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The mom & pop bike shop is going by the way side. The days of walking into a true bike shop are over.
Today i interviewed the owners of METUCHEN SCHWINN. After 30 years they are retiring. Now I have not been a patron of this shop for that long.(I just moved into the area) But they give me that good feeling i used to get when i walked into JF’s bike shop.
Kathy & Dennis Heller have gotten alot of families involved in the sport of BMX. They traveled across the country to numerous races,always traveling with racer’s and their family.I purchased their son’s MCS race bike
To restore for my nephew. Although I have only known them since october, I want to thank the Heller’s for being involved in the sport that i love.What year did you open?
We took over the shop in 1977
How does it feel to have been a motivator in the JERSEY BMX scene?
All we wanted was to get the kids involved in something different. And to show them another organized sport. Regardless of BMX we always enjoyed making kids happy.
Do you think the”GOLDEN ERA” of the 80’s will return?
Never. But if it does, it will not be the same.
Any riders that stand out in your mind?
CHARLIE PETERSEN
DANNY DOELLER
CHRIS GRIMES
JASON SIMMSHow does this generation of kids differ from the previous?
Kids today do not want to ride as much. There is less group activity. Now they want to play video games.
What will you miss the most about the shop
THE KIDS
BYE BYE crappy little shop By the way what the hell do you mean true bike shop do you really know anything about shops way one sided. go check out a REAL SHOP (action wheels , high gear , planet bike, ) just to name a few there are s load of shops pushing bmx maybe if everyone started to shop at these places and not MAIL ORDER it would even get biggerand better GO RIDE NOT COLLECT
Ai yai yai…
There was a point in BMX when the small shop was the cornerstone of racing. They’d haul kids all over and give them discounts and jerseys, made the outcasts feel wanted.
This is back before the days of freestyle.
Anyway, I invite ALL bike shops to come here and let themselves be known, and more importantly tell me what you are doing or did for BMX.
Now with that being said, a write up on High Gear is very much in order because Larry was one of the original guys to support us freestyle maniacs back those many years ago.FIne they deserve props but ant you started with the true shop stuff I do have issues its my career, life , passion , love , past time , sport , fun, hobbie. I take it to heart no need to dis the rest of the shops there is to much negativity in the world no need to bring it to bmx
I got my start in racing thanks to Marty’s Reliable Cycle in Morristown, NJ. He is still there and also has a shop in Roxbury on Rt. 10 West. He doesn’t carry any true BMX race bikes right now, but has a great selection of street / freestyle / dirt bikes. I know he carries S&M, Fit, etc. and a fair amount of parts, upgrades and such. One of his techs, Ryan, knows his BMX stuff and dialed in my ride just recently.
He has two really nice shops now, mtb, road, etc, all the top stuff, but back in the day he worked out of a small store next to a fish market (whew!) and he was one of those “mom & pops” back in the early 80’s that got kids to the Jersey City Armory to start racing. Yeah, he grew from that while the Heller’s stayed small, but it doesn’t make them any less important.
Go check ’em out, and tell ’em Crazy Craig sent ya!
Ok ok ok I worked at Metuchen Bikes and So did Dan Menapace(where has he been??????) I have a lot of good and bad to say but I wont……………….Its an end of an era but lets wipe the tears and move on to new territory
Damn bro I didn’t know you used to work there too. Who was working there then? I think this guy Frank left a little after me and bought Highland Park cyclery and didn’t tell Dennis and he was pissed that he did that without telling him. Dennis WAS really into the racing scene back then, but when I started working there and freestyle and mtn biking was starting to take over, his heart wasn’t in it anymore, it was just about the money. He didn’t want to take chances and order the expensive parts and do mail order shops. He only had a few more years before retiring so the shop was really just a time killer. They did put me through Schwinn school so I could get my huge raise to $5.25 an hour! Stoked! We had some good times though, watchin Hawaii 5-0, crackin on customers and getting the females to do the “bend over the bars-touch the front axle frame fitting test”.
I left a couple months after that when they expected me to fix and sell all the bikes pretty much by myself. That’s when I joined the Carpenters Union and rolled out to Cali.I wanna say 1991 or 1992………..I worked there and you are right..about them wanting you to do all…….I started building bikes at night and then also starting doing wrench work during the weekends…………I hated that job so much that I quit ……it wasnt really that particular shop it was just working on junk bikes really sucked……………………….
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