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My name is Alden Olmsted.
When I was 19 years old, I dropped out of college
to start a BMX bike company, that ultimately failed.
And I never forgave myself.
I do remember way back
to the levee for a ride
like being shot from a bottle
on that first ride
when I flew above ya
BMX. It stands for bicycle motorcross.
It started in the 1970s with kids in Southern California
outfitted their Schwinn sting rays to mimic their motorcycle heroes.
Community. A group of people living in the same place
or having a particular characteristic in common.
I had one, but not the other.
I grew up in Northern California, in Sonoma,
small town of about 6,000 people.
Classic, old, wine-country town. Grew up with a single mom.
One brother. My father had left a few years earlier to go save California State parks,
and do some, kind of, amazing things that I would find out about later.
But as a kid, what I knew was I didn't have a dad.
I think not having a father around for me
added to the feeling of not feeling normal.
A rebellious, challenging child.
A lot of tough times of feeling very alone.
I assumed it was me against the world.
No one was going to help me.
My mom loved me, put food on the table.
She didn't have the bandwidth,
I think, to go further, to encourage me.
Whatever I was going to do, succeed or fail, I was going to be on my own.
My first BMX experience actually comes back to my dad a little bit
because he did visit every couple of years.
He showed up on this one birthday and he said, "We're gonna get you a bike."
We went to all these yard sales all over Sonoma and Napa,
trying to find the right bike, one we could afford.
We finally found this bike
that was, kind of, goofy-looking, and my dad bought it for me.
I don't know if I loved it, but I loved spending the day with my dad.
And, um...
Spending the day with my dad to find the bike was a pretty,
was a pretty big deal, and that was like this big moment.
I felt, kind of, normal because I finally had a cool bike.
As soon as I could ride, my world was expanded.
And that freedom of being on a bike, challenging yourself,
and succeeding, I think, is why BMX is still popular.
I do remember getting into the BMX world via the magazines.
It was like your telephone line to what's going on in the outside world,
and I started noticing which bikes were better than other bikes.
I remember I was finally big enough to jump.
When you first catch air on your own bike, your own power,
you just feel amazing.
You just feel like you could go do anything.
I would be out 'til the street lights went off.
Hours practicing all up and down the block.
All of a sudden, I had something that I had and nobody could take away.
When I was a freshman in college, and I started to put two and two together,
and think I might actually drop out and start this BMX bike company,
I had no idea what to do.
Who do I ask, Who do I talk to?
I didn't want to talk to my mom because she was already upset.
And my friends were already... had stopped riding bikes.
So I wrote a letter to Bob Haro, my hero of the BMX freestyle world.
He was a guru.
He, kind of, invented freestyle BMX, the trick riding part.
He had created something from nothing, and I really respected that.
There was a clear style to a Haro bike, the Haro team.
So Bob Haro, I really felt, was kind of like the Steve Jobs of BMX.
And then he wrote me back.
In the letter, he said I could call him back, so I did.
He definitely told me,
"I'm not saying you should drop out of college,"
but he said, "If you want to make bikes,
"you could try CycleCraft."
Well, I already knew who CycleCraft was because they made good bikes.
So they were very popular.
They had their own team, and a lot of the pros raced for CycleCraft.
They were a very good company.
And when Bob told me, "You know, maybe they'll weld bikes for you."
So I looked up who the owner was.
His name was Joe Martino.
We initially had a great report.
I didn't know him in any other way,
other than that, he was the guy that was gonna make my bikes.
My mom was not supportive of my dropping out of college to start a bike company.
My mom grew up in a very traditional household.
You do not drop out of college for any reason.
But at the time, this was in my gut.
This was, like, a huge burning passion
to start this company on my own, and I saw no other way.
Eliminating the flex in the frame is the goal of the bike builder
if you're building a racing bike.
What made Homestead Bicycles unique was a twin-tube stabilizer bar
that stiffened the rear triangle.
So when kids are racing, they're on this thing called a gate.
There's eight of them across, the gate slams down, and everyone tears off,
and they're trying to get to that first turn the fastest they can,
because they don't want to get stuck in this crowd of kids.
