If any of you ever read the main page, this is cool.
Bart
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"It's about time. "
By: Alex Kienlen
Ah, it's you, we've been expecting you. Please, c'mon in, nice to see you.
Oh no no, no need to tip, I'm not the doorman, just someone who came out front for a few minutes.
But yeah, we knew you'd find us.
This place? Oh, well, it started out simply enough. Some guys who used to BMX back in the day got to hanging around, talking. Some of them still rode, some hadn't ridden in years, but that all had that thing inside them which still drew them to the sport, to BMX, to people talking about BMX, people into BMX, perhaps remembering, perhaps wondering .........
Ah, sorry, got lost there for a minute myself. So anyhoo, those guys, those memories, they started back to build up some old bikes, bikes like they had back in the day. Well you know how it is: BMX is a thing made up of people, but on paper anyway it's all about the bikes, so people are naturally drawn to the bikes, we all are, just like you, just like me. And from there it would start out as some cobbled together collection of parts to cruise around the neighborhood, which led to finding some more parts, maybe the dream parts that you couldn't afford when you were a kid -- out tearing around on your bike -- and you'd build some nicer bike using the good parts.
And somewhere in there your vice turns into a habit and you start piling up more parts then you really need, so you swap them around. Maybe this guy has the handlebars you want for the bike you're building, and you have the pedals he needs, a deal is worked out and the bike of your dreams is that much closer to being completed. And right about here is where the message board thing comes in, as people would log on, swap some parts back and forth, sell something, buy something. But you can't buy and sell parts all the time, but still you're drawn to the BMX thing, so you'd talk. Maybe the guy who just bought your pedals was someone you knew from back then, maybe you shared a mutual friend, were on the track at some long-forgotten race in some long ago plowed location, and it's good to have someone to go over those times with, to help you with the memories. It's fun.
You'd remember back to those days tearing around the neighborhoods, the fields, with your buddies in some sort of two (or three for the 'hackers) endless summer, maybe even getting older and making some road trips, maybe meeting the pro from back when and getting his or her autograph while standing on a berm or quarter pipe or some such. Just talking about it you can close your eyes and for a moment, just for a moment, you're right back there.
Yeah man, good times.
And they're still going on, sure, today being tomorrow's memory. New school guys joined in the conversation. Maybe for the history lesson, maybe for the insight, but me, I'm guessing it was for the thing, the BMX, that central thing to it all that has a name and is too big to shape, that same thing which drew you here, bud. So they'd talk their thing, the new schoolers, about races coming up and just past, tracks and trails, skateparks and street spots, techniques, training and (sigh) recovery, just talking about BMX.
Like the song from the television show has the line, "where everybody knows your name," it's like that. We know why you're here, you're here for the same reason we're all here, you're here because it's BMX and you, like a moth to a flame, move towards it. You're well past explaining why, you're well past understanding why, you just see that thing and you are drawn toward it.
Really, we understand.
We're here because we dig BMX. We might be racers, collectors, parents, friends, some combination of all that, it's all the same, we already (that song again) know your name, we know it 'cause we've been there, our only difference is we found this place a little bit before you did, that's all.
So welcome, c'mon in, enjoy. Join the conversation about the then, about the now, about the tomorrow, about the bike and about the people, hang out with some people like you, hang out with us.
Here, let me hold the door open for you.
Me? No, I'll be back inside in a minute. Right now I see someone coming down the street and they may need directions, like they're looking for a place, or maybe a time. People like that, they keep showing up here -- but then I'm sure you understand.
C'mon in.
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Just cool to me.
Bart