BMX Action Trick Team

The BMX Action Trick Team was the first and most famous of all the freestyle teams that would spring up across the globe in the 1980's. The members of the team are considered legends of the sport that they helped to build. Over it's (roughly) 7 year history, the team make up changed a few times with the one constant being that of the team commander - R.L. Osborn. The team began in 1979 when R.L. (BMX Action magazine test rider) and Bob Haro (BMX Action's resident artist) were asked to do a demonstration of BMX trick riding at a motocross race. This performance fell through at the last minute but Bob and R.L. decided to continue with the idea of a trick team and started practicing in earnest. They performed their first show at the ABA Winternationals in February 1980. For the next year or so, the pair continued to hone their craft and performed more shows. Then in early 1981 Bob Haro left the team to pursue other oppurtunities and was replaced by R.L.'s fellow magazine test rider, Mike Buff. The combination of R.L. and Buff proved to be a very successful and popular one and this is the line-up that most people remember. In 1983, Pat Romano joined the team bringing a whole raft of new bicycle tricks to the table. Romano introduced the fixed gear and fork pegs to BMX and pioneered tricks such as "the boomerang". Romano only stayed with the team for a short time. In early 1985, R.L. and Buff concluded that their partnership had run its course and decided to go their seperate ways. Mike Buff joined the CW Freestyle Team while R.L. brought in Ron Wilton as his new partner and they continued as the BMX Action Trick Team for about a year before the team was finally dissolved. R.L. then took the helm of the Redline Freestyle team. The team did many shows across North America and their Summer tours were always one of the hilights of the Summer BMX calendar.

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