First BMX

I've probably posted this before, but my memory is poor and I just came across this picture.

This was my first BMX. I got it as a Christmas present in 1981. It was a Hawk Scorcher, sold in Woolworths for £30 and came with a warning label that it was only a "BMX style bicycle" and it should never be used for BMX riding.

The cheapest BMX on general sale at the time was the base model Raleigh Burner at about £80, or the Halfords Turbo at a similar price.

The Hawk Scorcher was real bargain basement stuff therefore. They were famous for breaking really easy. A lot of them had snapped off bits of welding core sticking out of the welds, all nicely chromed 🙂

I loved it, but everyone laughed at it because it was the worst BMX you could have. Even a four tonne Pirhana was a better option than a Scorcher.

But my frame luckily never let me down, and month by month, over the next five years, I did pocket money jobs and saved up and replaced every component on it. Sometimes more than once.

I stuck Pro-Star stickers on it to disguise what it was. Pro-Star was an obscure off-shoot of Diamond Back. They were Diamond Back frames with a star cut-out in the double gusset, and with other components. I think they were full cromoly.

The Scorcher wasn't cromoly. It was more like bacofoil.

Never let me down though, and I really pushed it hard doing big gaps, big drops, big ramps, and big stairs. I had to prove my bike was better than everyone else's.

My favourite thing back then was to charge it full pelt up concrete steps. There was no technique that I recall, just speed, plus a primitive version of a manual, and then I'd just hope I could power to the top before I slowed down so much that the steps beat me.

I'd buy another Hawk Scorcher in a heartbeat, just to put it on my wall.