Tales From Bearwood.

BearBmx would like to share a few thoughts about the journey, I Kind of like the old days riding compared to nowadays seemed there was more fun back in the day. Bmx was about the love of riding in them golden days, I'm sure it still has the love nowadays. As mentioned in previous posts, first came Fun then came Bmx throughout, What you see on Jackass was the norm with Bearwood riders so much antics going on around you that you wouldn't know when you would be dragged into it. You had to have all your senses on full alert at times. Even when you would be riding there was a good chance that someone on the deck would grab your back wheel in mid air or just slap it making you over rotate, resulting in either you fall off or you manage to keep your balance and land the best you could(Funny)without crashing which was very rare. Somehow out of these antics nobody got hurt which is a surprise really, One time myself and Coley learnt to do double airs (one airing over the other) on the first rareunit mini ramp we had, The ramp was 16 feet wide and 5 feet tall we would have 8 feet each in width of the ramp to do our set up airs(Very Funny) I remember we would, be just airing normally, and didn't fancy the airing over each other part. We managed to get it sorted in the end best we could, remember now this is Bearwood where smoothness and style was out of the question with a majority of us, One double air, we was doing, we got our speed by doing 3 airs each and on the 4Th air over we go, now we airing over each other and our timings all wrong, I take off to early (more speed) and coley a fraction later, I'm now going over the top of coley and look down and hes just coming up the transition where I am about to land, bit of shouting is going on and laughter from both of us, then I just land on his back wheel and we just crash, Praise The Lord no injuries still. Even if we both had brakes it wouldn't of helped us as we was past the point of no return.

P.S. Hopefully br />
Until Next Time Much Peace And Blessings To Each And All.

BearBmx.

Bearwood On Tour, Forward Bound Liverpool.

The Bearwood Riders would be ready to travel to any new place at a drop of a hat, this journey would take us to Liverpool Indoor Skatepark, this was a real good place to have a blast and quite enjoyable with plenty to ride, 3 Cars 7 Bikes and 7 Riders was the way this day rolled out. This day was a Saturday and riders going was Don Chromeleone aka Kenny, Max, Andy Ding, Ding Dean, Bearwood Tom and Myself, Getting to Liverpool was good and the day's session was out of this world, If i may say it was Bearwood in true form, You Would see Don pedaling across the floor and just hit the funbox and just throw in his signature X Ups then just hit the big quarter pipe and air like there was no tomorrow in classice Don Style, Max And Andy would be in some corner riding and just be on a Ten15 mission, Ding Dean would be killing any coping that would come across his path and laying down a good selection of lip Tricks with plenty of style, Well Bearwood Tom Would be everywhere like a manic just pedaling and launching into space, All was well until Don Chromeleone twisted his ankle on his last trick and come away limping and ooohhing and aaahhing. Ding Andy told me that the ooohhing and aaahhing continued all the way back from Liverpool To Birmingham as don had to drive his car back and Andy being the passenger. Don went to hospital on his return to find no breaks but torn/damaged ligaments in his ankle, If you ask Don he will say it was Max's fault as he cut him up as Don was on route to do his Wallride Transfer.

Til Next Time Much Peace And Blessings.

BearBmx.

Birmingham Wheels/Aston Banks.

Birmingham Wheels was a great place to go and ride on the weekends, you were guaranteed a good time everytime,they had a mini spine ramp, which was real good,it was always a blast to learn how to ride it. There was also a big vert ramp there for the Bmxers/skateboarders who could deal with it, seen alot of great riding and skateboarding there over the years,also there was a street course with plenty of ramps of all sizes there to ride. It was the street course and the mini spine ramp that we spent alot of time riding/learning whenever we was there. The big vert ramp was just used to mess about on except for anyone who would take it serious enough to ride it proper, there was a one or two of Bearwood's riders that would be the ones who wanted to learn and master the vert, and i think they did.
The ride from Bearwood to Birmingham wheels would take us right through the city centre which meant that we'd stop off at Aston bank's which was on the way, Aston Banks were something else, a real treat for anyone that was lucky enough to session them. They was in a issue of an old Bmx mag from back in the day, i think it was called BMX Action? not sure still, it had Birminghams finest Rob Sanderson in the mag doing a fast plant off the Aston Banks. Respect To Rob. The banks at Aston were just smooth all varying in steepness and style.

