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Here’s a few more shots..
TC Cycles show and the crowd.
Roger Sullivan acid dropping (that means a backwards drop in)
Yours truly thinking he is Voelker…
My first General show was in Middletown, NJ in ’87. It featured Fred Blood, Mark Roldan, Chris Rothrock and Brian Belcher. I can’t believe I even remember all of those names verbatim. To this day, I remember thinking, “Why is Fred Blood even pro?”
The same shop had shows from Haro the next year, with Joe Gruttola, Rick Moliterno and Hoffman.
Brett is that you announcing with the painters hat?
Also you guys ever see Phil Finkle ride? Last time I hung out with him was 81. How good did he get I’m wondering. He wasn’t as good at racing as me or Paul (Washington) but he was as good jumping and better at tricks then me. Paul (His buddy that became my best friend) couldn’t jump or do tricks lol . Paul became NYs first Pro I believe and got a ABA National pro (85?) number back when they used dollars earned for points..pro was looked at so differently then
@bmiddaugh wrote:
So the spring of ’88 is rolling around. We’re doing shows, having fun and the like………………………………………..
At this time Phil Finkle had taken over for Fred Blood and had gotten a rather large some of money to get the tour going from Vision, because we had that huge Vision logo on the trailer.
Well, apparently, Phil had used the money someplace else because as the tour went on things were getting pretty heated between Phil and the rest of the gang.
(Hey! I got to speak to Phil himself this evening! (8-15-07) he was able to give me the lowdown on what really went on before I got handed the tour duties in ’88 and I was way off base with what the deal was. Phil is gonna post what went on during his tenure with GB back in the day to set things right. Apologies to Phil who goes all the way back to the earliest days of BMX racing in the NY-NJ area…anyone remember Nomura, 😉 )
Jeff finally got Brandon and Mark to break down, they called Harry and recommended I replace Phil.
I guess I’ll stop there for now and continue later tonight…Hi All,
I want a chance to tell you my side of the General Bikes debacle. This not a personal attack on anybody, got it? Also it’s mostly a paste in from an email I sent to Brett, so you’ll see some strange sentences. Anyway forward>
I don’t know what Harry or Chet had told you about money or sponsorship, keep in mind I don’t remember exact amounts a this point, but there was no big “Pay day” from Vision and NO monetary support until the very end from General. I personally saw only a few hundred dollars when all was said and done. Most of the support from Vision was to be in the form of product, like the tour shirts. I don’t know what Fred got for his part though, I believe he brokered the deal with Vision. I was never in contact with the co-sponsers.
The money to run the tour was to come from the fees the shops paid, which wasn’t much from what I can remember, only 350 or 400 dollars per show. I never handled any of the the deposit checks from the shops (I think the deposit was only like $100), Harry recieved them and eventually gave me money for the tour, I don’t remember how much but I believe it was only like a thousand dollars to start and the rest was to be collected at the time of the shows.
As it turned out there was just enough money to get us from show to show and really not much else. but how orginized is your ave 20 year old. We were probably a bit too optimistic about things like mileage and other expenses and we had a few shops cancel (around Ohio and Indiana I think) which put longer time and distances between shows (and pay checks). Plus the Big Block Suburban was running on 7 cylinders needed to go into the shop for repair about half way through, so that really put a strain on the finances.
So yes, I was really cranky because I was wondering if we were going to have enough cash to make it to the next show all the time, not easy to deal with. My logic, while not great was if I feed the truck, I can get to the next show, get paid then I can feed all of us but I don’t remember anybody ever going without food. We just might not have stopped for 300 miles or so, lol. I think we only slept in the truck one or maybe two nights.
As far as the guys on the team, I never really heald anything against them. Ya, I was a bit p.o.’ed at the time, because I was really was trying to keep things going, but after I got home I realized it wasn’t their fault. So if anybody ever talks to any of them again please tell them I’m sorry for being a cranky bastard.
The tone of the post makes it seam like I got thousands of dollars and just ran off with it, which isn’t what happened. Think about for a second, I ate and slept in the same places the rest of the team did, not like I was eating Caviar while everybody else had Mc Donalds, ya know?
