Back in the early 70s, when kids couldn’t make it out to the motocross tracks, they were picking up bicycles, converting them to custom BMX bikes, and racing around dirt fields or neighborhoods, starting an underground culture of youngsters growing up on two wheels. Around that time, Ernie Alexander decided to start the National Bicycle Association, giving the kids an organized racing series to compete in—the rest is history. That’s when the fast kids became rock stars, as BMX spread across the country. And the NBA made that possible.

Today, the NBA is no longer putting on races. But as a way of honoring Ernie Alexander, one of the Godfathers of BMX, old and young alike gathered at Valley Relics Museum for a reunion. Tommy the owner of the joint is an old BMXer, so who better to host the first annual get together for those who want to remember and reminisce about their good-old BMX days. The museum had a great display of classic bikes, old issues of Ernie’s Bicycle Scene newspaper, and outside was a sea of BMX parts, legendary bikes, and memorabilia from yesteryear. The coolest thing was, though, that it was a place for like-minded people to come together and shoot the shit.

Today, Ernie cruises into Fasthouse every morning around 8:00am to tell his son Kenny how to run the shop.

Photos by Brendan Lutes