John Ker | cruiser revolution

Meeting up and catching up

30 09 2016

Beyond all the fancy bikes, accessories and industry news at Interbike, one of the best parts of the whole shindig is who you run into over the course of the show.

This year had some noteworthy interactions for sure.

Upon entering the conference floor, I paused at the Park Tool booth and heard a distinctive voice that had been ingrained in my subconscious from repeated viewings of BMX Plus! magazine’s video, Rad TV. It was none other than BMX photographer extraordinaire, John Ker.

I turned around and spotted him immediately…and the 14-year old version of myself suddenly popped into my head and started going crazy…I had to go talk to him.

I’m pretty sure I nerded out the whole conversation but he was extremely gracious and I was glad I got to meet the man behind so many iconic bmx images.

This boded well for the rest of the show.

Making my way through the show I came upon the SE booth.

And again, the 14-version of myself had returned to take over my brain. In the booth alongside SE’s Todd Lyons, were 80s mega-stars: Mike Buff and Stu Thomsen.

Holy Cow.

They were signing baseball card-style cards of themselves for anybody that would stop by.

I have to say I’m pretty stoked with this autographed card.

Then a little while later, with the Interbike floorplan map in my face, struggling to find out which way to go next, I ran into Joseph Gallacher.

Joseph is the impresario behind Mill Town Cycle (and heavily involved with the Milton BMX track back home) so it was cool to run into him and get a few minutes to chat…especially since both of us were unaware that we would both be in town for the event.

The next person I ran into was Adam Hendershot.

Adam’s a good friend that has recently moved out west, got himself married and started to race cruiser (he’s been busy).

He mentioned that he would be in town but I wasn’t expecting to see him until the next day.

Turns out he got in early and hit the show right away. Of course, we end up bumping into each other…again while I was trying to figure out the Interbike floorplan.

We had good chat and then he was off to the SE booth.

(That’s him in the middle…note the super-stylish Chicken & Waffles Vans shoes.)

If you’ve been following Todd Lyon’s social media feeds, you’re probably already familiar with Adam’s back.

He reps SE and BMX hard!

Then toward the end of the show, I was checking my phone when I someone that I was hoping to run into, walking up to me…Travis Engel of Commonground Bikes.

I had seen that he was at the Outdoor Demo, but I wasn’t sure if he would be at the show.

He was (obviously).

If you saw the Something new, something dusty post, you can see the type of bike that Travis was already promoting well before S&M created their prototype.

We had a good chat and I’m stoked that we got a chance to meet up.

All in all, a good show in term of random meetups and pleasant surprises.

Fist bumps & high fives to y’all.

*As you may have noticed, not all of these photos were taken at Interbike…I think I got too caught up in the conversations to remember to snap pictures of everyone.

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Tags: Adam Hendershot, John Ker, Mike Buff, Stu Thomsen, Todd Lyons, Travis Engel
Categories : Freestyle, New School, Old School, Racing, shenanigans

BMX Plus runs hot and cold on 24s

26 04 2010

Although he isn’t the editor anymore, I will probably always think of John Ker as the face of BMX Plus! magazine. And now because of his magazine’s seemingly hot and cold treatment of cruisers in recent months I feel compelled to write him this (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) “Dear John” letter.

John Ker: no love for the 24?

Dear John,

I thought we really had something. After not reading your magazine in what seemed like forever, I picked up your magazine at the local store and noticed you had changed over the years. No longer were you associating with Radical Rick or doing “who’s radder” features….you were actually showing some honest to goodness riding once in a while. More importantly, you showed some love for the cruiser with a couple of 24″ bike tests in 2009.

Your advertisers seemed to have noticed this too. One of them rewarded you with not one, but two 2-page ads for their cruisers.

But your self-destructive nature got the best of you, didn’t it? Out of nowhere in your April issue, you featured an article called Cruising into Oblivion: The Death of the 24.

How could you do this? Both to our fledgling relationship and to your advertisers? For the love of God, there’s a 2-page ad for Redline‘s top-of-the-line Flight 24 in the very same issue that you say 24s are cruising into oblivion!

It makes me so mad…and I imagine Redline isn’t any happier. I wrote a post about it, hoping to salvage things, to help you see the error of your ways and to let you know that 24s are not dead yet. After that I didn’t hear from you for a month.

Now all of sudden, in the June issue it seems that the ‘love’ is back with a 10-page race cruiser shootout. While it’s a grand gesture, after declaring our relationship essentially over, to try to win me back with a 10-page article, it seems just a little to late. I guess you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, right?

I know what you’re going to say, that you’ve changed.

But I’m not sure if I can bury the hatchet just yet. I think you’ll have to prove to me that you want this relationship to work.

How you ask?

A full-on 24″ freestyle cruiser shootout.

I think that’s what it will take to win me back.

So John, what do you say?