Young daredevils with energy to burn headed for Finlathen Park 40 years ago when Dundee’s first BMX track opened.
The dedicated dirt track was set up for youngsters to race their BMXs and perform gravity-defying jumps.
The track opened at the height of the BMX craze, which really took off over here when everyone went to see ET in 1982 and loved the flying bike scene.
The movie inspired kids all over the world to ride BMX and barely a garden or park was seen without them.
The bikes were a must-have.
Kids were leaping all over the place on them.
What BMX bike did Santa bring you?
Even if you weren’t a serious rider, you probably had or wanted a cool BMX bike for Christmas, like the blue and yellow Raleigh Burner.
Maybe you had a Marlboro or Team Murray BMX?
The red and black Halfords Turbo was another 1980s classic.
You could typically buy them for £120.
The BMX track was built through funding from the Manpower Services Commission.
The proposals were discussed by the leisure and recreation committee and there were questions about whether the expenditure was justified.
This was “bearing in mind the short-lived popularity of skate boarding”.
The committee agreed to go ahead with the track to answer criticism that there was no provision for the sport and children had to ride on the streets.
Dundee’s first track, located between Fintry and Linlathen, was built for £840 on parkland underneath the Finlathen Bridge.
There was a set of steps down from Fintryside.
Finlathen Park was place to be in 1984
The circuit of jumps, bends, hairpins and fast straights opened during the Easter holidays in April 1984.
The weather was perfect and kids arrived in their droves.
Some went the whole hog with £12.50 helmets but most were having too much fun to bother in the days when health and safety standards were more lax.
Scrapes, bruising, cuts and lacerations were not uncommon.
It was often dangerous but that was half the fun of it.
These were heady days in Finlathen Park.
The BMX track was surrounded by a pitch and putt course and adventure playground with rope bridges, scramble nets, swinging logs, fireman’s pole and zip wire.
Finlathen Park was becoming the envy of schemes across the city.
The Evening Telegraph reported on the opening in April 1984 and found youngsters had been playing at the BMX track from dusk to dawn.
“Youngsters in the Fintry and Linlathen areas of Dundee have been enjoying the pleasures of Dundee’s first BMX cycle track over the Easter holidays,” it read.
“Situated in Finlathen Park, between the two housing estates, and built at the relatively cheap cost of £840, the track comes complete with straights, humps, bumps and jumps for the youngsters to cycle over without endangering themselves and others.
“A spokesman for the parks department said a second BMX track was under
construction at South Road Park, in the Charleston area, Lochee.
“The South Road track, costing £980, should be completed and opened in the near future.
“Both tracks can be used free of charge.
“Youngsters using the new track in Finlathen Park today all agreed it was an excellent idea.”
Youngsters enjoyed tearing round BMX track
Many would meet to learn new tricks.
The Evening Telegraph photographed three young pals enjoying the thrills and spills.
Brothers Billy, 8, and Michael, 7, Rice and Leigh Smith, 7, said they had spent most of their school holidays using the track.
They were riding the BMX cycles which they all got at Christmas.
“We have great fun racing and playing on the track with our bikes,” said Billy.
The short-lived South Road track opened in Charleston later that year.
Riders would have to navigate tight banked turns and the occasional dog.
Riders would compete for trophies
BMX clubs would meet across the region, usually on Sundays, but sometimes on Wednesdays during the lighter summer evenings.
Dozens of youngsters from the country and city would vie for trophies and titles at meet-ups hosted by clubs like the Angus Arrows and Perth Pumas.
Some teen riders were good enough to turn semi-professional.
Scott Carroll was 15 when he won the BMX World Championship in 1987, after hours spent training in his back garden in Broughty Ferry.
John Buultjens pedalled his way to success as one of the world’s best BMX riders, after honing his skills in abandoned factories in Dundee.
John was out riding from the moment the sun was up.
He is now the global brand manager for Haro Bikes and his incredible life story was made into a Hollywood movie.
The 1980s was still a time that you could enjoy a carefree childhood.
Long hot summers and a BMX bike gave kids a freedom which was fast and fun.
Another BMX bikes track built in 2004
Sadly, the Finlathen Park track didn’t outlast the BMX craze.
By the 1990s the dirt track had fallen on harder times as bike racing fell out of fashion.
Only the odd hump amid the overgrown grass gives any clue that it ever existed.
Everything old is new again.
A BMX track was built on wasteland at Baldovie in 2004 as part of a £4m Scottish Government scheme to upgrade derelict land and buildings.
Youths helped to design the £153,000 asphalt track, which initially saw 50 to 60 people turning up during the summer months.
It now lies abandoned and littered with broken glass, the tarmac track the only concrete reminder of a time when youngsters felt they could fly.
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