Til Next Time Much Peace And Blessings.

BearBmx.

Intro : John E aka John Chin.

A little introduction about John E aka Chin,Was Known to ride to Bearwood from Acock's Green which is on the other side of town just to come and session, A good ride that is. A John E session required his Bmx and Two or few of some Beers.
A good memory of Chin was the trip we made to Manchester to watch the U.K's Top Vert Riders do a Show. Myself, Chin and Don Chromeleone set off in Chin's BMW 3 series, I had the pleasure of being the driver from Brum To Manchester, as Chrome and Chin got tucked into there beer's, As i was driving i noticed the car's handling was quite sketchy reminding me of the trucks in India where you had to spin the steering wheel 3 complete turns before you got any movement in the wheels.

I said to Chin is the car ok and chin would reply yep it's sweet, I thought it's probably just me as it's the first time i'm having the pleasure of driving a beemer and it's the way they drive, A gust of wind blasts the car from the side and just take's it across the 2nd lane into the first lane of the M6 and im trying to hold the car straight,i say Chin is this car suppossed to do this LOL, im sure he said yes no doubt, We somehow reach Manchester and enjoy the show as you would and seen Some Good Vert Riding. Now we ready to head back to Brum and Chin drives us back, from what i remember he was doing well driving back, We reach our homes safe and sound, John Chin Next Day had taken his car to the mechanics get it checked over. LOL the report back was the car was a death trap and we was lucky to be around, From what Don Chrome say's the car was scrapped on the Spot. Next Time You Have A Ride In Chin's Car Ask To See His MOT.

Much Respect To Mr And Mrs John E And Kid's.

More To Come From Chin As I'm Just Finshing Off His Interview, A Must Read. What A Interview It Was. Peace.

Peace And Blessings To Each And All.

Bear Bmx.

Ten15/Missing In Action.

Has Anyone Seen The Ten15 KennyKen? The Park Is Missing Him And Did He Return The Key To Bearwood.

Peace Kenny.

Peace And Blessings To Each And All.

Bear Bmx.

Favourite Skateparks/Dirt Jumps.

1) Birmingham Wheels is a must as it's where all the Foundations are for BMX in Birmingham going way back, 2) Bearwood for sure as it was the training grounds for plenty of years, 3) Spinney trails had some good jumps catering for all needs, 4) Redditch Skatepark and the main man Steve Rooke doing a grand job, 5) Worcester Skatepark when it was indoors and more so when it was outdoors, Respect to Eggy and crew, 6) Northampton Radlands was a great park and many a miles were completed going there to session and all the Bearwood riders turning up meant something crazy was not to far away , 7) Liverpool Skatepark was a good layout and watching Bearwood locals shredding the place to pieces was one memory not to be forgotten, 8) Playstation skatepark in London under the flyover was real good to session, 9) Southsea Skatepark the name say's it all Lovely, 10) Bearwood's very own trails in Warley Woods were good and fun and had potential but not no more.

Peace And Blessings To Each And All.

Bear Bmx.

Happy Vaisakhi.(Sikh New Year).

Happy Vaisakhi To All My Sikh Brothers And Sisters.

I See The Lil Bears Are Out Of Hibernation And The Park Is Blossoming Again.

Much Peace And Blessings.

Bear Bmx.

Bearwood.

Pictures From Around And About.

Bearwood's Riders.

The riders from back in the day we're Spencer Weaver, William Mills, Greg Johnstone,
KennyChrome, Colin Scott, Michael Coley, Bearwood Tom, Paul Reed, Stuart Saunders(RIP),Dean "DingDong" Watson, John Chin, Brian, Lil Andy Aka Dave, Max, Simon Paton. All these boys put in the hours and Bearwood Bmx is here today because of these Bear's.More names to follow as i remember them, Dean Taylor, Lee Davis, Mark Johnstone, Karl Jones, Dallas Evans, Mark Swanney, GT John, Drewwy, Little Todd, KennyKen, New Bears are Lil Dave Whittington, Greazy Dave, Leroy,and The Twins,Tom and many other lil bears i don't know the names of.

