Mike Miranda (BMX rider)

"This guy I know that races motorcycles in Southern California is a real jerk. Every time you did something stupid, we would call you by his last name. 'You're such a Smith.' And at the Super Bowl of Motocross three years ago, he raced and had "Hollywood" on the back of his jersey. From then on, whenever you did something stupid, we would say: 'You're such a Hollywood'. It was meant as a putdown but now I guess it's compliment. I just tell people that they call me that because I like to show off. Steve Giberson started it."
-----Mike Miranda Super BMX April 1983.

Racing career milestones

Career factory and major bike shop sponsors

Amateur

• Steady Pedaler Bike Shop: 1978
• RRS : 1978-December 1980
• CW Racing: January 1981-December 1983. Mike Miranda will turn pro with this sponsor.

  Professional

• CW Racing: January 1981-December 1983. "CW" stood for "Coast Wheels" and later became Custom Works. This is in contrast with JMC which did start out as a bicycle shop and then began manufacturing its own BMX components including entire bicycles. He left CW because he was essentially tired with being with the same sponsor since almost the beginning of his racing career. Also his friendship with the owner Roger Worsham became more distant and the growth of the company gave it a less than an intimate feel. He cited these reasons for his loss of motivation. Pro Pete Loncarevich replaced him.
• Torker BMX: January 1984–September 14, 1984. He joined Torker to be a teammate with his best friend and fellow pro racer Tommy Brackens who joined Torker a couple of months before. He became roommates with Brackens in January 1984 sharing a two bedroom apartment in Fullerton, California, right above the apartment Torker Team Manager Mike McLaughlin and Max rider representative "Magoo" McGruther lived in. Miranda and Brackens also set up a membership in a health spa to train together. He left Torker because he had alleged irreconcilable difference with then Torker team manager Steve Johnson. As it turned out, Torker would go bankrupt and let its entire team effort go two months after Miranda's departure.
• Hutch Hi-Performance BMX: September 15, 1984 – early November 1986. Left Hutch due to its inability to pay his salary because of the company's financial difficulties. including Hutch filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy This was a major disappointment to Mr. Miranda and false promises allegedly made by the management of Hutch caused him enough disillusionment with the BMX industry to take a two-year hiatus from racing. Apparently one of those false promises was the company's alleged failure to pay Miranda's salary and contingencies despite of the hard work Miranda put into racing but also ancillary things to promote the company:

  "I went to a whole lot of races. I did good that year - in '86. I won NORA Cup - which is by far the biggest thing that's ever happened to me in BMX. I went on tour-drove every mile in the motor home. Watched the kids. Did the clinics. Bent over backwards for Hutch in every way I could. All I did was eat, breathe, and live Hutch BMX. And he kept telling me, 'The check's in the mail. Check's in the mail.' And by the time it rolled around, it was four months behind, and that's when he let me know there wasn't going to be any check. No contingencies. No nothing. He just said 'Sorry.' I understand - that's business, and it's my fault not watching out for myself. Maybe putting too much trust in my friends. It happened and that was it. I didn't want to do it anymore. I didn't want to get burned again." ---Mike Miranda BMX Action June 1986

• Jamis Cycles: January 1987-March 1987. In a bike test for Super BMX & Freestyle Mike Miranda was product testing a Jamis bicycle. He liked the bicycle so much he initiated talks with Jamis for sponsorship after his sponsorship with Hutch Hi-Performance ended. Despite this however, he apparently wasn't happy due to the after effects of his sponsorship with Hutch BMX.

  "I got an offer from Jamis.....but I just didn't want to ride anymore. I didn't have whatever it takes to say yes and do it again, I couldn't get up in the morning and train. So I got a job. Started working, took up golf - put a bunch of different things in my life that would take up the space that BMX had filled" ----BMX Action June 1989

• CW Racing: Early April 1987-December 1987. Mike Miranda announced what was effectively his semi-retirement from competitive racing to take the position of the CW freestyle team manager. He raced occasionally in the pro class basically for fun.
• CW/Revcore/Shadow: December 1987-September 1988. Revcore/Shadow was owned by the same man who started and own its elder sister company CW Racing: Roger Worsham. Later Shadow was dissolved and the Company was left with only the CW and Revcore divisions.
• Free Agent/Vision Street Wear: September 1988 – June 1990. Vision Street Wear and Free Agent joined the trend of two or more companies sponsoring the same race team to spread the financial burden. Mike Miranda left Vision Street Wear to head GT Bicycles's Juvenile Promotions Program.

