Tinker Juarez


David Juarez is an American former professional BMX and cross-country mountain bike racer. His prime competitive years in BMX were from 1978 to 1984 and in mountain bike racing 1986 to 2005. Since late 2005, he has competed as a Marathon mountain bike racer. In all three disciplines, he has won numerous national and international competitions. Most recently, Juarez finished third in the 2006 Race Across America Endurance bicycle race.
Born in Downey, California, Juarez is a highly talented cyclist who has made significant impacts in the cycling disciplines of BMX Racing, Freestyle BMX, Cross-country Mountain Bike racing, and now Marathon Mountain Bike racing for over thirty years. While he was also known as the "Hollified Flash" after one of his home BMX tracks he used to race at and dominate in the early-1970s, the moniker "Tinker" is a nickname that was coined by his family. According to his Mother Rose: "We used to say 'Stinker' when he was a baby, everybody thought we were saying 'Tinker" David Juarez is so well known by his nickname "Tinker" many people probably think that is his real first name.

BMX racing career milestones

Note: In the early days of professional racing, 1977 and prior, many tracks offered small purse prize money to the older racers of an event, even before the official sanctioning bodies offered prize money in formal divisions themselves. Hence some early "professionals" like Stu Thomsen turning "pro" in 1975 at 16 years old where racing for small amounts of money at track events when offered even before the NBA, regarded as the first true national BMX sanctioning body, had a professional division. For the sake of consistency and standardization noted professional first are for the first pro races for prize money offered by official BMX sanctioning bodies and not independent track events. Professional first are also on the national level unless otherwise indicated.
MilestoneEvent Details
Started racing:1974 at 13 years of age.
Sanctioning body:Independent track.
Home sanctioning body district:National Bicycle Association District "X" 1973-1981; American Bicycle Association California District 22
First race bike:
First race result:
First win :
First sponsor:
First national win:In 14 & Over Intermediate at the first annual National Bicycle Association. This was the first ever BMX Grandnational Championship.
Turned Professional:1977 Age 16.
First Professional race result:
First Professional win:
Height and weight at height of his career:Ht:5'8" Wt:~140 lb.
Retired:1986 at age 25. His possible last race was the NBL War of the Stars IX National in Montclair, California on April 27, 1986. He came in third in Pro Cruiser. His name apparently drops off the national results listing permanently after this race. He transitions to mountain biking during the summer of 1986. Unlike most BMXers who "retire", he never looked back and dedicated the rest of his cycling career to Mountain Biking and later endurance Road Racing.

*At the time there was no separate pro class for pros due to the relatively small number of pros. They raced with the 16 Experts, making it a Pro/Am class essentially. This is why during the early years of the pro division the national number one racer of a sanctioning body could be either an amateur or professional. This practice continued until the NBA's 1979 season in which the pros earned separate pro points and a separate pro plate from the amateurs.

Career factory and major bicycle shop sponsors

Note: This listing only denotes the racer's primary sponsors. At any given time a racer could have numerous ever-changing co-sponsors. Primary sponsorships can be verified by BMX and MTB press coverage and sponsor's advertisements at the time in question. When possible exact dates are used.

Amateur

Note: Listed are District, State/Provincial/Department, Regional, National, and International titles in italics. "Defunct" refers to the fact of that sanctioning body in question no longer existing at the start of the racer's career or at that stage of his/her career. Depending on point totals of individual racers, winners of Grand Nationals do not necessarily win National titles. Series and one off Championships are also listed in block.

Amateur

National Bicycle Association
National Bicycle League
American Bicycle Association
United States Bicycle Motocross Association
International Bicycle Motocross Federation

Professional

National Bicycle Association
National Bicycle League
American Bicycle Association
United States Bicycle Motocross Association
International Bicycle Motocross Federation
Independent Events and Series
In April 1980, Tinker was named the first King of the Skateparks by Bicycle Motocross Action magazine. He even graced the April 1980 cover of the magazine, making it one of the first pure freestyle magazine covers by a BMX magazine. Although no contest was ever held, it was a general declaration for his highly advanced maneuvers that no one were matching at the time.

Career BMX accolades

Tinker, despite eventually becoming a top pro BMXer in racing and gaining "high airs" in both dirt jumping and vertical freestyle, went ten years without breaking a bone. It is very common for BMXers, especially in the pro ranks to become occasionally seriously injured because they are pushing themselves to as far as their talents can take them and beyond at high speeds, or in the case of vertical freestyle and dirt jumping to high altitudes and distances.

Miscellaneous and trivia

Tinker also participated in what was call Formula One bicycle racing. F-1 racing was a short lived fad from 1987–1989 that involved bicycles with 20" wheels that looked like a cross between BMX, Road Race Touring and Mountain bicycles. Other famous BMX stars both retired and active at the time participated, including Harry Leary, Pete Loncarevich, David Clinton, Stu Thomsen, Eddy and Mike King. The two major BMX sanctioning bodies ABA and NBL, sanctioned the events. Tinker won the first ABA sponsored F-1 series race in Phoenix, Arizona in early 1988. In the following NBL sanctioned Grand Prix series he got a sixth in Memphis, Tennessee and a second in Orlando, Florida.

BMX and general press magazine interviews and articles

Bicycle Motocross News:
Minicycle/BMX Action & Super BMX:
Bicycle Motocross Action & Go:
BMX Plus!:
BMX Weekly & BMX B-Weekly:
Total BMX:
Bicycles and Dirt :
NBA World & NBmxA World :
Bicycles Today & BMX Today :
ABA Action, American BMXer, BMXer :
USBA Racer :

Mountain Bike (MTB) racing career

In 1986, Tinker made the switch from BMX to mountain biking. Since that time, Tinker has become a 3-time National Off-Road Bicycle Association cross-country champion and 4-time national champion in the 24-hour solo category. In 1996, he became one of the first to see the introduction of mountain biking as an Olympic sport and represent the United States. Tinker again represented the United States at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Started Racing: 1986 at 25 years of age.
Sub discipline: Cross Country, Endurance
First race result:
Sanctioning Body:
Turned Professional: 1989
Retired:

Factory and corporate sponsors

Amateur

Amateur

Professional

Mountain Bike Action:

Ultra-Endurance racing career

In 2005, Tinker began training for long-distance road racing events. He won the Heart of the South, which is a race, and finished second place at the 2005 edition of the Furnace Creek 508, a grueling course that covers of cumulative elevation gain and passes through Death Valley. His podium finishes qualified Tinker for the 2006 Race Across America, the annual transcontinental bicycle race from the west coast to the east coast of the United States. He came in third in the Men's Solo Enduro division of the RAAM endurance road race on June 22, 2006, completing the three thousand mile race which started in 2006 from Oceanside, California and finishing in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His finishing time was 10 days, 22 hours and 21 minutes.
Started Racing: 2005 at 44 years of age.
First race result:
Sanctioning Body:
Retired: Still Active.

Factory and corporate sponsors

;Professional teams
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