Alans BMX — The Wigan Shop That Brought American BMX to the North West (1980 to Today)

Legend Bike Co · BMX heritage series

In 1979 a man named Arthur Woods parked a Fox van at a schoolboy motocross semi-final in Hindley, on the edge of Wigan, and sold gear out of the back of it. That is not a founding story anyone wrote down at the time. It is just what a bloke with a car repair garage did on a Sunday to help his son go racing. But it is where one of the longest-running BMX shops on earth actually starts, and it explains why, when BMX landed in the north west of England, the local kids turned up looking better dressed than everyone else.

This is the story of Alans BMX — Wigan, England — and of Alan Woods, who was sixteen years old when he wrote to every company in an American magazine and asked if he could sell their bikes in Britain.

Motocross first

Alan Woods started racing motocross in February 1976, aged eleven. The family raced most weekends and all over the country, not just around Lancashire, and his father's car repair garage in Hindley was the base for all of it. By 1977 they were selling motocross gear at the races. That is the detail everything else grows out of. Before BMX existed as a business in Britain, the Woods family already knew how to buy stock, load a van, and sell to riders standing in a field.

Alan says he first saw BMX in advertisements for American magazines carried inside motocross magazines, and clearly remembers picking one up in Cumbria around 1978 — a photo of a rider doing a tabletop off a small dirt mound, and some shots of sidehacks. The first BMX race the family did was at Little Lever near Bolton, on a track they built themselves.

The motocross background had a second effect that anyone looking at photographs from 1981 spots immediately. Because the family already sold motocross gear, Alan's riders turned up in JT Racing kit and Simpson helmets while much of the rest of the British scene was still in skateboard-style helmets. As Alan puts it, they looked the part. In a young sport where nobody yet knows what right looks like, that matters more than it should.

The letter

In late 1980, aged sixteen, Alan Woods got hold of a copy of BMX Plus! and wrote to every company advertising in it, asking about distributing their product in the United Kingdom. A few replied. Two of them mattered: CYC and Robinson.

They placed orders, and in February 1981 Alan and his father drove to Heathrow to collect what he describes as the first Robinson frames in the country. Those frames went to riders the family already knew locally — Dave Arnold, Craig Borrows, Fenwick Carr, Jason Ramsden.

At Easter 1981 the family flew to California, and Chuck Robinson gave them a tour of the industry. Alan has described being taken around Vans, Bob Haro's operation, Voris Dixon, A'ME, and Steve Johnson at Torker. Robinson was a high-end brand, so they needed something in the middle of the range; they came away from Torker with a Maxflyte complete bike, brought it back to England, and put it under a rider named Mike Pardon. By Alan's own account they returned distributing Torker, Haro and A'ME.

On that same trip Alan and Dave Arnold raced across Southern California — Monrovia, Devonshire Downs, Lancaster, Azusa, Ascot, Rancho in San Diego — and Alan claims the two of them as the first British riders to race in the States. Later that year he and Andy Davidson raced the Pontiac Silverdome and got their photograph into BMX Action.

Building the track, and then the sport

Around mid-to-late 1981, Alan and his father met someone from Wigan council at a site called Three Sisters. The council showed them two pieces of ground and pointed at the second one. Arthur Woods got hold of materials and a bulldozer, leaned on his contacts in the haulage trade, and built the track himself with help from Dave Arnold, Craig Borrows and others. Alan does not remember applying for funding for any of it.

Three Sisters became one of the defining British tracks of the 1980s. Alan designed it deliberately wide open, with elevation change and multiple lines rather than the standard U-inside-a-U layout everyone else was building. It had a pro section called King Kong that nobody was sure could be cleared until a Torker-sponsored rider named Chris Welsby tried it before the surface went down, dug his front wheel in, and went over the bars — proving it was doable and taking the hit personally. The shop had also been involved with the Chorley track before that, alongside John Lee's father. Alan went on to design tracks at Whitehaven and Birmingham Wheels.

Then it went further. Around 1983, Alan's mother and father were asked by the people running UKBMX in the south to get involved, and for a period the two of them ran the national governing body between them — processing licence applications, running the paperwork, with Arthur representing UKBMX at IBMXF meetings. A car mechanic from Hindley and his wife, administering British BMX from a garage in Lancashire. Alan calls it a bit bizarre. It is also a fair snapshot of how young the sport was.