So at the time, I wasn't sure it was going to work.
The other thing that made the bike unique was that I painted 'em all green,
and named it after a lizard from South America.
I sponsored a kid. I went to the races.
I handed out stickers, I printed fliers.
I've made T shirts. I tried to do everything,
but I didn't feel like an equal to the other companies,
because again, they had the one thing I didn't have.
They had community.
I tried to find business partners
and investors during the time when I ran Homestead Bicycles.
Homestead Bicycles.
It was hard to convince people of this vision if they weren't bike riders.
So I wasn't able to find the right person.
But it did confirm my feeling I had from being little of...
It's just me against the world.
The best shot I had with Homestead Bicycles was right at the end.
This guy, Ken, that owned a shop in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
He was excited about my bikes.
He loved him. He wanted his whole team to ride
the exclusively Homestead Bicycles racing team.
I'm like, "This is it."
And I called Joe Martino.
No answer, and I called back the next day.
No answer.
It took a couple months to get a hold of him.
Finally, he answers the phone kind of, sheepishly,
and I ask him, "Hey, Joe, I got 20 more frames coming." I had paid for 50. I had 30.
And he, kind of, waffles and says, " Oh, I don't know how to tell you this, Alden,
"but I'm retired."
And I said, "What about my bikes?"
I'm sure they got welded, they're at the shop.
Just mail 'em. And he just said...
And I said, "What do you mean?"
I... That's $1,800.
90 bucks a frame
times 20 bikes is $1,800.
Big deal back then.
The closest I came to, you know, feeling like a real company, it all went out
because I couldn't provide any more bikes.
I woke up one day and I thought,
"If I stop, who's going to ask me to start it again?"
And I thought, "No one is."
This is all on me.
If I stop it, it stops. So I just... I let it go.
My life right now is, kind of, rough.
Although it's carefree, I guess, is the positive way.
But it's tough.
I've been bouncing around since my dad passed away.
Life has been a challenge to remain positive.
Getting older and being a dishwasher or doing odd jobs
is, obviously, not what I want to be doing at this age.
I think it's been difficult for me to maintain a stable financial life
because I just have too many dreams.
I have too many things I want to create.
I've thought about it as a curse a lot.
People say, "Oh, that's so great what you do.
"You have these things you create."
Why can't I just focus on one thing?
Why can't I do a day job?
I don't know. Why do I need to be fulfilled,
to do something that I'm pouring myself into?
My dad poured his own life and my mom's life and my brother's life
and my life.
He poured everyone's life and it didn't work.
Is that what I'm taking after?
I never wanted to be anything like my dad.
I've made a couple films, going back to college and doing what I had to quit on.
I've done some state park work, things I can hang my hat on.
But where does it get me?
I can admit it now.
I had been in a king-sized funk since my father died,
and it took a serious blast from the past to snap me out of it.
That slap in the face came in the form of an email
from a friend I hadn't spoken to in years,
and a curious link to a BMX collectors website.
The whole thing that started this documentary
was this one kid that posted a bike
on a website called BMX Museum, and he put it out there
because he didn't know what kind of bike it was.
No stickers on it, but it was one of mine.
When I looked closely, there was a different dropout,
and I noticed that that was a CycleCraft dropout on a Homestead bike.
The dropout is the rear part that the wheel slides into.
What the heck was a Homestead Bicycle frame doing on this website?
I drew those dropouts so I knew what mine looked like.
Did the last 20 bikes I paid for actually get welded but just never shipped?
Had Joe Martino at CycleCraft
sold them after I quit Homestead and just pocketed the money
for those 20 frame and fork sets?
Then I started wondering about the 30 bikes I did get.
I wondered how many were still out there.
Was anyone still riding one?
With nothing holding me in LA, I decided I had to know.
Maybe I'd find out where I went wrong with Homestead and what I got right.
And just maybe I could find out what happened to my life
by finding those missing bikes.
I always get depressed going to my storage unit.
Seeing proof that my life is still in transition.
But I knew I kept one file folder, and I knew there were a few receipts.
