Author Topic: Bricks and Milk Crates (Read 3987 times)

Ramp Rat · « **on:** November 12, 2005, 06:41 AM »

Bricks and Milk Crate Jumps.

First pic is of my first ever BMX, Team Murray with Yellow Lester Mags, build like a fricking Tank. Note the halfords helmet and face guard, very mean. Notice the 'Tracker Boy' in the background, pre BMX when kids beefed up post-man bikes and put Canadian Bends bars on 'em. They welded T-Bard on the frame, a bit like a gusset to strengthen the frame, (not like anyone jumped on them). They had straight Chrome forks on 'em too. They would spray paint them all colorful and funky. I don't think the Yanks had a bike craze like that? Anyone know?

I think it was a purely English scene, a bit like 2-Tone and The Jam. Second Pic. I'm on an old Pro-Star (tri-moly) and even sporting a Pro-Star shirt. Third pic. I'm on my favorite BMX, a mini Race Inc. with 3" bars (cut down and inch each side), mini suntour stem, 165 Suntour Cranks, Ranc Inc shirt. That bike was so light and tight man...

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Coastvl · « **Reply #1 on:** November 12, 2005, 06:54 AM »

Yep, I used to do the same. I had the neighbourhood record for clearing 27 kids and 3 bikes of a jump 18 inches high. Imagine the lawsuits today!

Ramp Rat · « **Reply #2 on:** November 12, 2005, 07:11 AM »

Don't forget the father that started it all..The Grifter, Mud guard off, Chain ring guard off, Hub Cleaners, straighten the forks by taking the front wheel off and jamming the forks in a sewer drain and yanking back on the bars until they bend straight. Almost a BMX now

'Horsham Boys Horsham Boys, laced up boots and cordoroys'.

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Bigplinky · « **Reply #3 on:** November 12, 2005, 07:23 AM »

Cool Nice style geezer, bet that Race Inc didn't last long doing stuff like that on it.

Got to add though I learned my trade on a Striker not a Grifter (then got a grifter a £8, only about 3 years old, and made the period modifications you mentioned except I seem to remember you had to bend the forks straight again about once a week. Raleigh monkey metal yer canny whack it)

isn't this the BMX equivalent of jumpers for goal posts

Andy

theRuler · « **Reply #4 on:** November 12, 2005, 11:43 AM »

cool pics!!!

i really gotta get a scanner and get mine on.

The-flying-banana · « **Reply #5 on:** November 12, 2005, 11:49 AM »

Ye really cool pics and very high for a nipper

i remember my grifter forks flying off during a ramp jump in mid air so ther was me having to land a jump with no forks or front wheel

the steere tube was still there hence the bars never came off , I just thought try and land it on the back wheel and wheelie

i broke me leg

Frosty · « **Reply #6 on:** November 12, 2005, 12:01 PM »

Ramp Rat,

I like the way with the lewngthened forks on the Grifter you manage to improve front end braking - by gripping the tyes and not the rim

Ramp Rat · « **Reply #7 on:** November 12, 2005, 03:59 PM »

Frosty, that's right, I forgot that when the forks straightened, the brake pads missed the rim and grabbed the tires instead, DIY junk.

Andy - My Race Inc. never cracked, but may mate Steve Baldry (Crazy Leggs) cracked his at Surbiton race track. I was bummbed, so I sold mine right after that, just in case.

billstup · « **Reply #8 on:** November 12, 2005, 08:02 PM »

Mine broke, and alloy frames had no warrentee

Moose · « **Reply #9 on:** November 12, 2005, 08:56 PM »

The pictures are really cool, thanks for that

CD17 · « **Reply #10 on:** November 13, 2005, 12:13 AM »

Yeah cool pic's, forgot just how ugly those Grifters were

retrorider.u.k · « **Reply #11 on:** November 13, 2005, 03:29 PM »

i had a red grifter.it was £60 from halfords

happy days...

MegaMike · « **Reply #12 on:** November 17, 2005, 06:32 PM »

Hey Ramp Rat
Am I right in thinking that those last 2 pics are from Sutton Rec?
I used to ride there from about '85, so many good times there. Learnt to ride vert there, now it earns me a living.
Sadly it was demolished about 18 months ago.
A bunch of mates and myself who all started riding there have set up a website: BeerMX
http://www.beermx.co.uk/BeerMXsite/TheREC.html

stuntmaster · « **Reply #13 on:** November 17, 2005, 06:44 PM »

about time you join mike

keyhole kid · « **Reply #14 on:** November 17, 2005, 07:38 PM »

hey damon i to had a grifter but was never able to jump without bending me forks as they were so heavy, also in that second pic did you actually clear the landing ramp

woodzy · « **Reply #15 on:** November 17, 2005, 07:41 PM »

me and mates still build some of our ramps with bricks even though ive gt a plastic rampage ramp

Bren Gunn · « **Reply #16 on:** November 17, 2005, 08:19 PM »

Cool pics dude, thanks for posting.

mike pardon · « **Reply #17 on:** November 18, 2005, 10:34 AM »

Oh yes great pics. I used to dream of a grifter!!!
You all used to have racers right? well we used to turn the bars upside down and do "how many pedal wheelies" then Evil Knieval was out and we did the whole milk crate gap jump thing. It was awesome you became he local hero...
And when my mate at school started talking about these bikes called BMX he has seen in Halfords TEAM MURRAY's i almost had an accident!!! I used to make him describe every feature on them, he had a test ride on one in the shop and i remember his exact words..