  Career bicycle motocross titles

Amateur

• None

• None

• None

  Professional

• None

• 1982 "B" Pro Grandnational Champion

• 1984 Arizona State Pro Champion

• None

• 1984 20" Class Pro Murray World Cup III Champion

BMX Product lines

• 1984 Hutch "The Hollywood Series" frame and fork set and complete bicycles.

  Notable accolades

• He was the first "B" pro to win the Pro Trophy/Award class at the NBL national in Lawrenceville, New Jersey in April 1982.
• He is the 1986 Winner of Bicycle Motocross Action magazine's Number One Racer Award Cup. He won with 12.02% or 723 out of the 6,017 votes cast. He beat second place and three consecutive time NORA winner Greg Hill by three votes. Hill received 11.97% and Tommy Brackens 11.52% of the votes cast. Miranda also won an RCA Video Cassette Recorder as a prize. Neither Hill nor his loved ones voted at all for the 1986 NORA Cup balloting. Considering that Hill lost by three votes, it might have tipped the balance in Hill's favor:

  "Yeah I didn't vote. My wife didn't and neither did my mom and dad. If we would've voted, then I guess, I would've won . ---Greg Hill May 1986 BMX Action

• He had speaking and stunt roles in the 1986 movie "Rad".
• He was a camp counselor ant the famed Woodward Gymnastics and BMX camp in Woodward, Pennsylvania following in the path laid by Bobby Encinas and Perry Kramer of giving back to the kids what he learned from BMX.
• He is a 1992 inductee of the ABA BMX Hall of Fame.

  Significant injuries

• Broke a hand at the 1983 East Coast National in Bargaintown, New Jersey. Laid up for approximately one month.
• Injured ankle sometime during August 1985
• Broke jaw while practicing in the street jumping a curb on his bicycle approximately September 1985.
• Suffered a compression fracture of the spine during the NBL's Orlando, Florida national on April 3, 1989. He misjudged the height of a jump and the front wheel clipped the peak of the mogul sending him over the bars and onto his head It was a career-ending injury. However, Miranda didn't know of the full extent of his injury until he had his back examined after weeks of persistent back pain. Both BMX Plus! and Mike Miranda himself state it was an ABA race, but there was no ABA national scheduled in Florida that year. However, there was one NBL national held in Florida in April before BMX Plus! made note of Miranda's injury in its July 1989 issue.
• A jet ski accident during his 20s severed the tip of his right middle finger, leaving him with no fingernail permanently.

  An unknown accident almost completely severed his left ear off, but with medical attention it was reattached and remains permanently deformed.

Racing habits and traits

• He had a penchant for promoting pink as a desirable color for males in BMX racing despite it being traditionally associated with females. He went as far as to have a uniform in pink and white colors during his time with Hutch Hi-Performance BMX beginning in early 1985. He was probably the major reason for the approximately three-year fad of male BMXers, both racers and in particular freestylist wearing neon pink uniforms or having pink and another bright colors like light purple, lavender and lime green incorporated in uniforms bicycle components including frames handlebars and accessories including tires. The highly respected pro racer Greg Hill, who was sponsored by his own company Greg Hill Products at the time also gave the neon color trend legitimacy when he too used the color pink in his GHP uniform livery also beginning in early 1985.
• His racing was prone to hot and cold streaks. In 1982 he broke onto the professional BMX stage by his near complete dominance of the junior pro class by going almost undefeated on the junior level. He transferred himself with the NBL's permission up to the Senior division. He did almost as well in the Senior pro class, beating such established veteran racers on a regular basis like Stu Thomsen and Anthony Sewell. This after never winning the expert class at a national during his amateur career. Then he went into a sophomore slump in 1983. In 1984 he was hot again but by 1985 his career was in the doldrums. He did not win a major race in any association during that year. This is compared to with his winning four races in 1984, the same number as Tommy Brackens and Stu Thomsen won that year.
• He was disorderly when he came to home organization, to which his room was in complete disarray with his clothes, bicycle equipment, Guitar case, and other items strewn about