I don't remember writing down serial numbers,
but maybe there's the name of a shop or a name of a kid.
Anyone who bought a Homestead.
I knew my own bike would be in there,
and I wanted to verify which serial number it had.
Oh, boy.
Here we have, uh...
Serial number.
Let's check it.
Wow. Serial number 001.
Oh, man.
So I know I had a Homestead Bicycle file.
No, it's not it. It's not it.
Let me try one more.
Homestead Bicycles.
Wow!
So there's my fictitious business name statement,
doing business as Homestead Bicycles.
After I ran one ad inBMX Action magazine, it was called "Go"
at the time, I got letters from all over the world.
Airmail from Germany, I think.
"Hamestead Bicycles." This kid wrote me, I think from...
My gosh, I think from Czechoslovakia.
There's Fairview, Alberta, Canada.
Just from one ad placed in BMX Actionmagazine.
This is the power of that magazine at the time.
So this is a picture of the basilisk lizard,
the paint was based off of, the green with the blue specks.
That's my first drawing back in high school of a basilisk.
So there might be some receipts from bike shops that bought, that bought the bikes.
This is the first receipt.
Moby Dicks Bike Shop.
One bicycle frame. Santa Clara, California, Homestead Road, oddly enough.
Sweet! Here's another one sold to the pedal pusher.
There's another receipt. A good lead.
This one is April 20th, 1993,
on consignment, Homestead frame and fork.
Oh, there we go.
This is it.
That's a good piece of proof.
50 bikes from CycleCraft, Homestead frame and forks.
Oh, yes, Haro designs.
This is where this whole thing started.
Maybe I need to track down Bob Haro and see if he remembers this letter.
When I'm telling you I had nothing to lose,
I'm saying I had nothing.
So I headed up the coast to the exact spot
where the last Homestead was sold to track down the last guy to sell one.
Is this Ken Kingsley?
Hey, this is Alden Homestead, man.
I know. It's been a long time.
How are you doing?
I'm doing good. It's been like... 23 years, man.
I'm actually trying to track down these 30 bikes.
Oh, my gosh. Okay.
It turns out I might actually be up in Felton Scotts Valley.
I don't know if that's too much for you to come over the hill and meet me?
The last place that I sold bikes at and worked at
was a bike shop on Highway 9 in Felton, California.
So I haven't talked to Ken or even thought about him in 23 years.
Did you ever think we'd be here in this position?
Not really.
Did you ever think you'd see me again?
Probably not.
That was my big moment of you saying, "Hey, I love...
"These bikes are cool."
Let's outfit our whole team with Homestead Bicycles.
We did.
I can't believe you remember names.
So it should I write them down or...
No, I gotta a list for ya. Oh, you gotta list?
Don't know if you remember any of them or not, but we got Shane Ellett.
Shane Ellett?
Yeah, he's in Boulder Creek.
Chad Steven, I think is in Boulder Creek.
Chad I do remember. Chad was the kid that would ride with me down
-at Henry Cowell, I think. -Yeah.
He came riding once or twice.
And then there's Amber Howard, which is the only girl rider.
Which actually rode one of your frames.
-A girl rider? -Yeah.
She actually did very well recently.
Really? I did not...
Then you have Nate Escoto,
-which is one of our senior riders. -Nate I remember.
He was probably about 22 then. Just got out of the military.
Ken was pretty sure Nate was still around.
And that I might find him at a pump track south of Santa Cruz.
Get out. Now way, man.
Fancy meeting you here.
How you doing, man? Thanks for taking my call.
Sheesh, how long's it been? 23 years?
Something like that. Yeah.
Dude, it's good to see you're still riding, man.
Thank you.
We were introduced at Ken's shop in Felton, California.
Yeah.
And that's when I first saw the Homestead bike. I thought it was pretty cool.
You told me about, this was your baby and your project.
And you were putting together a racing team,
and you and Ken had invited me on a joint venture
to, uh, join your team.
-Yeah, well... -Off we went,
we toured all over the country with your bike.
