Foreword

Welcome to Vintage old school BMX. This site has been created for the enjoyment of all and in particular those of us who lived and loved our BMX bikes in the Golden Years of BMX ( Late 70's to the Mid 80's) and the adventures we embarked on with them. We try to cater for all influences of BMX from the avid racer to the frantic freestyler and certainly not to forget the average Joe. We all had one thing in common, BMX. So feel free to check around the site and who knows you might just meet someone you haven’t seen for a long time or make new friends and relive the good old days. Below you will find a very brief account of the history of BMX and within these pages you will encounter lots of information and photos including a forum and chat room where you can have your say. I hope you all enjoy this site and if you would like to contribute any info or pictures ect from back in the day feel free to contact us or just post it up in the forum.
Thanks for dropping by
Regards Richie.

Stay tuned to this site for what has to be the most exciting thing to happen to BMX racing since the 80's.

I conjunction with XBR.com, VOSBMX and XBR will be organising a race series on old school style tracks which allows the re-introduction of a genuine Side Hack class, all current classes will be catered for along with a Jurasic classic style class, Live bands and entertainment and much much more.

History

Where to start, What is BMX and what is vintage old school bmx? I'm sure there are many more qualified people out there that can answer these questions but seeing as I'm the one talking ill do my best to answer and outline the history of BMX. As far as i am aware BMX is the evolution of the 20 inch dragster, the reason for this evolution can be traced back to Motorcycle Motocross or scrambles as it was also called back then. Kids would see the people out in the fields and bushland as well as organised tracks, doing jumps, slides and wheelies on off road motorbikes, naturally the kids would try to emulate this behaviour on there own push bikes inevitably this led to organised racing just like in motorcycle motocross. As this sport gained momentum it was becoming obvious that the 20" dragster style bikes were not strong enough cope with the punishment that was being dished out to them. Many inventive people modified these dragster like bikes in an effort to create strong useable off road bikes but they were heavy cumbersome pieces of equipment that were still liable to break, Something different that was stronger but not heavier had to be created. No one really knows who built the first true BMX and the early examples were not much better than the dragster in that they were heavy and not terribly strong, However, the basic design was a much more rigid so it wasn't long before builders started to look around for new stronger materials and methods to use. Chromemoly and aluminium was starting to be used which when used correctly resolved both the issue of strength and weight. 4130 chromemoly has the approximately the atomic weight as normal steel but it is about 3 times stronger so it is possible to use thinner tubing and maintain the strength thus reducing the weight. As for Aluminium well as you may well know it is much lighter than steel or chrome moly but it is also much more tensile in that it has less flex and when it does flex it tends to crack or break. But due to it being so much lighter than steel it is possible to use thicker tubing and still save weight over the steel counter parts while only marginally compromising strength. Many other materials were used over the years to build BMX's including Mangmoly, various grades of Chromemoly and numerous alloys. Of course if you look at the range of modern day BMX you have a multitude of choices including the likes of what was seen as sci-fi stuff back in the day materials like carbon fibre. Once BMX started to gain popularity many bike companies evolved some of the first commercially successful brands were Mongoose, Redline, SE Racing, DG and Webco these were all US based, of course there were many more and eventually other countries like Japan, England and even Australia had companies producing Quality BMX bikes. In Australia there are two brands in particular that come to mind one being Quicksilver and the other being Sunshine, although Sunshine was never commercially distributed. Colin Spencer of Sunshine was very inventive and some would say ahead of his time. Colin was hand assembling his bikes and using methods that were not seen for many years to come including the use of oversize tubing and longer frames similar to what modern bikes use. No wonder his bikes spawned a stable of champions. Quicksilver is probably best described by other members of the VOSBMX community as i wouldn't want to offend them and get my facts wrong either way they were a great Aussie built bike. BMX has continue to evolve with the creation of what was to be known as Freestyle that brought a new style of BMX again. A stronger bike with platforms and pegs and specialised parts to allow the rider to do incredible tricks that had previously been unheard of. BMX is still evolving and with its inclusion into the Olympics it promises to only get bigger and better.
So now you know a little more about BMX and its origins, the information i have written here is just a snapshot of BMX history and is my interpretations of it so please don’t take it as gospel. Please take the time to register to the site and learn more about VOSBMX from the the other members and share your experiences with like minded people.