Why every BMXer needs to listen – by Bruce Morris. 

Confession, I took a gap year (well, 10 or so years) from BMX racing from 1996 to around 2007, but then the hype got real when BMX racing ended up making it into the O show and I was hooked again. I’ve enjoyed listening to Dale’s podcasts over the last couple of years as they fill in that gap for me of the late 90s/early 2000s as he was deep into the US race scene during this period and is still heavily involved with his YMCA Camps and HARO team. I returned to a vastly different racing landscape to the one I left in ’96, and even the last 10 years have seen the entry into the race market of a 100 different frame manufacturers and every kid being on a “factory” deal. It’s exhausting keeping up with the latest flavour.

We’ve seen the big brands of the 80s bought, sold and watered down to an extent where they are losing relevance (or are lost altogether), with even Redline taking a battering in the market place as they were placed up for sale. So I was looking forward to the latest DH podcast to hearing firsthand from Chris Moeller and the history of S&M. With my “gap years” I missed the rise of S&M bikes, but I knew they were cool, but now I have a even greater appreciation for a guy who kicked off a BMX business at a time when you physically had to manufacture the product yourself, or outsource it locally.

That said, Dale, Paul Roberts and Chris don’t delve too deeply into the S&M history, but his observations on how the BMX racing industry looks currently, and how the race scene has changed through the various eras is super insightful. From the days of dirt jump comps where Fuzzy would compete in race gear, to racing in the modern era on a CrMo, he covers the whole spectrum in what is possibly the best summation of BMX racing history and change over the past 30 years.

We’re proud to rep S&M at LUXBMX as one of our core brands. And it’s no coincidence that Colony BMX is another rider owned brand we love. Deep parallels. As Chris observes about the current race scene (he still hits races), just about every kid is on a bike that you never see sold in a bike shop. He’s cool with that as he knows that they’ll never have the cred S&M has spent 30 years building.

If you’ve only been in the sport for 5 minutes, the rivalry between Chris and Harry Leary might fly over your head, but I nearly drove off the road laughing so hard listening to the stories of the Turbo. He’s an intense dude for sure and the 80s crew will enjoy these bits. But again, for me, Chris’s comments on what it’s been like to own and operate a BMX manufacturing business for over 30 years and not sell out is inspiring and for that reason, if you love BMX and BMX racing, you should give it a listen. There’s plenty of stories like this out there in the business would, but in the 35 second attention span of modern BMX, the S&M story is all but unique.

Listen here www.bmxweekly.com/2018/06/podcast-chris-moeller/