FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Name: John Buultjens
Hometown: Dundee, Scotland. Now San Diego, California.
Started riding BMX in: 1982
Number of bikes in the collection: Had 128, now 25

Do you remember the moment that you decided to start collecting BMX memorabilia?
John Buultjens: The date was August 1997. I immigrated to Australia back in June 1995 and left all my old bikes and parts under my parents' house in Dundee. The folks were moving and had everything boxed up from under the house and shipped it to me in Australia. When I opened the boxes, I found all my childhood treasures, 1988 Sport, 1989 Chrome Master Bashguard, 1989 Master Bashguard in black and my 1991 Air-Master. eBay had just come online and I started searching for parts to re-build my bikes and bring them back to they way I rode them back in the day. Took me a few years, but I got all the parts. Whilst searching I was finding other bikes too, so I started collecting the Haro’s I had always dreamed of, including the 1982 Haro Freestyler.

Was Haro always the #1 brand in your head of bikes to collect?
John Buultjens: Sure was, after receiving my OG bikes, I just knew I had to restore them.

Name: Perry Wills
Hometown: Sacramento, CA
Started riding BMX in: Late 70’s 
Number of bikes in your collection: 20-25 bikes currently not including parts

Can you claim you bombed down the hills on a bike in the '70s?
Perry Wills: I did not bomb hills in 70’s, we typically made jumps in fields or went to places we knew there were jumps. Relatively flat where I grew up.

Do you think the suspension bikes from the '70s are fascinating?
Perry Wills: Love suspension bikes! Own several. Probably the rarest I’ve had is Harry Leary’s mono shock made by Prodyne.. Current rarest probably the Whitney Marine Baja 500 mono shock.

When you see one at a local swapmeet do you have to get it no matter what?
Perry Wills: I’ve purchased 3 mono shocks all being Matthew’s at a local flea market and one Silverfox shock bike so yeah pretty much. If I were to find one I’d most likely buy it..

What's the story about the full suspension Panda?

Name: Adam Cox
Hometown: Glendora, CA. USA.
Started racing BMX in: 1974
How many bikes in collection: 9

As a former Factory JMC rider, is that where the BMX collection started for you?
Adam Cox: Collecting for me started in Jr. Highschool with balloon tire bikes, Beach cruisers and Whizzer Motorbikes. In about 2000 I started collecting BMX. At the end of 1980 my family moved to Sacramento, CA. My Dad and I had a shop out of our garage "Factory Connection". I had quite a bit of leftover inventory from that short venture to help me kick off my BMX collecting.

Do you only have "Made in the USA" bikes in your collection?
Adam Cox: Yes

Does "Made in the USA" mean a lot to you to this day?

Name: Tom Sustarich
Hometown: Macomb Twp., Michigan, USA.
Started riding BMX in: I started riding a BMX bike in 1979 on a Mongoose with Tuff Wheels. In 1982, I got a Hutch frameset for Christmas. From 1980 through about 1984, I raced BMX locally in southeast Michigan with my brother, my cousin, and several good friends. We lived in the country, so we were at the mercy of our parents work schedules to get to a BMX track. Although we did not race as much as I would have liked to, my parents were always supportive and encouraging and those were some of the best years of my childhood. We spent our days on our bikes. Jumping in ditches, riding dirt roads. We build a quarter-pipe. We practiced tricks. The weather did not matter. We rode year-round. Snow, rain, heat, etc. It was the first taste of freedom. In the summer of 1984, I sold my race bike and all the parts I

Name: Mark McCorkle
Hometown: Beaverton, OR
Started riding BMX in: 1978 in Littleton, CO
Number of bikes in the collection: 14. 11 vintage/old-school.

Do you remember the moment that you decided to start collecting BMX memorabilia?
Mark McCorkle: It was 2008. I still had my original race bike from 1979. I had been hauling around, place to place for nearly 30 years. One day I just sort of realized I didn't feel I'd ever really use it. I figured if I could get $1000 for it, I'd let it go. After digging around on eBay, BMXMuseum and OS-BMX (now BMXSociety) websites, I generally found it was probably a $500-600 bike. So I decided not to part with it.

Name: Daniel Purcell aka Superbikedan
Hometown: Essex, England
Started riding BMX in: 1980

When was the first time you rode at Romford skatepark?
Daniel Purcell: On a skateboard in '78 when it opened then on my first BMX in 1980.

When was the last time?
Daniel Purcell: 2004 when after a lot of pressure from my son and Rom old school to see me ride again I lasted a couple of hours before I broke my leg and that was the end of my come back, many said that was the best few hours they saw, haha.

Obviously you've been involved in BMX for a long time and have seen the bikes come and go. What bike (brand) has always been a favourite to you?

Name: Trevor Henry
Hometown: West London UK

What's your earliest memory of BMX?
Trevor Henry: Watching Craig Strong doing no handed wheelie’s on TV and then seeing my friends trying to the same on Grifters and Choppers, but complaining about how heavy they were. Then E.T. came out and everybody ditched their Choppers for Burners, PK Rippers, Ammaco’s and DP Firebirds. It’s like a wave hit the London overnight… one day it was Rubik’s cubes and monkey boots then the next day it was BMX’s Breakdancing and Electro Hop music.

Who were some of the BMX riders that you admired back in the day?

Name: Jonathan Sherwood
Hometown: Durban (South Africa), now living Durham (UK).
Started riding BMX in: Had a BMX from a very young age but only properly discovered BMX in 1992.
Number of BMX bikes in your collection: 35 completes, 14 frames, and a whole lot of random parts and race gear.

Being from South Africa originally, what were popular BMX brands when you started?
Jonathan Sherwood: BMX was huge in SA in the 80's, so all of the major brands from that era were popular (GT, Mongoose, Kuwahara, Hutch, Patterson, etc). In the 90's however there were absolutely no BMX bikes for sale in SA, so you could only get bikes from mail order stores like Dans Comp, ACE, and

Name: Henry Sarria
Hometown: Born in Havana, Cuba, grew up in Hialeah, FL, currently live in Isla Vista, CA
When did you start riding BMX: 1973
Number of bikes in your collection: 6 BMX race/dirt jump, 1 road, 2 MTB, 10 1970's-80's classic BMX bikes, 4 classic Schwinn cruisers (including the Schwinn Mini Twinn 20" wheel tandem my wife & I ride around town) & 1 all around beach cruiser. My wife has a few bkes too!

Which bikes have you built exactly to the spec a pro was riding it back in the day?
Henry Sarria: None, all my bikes I built for me, as nobody else was going to be riding it. Never cared

Name: Pat McKenna Se666
Hometown: Honolulu, Hawaii
Started riding BMX in: 1977
Number of bikes in the collection: Varied over the years...around 80.

Do you remember the moment that you decided to start collecting BMX memorabilia?
PJ McKenna: I started to look for graphite Tuff Wheels and a Patterson back in 1998. I was calling Skyway, calling bike shops but then got sidetracked with a career.

Back then, was it much easier to find parts that you needed?
PJ McKenna: Sort of, I got stuff locally from Aaron Stewart and a couple local guys in San Mateo, California.

Has the market been killed by the "new kids on the block"?
PJ McKenna: I think it definitely spiked in prices as you have a lot of guys from my era that can afford to make huge purchases of non essential items. Back 10 to 15 years ago you had only like 10 heavy hitters...now you have scores of wealthy BMX aficionados. Guys like Walt, Vbiker Shane, Martin, Wasa,