Joe Kid On A Stingray

On Saturday morning I will host the first of this winter’s trainer parties.  To attract more participants I have changed the format a little, dubbing the series Spinner and a Movie and planning to show cycling-themed feature films instead of old road races.  I figure you can’t beat “Breaking Away” to kick off the series, followed by “The Flying Scotsman” in January and “American Flyers” in February.  I had to put something on the promotional flyer for March, so I chose “The Tour Baby” but only because I had access to it and not really because I was sold on it as the best choice.

Yesterday’s mail brought my latest eBay find: “Joe Kid on a Stingray,” a fast-moving documentary of the birth and evolution of BMX.  The movie came out in 2005 but it was new to me.  Like all documentaries, “Joe Kid on a Stingray” is real film festival stuff, so don’t kick yourself if you didn’t catch it at the cinema!  Maybe you’ll catch it at the March 12 trainer party.  I watched it last night and really enjoyed it.

The film appealed to me because I was into BMX during those formative years in the 1970s.  BMX at that time wasn’t the half-pipe X Games extravaganza that it is today; it was four-cross on smaller bikes.  I was no stranger to the BMX trails on the banks of the Youghiogheny River in West Newton PA, first on my blue Stingray-wannabe from Montgomery Ward and then on my Sears BMX bike, black with neon green number plates and fenders.  When I moved to Charleston IL in 1976 I found a scene that was a little more organized and I won a few unsanctioned Saturday morning races.  But my modest success didn’t last long, as kids like Tim Woodall upgraded to better bikes …

There was no catching a guy who had one of these!

I grew too big for my BMX bike and “graduated” to a second-hand Huffy road bike.  That’s when the bicycle was my principal means of transportation.  Charleston was a college town and 10-speeds were in style.  Impressing my buddies became less important than impressing the girls, and I figured I couldn’t accomplish the latter on a kid’s bike.  BMX had to go, but it was fun while it lasted.

That many of the best elements of BMX in its original form have found new life as mountain biking disciplines seems to be lost on the makers of “Joe Kid on a Stingray,” but not on me.  And in 2011 when I do my first mountain bike race, I’m sure I’ll feel like a kid again.