Since the early 70's I was riding little modified bikes on selfmade little
jumps, way before I knew BMX bikes were made.
I killed dozens of bikes cause they were not strong enough and in 1979
we (Bart and me) got our first "Real" BMX bike, a CPX100 and changed our life forever. This bike is still
in my possesion and under construction right now, 18 kg's heavy, coaster brake, all Steel bars,forks and frame,
heavy knobbies and the worst grips ever!
First I started to race in 1980 in Schijndel in 12 Junior class and after a few races I moved to the 12 Senior class,
still racing with the same CPX100 with coasterbrake! No I didn't win races but I had a really good time. In 1981 I bought
a 1000 guilder TORKER USA frame and raced that and started "Trickriding" as well in between races. My TORKER is
also still in my possession fully restored and of course one of the first real "Freestyle" bikes with twin top tubes. The first
Freestyle shows we did in 1982 (Amerongen and Beek en Donk) so help the BMX club out with raising money for the EK.
Since then Freestyle was more important to me but still raced till 1987 and got disqualified a lot for "dangerous jumping" during
races and that got me out of racing, I thought it was BMX and not 10 speed racing... We did a lot of shows, contests, trips all
over Europe and in 1987 I did a demo with Ron Wilkerson and Carlo Griggs in Slagharen and my last Freestyle comp in
Hampton Virginia USA on a totally new bike where I lost the cranks and sprocket during my run hahahaha.
Street riding came up and took over "Freestyle" so I didn't do contests anymore and started FAT MAGAZINE with Bart
just for fun cause the Dutch magazine called TRICKX didn't cover us anymore. (FAT= Freestylers Against TRICKX).
Bart is still doing FAT on the internet (www.fatbmx.com) but we started as a copied A5 Zine.
In 1995 I started a BMX Hardware Store called "Paul's Boutique" (yes the Beastie boys album) and still doing that
with all my love. Also doing PURE BMX Distribution for 10 brands and starting a Webshop end of this month. So you
can say that little 1979 CPX100 turned my life upside down and still doing the same after 30 years. We met a lot of
friends all over the world, every contest/ bikeshow/ event is a big reunion.
- Paul de Jong 2009