I raced it in Arizona and Nevada,
all over Southern California, Oklahoma,
-at the Grand Nationals. -At the Grand Nationals?
You raised the Homestead? I had no idea.
Yeah, it handled well in turns.
It was good in traffic.
Zippy little ride. I liked it.
Where did your racing lead after that?
I just reached the point where I just had enough of racing.
I've been racing my bike since I was 13 years old.
Walked into Ken's shop, and I gave my bike to
my good friend, Shane Ellett,
who raced on our team. He was a younger kid,
and I handed my, uh, my Homestead to the young gun.
Do you think Shane still lives in the area?
Pretty sure he does. I think he's an electrician now.
I remember you.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry I don't remember you.
I'm glad for everyone's memory because, Ken... Ken has got a great memory.
He gave me these five names.
Apparently, you've got a great memory.
-Yeah. -Do you mind if I...
-Sit down. -Yeah, yeah.
So when did you know that I had my own company?
Well, right from the beginning,
you had a cult, I think three bikes.
It was promised that, you know, 20 more were coming.
-Or... -So you remember that, too?
-Yeah. -Yeah. Okay.
When they came, I got one.
I rode it for about three years.
I won 17 races in a row on it.
What was cool about it?
Why did you like it, if you rode it that long?
It was a fast bike.
When you would put the pedal down, the power'd go right into the bike.
- Into the ground. Yeah. - It was snappy and fast.
Well, let's talk about your bike.
And where is it now? And I'm, I'm hoping you have it still.
-I do not. -You don't have the bike.
No. You came all this way. I'm sorry.
It's okay. Do you know what happened to it?
Um, it went to somebody else on the team.
Yeah. And do you remember who else was on the team?
A girl, Amber.
Okay.
Hello, Amber. My name is Alden Homestead.
And I got your number from Ken Kingsley.
I made a bike called Homestead Bicycles
that I think you may have ridden.
You did ride a Homestead.
Awesome. Do you mind if I stop by and ask you questions about the bike?
The story just keeps getting more interesting.
I didn't know that Ken had any girls
on the bike shop team. So that's pretty awesome.
This is an angle that I did not expect.
Hello.
Hi.
-Amber. -Hi, Alden.
-Alden, nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.
Wow.
Did you know your mom was a BMX racer?
You didn't? Well, you're about to find out...
-Yeah? -...how awesome she was.
That was the first bike that I was on
that really, kind of, awakened this, like,
love of biking and just being on a bike in me.
I just loved it.
This adorable little green bike and Ken told me about it.
I joined the bike team, and he said, "You know what?" He's like, "You're pretty fast."
I think I have a good bike for you.
So he showed me this cute little green bike
and it was called the Homestead, and I got on that,
and I remember it felt like it just fit me perfectly, and I-I loved it.
What was it like to get on that starting gate and actually race?
So, it was super intimidating, but I decided to go for it anyway.
So I got up on the gate and had my little bike.
I think that's why I got so attached to it.
It was my comfort. I was comfortable on the bike,
so I felt the confidence to just go for it and try it out.
I just took for granted all these years that, you know, my bike's just came and went.
Not even a chapter in BMX, just a... half a page.
To hear from people that are complete strangers, that I never even knew
to think of like a girl being confident on one of my bikes is, it's just bizarre.
I guess, let's get to the nitty gritty, why I'm here.
So, the film is called 30 Bikes.
And so I want to know which one you have.
Do you have any idea of your serial number?
Oh, my gosh. I wish I had it.
I don't have the bike anymore.
You don't have the bike?
No.
I was disappointed that Amber didn't have her bike,
but being so close to Santa Cruz,
I had to go see if there were any bikes at Camp MayMac.
Man, this just used to be so manicured.
I'd water it every day.
The Homestead Bicycles was a part of this track.
The kids would come up here and they'd say,
"Oh, there's a new guy running the track."
And then someone would say, "Yeah, he makes his own bikes."
And I remember kids asking me, "Where can I buy one?"
And they were good kids. We had a lot of fun.
This is the bike shed.
This is where we housed all the bikes for the kids to ride.
