Birthplace: Davenport, Iowa, USA
Rick: The first bike I ever owned was a purple Sears Spider when I was six years old. In 1977, as a little welfare trailer park kid, the only thing I had was a BMX bike - a Schwinn Stingray with knobbies and a leopard print banana seat.
Rick: In november 1981, I raced my first "Pro" race.
Rick: I turned AA in the ABA four months after I moved up to the pro ranks. My racing career lasted from 1980 to 1985, from around age 15 to 19.
Rick: I saw Bob Haro in Elkhart, Indiana, at Bud's BMX a few times and that's what got me wanting to really jam. I built my first quarterpipe with this guy Barry Ream back in '83. It was like nine feet tall with four feet of vert. We always did freestyle, except it was never called that.
By the end of 1983, Rick was ranked National Number 11 with the ABA.
Rick: My first big pro win was the NBL War of the Stars in Waterford Oaks, Michigan, in '84. I rode a Darrel Young JMC in B Pro against Darrel Young himself and he got something like second or third. We had the same color bike and everything! That kicked.
FREESTYLE.
Rick: In 1984, the GT freestyle team came to the shop I was working at -Ron Wilkerson and Rich Avella. They did their show and stayed for a couple of days and hung out. When they had to take off for their next show, they invited me to go. I stayed with them for two weeks -getting a taste of what it would be like to be a "freestyle" pro. This was what I wanted to do. Then I fully got into learning and practicing tricks. I was still into racing, but freestyle just kind of took over.
Rick: The Hutch Trick Team came to Cologne, Illinois - Woody Itson and Donovan Ritter. They did their show and stayed around for two weeks. Woody asked Hutch to "hook me up" with a frame and fork, and they did. It was the first "free" anything I got straight from a company. I felt so lucky! In the fall, I got a call from Woody. He offered me to do a three-week tour as a rider on the Hutch Trick Team! The other rider was none other than Mike Dominguez! I didn't think about it -I was packed in less than an hour and on my way.
FIRST CONTEST.
December of 1985, Manchester, Massachusets. Hutch sent me. At the time, I was racing AA Pro, but freestyle was coming out as the cool thing.
Rick: In 1986, I was entering contests and touring with Hutch as a paid amateur.
Rick: That fall Hutch had financial difficulties and dropped their team. I was lucky enough to land on the great Haro team of the era.
RAD
Cover: Freestylin december 1986.
Rick spent the past summer on the road with Dennis McCoy and Joe Johnson.
Rick has won both the 19 and over flatland and overall classes at seven of the eight AFA Masters contests he's entered. As a result, he recently clinched both the Flatland and Overall titles for the year, for the second year in a row. With such a successful amateur program behind him, Rick has decided to join the ranks of the pros.
Rick is co-sponsored by Odyssey.
PRO.
Rick is turning pro.
1st place pro flat, 6th place pro ramp and the overall title @ AFA Masters round 1, Palmetto, Florida, january 1988
Is Rick Moliterno the next big superstar of freestyle? That question is now answered. Yes! In Palmetto, Florida, where the AFA held its first '88 Freestyle Masters Series contest, Rick was prepared to do battle against the recognized elite of freestyle, and he blew 'em away! Following this comp you better believe the other flatland pros know who Rick is. The pro ramp ragers should, too. Although Rick's ramp run in Florida paled against his ground routine, Rick did well enough on ramps to capture the Overall Pro title that weekend. Yes, there are seven contests to go, but at this early stage, Rick has shown he could very well take it all.
INTERVIEW.
Interview in American Freestyler february 1988.
FREESTYLIN COVER.
Decade on the cover of Freestylin #33 february 1988.
INTERVIEW.
Interview in Freestylin #34 march 1988.
AFA MASTERS FINALS.
1st place pro flat @ 1988 AFA Masters finals, Kansas.
DMC and Moliterno battled it out for the win and Rick came out on top. Rick didn't entered anymore flat comps, but focused on street and competed on that venue at his skatepark and/or elsewhere.
Krt Schmidt, krtschmidt.com, november 2007: Rick Moliterno's Pro Flatland run from the AFA Finals in Wichita, Kansas 1988.
Rick: In 1989, I opened Rampage Indoor Skateboard Park in Davenport, Iowa.
It rocks. It's a skateboard and bike ramp park made out of wood. It's inside an old bowling alley that's 15,000 square feet of raciness. It has a pumpin' stereo system, air conditioning in the summer and heating during the winter. We hold contests and all-night sessions all the time.
GOT MARRIED.
Rick: I love Brigit. We got married in June of '89, went on our honeymoon, and then I immediately went on tour with Haro. It was hard. When I go out of town, it creates a lot of stress. We're both so busy that it takes away more of what little time we have to spend together. She's a full-time student and I'm a full-business and biking-type dude.
HARO TOUR.
VIDEO.
Team Haro Freestyle video.
Cover of BMX Plus! june 1990.
INTERVIEW.
Interview in BMX Plus! august 1990.
Rick: My goal is to be an overall rad 20-inch bike rider and to have a lot of fun. I'm going to ride as many ABA and NBL Pro BMX races as I can. Then I'll go to all the 2-Hip contests: King of Vert, Meet the Street and King of Flatland. If the AFA has something going, I'll participate in their stuff, too. I'll do whatever there is to do on a 20-inch bike.
TRICKS.
Rick Moliterno is doing front peg grinds (toothpick) and back peg grinds (icepick) down hanrails 7 stairs long.
SUMMER CLINIC CAMP.
Rick: We're going to have a summer camp that'll be similar to Woodward's in Pennsylvania, but way more casual. It won't have a strict regimen every day; it'll be more like a camp where you have fun and do what you want. I'll have different pros like Dennis McCoy and Danny Meng come and teach the kids. It should be cool.
Alexis Desolneux y était.
GO COVER.
Halfpacker cover and interview, Go #11 september 1990.
2HIP INDIANAPOLIS.
5th place pro @ 2Hip King of Under-Vert, Indianapolis, july 1990.
Rick: In 1991, I left Haro to start my own bike company Standard Bykes.
ROGER GARAGE.
Standard Roger Garage video. Rick Moliterno does every mini ramp trick you've ever thought off and a few which don't just spring to mind such as tailwhip to abubaca.
BACO 3.
www.propsbmx.tv, january 2014: This 23 year old snip from Baco 3 of Rick Moliterno riding the Rampage bowling alley is wild. Considering it was 1991/92, Rick was already doing fakie to nosepick, fakie to double peg to fakie, nose wheelies forward and back, backwards manuals, lawnmower abubacas, double barspin abubacas and other innovative lip tricks on a mini-ramp. Also some flatland moves like a no-handed spinning backyard.
BACO 3 Rick Moliterno part.
Rick Moliterno's Rampage Skatepark has moved to a better facility in Davenport, IA.
Mini interview in Ride BMX UK #4 april 1993.
Part in Standard Fat Ones video.
Ride BMX UK #10 april 1994: Rick does so many tricks that the screen is split into 2 and we see twice as much riding at once. With laidback style Rick annihilates the ramps at Rampage and various rails, and he also does a feeble down the gnarliest kinked ledge we've ever seen - into traffic.
Fat Ones.
Rick: In 1995, I opened Goodtimes Superstore.
Ride BMX UK october 1996: Issue two of Tread is out, and it has a nice picture of Rick Moliterno on the cover manualling down the street.
INTERVIEW.
Interview in Props #17 november 1996.
Interviews in Ride BMX US april 1998 and Ride BMX US october 1998.
Icepick grind on the cover of Ride BMX UK #48.
