Tables and Fables: Riding for the right reasons V2

As promised I'm gonna get into the next dude that rides for the right reasons. He's a newer friend of mine but one I've become friends with through the shop (DMBS). He's one of the nicest guys that comes into the shop. He's always psyched on his visits.( He's so psyched he has a Maul's tattoo) He's like a big kid in a candy store and makes me happy to see guys that love bikes so much come in, makes me believe that I've picked the right path in life. Selling, fixing and helping guys out like him. His name is Stuart Scipione. I asked him to write a little something explaining his love for bikes, and he did just that. Knocked it outta the park too...sorta speak. Recently he also built up a new bike, and was so excited about it that I decided to give him a bike check while we were at it. So here goes, Stu's take on BMX:

There is nothing in this world that compares to the feeling I get when I’m riding a bicycle. It has never mattered was going on in my life, good or bad. BMX always makes the bad better, and the best greater. Looking back I can say I have been riding since I was twelve, but the shape of things to come had made itself clear before that. Prior to the first x games, and the first ramp I had ever built there was a time, hidden deep in the recesses of my mind. Before I owned a Nintendo, before I got homework, I was a kid with a red Huffy. I didn’t know what BMX was, but it said it on my top tube. I couldn’t appreciate what was sitting there, right between my legs. How could I have? How could I have possibly known what gifts two wheels would give me? I used to race around the culdesac at the end of the street I grew up on. I would do the anouncer’s play by play in my head to a race that wasn’t happening, but you bet your ass I was winning. Other kids got pumped on catching a pop fly at little league. I reveled in being able to pull up while riding off a curb. Both wheels were off the ground at the same time! Damn man, I’m like the Evel Knievel of storm drains!!

Eventually I out grew the Huffy, and got a mountain bike as a replacement. Races faded somewhere behind GI Joe and super mario brothers. Riding that mountain bike didn’t carry the same feeling as riding the Huffy. I had no idea why, so I just moved on to other things. I, like most of the people reading this, was born under a bike sign. You know how they slip Butterfingers into movies, and you leave the theater and buy one? That was happening to me. We all know the most famous instances of BMX in film. I’m not talking about BMX Bandits, or Rad, I’m talking ET. For some reason everyone was crying at the end, and I was rewinding to the bike scenes. 3 Ninjas, Flight of The Navigator, and Police Academy 7. The scenes of people riding, no matter how short they were, had always been enough to make me watch a film multiple times. Can you name one other person that owned Police Academy 7? In retrospect it’s clear from some of my earliest years this is what I’d be doing today.

In 1995 I was 12 years old. I was already an outcast with an ever shrinking group of friends. I wore leather jackets in the summer time. I listened to bands like The Dead Milkmen, and rocked my cousin’s old Vision Street Wear high tops. I was a fat little kid with a chip on his shoulder that could put Frito Lays out of buisness. Then ESPN went and did what to this day is the only reason ESPN registers in my life. The Xgames premiered. While sitting in my friend Keith’s living room we stumbled upon it. It was honestly Ryan Nyquist that made us stop the channel surfing. He had a blue goatee that matched his Jersey (jerseys were a thing back then). We watched him kick ass at Dirt. Then we saw Mirra kick ass at street. Then we went outside and started jumping trash cans.

A lot of things stick with me from that day. I remember the grips were slick from my palm’s sweat. I remember the nervousness and everything that could go wrong being played out in my mind. I remember feeling like I could do anything when I landed. I remember the sense of accomplishment. From such humble beginings came the first real time I ever felt like I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. That feeling has stuck with me to this day.

BMX has gifted me with the two best friends anybody has ever had. It has given me a myriad of scars to remind me of the greatest times of my life. The deeper the scar, the better the memory. More than that BMX was, and is my coping mechanism. It helped deal with angry parents, breakups with girlfriends. Everything an adolescent would have to deal with, I delt with by riding my bike. In recent years my passion for the sport has gotten me through the worst moments in my life. The passing of my nephew wrecked me. For months I would ride my bike to the cemetary at 3 in the morning, then I’d spend all day riding non stop trying clear my head and find a method to the madness. Sometimes the madness is the method. While I couldn’t find reason, my bike afforded me the opportunity to make peace. Cayden is in my heart, and thank god my heart is in BMX.

From the beginning my reason for loving BMX has never changed. Whether I knew what was going on when I was 3 watching ET is up for debate. I never had any desire to be on a box of wheaties. I didn’t worry when people bagged on my heroes for being sellouts. I didn’t get flustered when people made fun of me for showing up to parties on a bike instead of in a car. When I was 16 and 17 a car was a thing that got us from spot to spot. BMX is about the ride, not the destination. If you’re in it for the right reason it doesn’t matter what shoes you wear, what company makes your frame, or who wins the x games. If you’re in it for the right reasons nothing will ever compare to the feeling of a great session, landing a trick for the first time, or pedaling around the block. Whatever your goal is in the sport you’ve chosen, if you’re not enjoying the ride you’ll never reach the destination. We do this for fun. Happiness is my destination, hopefully I’ll see you there. Words of wisdom and another reason why he's one of the dudes I chose for this little article. This guy loves BMX and that makes us life long friends. Though I've not ridden with Stu, it's obvious he feels the same way I do about bikes. Now I guess it's time to checkout his new ride.