" its goes so fast"

well that was it game over,,, i had to have one. This was the machine we had all been dreaming about right??
a bike that was made for the rough stuff...
God it was like a dream. Then Alans opened and we used to walk down from school in dinner and look in the window and chew our meat pies. Drooling on the ledge.. Know he had some exotic species in the shop. Mongooses and (cant remember the rest) it was like another world. Around that time i saw Bmx on Magpie (kiddies show)
i was lay on the floor as you do after school, watching telly when TINKER JUAREZ came on riding at a skatepark and did a 360 out of a bowl... OH MY GOD.....I could not believe what i had witnessed.. Was it true? did my eyes trick me....I was the best thing ever. I had to try and emulate that guy so i commandered my sisters 16 inch pushbike that looked nothing like a bmx and went "down the fields" to practise being Tinker.. I figured the small wheels would help but it didnt and was soon consigned to the scrap heap.
Then came xmas and a suprise i will never ever forget.. but thats another story.. night night

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muttley · « **Reply #18 on:** November 18, 2005, 10:43 AM »

Another sutton boy eh

The concrete bump is still there but with a fence in front of it

Have to admit i never new thay had a half pipe there, when was that from and to ?

Jazzchimp · « **Reply #19 on:** November 18, 2005, 10:52 AM »

Class, see the Puch Murray in the first shot was the same colour as mine BITD, how you got that off the ground is a mystery to me!

Pikey, nice job summing up the feelings of those pioneering days. I remember when I got my Murray no-one knew what the heck it was - they thought it was a plastic bike!! Within a year every kid in the uk had one!! Happy dayz

nornirishjon · « **Reply #20 on:** November 18, 2005, 12:22 PM »

Ramp Rat: Crackin pics man, really takes me back to the milk crate ramp days, im sure i have some similar pics too, will get tham scanned.

All my mates had Grifters but I had this Bright Orange thing called a Phantom, anybody remember them?

Christ, first bike a Phantom and last bike a DP Freestyler - you'd think i'd lived on a council estate, i didnt - we had a back garden and everything, honest!

gudge · « **Reply #21 on:** November 18, 2005, 02:38 PM »

Great story Mike! I remember having to go shopping with my mum when i was a kid, so i used to sneak off and stare at those Murray's in halfords shop front. Never got one like.
So when is someone gonna do a Stacey Peralta Dogtown style Bmx documentary! Surely the likes of Mr. Pardon and his amazing memory will feature.

stuntmaster · « **Reply #22 on:** November 18, 2005, 03:52 PM »

Quote from: muttley on November 18, 2005, 10:43 AM

Another sutton boy eh The concrete bump is still there but with a fence in front of it

Have to admit i never new thay had a half pipe there, when was that from and to ?

the bump not there now ,got bulldozer early this year ,see beermx for info

Ramp Rat · « **Reply #23 on:** November 19, 2005, 02:15 AM »

Couple more pics. of Sutton Rec. Check out the Tracker Boy on top of the ramp...he's thinking, 'screw this Tracker, I'm gonna get me a Raleigh Burner'

Yeah, I'm a Sutton boy, learned to jump down at the Devils Dyke in Cheam Nonsuchpark, then migrated to the Rec in Sutton, Stuntmaster showed me the link to BeerMX 4130, very cool web site, I saw a pic of A BLOKE jumping at Ewell Castle bowl, way cool! I saw the sad pics of the Rec being bulldozed.

MegaMike, are you Mike Mullen? I saw some pics on the BeerMX site, f@#% well high no hander, wicjed style. Nice to see the spirt live on from Sutton Rec. It used to be Jason Lunn, Tony Mackenzie, Ralph Tribe, Steve (Crazy Leggs) Baldry, Darren Crisp etc. back in 1982.

Damon

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stuntmaster · « **Reply #24 on:** November 19, 2005, 09:33 AM »

lol the pic at ewell castle was me paul selwood .
the ramp at sutton was the there after 85 ,i can`t remember when but i rode it and everyone else did untill it got unsafe and the council knocked it down a few years later .it was a strange ramp as it was on a hill so mega fast out of one side and slow out the other also it was 2 ft off the ground .a few of my friends used to get 7 foot out of it and boy that looked scary on such a small ramp .
good times wish i had some pics but don`t