Austin360 blogs > Globe-Jotting > Archives > 2009 > April > 24 > Entry
Spinning my wheels
Once upon a dust-clouded wipe-out, I rode and raced BMX bikes. I’ve always had an aversion to team sports — I’m not a team player; I dislike group grunting — gravitating to bikes, skis, skateboards, tennis, swimming. I need my space, no matter how dreadful I am at the activity, which is the norm. I’m pretty good at stinking up the joint.
As with everything, the brand of BMX bike you had was paramount, especially for a 12- and 13-year-old. I started with a banana-seated Huffy, whose unfortunate name, like a surly Hostess baked good, bespeaks lame-itude. Then I got the top-tier Mongoose frame, Team Mongoose, part chromoly steel, part aluminum alloy. (Loved those terms then — “chromoly,” “alloy” — and still do.)
Every other component, save the blue tires and forks, was alloy, the handlebars to the seat clamp, pedals to the inner-tube caps. The idea was loft and lightness. I think I got my bike to an anorexic 25 pounds, which was considered on the porky side with orthodox connoisseurs.
Soon enough I graduated to the unattainable PK Ripper frame, thick, beautifully welded aluminium. Light as an empty beer can, tough as a tank. Cost during the early ’80s in the East Bay Area: $107. Never forgot that piggy-draining price tag.
Looked something like this.
I’ve bought two bikes during my 10 years in Austin, and I sold both of them with humiliating haste. They weren’t BMX, because I can’t fit on that kind of bike anymore without folding my self in to eighths, and that just hurts. So I got BMX-cruiser hybrids that simply didn’t cut it. They weren’t as feisty and ambitious. Taking jumps was like trying to jump with someone on your back.
A week or so ago I tried again. This time I was going full BMX, getting a bike like I used to have. At the bike shop, that dream crumpled quick. I just can’t manage a bike that tiny these days. I felt like the giant clown on the pint-sized tricycle.
So I tried another BMX hybrid. I pumped the pedals eagerly, on gusts of false hope, took a few pipsqueaky curb jumps, popped and pedaled wheelies.
But it’s not the same. Some things have their exact moment, then exit gracefully. I’ve tried to retain those BMX days and failed. That’s OK. Letting go of childish things and all that.
I told the cool sales guy that I’d sleep on it, the hybrid that I gave a lusty test-drive. We shook hands, I put the bike back on the rack. I never returned.
Anybody know where I can get this poster? I used to own it, and it was my favorite wall ornament. Then it got water-stained, ruined. I’ve Googled and found it only at Amazon.com, where it’s “currently unavailable.” Help …
Other things you can get me for my birthday (yeah, you missed it):
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Comments
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By stevear
April 27, 2009 8:53 AM | Link to this
Who’s the skirt? Gonna have to build your own original BMX else use Ebay. Parts and old-timers aplenty in town; now since you got cash it’s actually fun; no tangly cables. I’ve seen the mag fiberglass rims too. Saw KISS the last time on their Lick it Up tour in Corpus without makeup. Got a close-up of Stanley’s rear-end in purple tights.