few years back:

OM Flyer side

(First generation OM flyer from around 1979. The parts are not period correct, but it sure was cool anyway. 26″ wheels)

Dustin's Azusa

(JMC tribute bike using modern parts. 24″ wheels)

Skunkside

(SE Quadangle tribute bike, made to look like an old school Quad, but with modern BMX geometry. 24″ Wheels)

And, yes, I know the saddle is too high in all those pics! I wasn’t exactly using them to catch big air, though I did often take the JMC tribute bike to the local BMX track and do laps.

Sadly, I sold them off before moving to Burkina Faso a few years back so that we wouldn’t have to put as much in storage during the time we were over there. Doh! Wish I had them back now.