Peace And Blessings.

BLF.

Flashback.

The ride to Birmingham Wheels one time, about 6 miles from Bearwood and as soon as i get there, on my first jump on the funbox and my pedal snaps, long way from home and a broken bike. That was one journey to be remembered trying to get home. It was good still.

Peace And Blessings.

Bear Bmx.

Mike "Pigeon" Coley Interview Part 2.

B - So Coley how's it going what's new brother...

Coley - Yes all is well just not feeling to good,

B - Why what's happened...

Coley - I have taken a spill on my boots the other day while going to get some bread and milk from the local shop, i ended up falling over when my wheel on my boots got jammed on a stone and sending me head over heels,

B - How was your holiday to Thailand...

Coley - It was real good met the locals in Thailand and they are a good bunch of people, i enjoyed going fishing with the locals and having a party at sea, if anyone knows me, they will know I'm a sailor at heart. I know how to tie all the special knot's.

B - Did you take your boot's with you...

Coley - You ask some silly questions don't you, of course i did,i had an amazing time, showed the Thai's what a go on in, done some low dippers round the corner's and some backwards swirly they did not know what hit them. I also done some demo's in the capital with a milk crate.

Part 3 to Follow as you can see the sailor has plenty to share.

Peace and Blessings To Each And All.

Bear Bmx.

Bmx Riders In India.

Out of curiosity one day i was thinking if Bmx Freestyle has ever reached india, so i ended up searching on google to see if anything popped up, and to my amazement there it was. The search came up with a story of Brian Blyther and some other U.S. riders going to india for demos,then there was names of a few indian riders out in Bombay and one rider was Rahul Muliani who is an all round rider who is into flatland, I ended up E mailing Rahul and ended up having a good chat with him about Bmx and India. Rahul and crew, hold jams here and there and invited me over to one, but being from the Punjab which is situated in Northern India and travelling across to Bombay which is now known as Mumbai, would mean travelling by train for about 30 hours or so.
God willing i would love to go and meet up with them,but it would mean flying to Mumbai, Having been riding Bmx for 25 plus years i can truely say that ive only seen 2 or 3 other indian bmx riders in all my time, so to find out and hear Bmx was thriving in India was a happy moment. Much Peace and Love to Rahul and crew, Much Love to Mother India.

Much Peace and Blessings To Each And All.

Bear Bmx.

Flashback.

Just remembering the good old day's, one time come's to mind when we used to ride the indoor skatepark at birmingham wheel's, not sure if many would remember it, some good times where had there as it was invite type of agenda no one would invite us down to ride, so we used to invite ourselves when no one was there.

Peace and Blessings.

BLF.

Warley Woods/Dirt Jumps.

When it came to having dirt jumps in Bearwood, there could be no other place that could be better than Warley Woods.I think it was the little bears who found the over grown plot which was kind of out the way of society, and it was right next to the golf course which was fun. Over a few months there was some digging done by all bears big and small, we managed to get a set of 4 or 5 doubles built which ranged in height and length, which was good for all to ride. Knowing there was dirt to be jumped was a good feeling and a change from the concrete banks down the park. In the summer there was open fires a blaze and all within the fire hazard awareness zone, also a bbq would be alight feeding the bears and the setting was just right. Open wood fires kept the chill of the night abay and the bbq would keep the belly's topped up and dirt jumps would be noticable with the light off the fires keeping them lit up, which kept the riding going and going on into the night.
When the older bears statrted the dig, it was hard to dig and plenty of rubble to make it even harder, but never the less it was good, the first jump was just a plain tabletop jump with no gap to make it into a set of doubles. This jump was perfect it threw you high and you could control how much distance you wanted to clear, somewhere along the line someone put alot of energy into adjusting the first jump to how they liked it, instead of using that energy into starting to dig the 2nd jump and so on. We could never get the jump to how it was, so we just started to make more jumps down the line, in all we had 5 sets of doubles going which were good but skecthy in a true Bearwood style. One summer day going back 6+ years all big and little bears were there riding and messing about, this youth came up on his mountain bike with suspension and the whole shi bang. This dude who none of the bears knew said ill show you boy's how the men do it, all were most likely thinking whats he chatting about, then he comes pedaling down the run up (by the way there was no need to pedal like you just robbed a bike) like no one's buisness and just launching off the first jump and just fly's to the sun moon and stars and he is sort of in a superman style of postion, i think he kind of messed it up really, he has cleared the first jump totally and the landing included and is just up there, there is a run up of about 10feet or so before you hit the 2nd set of doubles, and so he has cleared the run up to the 2nd set also and lands just on the 2nd set take off, now this is some distance we talking about, this dude (did'nt catch his name) just lands and folds his forks out to pretty much 90 degrees he did not say anything or even looked back at us for a thumbs up, picked his bike up and just went on his way, this dude was an idiot to be true and i think he went home with much new learnt knowledge from his badboy man style jump. From the laughter that errupted there was not enough oxygen in the air for all the bears to get there breathe. For some crazy reason Bearwood has always attracted the craziest fools on god's planet.

