Name: Johan Janssens
Hometown: Boechout, Belgium
Started riding BMX in: 1982 my first season in competition racing.
Website: www.jjrbmx.com (Hutch BMX, JJR BMX, old school Pro Winner and more)
Bike: Quiet Resistant/JJR, Denver Special 24”
What's your earliest memory of BMX?
Johan Janssens: Around 1981 when I saw a kid riding his BMX bike on the other side of the street and wished I had one too. Later I got a Raleigh Ultra Burner.
Jumping forward a decade or so from our last episode. I first met Owain in the 90's, he was a tiny chatty kid ripping around the boneyard in Chester and the surrounding skateparks of the time. Fast forward many years and this dude has never dropped off. Rode for a bunch of big companies, won contests, flew around the world, scoring multiple magazine covers, video parts, road trips and done all there is to do in the game of BMX. We get in to the start of his BMX journey, trips to Woodward as a kid, growing up around the Chester BMX scene. Changing up riding styles, and the in-depth street riding phase and why, riding all terrain, his involvement with BMX now, the obsession with collecting old BMX media, recent barn edit and the open loop. And even some UKBMX hall of fame talk in here.
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: Jon Western
Hometown: Birmingham, UK
What's your current Bike?
Jon Western: My current race bike is a Meybo BMX, Custom gold over raw finish done by SuperBike Dan, with jmcbmx.com decals as I raced for JMC in the UK national series a few years ago. Carla Jansan (Jim Melton's daughter) runs jmcbmx.com and when I started racing JMC we discussed the idea of designing a modern version of the old JMC kit. Ian MacArthur helped with the kit design which was then signed off by Carla. A number of versions of it were made for me in white, black, gold and yellow. If anyone has ever wondered why "Once we were" is on the back of the race shirt, it's Ian's business and there to recognise his help with the design. I'll call him a sponsor as it sounds more factory (lol).
What's your earliest memory of BMX?
Jon Western: When I was about 9 years old, a friend got a Piranha BMX so I asked my dad for a BMX, he got me one called an ALPINA from a local discount centre, at the time I was really into a motorbike trials show called Junior Kick Start, I used to try and emulate what I saw, I soon snapped the frame.
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.
Name: Ian MacArthur
Hometown: Chigwell, Essex, UK
Started riding BMX in: 1981
Number of bikes in the collection: Currently 25 (down from 62)
Do you remember the moment that you decided to start collecting BMX memorabilia?
Ian MacArthur: It was 2003 and I'd started riding skateparks again inspired by early days of Road Fools on the Extreme channel and I just searched for some old brands online and there was old stock kicking around on ebay and low level e-commerce sites like SkatePool.
Name: Chris Daly
Hometown: Hayling Island
Started riding BMX in: 1982
Number of bikes in the collection: At the moment 6 with one on the way.
Do you remember the moment that you decided to start collecting BMX memorabilia?
Chris Daly: No not really, it happened gradually I guess, I started collecting properly around 04, I wanted to build a bike to ride again & I just started to see more & more bikes & parts on eBay that I always wanted until I got everything I ever wanted. It was really easy back then, not too many people collecting.
Name: Alessandro Barbero
Hometown: Ceva, Italy / Woodward, PA, USA
Started riding BMX in: As a kid in the late '80's. Pro since 2001.
Number of bikes in the collection: Most of my bikes are Race bikes from 1975 to 1985. I don't know how many exactly.
What is Italy's history like regarding BMX Bikes. Do you have any Italian BMX bikes in your collection?
Alessandro Barbero: Of course I got some, so I usually try to split the BMX Toys from the Real BMX that
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.