Ok lets fast forward a little to the late 80's now, There was not really a lot to ride back in the day when it came to places to session, Nowadays you have that much more of a choice as to were you can ride and that is quite mind blowing.
Back in the day you could probably count all the places on one hand if you were lucky enough to know were to go and ride that was good, it was what you made of the day with whatever you had to session, one of the places to ride was the dirt jumps down at billy's which is off the Wolverhampton road and Pound road junction, billy's was a real good dirt jumping place to go and watch the locals and try a little jump yourself, there was a good selection of jumps there.
Gary and Devon and a few older riders use to ride down to billy's from bearwood and somehow they had the patience to let me tag along with them well more like wait for me, which is nothing but much peace from me to them and respect, billy's still stands today but is a bit older now and worn down but none the less is still standing there to have a blast. Bearwood was a place were all the locals rode bmx back in the day out of the proportion of riders went onto skateboard and done so just as well as they rode, there was never any friction really from either the skaters or riders like you use to hear about at places. Birmingham wheels was a place back in the day that just blew everything away and was an amazing place, on the weekends the riders would ride into wheels to session for the day and been it about 8 miles from bearwood and the route took you through the city centre on a Saturday there was much fun had, loads of steps to jump off avoiding the shoppers about there day.
Truthfully the riders that ended up been local riders at Bearwood was all from neighbouring areas e.g. Oldbury, Smethwick, Tividale, Quinton, Harborne, which was crazy but the energy they put into riding the park and i suppose having love for the bearwood they became more a local rider than the riders that lived in bearwood, it was these traveling riders that made bearwood into what it became because alot of the locals with the exception of the odd few that were there from the day moved on to venture other realms. Now it is about 1989-1990 and i had to go to India for 3 months and when i get back anneka rice has been with her crew and built a modern day skatepark where the old paddling pool was ending the great days of the sessions had learning to bunnyhop out of the pool heading for the dirt jumps around the edges, you learn in life nothing on this planet will be here for ever.
The thing that a lot of riders learnt in and out of the paddling pool back in the day would most certainly be of use in the years to come no doubt, there came a time in the early 90's were due to sketchyness or bad judgement the wheels and bike parts were taking a bashing resulting in rear wheels getting buckled, money was tight back then for a few or 2 and not been able to afford new wheels the other parts were not really a problem but the wheels been buckled used to put a stop to your riding but to avoid this we started to take our brake blocks off as to give the wobbly wheel a little bit more of a movement to roll as you pedalled just so you could get a little bit more time to ride but as you rode more, the wheels got worse so the calipers were removed as to get the most out the wheel, once the calipers were off there you go brakeless and a truly wobbly bike that when you pedalled towards a jump or to do a jump or air it was an experience not to be forgotten.
When money was in the hand again and we was able to buy a wheel, the brakes never went back on and ended up been a brakeless destiny, there was a lot of fun with no brakes and a lot of times you thought the heart was going to stop, just been in a dilemma and not knowing how you going to stop other than ruining your new shoes, a little flashback comes to mind about a time when riding the old mini ramp at bearwood brakeless,i was airing the mini all was going smooth I'm coming in from a air which was of good height and i knew that if i do the next air after this one I'm coming in from i would be going higher than i would like to,and not having no brakes to stop with,so i just shot out of the opposite transition to jump out of the side of the mini ramp i left it quite late to exit the ramp and was quite high up the transisition flying out the side of the ramp through the air about 7 feet in the air and some distance i gather from the speed i had, then all of a sudden i see kennychrome below riding towards the banks we have down the park now, i shouted and shouted but having his headphones on he never heard a thing, next thing i have landed on him from my exit out the mini ramp and stopped him right in his tracks to say he unleashed a barrage of verbal would be an understatement to the least,he also cursed my bike as to how rubbish it was and if i had brakes i would of not landed on him, from my memory of the time in question i think i landed on his shoulders, Kennychrome was a little shaken but unhurt i think, can't remember really but he broke my fall, now that's what good mates are for.
Till next time much peace and blessings.
BLF.
