Name: William LaRoque aka Larock
Hometown: Long Beach, CA
What's your earliest memory of BMX?
Larock: Seeing On Any Sunday for the first time and wanting an MX kit for my hand me down Lime Green StingRay.
Who were some of the BMX riders that you admired back in the day?
Larock: That’s a tough one! I was kind of Partial to the SE Factory Boys because they had such close ties to Long Beach, BUMS track was less than a mile away from where I grew up. Scot, Thomsen & PK of course. But who could deny the Panther, Dain, Utterback, King, Atherton and all of the others that graced the pages of our favorite magazines.
Name: Jon Western
Hometown: Birmingham, UK
What's your current Bike?
Jon Western: My current race bike is a Meybo BMX, Custom gold over raw finish done by SuperBike Dan, with jmcbmx.com decals as I raced for JMC in the UK national series a few years ago. Carla Jansan (Jim Melton's daughter) runs jmcbmx.com and when I started racing JMC we discussed the idea of designing a modern version of the old JMC kit. Ian MacArthur helped with the kit design which was then signed off by Carla. A number of versions of it were made for me in white, black, gold and yellow. If anyone has ever wondered why "Once we were" is on the back of the race shirt, it's Ian's business and there to recognise his help with the design. I'll call him a sponsor as it sounds more factory (lol).
What's your earliest memory of BMX?
Jon Western: When I was about 9 years old, a friend got a Piranha BMX so I asked my dad for a BMX, he got me one called an ALPINA from a local discount centre, at the time I was really into a motorbike trials show called Junior Kick Start, I used to try and emulate what I saw, I soon snapped the frame.
Name: Paul de Jong
Hometown: Aarle-Rixtel
Started riding BMX in: 1971 but real BMX Bike in 1979
Number of bikes in the collection: Don’t have a clue, at least 15 nice ones
Do you have any bikes from the '50-s when the first people started racing BMX in The Netherlands?
Paul de Jong: Yes I have a 1950 Schwinn girls beachcruiser from Mom, who was jumping doubles in the 50’s when BMX was popular in the Netherlands. Before you “Americans” are going to reply on this: Ignaz Schwinn is from Europe fyi.
What makes you decide to start a certain bike building project?
BMX Texas Take Over: Riding into the Lone Star State!
Name: Steve Strong
Hometown: Dagenham, UK.
Started riding BMX in: 1981.
Number of bikes in the collection: 3 at the moment, built around 25 decent ones I was happy with.
What was the first project bike that got you into collecting BMX bikes?
Steve Strong: 1981 Team Murray 'Track Certified'.
How difficult was it to find parts for it in the beginning?
Steve Strong: When I first started, I knew nothing of the UK scene. I was (and still am) a member of BMX Society and BMXMuseum. Primarily all of my parts came from Ebay.com and the Museum pages.
Name: Ian MacArthur
Hometown: Chigwell, Essex, UK
Started riding BMX in: 1981
Number of bikes in the collection: Currently 25 (down from 62)
Do you remember the moment that you decided to start collecting BMX memorabilia?
Ian MacArthur: It was 2003 and I'd started riding skateparks again inspired by early days of Road Fools on the Extreme channel and I just searched for some old brands online and there was old stock kicking around on ebay and low level e-commerce sites like SkatePool.
Name: Chris Daly
Hometown: Hayling Island
Started riding BMX in: 1982
Number of bikes in the collection: At the moment 6 with one on the way.
Do you remember the moment that you decided to start collecting BMX memorabilia?
Chris Daly: No not really, it happened gradually I guess, I started collecting properly around 04, I wanted to build a bike to ride again & I just started to see more & more bikes & parts on eBay that I always wanted until I got everything I ever wanted. It was really easy back then, not too many people collecting.
Name: Alessandro Barbero
Hometown: Ceva, Italy / Woodward, PA, USA
Started riding BMX in: As a kid in the late '80's. Pro since 2001.
Number of bikes in the collection: Most of my bikes are Race bikes from 1975 to 1985. I don't know how many exactly.
What is Italy's history like regarding BMX Bikes. Do you have any Italian BMX bikes in your collection?
Alessandro Barbero: Of course I got some, so I usually try to split the BMX Toys from the Real BMX that
Name: Chad Powers
Hometown: Grew up in Nokesville, VA, live in Richmond, VA now!
Started riding BMX in: 1996
Number of bikes in the collection: 250-300 rideable bikes
The BMX museum you've got going at the shop is fairly new. Can you explain how it all unfolded?
Powers BMX: it’s not new! It has always been in the works. But we just moved the shop into a bigger better spot which we had build a section dedicated for the BMX museum!
When you were looking for a new location, was starting a BMX museum always on your mind?
Powers BMX: Yes, the museum was a main point of the new location!
It seems you've got plenty of bikes. How do you decide which bikes deserve a spot in the museum?
Powers BMX: We don’t dislike anything that’s BMX! We are going to downsize it a little, get rid of some doubles.
What's the oldest bike in the line-up?
Powers BMX: We have a Schwinn Sting ray. I personally love the '70s BMX.
Name: Brian Gutierrez
Hometown: Venice, California born and raised but migrated to Orange County in the late 80's.
Started riding BMX in: Friends of mine I rode with and me started calling it BMX in 1972. Prior to that point we just rode our Sting Rays. We were emulating Evel Knievel whenever possible. Starting with use of a small wooden car ramp we would attempt new records over an ever longer, ever taller stack of old banana boxes. When that lost its sparkle we went to the dirt! At first it was just to find bigger stuff to jump off of or over the top of.
Then we discovered we liked the dirt. The trails that went along with the jumping spots were just as fun
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.