Memories of Scot Breithaupt part 2

This is a You Tube clip showing the legendary SE Racing bus that toured the U.S. in 1977.  Along with Scot, I know Perry Kramer, Stu Thomsen, and Bob Haro were on that tour, I'm not sure who the rest of the guys were.  The turret on top of the bus in some of the photos housed a tennis ball cannon.  When one of the SE riders won a race, they'd shoot tennis balls over the pit area.  The turret got torn off by a low overhang once, as did all the bikes stacked on top of the bus. 

It was either late 1984 or early 1985 that my Boise riding buddy and trick teammate Justin Bickel called me up.  "I got co-sponsored by SE!" he yelled over the phone.  Jay, as we usually called him, soon got his SE Quadangle, put a coaster brake on it, and a standing platform so he could do framestands.  He was the soul freestyler in Idaho that was sponsored, and that was the coolest thing in the world then.

In the summer of 1985, Jay's parents, who had become my "freestyle parents" at that point, offered to take me to the AFA contest being held in Venice Beach, California.  I paid them some nominal amount that didn't come near to covering the cost of my trip, and we were off in their Mercedes station wagon.  Jay's dad was a lawyer, so we stayed in a stylish hotel in Marina Del Ray, just up the bike path from Venice.  It was my first trip to Southern California, and I was amazed by the endless suburbs, insane traffic, and the best freestyle riders in the world at the contest. 

On our first full day in SoCal, we went to the SE factory.  It was a big shock to me.  I had taken field trips to the local factories on Career Day in 8th grade in Ohio, and I thought every factory was a huge building with dozens, if not hundreds of workers toiling away.  When we got to SE, I knew almost nothing about the company, it's history, or Scot Breithaupt.  We were greeted by Scot as we walked in.  Perry Kramer was also in the office that day, as was Mike Devitt (I may have misspelled his name), he was the business guy at SE, who kept the operations running.  After we all talked for a while, Scot took us on a tour of the operation.  On one side of the warehouse was the  shipping area, with the typical heavy duty shelving units stacked with products.  They had a shopping cart there they used to pull orders, and it had handlebars welded on to it, and a number plate that said, "Shipper Ripper."  I thought that was the coolest thing.  What struck me as weird is that there was nobody working in the shipping area. 

Scot led us back to the back of the shipping area, and there were two big quarterpipes, eight feet high and eight feet wide, facing each other.  At that time, most kids who had quarterpipes built them six feet tall, so the SE ramps seemed huge.  They were built so SE's ramp rider, Todd Anderson, could practice when in the area. 

After showing us the ramps, Scot led us to the manufacturing side of the building.  There was one welder, just one, working in his booth welding frames.  I learned that Scot had dropped out of the scene for several years in the early 80's due to his bad habits.  When I visited the factory in 1985, they had just been getting the company going again for several months.  SE Racing was on an upswing again, this time incorporating the emerging sport of freestyle into the mix along with racing.  I couldn't believe that this major bike company only had about four people working at it.  It really put the tiny little BMX industry, which seemed huge to me as a kid reading the magazines, in perspective. 

Once the tour was over, Scot told Jay and I to grab our bikes and session the ramps, so we did.  At that time, I could air just about at coping on a six foot ramp, and Jay could get two or three feet out.  I was airing under coping on the eight foot ramps, and Jay got out a little, I think.  At one point, we were taking a breather, when we heard an engine rev in the front of the building.  Next thing we know, Scot came screaming around the shelving units on an 80cc dirtbike.  He passed us with a big smile, and dove down another aisle.  He raced a few laps around the warehouse, passing by us each time.  Then he handed the bike over to Perry, who took a few laps, trying to go faster than Scot.  Then Scot took a few more laps, then Perry again.  Jay and I just shook our heads.  "These crazy guys run one of the best companies in BMX?"  we asked ourselves. 

After a good session on the ramps, Jay and I got some water, then we all wound up in the shipping area, listening to Scot and Perry tell us stories about the SE Racing bus and the crazy nationwide tour they went on in 1977.  He talked about the magazine photos on the wall, and gave us each an old Oakley poster, which was already a classic in 1985.  It was a group shot of about 20 top BMXers from around 1980, and the caption said, "Oakley:  Our R&D team works weekends."  It would be really cool to have that poster today.  We all thanked Scot and Perry for their hospitality, and headed over to ACS, which gave Jay and I each a brand new thing called the ACS Rotor.  We had to put our bars up about an inch for the Rotor to fit, which made our bikes feel kind of weird.  We went back to the hotel and practiced the rest of the night, getting used to the feel of our bikes with higher bars. 

The next day, when we both competed in flatland, Scot was on hand to encourage us.  IN addition, we hung out with Todd Anderson, Craig Grosso, and I think Fred Blood was on SE by then.  Steve Broderson, another Camarillo Ramp rider who rode a cruisier, was also part of the group we hung with.  I was blown away by the riding that weekend, there were so many amazing riders and everyone had a different style back in those days.  I went back to Idaho with a lot more passion about riding, having tasted the national scene for the first time.  Meeting Scot and Perry Kramer, the "P.K." in P.K. Ripper, was one of the highlights of the trip.