Butte Falls, Oregon — John Palfreyman Jr. never expected his childhood hobby to one day grow into a worldwide sport featured in the Olympics.
Growing up the son of a motocross shop owner in Santa Monica in the 1970s, Palfreyman couldn’t be more representative of the types of kids who started BMX racing nearly three decades ago.
The Southern California teens who first created BMX, or bicycle motocross, were young boys wanting to emulate the motocross done by adults.
They copied the way older men rode motorcycles — only on their bikes — launching off jumps, speeding around corners and eventually  … More