  Post BMX career

• After an almost 20-year absence from BMX, he is currently a Cross Country Mountain Biker in the 40 and over class.
• As of 2011, Mike Felty lives in Seal Beach, California.
• He has 2 children, including a son, David, and a daughter named Miranda who he named in remembrance to his original last name given by his step-father, Benjamin Miranda.
• He is an avid surfer and sailer.
• He was married in his late twenties to Kelly Felty with whom he had his two children, David and Miranda. After their divorce and remarriages he is currently married to his wife Sierra Felty with whom he has two stepsons, Ethan and Devan.
• He and his wife Sierra have two Boston Terriers named Elvis and Priscilla.
• He remains close friends with fellow "old school" BMX rider Eric Carter

  BMX magazine covers

• None

• October 1981 Vol.8 No.10
• February 1983 Vol.10 No.2 celebrity actor John Stamos in separate inset.
• October 1984 Vol.11 No.10 in insert. In separate insert Freestyler Mike Dominquez. Main image: Richie Anderson, Gary Ellis & other racers.

• September 1984 Vol.9 No.9.
• July 1985 Vol.10 No.7 in insert with Eric Rupe leading. Brad Birdwell main image.
• October 1985 Vol.10 No.10.
• June 1989 Vol.14 No.6. Harry Leary riding a mountain bike and in mountain biking uniform in insert.

• November 1983 Vol. No.10* with inserts David Ruz & Andy Sutalo; Jim Comeau.
• August 1984 Vol.7 No.8 with Toby Henderson, Clint Miller & freestyler Woody Itson in separate inserts.
• October 1984 Vol.7 No.10 in insert behind Ronnie Anderson and ahead of Stu Thomsen. Eddie Fiola main image.
• July 1985 Vol.8 No.7 in insert with Eddy King. Main image freestyler Ron Wilkerson.
• August 1985 Vol.8 No.8 with Scott Clark, Pete Loncarevich, Harry Leary, Robert Fehd and Billy Griggs in separate inserts and a group shot on a starting gate.
• February 1986 Vol.9 No.2 ahead of Pete Loncarevich. Inset Sidehackers Perez & Garrido.
• February 1987 Vol.10 No.2 in insert ahead of Eddy King and Pete Loncarevich, In separate insert top freestyler Martin Aparijo frame standing on MX motorcycle. Main Image: Freestyler Rich Sigur.
• July 1989 Vol.12 No.7 In top insert Lake Jumping with black shorts right with Freestyler Dave Voelker in redshorts left with spectators. in middle insert freestyler Woody Itson with models Liz Corey and Danielle Shields. Billy Griggs is main image.
• September 1989 Vol.12 No.9. Jumping over a powersliding Galen Starlin.

• May 1984 No.32
• January 1986 No.40

BMX press magazine interviews and articles

• "Mike Miranda" BMX Plus! January 1983 Vol.6 No.1 pg.47 Sidebar article.
• "Hollywood Mike Miranda" Super BMX April 1983 Vol.10 No.4 pg.10 Long indepth interview.
• "Mike Miranda" BMX Plus! November 1983 Vol.6 No.10* pg.44
• "Hollywood Finds A Home" American BMXer October 1984 Vol.7 No.9 pg.23
• "Mike 'Hollywood' Miranda: Racing for Religion" BMX Bi-Weekly July 5-July 18, 1984 Vol.4 Iss.13 pg.32 British Publication.
• "Mike Miranda" BMX Plus! October 1984 Vol.7 No.10 pg.45 He emphasized his religious feelings in this interview.
• "The New Torker" Super BMX November 1984 Vol.11 No.11 pg.22. Short article about Miranda on Torker with his teammates similarly profiled.
• "World's Messiest Room?" BMX Plus! December 1984 Vol.7 No.12 pg.16. Short "Inside Scoop" humorous article on the living space hygiene of Mike Miranda.
• "Shuckin', Jivin', and Jokin' with Hollywood Mike Miranda" BMX Action April 1985 Vol.10 No.4 pg.42
• "Mike Miranda: Flyin' High Again" BMX Action July 1986 Vol.11 No.7 pg.22
• "On the Cover: Mike Miranda" BMX Action June 1989 Vol.14 No.6 pg.70