FRESNO, Calif. (KGPE) – On Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the National BMX Hall of Fame will induct its class of 2023. Fresno native Stanley Robinson is included in the class.
Robinson, 61, is still an active competitor in the sport.
“This year, I pulled state No. 1 in the 61-and-over cruiser,” he said.
Stanley Robinson first began competing in BMX in the mid-1970’s. He estimates that he has more than 1,000 trophies.
“I started winning just like it wasn’t nothing,” said Robinson. “And I was like, ‘okay, when is it gonna stop?’ Of course, everybody sweats, everybody gets tired. Basically, it’s the normal thing to do. But I was like, ‘okay, I’m not getting tired.'”
He won so much, all over the country, that he earned several nicknames. Locally, he was known as the ‘Fresno Flash.’
“And I was like, ‘okay, I’ll stick with it,'” he laughed. “I had ‘Radical Robinson.’ ‘Tazmanian Devil’ was one.”
Stanley Robinson is credited with inventing the two-pedal start.
“I got up on the gate and I just started bouncing, I just came up,” he said. “You literally take your bike against the gate, and you put your pedals and you balance.”
He started doing that 50 years ago, and he has been doing it ever since.
“In this sport, you might be quitting at, like, 25 years old,” said Robinson. “My body was just still…I had too much skill, I just rolled the heck out of the bike.”
