Things are fonder in memory they say. Not everything. Somethings remain as interesting and amazing as the first day we came across it. Sometimes these things influence us for the rest of our lives. For example, playing with Knex toys might make you a Structural Engineer later on in life.

After I started riding bmx bikes I soon became aware of bmx videos. One of those videos is Nowhere Fast.

It had an eclectic class of riders. One who stood out, was Dave Young. Dave had this completely different vibe. He had chop side burns, a mean as hell t shirt, an all black bike with chrome 4 piece  bars and forks, and a complete disregard for his own safety. Not to mention the part is edited to Slayer. I was immediately influenced by Dave. 100% bad ass. To see what i’m talking about click here, because I can’t embed the video. Scroll all the way to the bottom and hit play. The whole video is worth watching, Dave has the first part so it’s not a problem to watch it after the epic intro. Once again, click here, and scroll down….

After that part Dave seemed to fizzle out of the bmx spotlight. He kinda came in, kicked ass, and left before anyone knew what happened. After Nowhere Fast there were a few more influential riders to come across my path, Brian “Wiz” Wizmerski, Corey Martinez, Edwin Delarosa, Van Homan, and Bob Scerbo. One thing that these riders had in common is that they supported a company called Animal. Bob Scerbo was known for riding the same pair of handlebars and refusing to get a new style of bar. They were a 4 piece GT bar. Watching Bob ride was amazing. He did things that kids only now are being able to do. His style, his refusal of any other handlebar, and even the music used for his video parts influenced me and how I saw the world around me.

Eventually Animal began making the handle bar that Bob loved so much. Once these bars became available I became interested. There had to be a reason why Bob liked them over everything else. At the time I was running S&M slam xlt bars and my wrists were hurting. My friend, Marty already had a pair of the bob bars and I asked him if his wrists hurt after sessions. He sad “no, never”. Then and there I knew I had to give these bars a try. Since then my wrists rarely hurt and I now have a very unique looking bike.

After I initially put the bars on, Animal came out with Chrome Bob Bars. Which, for me instantly reminded me of Dave Young and Bob Scerbo’s old video parts.I had to get them.

Here are a few vids of their radness..

this first one is Bob’s Shutter Speed part. Good song, Good vibes.

This second one is Bob’s part from Animal’s “Can I Eat?” Bob has a bunch more video parts after these two, however these are by far two of my favorite video parts of all time.

There you have it, my influences and how they have affected me to this day. I still run these handlebars as a reminder of things past and present, and how fresh it was seeing these guys ride for the first time.

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