- Interview -
- Joey Bradford -

    Joey Bradford, factory GT standout, is quickly making a name for himself in the UCI and professional ranks of BMX. Bradford, the holder of numerous World Championships, currently leads the NBL's Junior Men's class in points.

    At a relatively young age, Bradford is quickly making a name for himself not only as a rider, but in many other aspects of the sport. Bradford recently debuted his JoeyBradford.com sponsored team at the ABA's Reno Nationals. Bradford seems to hold a bright future as one of BMX's top riders at a very young age; we recently had a chance to run some questions by Joey, here is what he came up with:

Name: Joey Bradford

Age: 17

Class: Junior Men / A Pro

Sponsors: GT Bicycles, Oakley, Fly Racing gear, PowerBar, Ogio bags, THE, Sun Rims, Sun Ringle hubs, Bombshell forks, Kenda tires, SDG seats, Cytosport, SRAM chains, Easton seat posts, FSA cranks, Avid brakes, X-Balm Lip Balm, Sponsorhouse.com, JoeyBradford.com, and BMXPros.com.

Location: Monterey, CA

What got you into racing?
When I was young I played pretty much every sport out there. I was doing tai quon doe and baseball at the time and one of my friends told us about BMX racing so my dad took me out to check everything out one day. I thought it was pretty cool so my dad said I could either have $350 to spend on a BMX racing bike or on what ever I wanted. I ended up choosing the bike and it was a long and bumpy road from there!

How long have you been racing?
Haha! I hadn't realized it until now when I just counted but almost eleven years.

What do you do outside of racing (work, school, etc. give us some background)?
A lot of school work which I'm pretty much completely over half the time but still get it done, work on my website and try to update it as much as possible but it can get hard sometimes because you don't want to just write "yea I did some sprints today, then did some homework." No one wants to read that lol. There is a lot of stuff going on with my team right now (JoeyBradford.com/GT Bicycles) and I am having a lot of fun with it.

What is your favorite thing about racing?
Traveling everywhere. If I wasn't racing I wouldn't have gotten to chance to fly everywhere around the world on someone else’s dime. The furthest I would have gone is on the bus 30 miles away for a football game or something.

What is your least favorite thing about racing?
There is not to much I don't like about it but I am getting tired of a lot of the tracks over here right now. Every year the jumps just get flatter and less technical.

Favorite track?
2006 UCI Super cross Mt. Dew Tour

Favorite NBL National?
Boulder City, NV

Favorite ABA National?
Hard to really pick one, Phoenix and Reno are pretty cool, they're all kind of the same actually.

ABA Grands or NBL Grands?
ABA Grands hands down. NBL Grands are kind of cool but ABA does such a good job of making a show out of it. Doesn't even come close really.

Favorite hobby outside of racing?
Trails, website

What would you be doing now if you weren't racing BMX?
Probably racing cars or playing football, who knows.

Have your parents supported you in your pursuit of BMX?
Yes, if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be where I am now. My parents are always doing everything they can to help me out.

Joey, you have obviously had what most would consider to be an incredibly successful amateur career on a national and world level. Give us the highlight reel, or what you would consider to be the greatest moments of your amateur career.
It's so hard to pick just a few. All of the UCI World Championships are my favorite races. Actually, anytime I go outside the US because it is cool to see all the different cultures and everything is just so different. Japan is probably my favorite place to go to though. I have gone the last two years and they all try so hard to make sure you are always happy and are all really nice. It's a completely different world over there and its nice to have a change every once in a while.

What was your biggest win?
2005 UCI Worlds when I doubled in cruiser and class with a messed up thumb. I crashed in a local practice on the ABA Worlds track the Wednesday before and tore the ligament in-between my thumb and index finger and ripped the other ligament off the bone in my thumb and chipped the bone with it, along with a bunch of other injuries you get from crashing onto an asphalt corner. We almost pulled out of the ABA Worlds but we didn't and ended up doubling there. Kris Fox gave me this fiber glass mold the doctor had made for him last time he hurt his thumb so I had this huge hunk of plastic from almost my elbow down and over my thumb so it was hard to race. I kept that on through the cruiser day at worlds and then took it off for my semi and main in class. I always seem to get hurt before worlds though. In 2004 I crashed in my main at the UCI Worlds in Holland and separated my shoulder. I had it popped back in and it was fine just a little sore and ABA Worlds were next week. When I was in Seattle getting ready to drive into Victoria I went to push myself up off the bed and it popped back out but they couldn’t get it popped back in. So I raced ABA Worlds with my shoulder separated. Wasn't the best feeling in the world, especially coming out of the gate! Come main time though it still hurt but I got myself pumped up enough to kind of block it out and ended up tripling. That was my least favorite race even though the results were good haha

Over half way through the NBL's 2007 season, and well on our way to the upcoming Worlds you stand atop the points lead for the Junior Men's class. What are your goals for this upcoming summer?
This summer I will be over in Europe getting ready for Worlds and racing a few races in England and then the Euro Rounds in Latvia and the Netherlands. My goals are to try to ride as smooth and consistent as I can and hopefully bring home the gold in all of the races.

The Olympics are fast approaching, what do you expect, or hope, the impact will be on the sport of BMX?
Hopefully the sports popularity grows and more and more people start to race. Right now a lot of people know about it but half of them are like "How’s your motocross going?" So its not known to well.

