70's Riders in The Valley...

The Facebook group San Fernando Valley Relics (an actual museum) has posted up some really cool photos from the past, including some terrific cycling-related ones. The above photo, taken by Rick Sieman (apparently part of the Ron Clark Dirt Bike Magazine collection), show some of the typical bmx bikes of the time. Mixed in are some banana-seat bikes as well. Those were pretty early days of bmx and not all of us had bikes specific to that discipline, instead using our banana-seat bikes as well as we could. The Valley was full of empty lots back then, and it seems like most every one had a little track, or at least a trail cutting through it, with little jumps to get some air on. I would have turned ten the year this photo was taken (1972), so while this group of nine all look a little bit older, they also look very familiar.


If you are on FB, click on the SFV Relics link to see the uncropped photo; if you are a product of The Valley, it shows some background context you might find interesting. From the FB page you can take another turn/link to some other bmx photos from Dirt Bike Mag.