1982 -1988

I went through some bicycles and sponsors (Not that it was a bad thing). After my JMC I got sponsored by Torker. Here is a picture of me in a BMX Magazine at the Grand Nationals in Oklahoma City.

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

Here are a few pictures of me at the VFW, BMX Track in Roeland Park

then Profile sposored me. When I was with Profile I was 14 and I placed 4th out of 486 other kids at the Grand Nationals in Oklahoma city. Note I still have my Torker Helmut

This is a picture of me and my dad after we got home. This picture was probably taken at 3am or 4am.

It seems like all I have are pictures of are me at the GrandNationals. I probably went out of town at least 2 to 3 times a month. At one time I had 537 trophies.

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

In 1984 I got Sponsored by Schwinn and stayed with them till I basically retired from BMX in 1986.

At the time Schwinn sponsored me, they also got me a job at Village Peddler, Schwinn in Blue Springs where I worked from 84 to 86. In 1986 was the year I also won my first national event and a lot of top finishes. I finished 5th in the national points ranking. But in 1986 where can you go from here, it’s not like they have, or would we ever think of BMX ever being in the Olympics.
In 1986 I started to get interested in racing road bikes. (Actually maybe back in 84 when TV covered the velodrome events for cycing). Most of my friends worked at a store called Blue Hills Bike & Hike (You might know one of the guys Curt Bales). They had top of the line bikes and the precision fascinated me . . . . What cyclist didn’t Campagnolo super record fascinate? . . . So I got into race road bikes. My first bike was a Bianchi made from Columbus SL tubing with Campy Super record components. The color was "Celeste". . . . (Special Note: At this time you could only get that color if it was the flagship model. Bianchi noticed it was losing some of it’s market in the late 80’s or early 90’s and then started giving that color to every bicycle, and things picked up for them I guess. I hated when they did that. If you seen someone riding a Celeste bicycle, it was the flagship Bianchi at the time. Not that I’m and elitist, which I’m sure if you have read, and keeping it will be well documented that I am not. I just appreciate quality things that are well thought out.

Although I will admit at the time I was 16, I might have been a bit naïve about marketing practices, at the time both Shimano, Dura-Ace; and Suntour, Superbe Pro were probably just as good, but I never gave them a thought because I was enamored by the Campagonlo name, but who wouldn’t when 99% of the pro peleton rode Campy . . . )
Blue Hills was also the only place you could get Vans tennis shoes. If you had a pair of Vans, odds are you got them at Blue Hills. Blue Hills Bike & Hike was owned by George Bradley. He had 3 stores
1. Lee’s Summit
2. Mission Road
3. 95th and Antioch
Sometime around 1986-87 George sold the shops. Lee’s Summit was sold to Tim Volpe, Mission Road, and 95th and Antioch to Midwest cyclery.
Ok where are we at? . . . OK 1986. in 1986 I took a job at Midwest Cyclery where I still work part time to this day. At this time (1986) they had 7 bike shops in Kansas City . . . YES! . . . SEVEN

Lets have a little Midwest Cyclery History.
1. Main Store. Midwest Cyclery opened on Main street in midtown Kansas City, then they bought Ride-On bicycles at was located on 3957 Broadway and then moved to where they are today. George Bradley got sick and sold the store.
The satellite stores
2. Mission Road (Mission & Johnson Dr)
3. Liberty (Vivian & North Antioch)
4. 95th and Antioch (South Antioch)
5. Watt’s Mill (103rd and State Line)
6. Blue Springs (I forget the location)
7. Troost (Across and down from SouthSide Cyclery, which is also no longer)

Midwest closed stores 6 & 7 and Midwest Cyclery became 5 stores for a couple years. Then they closed stores store 4 & 5 becoming 3 stores of which were ran by the Owner and his Son and Daughter. Then around 1992 -93 the lids went off on their own ventures and Midwest became 1 location, the owner then sold the store to Bob Albright who still owns it today.
Ok back to my Bianchi. I won the Tour of Kansas City in 1988 as a citizen or what USCF now calls Cat-5 now on that Bianchi. At the time the USCF had 4 classifications.
Cat-4 Local Potential,
Cat-3 Regional Potential,
Cat-2 national Potential,
Cat-1 National Potential.
I also had a top 10 finish at the MO state championships. This was back when the State Championships didn't recognize classes. The road race was just one class . . . One Race . . . One Champion. I think there were over 200 Cyclists in that race.