The age old question, ABA or NBL with a twist: What is the best thing about each of the sanctions? What do you feel each could do to better the sport?

ABA: Runs their races like a business so everything is ran smoothly. The same people go to every national so there is no confusion and they get the job done. They do a really good job of putting on a show and I really enjoy their races. Tracks are starting to get better now as well.

NBL: Confusing at the moment. I understand what they're doing with the UCI stuff but a lot of people don't have a clue as to what is going on. Few things I would like to see are to have the same people at all the races because you can sometimes get deputy I work here at local races try to run the whole show when he doesn't know what is really going on. A lot of their tracks are pretty good though. It is always fun to ride something a little technical every once in a while.

What does your training schedule look like on a week to week basis?
As some of you might have seen in BMX plus I squat with two pieces of toast tied to my ear every morning, well I am up to 5 on each side now so I am getting a lot stronger haha. Nah, the usually stuff - squats, sprints, core, a little upper body, same as everyone else. The schedule is just always changing up so its impossible to really put a Monday I do this Tuesday I do this because it is never the same.

What advice would you give to someone trying to better themselves as a rider?
You have work hard and keep a positive attitude about it. If it was easy everyone would be the #1 AA Pro. For new riders I think they should just have fun with it for a few years. You sometimes get a new guy out at the track who just rode a bike for the first time a month ago and is clipped in doing squats, ten thousand push ups between each lap, and completely just killing his kid and I don't know about you but I would sure be over that if I was eight!

Joey, you seem to be doing a great job of marketing yourself at a very young age. How do you think this will affect your career in the future?
I think it will really help out a lot. It is all just fun to me so I enjoy trying to think of new ways to promote myself and my sponsors.

Who inspired you to market yourself in such a manner?
My dad has always helped me out a lot and most of it has all happened because of him.

What do you hope to give to the sport of BMX?
I have a few things in the works right now I can't talk about but either before or after Worlds I'll let you know.

What do you hope to get out of the sport of BMX in the future?
To learn as much as I can about promoting/marketing as possible that will hopefully help me out when I go into business and Real Estate. In my opinion, there is a lot to learn from BMX if you really work at it.

What prompted you to to start your own team?
I have always sponsored one local rider at my track but this year we really stepped it up picking up 5 other rides. The team consists of 6 riders, Dezi Green, Ricky Castro, Robbie Merced, Bubba Gonzales, Brandon Tansey, and A-pro and ABA announcer Jimmy Monroe. I am trying to provide a platform for riders to learn the true meaning of sponsorship. A lot of riders do not understand how important it is to promote your sponsor. Riders always complain about their sponsors not hooking them up as much as they wish they would but if you take care of your sponsors, they will take care of you. With this team I will be trying to mold them into perfect riders I guess you could say who, ride well, and most importantly, represent their sponsors well. These riders have a huge opportunity to improve themselves as a whole and I am glad to be apart of it. Most of my co-sponsors have come on board with me and are doing a lot for the team. We will be at all of the west coast ABA and NBL nationals along with a few state and gold cup races. Look for it to grow a lot more over the next few years.

How do you manage to balance your own racing career and running the team?
My dad helps me out a lot with it so he pretty much looks over things at the races while I am getting ready and all. While at home its all the same stuff we have been doing but now just doubling it for the team so its not to bad. Like I said before it is all a lot of fun to me so its not tiring work.

With your marketability, you seem an ideal candidate as spokesperson for BMX in the future. How does that feel at such a young age?
I had never really thought about it but that would be pretty cool.

What is your plan of attack for moving through the pro ranks?
During this next year and into 2008 I want to learn as much as I can in the Pro ranks. No matter who you are and how fast you are there is always a year to two year learning curve before you start to really show good results in AA. I need to just focus on riding consistent and keeping my head on straight while at the races and not getting to worried when I do something wrong. Just realize what I did and don't make the same mistake twice.

Is there anything else you would like the readers to know about Joey Bradford?
I don't even know where to start, If you have any other questions or want to know anything else you can email me at Joey@JoeyBradford.com! haha

Anyone you would like to thank?
First off I would like to thank a my sponsors... GT Bicycles, Oakley, Fly Racing gear, PowerBar, Ogio bags, THE, Sun Rims, Sun Ringle hubs, Bombshell forks, Kenda tires, SDG seats, Cytosport, SRAM chains, Easton seat posts, FSA cranks, Avid brakes, X-Balm Lip Balm, Sponsorhouse.com, JoeyBradford.com, and BMXPros.com. My parents, my trainer Ken Cools. Dean Meyer, Jon Agnew, Curly Jon, Bruno, Sarah, Mo and everyone else at Pacific. Terry Baisley and Ray Hudsen/FLY, the Hickmans, King, and Meadows/Bombshell, Ryan Birk/Sun, Houseman/Sponsorhouse.com, Steve Blick/Oakley, Steve Staats, Halvy, Spencer, Will Rells, CC, Bubba and Burlin Harris, Mike and Steve Day, Avalanche time, Harry leary, the Derosas, Pete Dylewski/Bmxpros.com. Eric Rupe, Stumpy, Yo-Yo, everyone else who has helped me get to where I am now, and you Nick for taking the time to interview me for your website! Later.