Wow, Some memories are coming back.
Just being in here is pretty amazing.
I'm hoping I find something. Let's see what we got.
We got Diamondbacks, Diamondback, Diamondback.
We got GT's, Diamondback.
What is that? No.
Shoot.
There might just be one frame... sitting...
No.
Nope.
Back to the drawing board, huh?
Man.
It's not looking good for one missing Homestead.
I was getting ahead of myself
visiting Camp MayMac, without tracking down the guy who gave me the job,
Neil Sundblad.
Neil the Wheel.
Dude, it's been a long time, man.
Good to see you, man.
-Wow. -That's awesome.
-How you doing? -Great.
Yeah.
You know, the last time we met
was on the starting gate at Santa Clara PAL BMX track.
Exactly.
-You remember that? -Yeah.
You do?
Wow. Did you ever think we'd be meeting like this?
God does mysterious things.
So how'd you get the name "Neil the Wheel"?
I tended to take your wheel in the turn...
I would T-bone you...
Give you the elbow and they
gave me the nickname "Neil the Wheel"
because you never know where I was coming from on the turn.
-I kind of got to start and say thank you. -Yeah.
Because, you know, if you wouldn't have met me
-and offered me the job at MayMac... -Yeah.
-then I never would've met Ken Kingsley. -Yeah.
I never would have sold my bikes
in Felton, in Santa Cruz and--
-All over. -Had kind of a second life with the bike company.
That's great.
So it's pretty crazy how it all worked out.
I got to ask you, why me?
Because I was looking for a Christian
that loved God and wanted to work with kids.
I know. But you only knew me for five minutes when you offered me the job.
I already prayed about that.
I knew God was sending someone.
-And I was desperate, too.
'Cause I didn't want, you know, the thing to end.
We needed someone that knew how to do BMX and jump and ride
and show the kids the way.
I went down to a local coffee shop
to research a name Shane had given me,
Logan Alexander.
I found him on Facebook, and turns out,
he's actually only about 20 minutes away.
-Hey, good morning. -Hey.
-Are you... You're Logan? -Yep.
-Logan Alexander. -That's right.
-No way. -How's it going?
-Good. Shane gave me your... -You got your list?
Your name... I got my list.
I'm just making sure you're the right...
Yep, that's me.
So you knew Shane?
-Oh, yeah. I knew Shane, yeah. -Okay.
We used to race and ride BMX, for sure.
Well, man, you know the big question.
Shane gave me the short list.
Do you still have your Homestead?
- Here it is. - You got it?
Yeah.
Dude!
One of the chrome ones.
Yeah, I got... Picked out the first chrome one, actually.
-I remember now. Yes. -Yeah, look at this bad boy.
-Yeah. -Dude, that is so sweet.
I can't believe it. Look 23.
I didn't know what it was gonna feel like to find these bikes.
I really didn't,
but it's kind of like finding a child.
This is well worn, man.
-Yeah. I still see some use. -You got some...
-Uh, might be a little bit bent, but it still looks good. -Thatt's all right.
Do you ever remember riding around and people going,
"What kind of bike is that, man?"
Yeah, actually, I remember I was at PAL one time,
and some kid saw me, he was like, "Is that a Homestead?"
I was like, "Yeah. Yeah. How do you know?"
He was like, "Oh, I've heard about 'em."
It was lightweight. I remember that.
I think my bike weighed like 23, 24 pounds.
That was really nice.
-I think I was able to bunny hop like 33 inches back then. -Wow.
- I could not do that anymore. You know? -- Yeah.
I wanted something that had some character, some soul.
Definitely unique frame
and unique look, unique following.
Semi cult following, you know. People knew about them
and mystical sort of thing to have that appeared once in a while.
To have a Homestead was sort of a special thing.
I figured it was time to go back to where I grew up,
the little wine country town of Sonoma,
and follow up on a consignment receipt I found in my files
for the Good Time Bicycle company.
It was the only bike shop in town growing up.
Maybe the guy who ran it, Doug McKesson,
would have a record of who he sold that first bike to.
You couldn't have scripted it better man.
