I should have bought a BMX

Ok, I admit it, I have never owned a BMX. Even with a starring role in ET and whilst my school chum Simon had an awesome Silver Mongoose, I was still riding a trusty Grifter. Then, what seemed like years later, my other school chum, Tim, got a Puch Mountain Bike ( one of the first in the UK and yes made by the company who make those little moped things ) and any interest I had in BMXs went out the window.

The Mighty Raleigh Grifter

From the Grifter, I followed Tim ( yes, one of the original 'Tims'), into the world of Mountain bikes with a Peugeot 'Safari' and then through a succession of Marin's, British Eagles, Treks and other stuff. I used them to ride the trails along with commuting 10 miles to work ( remember when one bike did it all? ). I never really missed not having a BMX.

The Marin Hawk Hill - My first bike with Front Suspension

Many years later I started work at Afour ( which became Sole Technology UK ) and I was once again exposed to the world of BMX with the brand Etnies. But even with being involved in the UK premier of the mighty 'Grounded' BMX film ( as a side note this introduced me to the Black Keys, so I will always be grateful for that ), I stuck to Mountain Bikes, whilst Etnies, at the time, focused on it's skateboarding portfolio.

Grounded -find it on some download site?

Roll on a few years and I found myself a couple of weeks back at Manchester BMX track riding for the first time a small wheeled beast. Yes I am now 35. This I now realise was far too late. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but instead of hanging around New Deal Skates trying to be good at skateboarding through osmosis, I reckon I would have been better off learning to jump a BMX. Call it heresy, but I have never been that good on four wheels.

So why write about this now when clearly I am all about two wheeled action these days? Well last night on my little Blackberry screen I watched this video.


  Just check out the entry at the 2min mark. THAT IS INSANE!
Now I am not saying that I would ever have been able to ride like this, but I might at least have been able to learn how to bunny hop properly without SPDs!

So what can I do? I'm never going to be able to jump a big like these guys but with Sprog No.1 now riding her first pedal bike and Sprog No.2 not that far behind, I am going to make ruddy sure that both of them spend some time on BMXs....

....now I wonder if I can buy a Grifter on eBay?