If you want to grow something…ya gotta work together.
I found myself in the spring of this year sort of hating on my old-new school ride and contemplating taking the full plunge of building a 100% new school BMX scoot. My current ride was heavy as all get out and was just not giving me the feel I wanted in a ride. After some discussions with my financial adviser, also referred to as my gal Christine, I decided to splurge and build a new ride from scratch.
Two things I decided on early on. One was that the bike was gonna be a Kevin Jones Strowler which was closest to having old school all around riding type of geometry on it and the other was that I was going to NOT use any mail order companies to build this. Instead I was going to go to all the people I knew that ran bike shops in NJ and ask them to get parts for it. So I called up my buds from Grove Street, Ed’s, Brielle, stopped in Big Diesel to grab a seat and began to put this dawg together.
Why in this day and age would someone not go to one of the big mail order companies and just grab all the parts? Well, I sorta grew up around the local bike shop industry, always stopping in, talking to the owners getting to know them, damn, I even worked in a shop for a time. In fact the first person to ever extend me a credit line was Cy’s Cycle Center in Dunellen. I know the impact that a shop has on the local scene and what it does for the community and the right ones, the ones that are trying to help out a small sport like BMX, well they’re worth giving my hard earned sheckles to. When it came down to the bottom line price, well it was within about 10 bucks of what I could have gotten it from if I had gone online parts gathering. By getting it through the local shops though, I insured my money went right to guys who were supporting the local scenes. Now am I saying everyone should run out to the shops I went to and start buying parts? Not exactly. Though they are all great shops there are even more shops out there in NJ who support BMX locally. Seek ‘em out, talk to ‘em, let them know that you are about the BMX and will support them if they help support the scene. Over the last 6 years, I’ve seen a big influx of BMX only and BMX friendly shops in NJ that are growing the scene. Not only that but I have now been witnessing these shops coming together to work on developing even bigger events and ideas for BMX in the state. Just last weekend Al Battagliotti and Rob Larsen were seen in Perth Amboy making plans for an event in Woodbridge this fall.
So what’s the point of this piece of literary irritation? The only way anything every gets bigger is when the people involved in what they believe in start to work together to accomplish their goals, they communicate, exchange ideas and look to grow. Will this lead to competition between businesses? Yes, of course, but when all parties involved are really behind what they are into then the sport will grow to accommodate them all. That’s what I am seeing and also trying to promote right here with this website, that’s why it’s called BMXNJ. If you are about BMX in New Jersey and doing the right thing by it, then we’re all about it.
The bike I put together couldn’t be better, and knowing that the money went to the guys who are making BMX possible in New Jersey makes it even better.
Speadin’ the love,
Brett
PS: My new scoot also has a lot of NJ Animal Parts on it…NJ All The Way… No offense to other parts manufacturers but…