Alan Woods, racer

The shop is the legacy, but the record belongs to the rider too. In 1981 Alan Woods became Britain's first official 16-plus National Champion — the country's first BMX national number one. He has said he knew at the time that winning that first title mattered, purely so that somebody could always point at the very first champion and name him.

He raced the Kellogg's Channel 4 television series in 1984 and 1985, and won a round at Gateshead in 1984. He also toured with the Torker Ford Freestyle Tour in 1984 — which is how he ended up in a McDonald's in Nottingham being recognized by a stranger who had seen him on television.

He raced against and alongside the names that define the era in Britain, and he is generous about most of them. He rates Geth Shooter as exceptional. He rated Tony Holland as the best rider he ever sponsored — a local kid who became an icon of speed and style. He still, four decades on, has not entirely let go of the move Tim March put on him at the UKBMX season opener at Wigan in 1983, which cost him the lead and, by his own account, a custom Bell helmet thrown thirty feet into the infield. He notes with some amusement that he and March now agree on most things.

The crash, and the swerve that saved the business

British BMX collapsed at the end of 1986. Alan's read on why is blunt and worth repeating: bikes got too expensive and the whole thing became uncool, racing and freestyle alike. A lot of the top riders walked away after the 1986 Slough World Championships and did not come back.

What kept the shop alive is the part most BMX histories skip. Alans was already deep into skateboards and music, and when BMX went quiet the shop rode that instead. Alan ran a record label and worked with touring bands through the 1990s. The Wigan shop became known to a whole separate audience for punk records — a cross-cultural reach that the BMX press has since acknowledged is impossible to overstate. Through all of it they kept BMX on the shelves. That is the whole trick, and it is why the shop is still here and most of its contemporaries are not.

Around 1997 the shop had riders on Robinson and Torker again. After a visit to a national at Coppull, Alan decided to rebuild a race team, running Pro Concept and Supercross frames and later Avent. Mike Pardon came back from Australia and joined the business; the shop brought Madison on board alongside Shimano DXR and won the national team title three years running.

The old school revival

Alan had been racing vintage motocross since the early 1990s, so he already knew the format would work. Alans BMX is credited with putting on the first Old School BMX event in the UK, and Alan has described running one of the earliest at Warrington and being blown away by the turnout — people seeing each other for the first time in fifteen years. A few more followed, then a four-round series at the nationals with prize money for the overall, won by John Vile. After that it took on a life of its own and he let it run.

In 2017 the shop rolled out a GT Heritage race team, holding a licence for GT BMX Heritage parts and moving three riders across from Hutch. The stated goal, in Alan's words: try hard, be rad and look good.

Where it stands now

Alans BMX still trades from Wigan, sitting between the two main railway stations that connect the town to London, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland. Alan still owns it with his wife Julie. The shop moved to larger premises in 2004 and added mountain bikes; skateboards have been on the shelves the whole way through. It calls itself the oldest BMX shop in the UK — though Alan himself is quick to name Edwardes as a close contemporary that is also still going.

The teams have kept running across every discipline BMX has. The park and street side has included Charlotte Worthington, who the shop helped on her way to a gold medal in Tokyo. The race side runs as Alans BMX Heritage and still includes John Bentley and Karl Sanderson, both of whom have raced for the shop since the 1980s, alongside Kira Lee and Jason Lee — the children of John Lee, the 1980s Raleigh factory rider whose father helped build the Chorley track with the Woods family forty years earlier. That is not a coincidence. That is what a shop looks like when it stays put.

On the distribution side, the shop handled Supercross BMX frames — the EVO and the UL — in the early 2000s, with riders including Kye Whyte, who went on to Olympic silver in 2020. In 2023 Alans BMX was appointed UK distributor for Supercross BMX, Speedline Parts and Redman Bikes. In the interest of full disclosure: Supercross BMX and Speedline Parts are sister companies to Legend Bike Co. That relationship is why we know this story well, and it is stated here rather than left for a reader to find out.

