FreeEnterprise

He still has "it"!

Dude, that is EXACTLY what I want to do next. I would love to have a 24 that I could flatland on and take to the trails when I felt like it... let me know how it handles.

I think I still have footage from that contest in Florida. This thread needs a few pics of smith decades from bitd... me John Boy

wierd you got it with a suntour and freecoaster... Most were sold with the rl edge hub. Which was this strange lopsided hub that acted similar to a freecoaster, cept it tyically didn't work when rolling backwards, and would pop and creek quite loudly even new. I had those rims for a while, brakes were horrible on them, but the softer a pad you could get the better. I found those old pads that looked like vans shoes worked best, but I haven't seen them in forever. I ended up trading them for chrome rims as soon as I could.

I put some of my old ones on the bay last night. Stickers were like currency bitd.

They rode perfect. If you are a redline/master guy, you will find them very short. And quick. As masters and redlines tend to be for taller riders with a longer wheelbase and slower turning. The forks are suspect. I've broken about 10 sets over the years. I usually ended up riding gt forks as they were the strongest I found back then. I always killed haro fork dropouts too. Actually the strongest forks from that era are probably schwinns from 89 that came on the freeform EX pros. Super thick dropouts and very strong. Only issue with those were the holes for the threaded pegs. Which was usually a breaking point if you did a lot of jumping. or Miami hop hops. As for bars. Just do it right and go with the peregrine q bars. Perfect freestyle bars if you can find em. Here is my old 88 http://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/dyno/4057

Nah, different ramp. I remember that too, it did look like Jons old one. That style ramp was pretty common back in 86-87 until real halfpipes started showing up. I put down a ton of my old stories on another site if your bored and interested in the east coast scene back in the late 80's and early 90's. http://www.bmx-forum.com/showthread.php?t=90477

I grew up riding with Jon Byers, and I found this old video that I taped off TV back when the local sports reporter came out in interviewed Jon. I'm the one sitting on the bike on the platform. All four of us were the "Raleigh Trick Team". John Herlacher (on the left), Myself, and Greg Requate (on the right) are on the ramp, and Jon Byers was the "ramp rider" of our group. He could easily do 10 foot airs back in 1986. And we built a new ramp at his house a year after this video was made. That ramp was the one featured in Bully slow ride video (actually I taped that segment of the video, and the same guys are in it as well) Jon was getting 13 to 14 foot airs by then. Super amazing. I have tons of footage that I will be editing down once I figure out how to do it on my new dell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc3m8DQMFAs Hmm. That reminds me. Did you ever wonder where the name Eastern came from? Back in the day, magazines only covered west coast riders, (which makes sense because the zines were on the west coast, and travel ain't cheap). But, that made the east coast riders always have a chip on their shoulders. Because no matter what we did, or how good we got, the west coasters would get all the press. One day, Jon was driving me home from his ramp when we stopped at a cow farm between our houses. (we did this quite a few times). We would climb the fence and push over a cow. (they make a really funny sound when they hit the ground ) Then run like mad and jump back over the fence. Because usually by that time the bull was chasing after you. Anyway, we were laying in the grass panting after running across the field and Jon said, " You know what, one day I'm gonna start a bmx company and name it Eastern, so that they HAVE to take notice of us on the east coast." We all laughed, and then I said that he should call the first bike the Jane, which was the name of this girl we all knew... (I have lots of stories on Jane, but this is a kid friendly site, if you ever see Leigh Ramsdale ask him about her...) So, I left for college, and then turned pro, and started teaching at woodward, then I left the sport and focused on work... Fast forward 12 years and I walked into a bike shop here in Cincy and walked passed the bmx bikes... I almost fell over. AS there on the floor was a EASTERN JANE! The sales guy couldn't figure out why I was laughing so hard...

funny you say that. I was picked up by schwinn in 89. They gave me that Freeform EX pro bike. And since I was always a dyno guy (short front end, quick steering) I couldn't get used to riding the super long, heavy with goofy framestanders schwinn. I ended up putting schwinn stickers on my dyno for the NBL grands that year... Who would have guessed that schwinn would have a rep at the event? I figured no one would have noticed.

yeah, I got picked up by dia-compe brakes, (although it wasn't only the video for that one) The local bike shop picked me up, I got a bunch of clothing dontations from vsw, and others, and GT/Dyno gave me a co-sponsorship, and the local ice cream shop asked me to ride on weekends to draw a crowd. free ice cream!

Here is a little video my sister and I made back in late 86, early 87. almost 22 years ago! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jHOBP-js0E&fmt=18

I saw one of those THIS morning on the way to work. I was giving my brother in law a ride to work, and I saw this guy riding down the street. I said "gotta take a dtour, Hold on" as we turned quicky down the road. Looked just like that one sans brakes and grips. I offered him $30 and he was like, "This bike is worth $800!" so, I let him keep it... He did a rockwalk as I rode off... Classic. I stopped and got him to do some other tricks before we left again. (6:45 am)

chroma key is so cool.

Keith was riding this weekend at the beach

Keith and I grew up riding together. He was from Chapel Hill (next to the UNC campus) and I lived in Raleigh. His aunt and uncle lived about 7 doors down from me and that is how we met. My evening riding spot was right next to his aunts house, and imagine his surprise when he was visiting them and saw a bunch of us freestyling right next to their house. Keith does the King bmx stunt team now. http://www.bmxbikestuntshows.com/ and he was one of the founders of Eastern bikes. I have a bunch of old video's that he produced back in the late 80's. Pretty cool stuff. My leg cramps up just seeing that clip. He is the reason I got back into freestyle. I saw this commercial when I was on vacation in Gatlinburg sitting in a bar eating lunch with the wife about 5 years ago.