Len Weed — The Writer Behind BMX Freestylin', 1982
BMX Racing History · BMX Media · Legend Bike Co.
Len Weed
The writer behind BMX Freestylin', 1982
Len Weed's name sits on the cover of one of the most collected BMX books from the freestyle era, right next to Mike Buff, Bob Osborn, and R.L. Osborn. Everyone else on that cover has a page in this library already — Buff and the two Osborns are riders, a publisher, and a magazine that generations of BMX kids grew up on. Weed is the writer who put their story into a book, and until now, he hasn't had a page of his own.
The book: BMX Freestylin', 1982
Weed is credited with text and editorial coordination on BMX Freestylin' — Featuring the BMX Action Trick Team, a 160-page instructional book copyrighted in 1982 by Mike Buff, Bob Osborn, R.L. Osborn, and Len Weed, and published by Wizard Publications out of Torrance, California. R.L. Osborn and Mike Buff supplied the riding input as the book's subjects. Bob Osborn shot the photography and wrote the foreword, in his own voice, about raising R.L. and building the sport alongside him. Weed's job was the text — walking readers through ground tricks, small-ramp tricks, quarter-pipe tricks, and skatepark and pipe riding, plus the narrative material profiling Buff, R.L. Osborn, and the BMX Action Trick Team's early tours. It's written in the third person about Buff and Osborn, not in Weed's own voice about himself — which is a large part of why so little about Weed personally survives in the book's pages.
23mag.com's own period book index corroborates the credit independently, listing the title simply as "a 160 Page book by Len Weed put out by BMX Action, featuring R.L. Osborn and Mike Buff" — confirmation that Weed, not any of his co-credited collaborators, was recognized at the time as the book's writer.
What the book actually says about him
Almost nothing, by design. Bob Osborn's foreword is a father's account of R.L. and the Trick Team. The bio pages inside are Buff's and Osborn's, full of the kind of color detail — favorite trucks, favorite tacos, license plates — that never once turns toward the author writing them down. Weed shaped the whole book's voice without stepping into the frame himself, which was exactly the job: put the riders and the tricks first, and stay out of the picture.
Where the record runs thin
Beyond this one book, we could not confirm a wider Len Weed BMX-writing career. oldschoolmags.com's magazine archive, bmxsociety.com's community forums, and 23mag.com's period indexes were all checked directly for any other byline, masthead credit, or column under the Len Weed name. None turned up. That doesn't mean one doesn't exist — mastheads from this era are inconsistently preserved, and a contributor's byline could easily sit buried in an uncatalogued issue — but we're not going to claim a broader career we can't source. If you have a magazine credit, a masthead scan, or firsthand knowledge of Len Weed's work beyond this book, Legend Bike Co. wants to hear from you.
Where Len Weed fits in the bigger story
People: Mike Buff, Bob Osborn, R.L. Osborn. Team & magazine: BMX Action Trick Team, BMX Action Magazine. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.
Sources
- BMX Freestylin' — Featuring the BMX Action Trick Team, © 1982 by Mike Buff, Bob Osborn, R.L. Osborn, and Len Weed. Wizard Publications, Torrance, California. Text and editorial coordination credited to Len Weed; riding input from R.L. Osborn and Mike Buff; photography by Bob Osborn.
- 23mag.com, BMX Books 1980–1989 index — 23mag.com/mags/boo/boo80.htm — independent period listing crediting Len Weed as the book's author.
- Legend Bike Co., "Mike Buff," "Bob Osborn," and "The BMX Action Trick Team" — legendbikeco.com — cross-checked for consistency on the book's credits and content.
- oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com were checked directly for any further Len Weed byline or credit; neither returned results beyond the 1982 book.
← The History of BMX | ← The BMX Action Trick Team | ← Mike Buff | ← Bob Osborn | ← R.L. Osborn