Much Peace And BlessingsTo Each And All.

Bear Bmx.

Flashback.

Pigeon AKA Mike Coley 360 With A Half Barspin Thrown In, Off The Banks Down The Park On A Dodgy Bike And No Brakes And Sketchy But Never The Less Pulled In True Bearwood Fashion, Around 15 Years Ago Maybe A little Less.

Peace And Blessings To Each And All.

Bear Bmx.

Pictures From Punjab India.

Click All Pictures To Enlarge.

Pictures From The Top, Just A Amazing View On A lovely Day, Middle Picture Is Riding On The Roof Of The Bus As It Was Full All Below, I Love It All Aboard, Last Picture Is Of A New Building Project Underway, Not To Sure Of What It Is, But You Can See The Himalayan Mountain Range In The Background It Truelly Takes Your Breathe Away.

Journey To India 2007.

The First Picture Is Above The Clouds With Turkmenistan Airlines Which Fly's Birmingham To The Holy City Amritsar Via Ashgabat, Good Flight Nice Engine.

Second Picture Is Of My Transport That I Travelled On To The Sikh Festival Called "Holla Mohalla" Which Is Held Annually At Sri Anandpur sahib Situated In The Himalaya's, The Tractor Had a Trailor Attached At The Rear Where There Was About 25 To 30 Pilgrims Also Heading To The Festival, Now This Was A journey On A Very Hot Day Not Much Of A Breeze Blowing And It Took Around 6 Hours To Reach The Himalaya's.
Would Of Not Of Had It Any Other Way.

Peace And Blessings To Each And All.

BLF.

Flashback.

As the mind tends to be quite forgetfull at times, there will be random posts being shared as thoughts enter the mind, they may be thoughts from way back in the day or just recent thoughts, now the mind will be the ruler of what is to come. Oh here comes one, Aston Banks At Aston uni were real good to session back then, Old Schooler's Will No Doubt Remember Them. Amazing Day's.

Peace And Blessings To Each And All.

BLF.

Just Pictures.

Pictures from the top, Colourful Painting Of Sikhs Turbans, Old School U.K. Rider
Mike Canning Extending The No Hander Nicely, Mike Dominguez Blasting a Turndown, Brian Blyther Getting Tucked In, The Last One I'm Not To Sure As a Guess, I Think It's Ron Wilkerson On The Deck Upside Down And Brian Blyther Blasting The Air.

Peace And Blessings To Each And All.

BLF.

Ol School Classic.

Old School Classic Rider And Bike, Woody Itson And The Gold Hutch Trickstar. The Shine On The Bike Would Keep Don Chromeleone Happy For a While.

Peace And Blessings To Each And All.

Bear Bmx.

Chardikala Jatha/ Jaap Sahib

2009 Peace And Blessings to All

This Picture Was Taken on A Trip To The Punjab In India In 2007, When I Went To A Sikh Festival In The Himalayas, The Pilgrims On The Truck Are All Heading For The Festival At Sri Anandpur Sahib In The Himalayas. The Journey Was Amazing.

Much Peace And Blessings For 2009 and Beyond.

Bear Bmx.

BBC Documentary On Sikhism Part 2

BBC Documentary On Sikhism Part 1