I wish I could say these were from when I was younger, but the closest I ever got to BMX was digging jumps and watching my friends careen off of them (I went off once with a road bike, crashed, and stayed grounded after that).
Anyway the above shots were taken by Cameron Muilenburg from Hidden Clothing. It looks like he and his friends were pretty good — not only at riding but also at capturing the experience with basic equipment (I assume Polaroid). I love the color and composition. The first one feels like a still from a film, paused at just the right moment to capture the most movement.
Sure look like some fearless little kids. Check out the rest of the pics here.
These remind me of the bicycle chase scene in E.T. They have a youthful, rebellious, carefree feel to them.
this looks exactly like my bmx days. actually, i raced a checkerboard redline.
great find, alex. the polaroid format finishes it off perfectly.
Yeah, these are super great! Thanks Alex.
Totally me when I was younger. We rode bmx all day every day. We didn’t have the mag’s though.
so bad ass, much better than the red bull fueled X Games crap that kids only know these days
I’ve seen these a long time ago and they’re great. Life was much simpler in those days – grab your bike, and your friends, and just tear ass around the neighborhood and fields and construction sites all day without a care in the world…
I rode bmx for about six years (1999 – 2005), defgrip is without a doubt one of the most informative and well designed BMX websites out there. There is A LOT of crap in the bmx industry because of the younger crowd coming up but the 25+ guys know whats up.
Wow, thanks so much guys, esp Keaton!! Super stoked to see these photos on the blog (I check ISO50 every day!). I’ve been riding BMX since I was 12 and these are by far some of the best BMX photos I’ve ever seen. Stoked to see the post continue to get juice! Thanks so much!
@ Keaton — yeah I don’t even ride BMX and I just subscribed to defgrip on Google Reader. Seems like a really awesome site even if you’re not part of that world. Well done Harrison!
stoked as well!
I miss riding BMX like that, it was a blast…
Great pics! The timing is funny about this cause I was just talking with friends about how kids these days don’t ride bikes like we used too….and they don’t play in the woods much either…maybe there isn’t as much woods around….maybe technology has ruined them….
captures perfectly what they were made for.
Dallas, Texas…1982…if you had a Mongoose with Skyway Mags you were Michael Jackson.
@ Santos (comment 12) – You are absolutely correct sir. A child on a bike around town these days is like a dodo bird…it doesn’t exist. When I was a kid, once you learned to ride a bike it was like getting your drivers license.
Great photos, great post. At the risk of coming off as an arrogant instant photography “expert”, I would like to draw your attention to the slightly rounded edges of the image that can be seen in the scan.
Clearly, these are instant photos, but not Polaroids, they are undoubtedly the Kodak rip-off rip off version of Polaroid technology that they were ultimately sued for and forced to stop producing. Thanks.
Sweet brings back memories….yeh used to dream of havin mongoose +mag wheels!! would have gone pro for sure if I had them 😛 Was great pedaling round dirt tracks, skids were awesome and lookin well flash in me padded (they had bit of sponge in them) bmx top and pants. Shame all the old pics are in folks storage somewhere, will have to dig them out one day!
<— 24" Racing GT. Man I miss that bike.
wow these take me back. I rode everyday, and we had no internet or magazines or anything. All we had was RAD. We would watch the intro and outro and try to do everything we saw. You could pretty much take a still frame from any point in that movie and it would be amazing. I loved the bikes back then. Pads and numbers on the front. I even had the blue wheel in back and white up front. Oh the good ol days.
I raced in the in the late 70’s and threw the mid 80’s
For a few years of my life ..I injoyed it …for awhile …Fun it was a ,Blast
Even tryed out for the redline racing .i made it ….I only raced about less then a year .Then i quit and moved on to something el’s ….
Racing is fun ….Just a game every bodie just don’t win at first .take’s time to winn …..it was just a game for me .Nothing serious ..Just the fun of it .That is all i did it for .
Thanks
Nsra65
oh no.. i remmember about my days when i was a child… so happy riding with bmx to my school…
Started racing in 1980, absolutely loved it, lived BMX 24-7, purchased all the mags (wish I’d held onto those) and made some great friends. If there was a New part that the top pros were using, I had to have it… ah those were the days!