The problem I always had was getting up big hills. I don’t know how much that bike weighed but it had to be a good 20 pounds or so. I swear, I think the other kids were hitting 14-15 mph easily with their bikes. At 90 rpms that would have put me at a speed of around 12-13 mph. Now, according to one of the entries on the BMX Museum site, this bike had a 39T front sprocket with a 18T rear sprocket. Definitely had my fair share of times when I just couldn’t keep up. That Team Murray bike was much heavier that everyone else’s. Problem for me was that I wasn’t quite as fast as everyone else.
Everyone loved to explore the forest trails and creeks. Up and down the streets we went, through the trails, down and back up the creek beds, through more trails, and then back on the streets. When the creek was low, there were various parts that would be bone dry that you could ride down into. Various bike trails were made that allowed us to go between different parts of the neighborhood. Back in the 80’s, we had creeks that ran through our neighborhood with lots of trees around them. Myself and the kids I grew up with pretty much rode our bikes everywhere. I lived just north of Houston in Spring, Texas. The flyer details for this bike are a trip! I remember getting a gel seat cover to help make it more comfortable. It was rock hard and your butt would get numb after riding on it for a while. I do recall the saddle being super uncomfortable to me. Me being stupid about rim brakes and all I probably removed them since no one else was using them on their bikes. It did have a coaster brake on it so its quite possible that I ended up just removing the rim brakes altogether. I don’t recall there being rear rim brakes but I could be wrong. Seems my father listened to the bike shop sales guy and was pushed this 24" wheel bike onto us. I didn't really know what the hell that I wanted other than it needed to be a BMX style bike. I vaguely remember my parents taking me to a bike shop to get this bike. This would be a bike that I would ride for probably 4 to 5 years all the way into 8th grade. That sounds about right since I would have been in 4th grade and us kids would then be riding to school thereafter. If it was indeed 1982 then this would put me at about 10 years old. I can’t say the exact year but it looks to be very close to a 1982 Team Murray X24. But once I saw pictures of it I knew right away that was the bike I had. I had to do a ton of hunting to find out what that bike was. I grew to love that bike the more I rode it. It had a chrome frame with blue wheels, saddle, grips, and pads on the top tube and handlebar. It was a bike that to me and others seemed freaking huge! The reason was that, while everyone else was riding BMX bikes with 20” wheels, I got a bike that was more of a cross between a BMX and a cruiser with 24” wheels. I don’t remember my first bike, but I do remember the one I rode the most as a kid.
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