Yes I did. I dropped out of college to start a BMX Bicycle Company
Circa 1990.. Los Angeles. A young 18 year old kid from a small town tries to pay attention during his first year of college but finds it hard to concentrate. With big dreams and an ambitious will he decides to write a letter to Bob Haro, king of the Freestyle-Bmx world and purveyor of cool designs along with a great team of riders. "Hey Bob, what would you do?"
And Bob writes back:
With a small endorsement from his ultimate hero but with no business plan and no partners, this kid drops out of college (to his mother's dismay) and proceeds to design and build a BMX bicycle company called Homestead Bicycles with a unique design and interest from around the world.
50 Bikes were ordered and paid for and sales began. T-Shirts and even a sponsored rider traveled the Western U.S. for five years until the money ran out.
The company that welded the bikes never sent me the final 20 bikes. The owner retired and said he was out of business and shrugged his shoulders.
Fast forward 18 years and I get a random email from a guy who found one of my bikes at a yard sale in Tennessee and posted it on https://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/homestead_bicycles/
So what happened to those 30 bikes?
That's what I'm going to try to find out.
Finding 30 bikes that were sold before the internet tracked our every purchase and move won't be impossible but it also won't be instantaneous. Who bought these unique bikes and why? How did they hear about them? Are they still riding now?
Follow the journey by subscribing below - and stay tuned for the next installment and eventual short film. And maybe - SPOILER ALERT - I'll even make a few more bikes (?!!)
