Brian Tunney

Brian casually rolls by while thinking of brake guards with Motley Crue stickers. Photo: Rusty Holeswatter
1. What is your very first memory of BMX?
I bought a BMX magazine which featured an interview with the guy who did all the skateboard stunts for Marty McFly in Back To The Future, and immediately got hooked on the freestyle stuff going on in that magazine. In a way, I guess I could blame Michael J Fox for how my life has turned out so far…

2. How did you feel when you got your first bike – do you have the same feelings now when you set up a new bike?
I was bummed because it was a GT Performer instead of a GT Pro Performer, knowing that other kids were going to make fun of me for only having a Performer instead of a Pro Performer. Grade school social stratification was not kind to the introductory bike range. Nowadays, even though bikes go together a lot easier, I’m a wreck. The tape measure comes out and I spend an inordinate amount of time measuring the lengths of each tube on the frame. Ten years ago, I was riding a 20.5” frame for flatland, and now I get stressed over half-inch discrepancies on chainstays. When did it come to this?

3. What was your first bike like?
Chrome ’85 GT Performer: white GT two-piece bars, Ukai rims, Suzue hubs, Skyway axle pegs, ACS Rotor, GT tyres, GT forkstanders. For a while, it also had a Dyno brake guard on it, but the Dyno sticker was covered up with a Motley Crue sticker…

4. What is (are) your latest bike(s) like?
Flat: United 19”, WTP Mantis forks, United bars, Profile mini cranks, Metal 30t sprocket, Fly Suelo stem and front brake, Odyssey lever, United bars, Demolition Bulimia front wheel, Nankai 48 freecoaster rear, FBM Homie Hauler pegs, Edwin grips. Street: United 20”, United bars, forks, A Bike Co GLH tires, stem, sprocket, grips, Fly Ruben pedals, Demolition Bulimia front wheel, Profile cassette rear, a sticker that says ‘Worried.’

5. When & what was the first time you saw a rider do something amazing on a bike?
Anytime I saw Dave Voelker at an AFA comp in ‘87 or ‘88, I was consistently amazed at the ridiculous stuff he was doing both in the actual contest and in the parking lot in front of the contest…

6. When & what was the last time you saw a rider do something amazing on a bike?
No specific when, but everything I see Ruben Alcantara and Sergio Layos do is unbelievable. It’s seriously indescribable to me. The best I can come up with is that they look like they’re surfing on a bike…

7. If you hadn’t discovered BMX, what do you think you’d be doing now?
I’m still in the process of discovering BMX. When I get to the bottom of it, I’ll let you know…

8. When it comes to riding, do you go for style or tricks?
Tricks. Style should evolve naturally; I don’t think it’s possible to go for style, it’s more of a product of riding and learning tricks, not the main goal. Besides, forced style on a bike looks like some sort of weird dance move…

9. Do you have to work on progression, or does it just come naturally to you?
I work my ass – and my head – off at learning new moves. If there’s one thing in this world that doesn’t come naturally to me, it’s bike riding.

10. What state of mind enables you to progress your riding?
The two states of mind that don’t progress my riding are 1) drunken, and 2) post-coitus. The rest is fair game for riding and / or progressing.

11. What one rider has influenced you the most?
There’s no one person in particular that’s influenced me the most. For the most part, I’m influenced by a lot of different people’s needs and desires to create, in music, literature, bike riding et al.

12. What goes down if you have a bad day?
A bottle of Yellow Tail Chardonnay.

13. When was the first time you tried something big/burly/scary?
The one thing that jumps out is 360ing the big box jump at K Rob’s old park called Impact, on a Hoffman EP with an 18.75” top tube. There is no way in hell I would ever do that now.

14. When was the last time you scared yourself on your bike?
Breaking a chain pedalling through an intersection in Austin, going over the bars and jumping up as fast as possible to avoid the oncoming traffic.

15. What was the last bike part you bought?
A copy of Dig issue 51.

16. What is the greatest BMX product in the last ten years?
Road Fools 1. I think it played a huge part in ushering in a new era of BMX riding, from the way people rode, to the way people made videos, to the way people approached BMX. Plus, Jimmy Levan still gets free drinks in Austin because of it…

17. If you could choose two riders to go riding with daily, who would they be?
I like riding by myself way too much to ever tolerate riding with two people all of the time…
18. How would you describe your riding?
A really cheap form of therapy, meditation and fun.

19. What is your favourite type of riding?
Manual pads in the parking garage by myself with Bluetip playing in my iPod, or riding flatland behind Home Depot by myself with the Vague Angels playing in my iPod. Much like my moods, the type of riding I’m doing caters to a certain kind of music…

20. Describe an ideal day…
The computer never gets turned on, no one I come in contact with is stressing me out or acting like an idiot, I get to ride my bike for a while, I win the lottery – which allows me the chance to move out of the funeral home into my own house and pay off any debt I have, eat at VP2 in NYC, watch some Seinfeld reruns, drink a glass of wine and receive a copy of The New Yorker in the mail which features my first published story in the Shouts and Murmurs section…

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