Mark Poole

MARK POOLE

Before There Were Rules

In 1974, fourteen-year-old Mark Poole and his friends were already practicing BMX before they knew that was what it would become.

They rode their bicycles everywhere around Raytown, Missouri. An older neighborhood rider, James Wrobleski, had raced motorcycle motocross since 1972. The boys gathered in his garage while he prepared his motorcycle for upcoming races.

Then they attempted to reproduce what they had seen.

They practiced wheelies, built jumps, slid their bicycles sideways, and created makeshift courses in any available field. With ramps, berms, and starting lines, they raced one another for the simple pleasure of seeing who was fastest.

There were no sanctions, established local programs, or standardized BMX tracks guiding them. They learned by watching motocross, experimenting with bicycles, and challenging one another.

When they discovered that Fast Eddie’s bike shop in Grandview was holding a true BMX race, everything came together.

They were hooked.

THE YELLOW WEBCO

Mark’s first true racing bicycle was a yellow, mild-steel Webco.

It was equipped with an Ashtabula fork and crank, a Moto Mag front wheel, and a Sachs Duomatic two-speed automatic rear hub laced to a Weinmann rim.

His favorite bicycle came later: a lightweight chromoly DG equipped with aluminum handlebars and wheels. The difference between the two bicycles reflected how rapidly BMX equipment developed. Early riders began with strong but relatively heavy parts adapted from existing bicycles. Before long, lighter frames and racing-specific components began transforming what a BMX bicycle could be.

Mark’s first sponsor was Gary’s Bike Mart. He did not have a factory sponsor, and there were no BMX Nationals available to Midwest riders during this earliest period.

His favorite jersey was his H&S Racing team jersey. The name stood for Hand and Sistrunk, reflecting the involvement of Tom Hand and Nick Sistrunk in the team.

RIDING, WORKING AND LEARNING

Away from the track, Mark attended junior high and high school. He worked part-time at Gary’s Bike Mart and later at JCPenney, repairing and assembling bicycles.

Bicycles therefore occupied nearly every part of his early life. He rode them, raced them, repaired them, built them, and helped sell them.

He continued riding until approximately age sixteen, when bicycles began giving way to cars.

Looking back, Mark believes riding and racing provided something more valuable than trophies.

“The ’70s were a great time to grow up. Riding and racing kept us out of any serious trouble, and learning about healthy competition prepared us for adulthood.”

RACING THROUGH WINTER

The riding did not stop when the racing season ended—or even when snow covered the ground.

Mark remembers building small tracks in the snow and ice. One course ran through Tom Hand’s yard, with large snow berms constructed around Tom’s mother’s trees.

Mark even made his own studded snow tires to improve traction.

That memory captures the character of their earliest BMX years. They did not wait for a formal track, favorable weather, or an organization to provide a program. They used whatever terrain, materials, bicycles, and ingenuity they had available.

EVIDENCE OF THE BEGINNING

Mark preserved trophies, photographs, jerseys, bicycle components, and memories from those years.

Together, those materials document a period when BMX in Kansas City was not yet an established institution. It was a collection of young riders building courses in fields, studying motocross motorcycles, working in bicycle shops, modifying equipment, and racing through every season.

Mark Poole was there before there were established rules for how BMX was supposed to work.

That freedom was precisely how the sport began.