Bike #2: The RMX Cat

My second bike was a red bike called the "RMX Cat":


I am seven years old in this picture, which was taken in 1978. As you can see from the picture, it was some sort of hybrid between a BMX bike and a regular kid's cruiser. It had knobby tires and fake-looking BMX number plates on it, plus the most important weird cross-over feature: the big motocross-style seat. This was what I would have probably described at the time as a "cool banana seat", with all the comfort of those big long seats and all the style to make this bike look like it was ready for the motocross track.

This bike saw a lot of action around the neighborhood in the area of Huntington Village where I grew up. What was awesome about growing up in this neighborhood was that it was pretty safe to ride around thanks to the presence of a road called "Myrtle Avenue". Up the street was a pretty dangerous road called "Nassau Avenue" and down the street was Route 110 or "New York Avenue", which was major conduit in and out of Huntington Village. So my street could have easily defined the limit of my travels, but Myrtle Avenue provided an escape to broader worlds. Myrtle ran in the same direction down into town as the two more dangerous roads, but bisected all the major streets in a meandering manner that discouraged all but local car traffic. That left Myrtle to us kids on our bikes.

One of my best bike riding buddies at the time was Eric Jacobsen. Here's a picture of Eric and me, sitting on a mailbox to get the optimal view of a parade down New York Avenue:

Although Eric and I didn't stay close throughout elementary school, we had at least a couple of summers together filled with bike riding all throughout our neighborhood. Eric and I would later run cross-country together in tenth grade, pals again in being two of the slowest runners.

I don't know what happened to the RMX Cat other than it was replaced by several different bikes as I got older. I imagine it went out during some garage sale, but there's no history of its end.