At night, I gave Huffy a verbal agreement that I will ride for them next year & they handed me a $1,000 signing bonus check. Cool! After everyone left the arena (at 11:30pm), Randy Stumpfhauser & I did a Huffy photo shoot in Huffy uniform & riding a carbon fiber Huffy bike. I finally got to bed at 1am.
Looking Back Now:
I was still riding for Haro at this race. So it’s kind of funny that I did a “sneaky photoshoot” with Huffy late in the night after everyone left the arena. When I was riding for Haro, I never thought I would leave them & ride for anyone else. But Haro didn’t offer me any salary raise going into my 4th year of riding for them. And Huffy came at me with $1,000 more per month, plus a signing bonus, and higher bonuses for magazine photos & top finishes. So it was kind of a “no brainer” to ride for Huffy.
Believe you me, a lot of people made fun of me for riding for Huffy. Everyone thought that they would pull out of BMX in two years. But I ended up riding for them for 5 years, so it was a good decision.
A funny story about the girl, Ali: I met her on the plane on the way to the ABA Grands the month earlier. She was a flight attendant. In all of the 100’s and 100’s of thousands of miles I’ve flown, she’s the only flight attendant that I’ve ever hooked up with. I guess I’m too busy sleeping on most flights.
So the next day at the race, I crashed my brains out when the front end of my bike snapped off when I jumped these triples. This was my final race on Haro. Here’s what I wrote in my journal entry the next day:
Actual Journal Entry from December 29, 1996:
AA Pro motos: 2nd- 5th- 7th -I was winning my 3rd moto & cased the big triples down the 2nd straight & the front end of my bike snapped off. I face planted & was knocked out cold. I got carried off on a stretcher, but I don’t remember it. My crash scared a lot of people. They thought I was really, really hurt. It was probably one of the worst crashes that I’ve ever had.
Photo: Wouldn’t ya know it. I think the Haro Gods were getting back at me for quitting the team.
Todd Lyons
I started keeping a daily journal way back in 1987 when I was only 15 years old. Back then I was a just a freshman in high school. Since then, every single freakin' day of my life has been documented in these journals. If it happened in my life, then I wrote it down & documented it. And believe me; I've got some stories to tell! Looking back over the years, here is a journal entry that stands out and also my comments looking back now.
Actual Journal Entry from December 28, 1996: I woke up at 7:30am in Columbus, OH & rode a few blocks to Rich Vittiello’s hotel (the main guy at Huffy). We had breakfast & talked for about 2hrs about their sponsorship offer for me for next year. They will pay me $30,000/year salary with bonuses & they want to sign me for two years! I went back to my hotel & called Brad Lusky at Haro & told him about the offer. He said that Haro would not be able to come close to matching it. So I was like, “Laters.”
At night, there was a Pro race & jump contest. I got 3rd in the race & won $242. Stoked! I entered the jump contest & I jumped good, but didn’t qualify. Ali & a couple of her friends came to the race. She looks a lot better than I remember. (She’s the flight attendant that I met last month flying to the ABA Grands)
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.