I had one call from Chet (I think he was Generals CEO) after the whole thing was over and I really didn’t want to talk to him ’cause they kinda through me to the wolves as it were. So I didn’t have any other contact with them after that.
Any way that’s what the happened, I wish it would have gone better
Thanks,
Phil Finkle
Jay Jones, Sean Leslie stories!! mega Mark Roldan
Yeah Tours dont make alot of money. When I ran the Western half of the Hyper tour in 92. It was the first tour I ever ran and me and Rob Dolecki lived like kings. LOL NOT. We did it in a small Toyota pick up. I couldnt have asked for a better touring parnter. Bottom line Rob will tell you first hand the tour doesnt pay well.
In 97 I started a new company and ran a tour for American Bicycles. Learned alot from the Hyper tour and this time bought a Van. We actually made alot of money on that tour BUT, it was all eaten up paying the Pro riders entry fees and hotels and all meals on National weekends. Gas eats up a ton also.
To make it worse some clinics got cancelled or rained out and some had just 5 or 6 riders show. No one gets rich on tour.I have learned alot from those two summers and if I ever do another tour it will be even more dialed. Bottom line, I know Phil, and believe his side of the story completely.
Rumors get out of hand fast. When I started American Bicycles we had a frame builder lined up. He was supposed to get us a prototype before tour. I left with none. I called him every week during the tour. I even put Mike Gul (one of our 4 Pros) on the phone with him. He kept saying they are coming. I got back to California 3 months later and still had no prototype bike. I then found out he told people that he didnt get us bikes cause I owed him money.
I’m like WTF, he never made a bike, we didn’t owe him a dollar.Phil lets see some pics. Not even I could out bunny hop Phil. I could clear a tire. Phil cleared my Quadangle’s seat at the Armory!
man dolecki lives like a king now when he does tour.. he takes pics of kids on bmx bikes.. hotel suites.. good money.. dolecki figured it out. the money isnt in bmx itself.. the money is in what bmx does
@bmiddaugh wrote:
I just wanted to add that what I had originally written was mostly hearsay from a bunch of the guys involved at that point, luckily Phil found the site and has set the record straight.
(note to Phil since we are both on here now. Dude they must have been nuts letting a couple of guys in their early twenties run those tours BITD, how we all made it home alive is crazy enough!, lol)
I wanna hear some Phil stories man, he was telling me some fun stuff last night!…
and I gotta finish this post someday, lol.Hey,
Looking back on it, the guys at General Bikes were kind of overly optimistic. After all the gave the keys to a New Chevy Suburban and 24′ trailer to a bunch of kids. I’m suprised more stuff didn’t get broken.
The rig was totally unstable when we first got it too, no sway bars and the load in the trailer was mounted up high. I can remember on more that one occasion getting blown off the road or getting a wierd fish trail going then hitting the dirt for a bit!
I’ll try to remember some funny stuff, I’ll post some as I can remember.
later,
Phil
@ErickWeinstetter wrote:
Phil lets see some pics. Not even I could out bunny hop Phil. I could clear a tire. Phil cleared my Quadangle’s seat at the Armory!
Hey Erick,
I got your message to other day. I found a couple boxes of slides from the late 80’s, my Girl Friend Chris is scanning the for me and I should have them in a week or so.
Ya, the highest bunny hop I ever cleared was about 38″. we had a little high jump bar set up anthe top of the poles were 36″ and I cleared the bar sitting on top of the poles by a bit.
I’m hoping you get bored enough to finish the General Tour “B Team” saga when I came aboard. The show at Zeroids Amusement park stands out when Jeff Mayer drove the suburban 60 mph in reverse to avoid getting us killed by a bunch of locals. Having the hotel room trashed at the AFA Masters in Schenectady was good times too. Also getting beat up on the Atlantic City board walk after hours while Jeff and Branden watched from afar warms the heart too. Jeff Mayer, Roger, Branden, Adam, Mark. Even did a summer of shows with Steve Rulli before that.
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