The bike is still on the side.
It's worn. It looks like it's maybe
as old as my bike company.
-How you doing, man? Good to see you. -Good. How're you?
-Wow! -I don't remember you being that tall.
Yeah.
-I was just a little squirt when I was here.
You got my phone calls.
So, you know, I'm trying to track down these 30 bikes.
That's number, serial number two, right on my car there.
So that was... The one that you would've had was green.
Um, towards the end of the run, I had a few of them chromed
and, um, I just never got stickers for the chrome ones, but...
It's very cool.
-It was cool bike, though, huh? -Yeah.
Just have some kid in the neighborhood
have the chutzpah, you know, to kind of come along
and actually design something that was cool
and then follow through and have it done was really neat,
so didn't buy it for me.
-But I put it on consignment for you. -Okay.
You don't remember, specifically, it selling.
-I don't. -And I'm gonna guess you don't
have receipts in this box.
-- No. All gone. -- Okay.
But as far as my brand and my unique thing,
you think I started something that maybe I could restart?
I think people wanted something different.
Certain part of the nostalgia sells.
But if it really functions and it works,
then you can bring it into the market today and be something unique.
I guess if I relaunched Homestead Bicycles today, it would...
it would be having a second chance at my first big dream in life.
You've got the perseverance, you had it back then,
which is kind of the neat part of the whole thing.
And here you are again, coming around at it.
I think that's what it's about.
It's just sticking with it and you have something unique,
and it will sell if you get the word out.
So I'm looking for all 30 bikes.
-I have one. -You have, You do actually have a bike?
Yes.
Oh, sweet.
-You got... Ooh... -It's got a little...
Just needs a paint job, man.
-Yeah, it does. -That's nice, though.
-What number? Oh, number 12. -Twelve.
All right. Number 12. Found another one.
Why did you want a Homestead?
Um, well, knowing the founder of Homestead Bicycles had something to do with it.
These Homestead designs are still out there.
And, uh, this is not the first person I've heard from
that still has their,
their sweatshirt or their T-shirt.
So this is pretty awesome to see.
So Homestead Bicycles went from roughly 1991 to 1995.
You're telling me that you would like to see
Homestead Bicycles 2019.
Definitely.
My biggest fear,
if I were to relaunch Homestead Bicycles today,
would be just a failing all over again.
Falling into the rut or the traps that I fell into before.
Now I think I would embrace the niche and go for it.
And go all in.
So where you headed next?
This kid that I sponsored from Auburn,
he lives in Eureka now, and he just found me on Instagram.
When I met Neal, my first and only Homestead sponsored rider,
I knew I needed a good rider,
but I knew I couldn't afford much in the way of a pro rider,
so I probably had to find a kid that was 15, 16,
you know, just about to turn expert.
So I remember I called him up and I said, "Hey, Neal,
if you're up for it, I would like you to be
the Homestead Bicycle factory rider."
Hello?
Are you Neal Skadden?
-Dude. What?
I don't even know what to say, man.
-What's up, man?
-Jeez.
-Good to see you, brother. -Good to see you.
There's a few things that happened.
Your finding me on Instagram was one of the things that
got the wheels in motion.
Think about maybe it was time to tell the story that there was,
-I mean, I left something on the table. -Right.
You know, when I closed down the shop,
the company, maybe I, maybe I left something there.
-- We're here for two reasons. -- Right.
One of the things we're here for is,
-do you have a Homestead still? -Yes, I do.
All right,
because I have been meeting people
-that have these great stories. -Right.
They're excited about the bikes.
They love the bikes, but mysteriously moved or gave it to someone.
-So... -I still have it. I don't have it here.
-Okay. -But I still have it.
-Still have it. -It's 019.
-- 019? All right. -- 019.
Okay. I got to get my book.
We'll write it down before we leave.
You thought we had reality before?
This is reality because you're going to see old man BMX.
All right, let's rock, man.
Now, with the camera on, I gotta just... Gotta get used to it.
You showed up and gave me this brand new frame and everybody's like,
"Where'd you get that?" They were just like, patting me on the back.
