cruiser revolution

It was the bike that always taunted me.

Back in the day when all the kids in my neighbourhood raced, Hutch Pro Racers were the bike of choice. Chrome-plated 4130 pieces of 1980s state-of-the art BMX technology. If you didn’t have a Hutch bike you were either saving your pennies or trying to convince your parents why buying you a Hutch was the most important thing ever. In those days we didn’t have the internet, the X-games or BMX showing up in commercials…despite this I was a BMX media junkie, camping out at the convenience store waiting for the next issue of BMX Action, BMX Plus!…even buying (ugh!) Super BMX  to get my fix. But reading those magazines was just a sideline to my other addictions…racing and riding my bike. I was on my bike, it seemed like, every waking moment I wasn’t sleeping or at school. When I finally got my Hutch Pro Racer frame, I was stoked beyond belief. My brother and I put it together after I got home from school and I raced it that night. I can’t remember how I placed but I do remember loving that bike…to me it was the best thing ever.  I would go riding after a night of racing…I just liked being on my bike.

After a while I noticed that some people at the races were getting more riding time than I was…the people with cruisers. One kid in my neighborhood had both a 20″ and 24″ Hutch. Too say I was envious, was an understatement. Not only was he racing his age class and open…he got to race the cruiser class. Since I was only racing my age class he was racing 3 times as much as me! I felt robbed!  That Hutch Cruiser was my nemesis…a chrome 4130 cro-mo beacon to the fun I was not having. Cruisers were another chance to race, to have even more time on my bike. I think at that point the seed was planted that I would one day get a cruiser.  Through the years I got into freestyle and jumping and kind of pushed the idea of riding a cruiser out of mind….cruisers weren’t made for serious riding, I thought/rationalized to myself.

As fate would have it though I would soon get hit hard by the cruiser bug again. Finding myself in Chatham (Ontario) one thanksgiving weekend for a family thanksgiving dinner I convinced my girlfriend to check out the local track. I had thought there would be race but it turned out that just a few people were practicing. The track director offered me a loaner bike (20″ Redline) to ride and I took her up on her offer. It was a bit small for me but good enough to get the job done. I was chatting to a local between laps and he offered to let me try his Haro Nyquist 24. I took him up on his offer and took it for a spin. It was so comfortable…and fast. I could not believe how good it felt. I was hooked. From now on, I was going to go big wheeled, or go home!