FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

NAME: Ashley Little
HOME TOWN: Leicester, U.K
NUMBER OF BIKES IN COLLECTION: Currently have 21 complete bikes and approximately 20 frame sets. I’ve recently sold my unit where I had all my bikes, motorbikes, cars and other random stuff so everything BMX related is boxed up ready for the move.

What was the starting point of your BMX collecting madness?
Ashley Little: Completely random but the company I owned at the time had a job working near an old BMX track where I grew up. I had to sign the completed works off on a Saturday morning and there was an event at the track, I popped over for a quick look and it was a small dirt jump event, hanging around I saw a guy on a PK RIPPER and got chatting. Fortunately for me he had no desire to keep the bike and a short while later the bike was in my car and approximately $120 in his pocket. From then on my curiosity lead me to looking up old local bike shops and buying old stock.

Name: Alvin Mullins
Hometown: Bell Gardens, CA. USA.
Started riding BMX in: 1975
Number of bikes in the collection: 42 vintage bikes. Webco, Two Wheeler, JMC, Cook Bros, G-Boy, Dan Gurney, Matthews, Haro, Skyway. Race Inc, SE...

Is your BMX past more Racing or Freestyle?
Alvin Mullins: Freestyle. I rode skateparks and ramps.

Does that reflect on the bikes that you are collecting?
Alvin Mullins: Not really, I do have a couple Haro Freestylers but mostly collect '70s BMX bikes and a few late '70s early '80s racing bikes.

Do you try to track down bikes that you rode in the past?

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: 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?

Old school BMX was a legendary era for the sport and the tricks and the riders that can do them are becoming rare to see and today awe are lucky enough to have @fishonabike here at our skatepark doing his top 10 favorite old school BMX tricks and they seem impossible!

Name: Frank Lukas
Hometown: Koblenz, Germany
Bike: Morales 2nd Generation

Home come you decided to build up a Morales bike from scratch?
Frank Lukas: I think this frame is the most iconic Flatland frame ever designed and produced. It changed everything. Don’t quote me here, but I think it was the very first “Flatland specific frame”. I also think that the riders who rode the frame had the biggest impact on Flatland besides Kevin and Chase. I was so into Westcoast Flatland- Richard, Jesse, Edgar and many more...

Name: William LaRoque aka Larock
Hometown: Long Beach, CA

What's your earliest memory of BMX?
Larock: Seeing On Any Sunday for the first time and wanting an MX kit for my hand me down Lime Green StingRay.

Who were some of the BMX riders that you admired back in the day?
Larock: That’s a tough one! I was kind of Partial to the SE Factory Boys because they had such close ties to Long Beach, BUMS track was less than a mile away from where I grew up. Scot, Thomsen & PK of course. But who could deny the Panther, Dain, Utterback, King, Atherton and all of the others that graced the pages of our favorite magazines.

Name: Paul de Jong
Hometown: Aarle-Rixtel
Started riding BMX in: 1971 but real BMX Bike in 1979
Number of bikes in the collection: Don’t have a clue, at least 15 nice ones

Do you have any bikes from the '50-s when the first people started racing BMX in The Netherlands?
Paul de Jong: Yes I have a 1950 Schwinn girls beachcruiser from Mom, who was jumping doubles in the 50’s when BMX was popular in the Netherlands. Before you “Americans” are going to reply on this: Ignaz Schwinn is from Europe fyi.

What makes you decide to start a certain bike building project?

BMX Texas Take Over: Riding into the Lone Star State!

Name: Steve Strong
Hometown: Dagenham, UK.
Started riding BMX in: 1981.
Number of bikes in the collection: 3 at the moment, built around 25 decent ones I was happy with.

What was the first project bike that got you into collecting BMX bikes?
Steve Strong: 1981 Team Murray 'Track Certified'.

How difficult was it to find parts for it in the beginning?
Steve Strong: When I first started, I knew nothing of the UK scene. I was (and still am) a member of BMX Society and BMXMuseum. Primarily all of my parts came from Ebay.com and the Museum pages.