Columnist Susan Snyder: Biker Finn still speaks of spokes

Tuesday, May 18, 2004 | 8:11 a.m.

Years before he was Siegfried & Roy's leading light man, Tracer Finn was a kid whose passion for hanging out in bicycle shops helped him become a nationally ranked bicycle racer.

Today Finn manages the national BMX pro team for Specialized Bicycles and co-owns Manual and Ollie's Bicycle Shop on Boulder Highway in Henderson.

A few days shy of his 40th birthday, Finn recently recalled the Las Vegas of nearly 30 years ago, when the original Bike World bicycle shop stood at Twain Avenue and Maryland Parkway, next to the antique shop owned by his famous father, Fred "Mickey" Finn.

"I started hanging out in the bike shop," Finn said, reclining on a sofa in his bike shop that welcomes kids to do the same. "We'd do wheelies in the parking lot and stuff. They were real good to kids. They didn't mind you hanging around all day and just spending the $1.50 you had in your pocket."

By 1976 he was racing BMX at a track that once stood near Flamingo Road and Decatur Boulevard. It was a casual, fun kind of racing where nearly every kid earned a trophy for something. The jump to bigger races in California was a jolt.

"Racing was twice as big back then as it is now," Finn said. "We went out of town in 1980. Our bikes had no brakes. We wore short pants and tank tops. People thought we were the Beverly Hillbillies."

Finn, who stands every bit of 6 feet and is fit at a level that would make a 25-year-old proud, described himself as a scrawny kid. He says he wasn't so much fast as fearless and skilled in handling the handlebars.

"My first trophy was for a wheelie contest. They always had all these different (events) so you could just be a good bike handler and still win," he said.

He was winning national titles by his mid-teens and turned pro at 18. But with a prominent show business dad, the stage called too. Finn worked as Siegfried & Roy's lighting director for eight years, then took a job at the Golden Nugget for half a dozen years.

He had worked as assistant lighting director for "O" when he retired from the business two years ago to manage the Specialized BMX pro team. It was half the pay but twice the fun. And he came highly recommended by a close pal -- national X-Games BMX sensation T.J. Lavin.

Lavin, a 27-year-old Las Vegas resident, said he first met Finn when he was a young teenager and Finn was in his late 20s.

"He's kind of like a mentor to me, but it's more than that," Lavin said. "We're the best of friends."

Both men still ride and race. Finn last month placed third in the dual slalom downhill mountain bike category for veteran riders at the coveted national Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, Calif. Finn just happened to be in the area on Specialized team business, and competed on a borrowed bicycle.

Even at the pro level, Finn said, it's about the fun of going fast and doing your best, no matter whose bike or track you're riding.

"BMX racing is a family sport," he said. "The jumping and showing off has brought it into being a marketable television sport. You take one guy who risks his life for you, and you applaud. But there are so many other opportunities out there."

Finn works with the pros. But he said he and Mike Bradshaw -- the other owner of Manual and Ollie's and the guy you're most likely to see behind the counter -- are interested most in making sure the local kids get involved at whatever level suits them and stay involved.

It keeps them focused on something healthy and out of trouble.

"If we can get two kids racing, we've done our jobs," Finn said.

Lavin agreed. BMX riders may seem to take a lot of unsafe chances, he said. But you don't go very far if you aren't willing to work on riding safely and staying healthy.

"I never did do drugs or drink (alcohol). I still don't drink at all, and I'm 27 years old," Lavin said. "It's better to hurt your body from the outside-in than the inside-out.

"A broken bone will heal. But I look at somebody smoking a cigarette, and I think they're way crazier than I am."

People who want the chance to see some hometown BMX racing action have a chance Friday at Boulder City's second annual "BMX is Not a Crime" event. Bicycle police officers from Las Vegas Metro, Henderson, North Las Vegas, UNLV and other agencies will compete with young BMX riders starting at 7 p.m.

Boulder City's Best Track by a Dam Site is in Veterans Memorial Park, at Buchanan Boulevard and Commons way.

Finn said it's parks such as Boulder City's that make dreams a reality for kids on bikes.

"You can go from not knowing what you are doing to national competition," he said. "You ride your bike anyway. You might as well have somebody yell, 'Go!' and get a trophy."