Bum-Patch Hall of Fame

Okay, so Bob “Hurricane” Hannah was instrumental in popularising bum-patches in the late 1970s, but he wasn’t the first to run one. That honour goes to Gaston Rahier and his sponsor, JT Clothing – the uber-cool, SoCal-based riding gear company who owned more than 50% of the market share in the late ’70s.

JT’s founder, John Gregory, explains: “We received a shipment of pants and when this guy went to open the box with a razor blade, he accidentally sliced into the ass of a pair of pants. So one of our guys went to the sewing shop to get them fixed and decided at the last minute to have the JT logo stitched into the ass. Gaston was the first rider to race with the logo on his butt.” The year was 1976.

After a sea of emails between moto industry figures from Europe, America and Australia, here’s a selection of the best bum-patches since the mid 1970s:

AMERICA…

“Teenie Meanie” – Jeff Ward: America’s original super-tough little guy.
“Mr Mean” – Jeff Stanton, 1992: America’s premier super-fierce ultra-competitor.
“Bubbalicious” – James “Bubba” Stewart: Because he can do anything he wants.
“Showtime” – Jeremy McGrath: A timeless icon of the sort who ran the same bum-patch for years. No need to change his stripes.
“The Kid” – Justin Barcia, 2010: The young rider’s response to Christophe Pourcel’s 2010 AMA SX-season slur.
“Kamikaze” – Bob Hannah, 1979: The original never-say-die dude!
“Redneck” – Damon Bradshaw: The Beast from the East was never scared to use shock tactics. Anywhere!
“Village Idiot” – Travis Pastrana: Every mum’s gotta have one. Twenty years later, it’s morphed into Nitro Circus.
“Road Hog” – Danny “Magoo” Chandler: An indicator of his radical lines – on both the road and MX track.
“Good as Gold” – Brad Lackey, 1982: The pants Lackey wore for the final moto of the 19882 season.
“WHO CARES”- Jim Gibson, 1982: Jim was the perennial second place rider in the USA (to O’Mara, Bailey, Hannah, Lechien). “It was my way of making a statement (laughter),” Gibson explained.
“TROUBLE” – Bob Hannah, late 1970s: Hurricane Hannah ran his mouth, wreaked havoc and pissed off a lot of people. And he loved it!
“TOO HIP” – Rick Johnson, 1982: RJ’s tip of the hat to a disk jockey from KMET in Los Angeles.
“O’Show” – Johnny O’Mara: A name the late Al Baker – like a second father to Johnny – gave him.
“$514” – Ricky Carmichael, 2004: The bonus payment all Honda USA employees pocketed as a result of RC’s ’04 championship win.

EUROPE…

“Everest” – Harry Everts, 1977: Accidental typo that appeared on the four-time World MX Champ’s old-school leather MX duds. Doh!
“Star Buster” – John Michel-Bayle, 1989: Serving it up to the Yanks at Gainsville. He also ran “Bad Boy”.

“Whip Father” – Tony Cairoli, 2010: The reigning MX2 World MX Champ’s duds, complete with puppet icon from the Godfather films.

“Braveheart” – Sean Simpson, 2010 Paying tribute to his Scottish heritage.

“Marvin the Martian” – Marvin Musquin, 2009:

“Lone Wolf” – Tallon Vohland, 1998:

“007” – Stefan Everts, 2003:

AUSTRALIA…

So who is Australia’s best exponent of the bum-patch? Probably a tie between CDR Yamaha teammates, Cheyne Boyd and Jay Marmont. Boydy’s best: “Sand??” (referring to the lack of his favourite terrain in the 2010 series), “FreeBaller” (take a guess), “Duuude” and “Wigger” (let’s not go there).

Marmont’s best: “B2B2B” (Back 2 Back to Back) and “1MORE?” (both refer to his opportunity to create history with three consecutive MX titles this year), “One” (champ’s bragging rights), and “4 Lila” (Jay’s tribute to his sick daughter who tragically passed away a few months later). Other standouts come from Ryan Marmont (“I’m Back”), Tye Simmonds (“Country Boy” and Back ‘o’ Bourke), Daniel McCoy (“Run DMC”) and Cam Taylor (“Dub Club”).

MORE: If you want to read a great feature about the birth of bum-patch, check out Eric Johnson’s classic article about SoCal’s JT Clothing empire at Racer X Online.

It appeared in the very first issue of Racer X Magazine in 1998.