Wow I never knew CYC had sponsored Tom Christopher. My earliest memories of him were with Tioga. How could CYC miss the boat and not have the 4X rider featured in their advertisements in 1979? Maik Puschert sent me these two scans from the March 1980 issue of “Minicycle/BMX Action”. My guess is they are from a late 1979 race. It is a Malibu Grand Prix track. The NBA sanctioned races at this franchise all across America.
Got these pictures from Keith Villa showing off his classic 1977 CYC Stormer. He pointed out that it still had the original Skyway Tuff Wheel 1’s. The forks are rare chromed and stamped Ashtubula. The stem is a black stamped Ashtubula. The decals are in pretty good shape for a 1977. Kieth bought this bike in 1977. So it is the truest form of survivor. Parts list also includes KKT pedals, Oakley grips and Nankang MX tires.
These pictures are from the October 1978 issue of “Bicycle Motocross Action”. They appear courtesy of Bob Osborn. Do not reprint or publish without his expressed written permission.
Seeing the bash guard on the Stormer Jr. made me wonder if it wasn’t the Pikes Peak bike. So I had to find the article. Clearly the bash guards are different. And the bike in the test is a regular Stormer. I have not reprinted the article do to its very long length. I may later on till then try to get your hands on the magazine and enjoy these pictures in the meantime.
Ok this bike was recently spotted and I had to add it to the site. Thanks to Steve for sending me the pictures. Two very unsual things about this bike. First was immeadiately obvious. The bike has a CYC Bashgaurd just like the one in the article in “Bicycle Motocross Action” on Pikes Peak.
Was this that bike, or merely a local attempt to duplicate the Pikes Peak bike? **Editors Note- See the article above (Pikes Peak). Clearly the bash guards are different, and the bike used in the test was stickered as a regular Stormer. **
Second was the decal says Stormer Jr. Never heard of this model before. The bike shows tall and looks like a a regular Stormer. This bike has a 18.5″ top tube just like a regular Stormer. So what is the difference? Could it be that CYC had intended to do a CYC Stormer Jr. Model and just never did? This clearly looks like a regular Stormer to me. Could it be the factory simply mislabeled it? This is a very interesting find.
***This just in*** Barry (last name unknown) just commented that he was on the CYC mailing list for years. CYC it turns out made a production run of special edition Pikes Peak Stormers and Stormer Jr.’s. maybe 500 of the Stormers and 250 of the Stormer Jr.s were planned for production. It is unclear how many they actually produced. Thanks for the info Barry!***
The 1980 NBmxA Winter Nationals were covered by BMX Plus!
The picture of is of a local rider, Charles Davis from Las Vegas doing it for CYC.
At the same race it shows 1979 NBA #1 X (SoCal) rider Tom Christopher aboard a CYC Ames Stormer.
It looks to me like he is wearing a CYC Jersey as the rider above him is.
I just came across these pictures from the one time magazine “BMX Racer” from Jan. 1981. It shows 2 Stormer models I didn’t remember. I owned that magazine back in those days just don’t remember these pictures. First we have the “Stormer Comp 2″ It is basically a new name for the Ames Stormer.
This second bike looks amazing. They list it only as the new Stormer so it is unclear if it had a fuller name like Pro Stormer etc. Note all the changes. New huge top tube, new down tube bends at the headtube like the GT Performer but years before the Performer. Nice cool lil gusset tube like the National Pro or Webco Professional. The rear dropouts look like works of art. The seat stays meld into the top tube like I remember Astron’s or was it BXC or Traker did?
Not sure if this bike ever went into production or if you are looking at a picture of the only one known to exist. Had CYC came out with a sweet graphics package and ran ads for this bike, I’m sure it woulda been popular.
I recieved some great photos from Mike Muniz. One is of him with his second place trophy at the 1978 NBA Grand Nationals indoor LA Sports Arena race. Standing with him is NBA President and Founder Ernie Alexander. At the time the NBA was the undisputed king of BMX. I have more pictures from Mike I will upload from time to time. Thanks Mike for digging them up!
This full page color ad shows the the lightning stickers still being used. The ad though was clearly written earlier then the ad appeared. Look closely and you will see that this ad talks about the “New” 1979 catalog. So clearly this is the 79 model.
But the ad appearing in Janurary 1980 shows the new bold Stormer logo. The Jan 80 issue probably was on newstands in November/December 1979. That means the add copy would have had to be at the magazine in Oct/Nov 1979. So the Bold logo is clearly the 80 model year but we can be certain it appeared in 79.
This is an 1980 ad for the short lived Luja uniform company. Dont know if they were a part of CYC or simply sponsored the team.
Below is a 1979 ad for Luja. CYC still used to 78 jersey but has switched from the Bill Walters leathers. In 79 you can see the switched the color stripe on the side of the pants to match the new 79 jersey.
Can anyone NAME the rider in either advertisment and tell me if they were Factory CYC?
Anyone know the name of this racer or the track?
 | Erick Weinstetter on October 1979 advertisemen… |
 | Andrew Millar on October 1979 advertisemen… |
| Andrew Millar on May 1975 advertisement |
 | Steve on 1978 or 79 Pikes Peak Stormer… |
 | Maik Puschert on 1980 NBmxA Winter Nationa… |