Timeline

• 1976 Alan Woods starts racing motocross, aged eleven, out of his father Arthur's car repair garage in Hindley.
• 1977 The family begins selling motocross gear at races.
• ~1978 Alan sees BMX for the first time in magazine advertising while in Cumbria.
• 1979 Arthur Woods sells out of a Fox van at a schoolboy motocross semi-final in Hindley — the moment the shop's own history points back to.
• 1980 Alan, aged 16, writes to every company advertising in an issue of BMX Plus!. CYC and Robinson reply. He begins selling BMX bikes.
• Feb 1981 Alan and his father collect the first Robinson frames in the country from Heathrow.
• Easter 1981 California trip hosted by Chuck Robinson; Torker, Haro and A'ME follow. Alan and Dave Arnold race in Southern California.
• 1981 Alan Woods becomes Britain's first official 16-plus National Champion. Arthur Woods builds the Three Sisters track in Wigan.
• ~1983 Alan's parents run UKBMX between them; Arthur represents the association at IBMXF meetings.
• 1984-85 Alan races the Kellogg's Channel 4 television series, winning a round at Gateshead in 1984, and joins the Torker Ford Freestyle Tour.
• 1986 British BMX collapses. The shop leans into skateboards and music and keeps trading.
• 1990s Alan runs a record label and works with touring bands; the Wigan shop becomes known for punk records as much as bikes.
• ~1997 Riders back on Robinson and Torker; a new race team follows on Pro Concept, Supercross and later Avent.
• 2001 The shop puts on what it describes as the first UK Old School BMX event, and begins distributing Supercross BMX race frames.
• 2004 Move to larger Wigan premises; mountain bikes added.
• 2017 GT Heritage race team launched under licence.
• 2021 Charlotte Worthington, supported by the shop, wins Olympic gold in Tokyo.
• Nov 2022 Alan Woods inducted into the inaugural British BMX Hall of Fame, Pioneer Racer category.
• 2023 Alans BMX appointed UK distributor for Supercross BMX, Speedline Parts and Redman Bikes.
• Today Still trading in Wigan, still owned by Alan and Julie Woods.

Sources

britishbmxhalloffame.com, UKBMX's First National Number 1 — Alan Woods Interview, 21 May 2017 — the single richest primary account used here: the 1976 motocross start, the 1977 gear sales, the 1978 first sight of BMX, the Little Lever race, the late-1980 letter to BMX Plus! advertisers, the February 1981 Robinson delivery at Heathrow, the Easter 1981 California trip and the Torker Maxflyte, the Three Sisters build and King Kong section, the Chorley track and John Lee's father, his parents running UKBMX around 1983, the 1981 first 16-plus national title, the Kellogg's Channel 4 series and Gateshead win, the Torker Ford Freestyle Tour, the 1983 Wigan incident with Tim March, his assessment of Geth Shooter and Tony Holland, the 1986 collapse, the record label years, the late-1990s team rebuild, the Madison and Shimano DXR team titles, the Warrington old school event and John Vile's series win, and the 2017 GT Heritage team. digbmx.com, How to Stay Relevant in BMX for 40 Years — Alans BMX, UK, 10 March 2021 — the 1979 Fox van at the Hindley motocross semi-final, Arthur Woods's role, the first BMX bikes (Moto One, then Mongoose), the JT Racing and DG gear, the California industry tour naming Vans, Bob Haro, Voris Dixon, A'ME and Steve Johnson, ownership with Julie Woods, the 2004 move and product mix, the current shop and race team rosters including Charlotte Worthington, John Bentley, Karl Sanderson and the children of Raleigh factory rider John Lee, and Alan's note that Edwardes is a close contemporary. britishbmxhalloffame.com — confirmation of the November 2022 induction in the Pioneer Racer category of the inaugural British BMX Hall of Fame class. fatbmx.com, Alans BMX appointed as UK distributor for Supercross BMX products — the 2023 distribution appointment covering Supercross BMX, Speedline Parts and Redman Bikes; the shop's own summary of its founding year, the first UK Old School event in 2001, the Charlotte Worthington support and the Hall of Fame induction; and the earlier 2001-era Supercross EVO and UL distribution including Kye Whyte. alansbmx.com — the business's own present-day description as the oldest UK BMX bike and parts shop, since 1981. Unreachable for this research: bmxsociety.com (site down throughout) and bmxmuseum.com (blocks automated access).

Related Legend Bike Co. chapters