RetroBMX.com is online, and I am Thankful

It is Thanksgiving today, and I want to thank Rick Thomas for getting the 2.0 version of RetroBMX.com launched last night. It is a simple, clean site, but simple can sometimes be challenging, and I know Rick was confounded briefly by technical details. Thanks for pushing through it, Rick.

I am going to put a brief bio on here about myself for all the new visitors to RetroBMX.com who haven't met me yet...
My name is Paul Smith. I fell in love with BMX bikes as kid, and never lost the love. When I was in my late 20's, in 1998, I had a new, young family, and so I started researching the innernets to find some cool BMX bikes for my soon-to-be-riding 4-year old daughter. That led me to link up with some other adult BMXers on a website called Menotomy. Menotomy is still online, but the focus there was, is, and has always been pre-1970's bicycles. So they were not really tuned in to BMX. So, 1998, I started the first dedicated website on the internet for BMX Collectors. It was called RetroBMX. Also that year, Jason Leikam of the Milwaukee area decided to form the first group for old school BMX bike enthusiasts. It was called ROOST BMX. (ROOST = Revival Of Old-School Technology). RetroBMX hosted the first ROOST web pages. Soon after this happened, Randy Schaffner (a cool NorCal dude with much better web skills than I) started up OldSchoolBMX.com, which made my RetroBMX pages obsolete. I had no problems letting someone else be the webmaster. Randy partnered with Bill Curtin to grow OldSchoolBMX, but the partnership didn't last and then Bill spun off a new site called VintageBMX.com. I have been a part of VintageBMX since day one, as evidenced by my member number (#13.) I have also been a part of BMXmuseum, BMXsociety, BMXactiononline and eBay for years...in all places, my user name is retrobmx. I invite you to check my feedback on eBay - a member over 12 years and 100% positive feedback. I say all this just to let you know one thing: Paul Smith is the one guy behind RetroBMX. I have been here for years and am not going anywhere. I now have one goal with RetroBMX: to make you the custom bicycle seat of your dreams. I stake my reputation on it.

For the very latest news on the RetroBMX company, please click the link below to find our facebook fan page.

RetroBMX is on Facebook!

Going forward, I think that I will be using facebook as a means to keep the world up-to-date on the happenings here at RetroBMX. So please check our facebook page...

RetroBMX Custom Bike Seats

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A look back

I have been thinking for a while about what this blog should be. I know it should be about my little business, RetroBMX. But the fact is that I don't have much to talk about there.

I don't have a lot of witty or incisive world observations to share with you.

And the Vikings are out of the playoffs, so I have nothing to carry on about there.

One thing I do have is a lot of magazines. I have saved every bike magazine I ever purchased, or subscribed to. And it is kinda sad that these magazines just sit around, collecting dust.

So I think it is time to start mining the magazines for material.

Here is the first image from one of my old mags...



The story inside this magazine made a lasting impression on me. I memorized a lot of the details that Bob Haro shared about his experiences working as a stunt double on the E.T. set.





Fast forward to 2007. Bob Haro had been booked to be the "Honored Guest" at the annual Rockford Gathering. I decided it was time to realize a long term ambition of mine as a BMX collector. I built what I call a "Bob Haro E.T. Replica" to show at Rockford. I got Bob to autograph it...



















...and a picture of the bike appeared in BMX World magazine, in their Rockford recap.



The caption reads "Each year this gathering seems to unearth a few rarities." The funny thing is, most of the Rockford attendees had no idea what this crazy-painted Kuwahara was supposed to be. And I am not sure that whoever wrote the caption knew what it was either...it was a replica of the bike ridden by the character "Tyler", who was stunt-doubled by Bob Haro, in the E.T. movie.

If you'd like to learn more about my E.T. obsession, go to my photobucket, http://s58.photobucket.com/home/retroBMX/allalbums where there are all manner of E.T. pics, and scans of the story from the BMX Plus issue pictured above.

The real reason...

Don't know if this secret is out yet, but the real reason Brett Favre moved to Minnesota this year was not because he thought he could be the missing ingredient for the Vikings, but rather so he could join our Bicycle Club, the Minnesota Faction.

Some of my best seats

Here a few of my best looking seats, in my opinion. These have all been sold - I have none in inventory. But I will probably do more like them in the future. Keep an eye out. Hope the owners of the seats enjoy them!