Lebanon man organizes event for fellow BMX enthusiasts

LEBANON - Gary Sansom of Portland celebrated his 44th birthday Saturday with bone-jarring thuds on a bicycle roughly two sizes too small.

It was, in a word, perfect.

"This is what I wanted," said Sansom, who spent Saturday afternoon riding the hard-packed dirt trails just north of Riverview Elementary School in Lebanon with the Old Fat Guy National BMX/Freestyle bicycle show. "I feel like I'm 12 again."

About 15 cyclists brought 30 bikes to Saturday's show, which included a barbecue and awards ceremony at River Park. Paul Schragl of Washougal, Wash., took home the "Best in Show" trophy for his 1977 D.G. blue and gold BMX racing bike. The trophy is to be handed to the new winner each year.

Organizer Benjiman Hulburt of Lebanon named the show and said he plans to make the gathering a yearly event. He and other BMX enthusiasts keep in touch online, via Facebook and a Portland website, www.bmxmuseum.com.

"The majority of us are guys who were into this in the '80s," Hulburt explained. "And we're still into it, but we're older - and we're fat."

BMX bikes, which became popular for racing in the late 1970s, are built tough for stunts and tricks. Frame and wheel sizes vary, but they're generally sized to perfectly fit a kid of 10 or 12.

Not that that stops Hulburt, 34, or any of his friends.

"Sometimes you revert back to what makes you happy," he said with a grin. Newer bikes are better engineered, sure, he said, but old-school BMX is "like driving a '53 Cadillac versus an '09 Mercedes. It's got soul."

Hulburt provided the trophy, one he had been awarded in 1985 as a 10-year-old at the Corvallis BMX indoor track. He raced in the novice category.

"Reason I won is everyone else wrecked," he remembered.

Some of the riders at the show were joined on the track by their children, including Toby Wilcox, 36, of Lebanon, who brought his 12-year-old son, Ian, and P.J. Beaty of Bend, who brought son Aaron, 13, and daughter Hannah, 10.

Next year, Hulburt said, he hopes to have some activities specifically for kids, and to bring in more contests, trophies and local competitors.

"I guess if there's something out in the world, there's a group of people who love doing it," he said.