Texas Classic BMX Days

The only thing hotter than a Texas summer is an old school downhill BMX throwdown!
What started as a challenge, to create and host an old school BMX race and show in Texas, turned out to be a raging success.` At last year's Texas BMX Hall of Fame ceremony avid Redline BMX collector Rob Lane challenged San Antonio's BR Anderson to create an event in Texas, goading him with, "everything is bigger in Texas, right?". That turned into a group text which turned into Zoom meetings and very quickly the Texas Classic BMX Days event was a thing. Finding a venue to build an old school downhill track is a challenge, but luckily the Cycle Ranch in Floresville, TX already had the land and infrastructure. After that it was just a matter of designing and building the track, building a gate, designing and ordering tshirts and awards, attracting the best show bike collectors, rounding up volunteers, and getting the word out. Somehow it all came together and on June 24-25 over 100 show bikes and racers from Nebraska, Kansas, California, Louisiana, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and all over Texas had converged on the sleepy little south Texas town.
The track was a blast with sandy red dirt that really made you pull out the 1980 race tactics; no pin-it-and-manual-everything racing would work here. Picking your lines, knowing where to go slower, and racing strategically was the order of the day. The race classes were broken down by bike type and decade of manufacture as well as coaster brake, suspension, pit bike, women's, and a 50 and Over Open class. The local BMX track, Lone Star BMX, also hosted a regular single point race on the same track. It was awesome to see the young riders used to clipless pedals, soil-tac straights, and asphalt turns navigate this new terrain. You'd think that riders in their 50s and 60s on 40 year old bikes my be a little reserved, but that was not the case at all. Guys and gals were going full throttle, throwing themselves into the loose turns, launching over the jumps, and giving the competition an elbow or shoulder check.
The bike show was truly remarkable with bikes from the early 70s through current high tech rigs. Despite my 40 years in the sport I saw a couple of bikes that I didn't know existed; namely Don Johle's factory Robinson scoot from 1978. Tyler Collins, the Chromoly Kid, came out from California and took won several categories with his meticulously era-correct builds. Texas has some of the best collectors in the country and it showed with Tony Lopez taking the over Grand Champion trophy with his 1981 RRS 24" cruiser; a bike so far ahead of its time with fixed dropouts, a concentric bottom bracket, and cantilever brakes. Phillip Delfield and Tim Shaffer have an awesome arsenal of bikes and I absolutely love the Torkers and the Powerlite and Laguna three-bar cruisers!
The heat was intense all weekend long, but the racing and show bikes were even hotter! Everyone that came was buzzing about the event and the vibe and next year's event should be even better.