I remember your friends, well, seemed to be impressed, and they were like,
"Dude, you just got, some guy shows up and gives you a frame."
It was great. I mean, a couple races in,
I was in magazines and stuff.
He was ready to go.
He was all in.
And he was exactly the kind of kid that I wanted.
I don't know, what did that do for you
confidence-wise, or whether or how'd that make you feel or ride different?
Riding for Homestead let me travel to more places to further my riding.
It kind of showed my parents that it was more than just a passing fad.
What happened? Did we just kind of fade away?
Did you stop racing? Did you call me?
Did I call and say, "I can't respond to you anymore"?
I don't remember.
You called me in '93 or '94
and offered to give me a whole 'nother bike.
and everything. Come racing for you some more.
I actually turned you down
because I was like, at that point, I was almost,
I thought I was done with riding bikes.
It's time to get a job and a car and do all this different stuff.
And where are you now?
Yeah, at 44, I'm back riding bikes.
You're back riding bikes, around the skate park.
Well, good to see you, man.
-Good to see you, man. -Glad we reconnected this.
I don't think this is the end.
It's been a while since I've been out here. -It has been a while.
-How are you doing? -Good to see you.
Good to see you.
-So you got my message? -I did.
-You heard I'm trying to track down the bikes. -Oh, yeah.
Oh, the boy's put a tire on it.
-Oh, sweet.
-I told you they wanted to put it back together. -Nice.
Sweet. Whoo-hoo!
Wow! Well, another bike found.
-021, right? -Yeah.
Well, I've got to tell you on this journey,
people have been asking me, and it started at the first person we interviewed.
-Okay. -Said, "Are you making more bikes?"
-Yeah. Yeah. Well, I wanna know. -And I said,
"Well, I didn't plan on it, but it's looking like
-that's how things are going." -Yeah.
If I make more bikes today,
I don't want to just make bikes to say, "Oh, I did Homestead right."
I need something that changes my life.
Because I'll be honest, I don't like my life right now.
So if I didn't know there was this demand,
and I didn't know people liked the bikes as much as they did...
-That sounds silly to say. -Yeah.
-But I just didn't know. -It's a classic, man. I'll never get rid of mine.
What's up, man?
What do you remember about the beginnings of Homestead Bicycles for you?
First off, you were the coolest guy
in the world to me when I was 16.
It was very exciting
to be there, like with you in it.
Other than knowing the creator, what was different to you about the Homestead?
Having a cool bike that I loved to ride
and was original and was unique.
That was it. That was enough for me.
Here's the big question. This is why we're here.
Where is the bike now?
The bike ended up in my dad's house, right? Down in the garage.
And my dad may have taken it to a recycle center.
Oh, man.
Do we remember at all what serial number that was?
I don't.
Do you remember telling me it was maybe time to put the company down?
At that time, it felt like maybe you've taken this as far as it can go.
I felt like you needed to grow beyond it.
Yeah, I mean, that probably was the truth at the time.
Do you realize that that conversation we had was what caused me to think
that maybe it was time to put down Homestead Bicycles?
Did that feel like defeat?
At the time,
you telling me to put Homestead down or to let it go
felt like relief.
Who's to say that you shouldn't spend your life
pursuing the things that you're passionate about?
Yeah, there's a lot of truth there.
Any of those kids that rode at camp?
Do you know any kids that might have a Homestead today?
I believe it was the summer after you were at MayMac.
You and I built the BMX track at Mount Gilead.
Think there were probably six in that shed.
Wow, man. I definitely don't remember this.
-- Now... -- That's pretty cool.
We put that up a number of years ago
for all of our campers.
Now. Do you remember if there are any Homesteads in the shed?
I'm not sure.
I don't know how to identify a Homestead. So...
Well then, this'll be a good opportunity.
-I'll show you. -Okay. All right.
So these were the rules of BMX in this track that I made up.
I forgot about this.
And this is how to take care of the track,
shovel and patch it for major repairs,
rake it, sweep it,
um, water it and then ride it as much as possible.
A ridden track is much better than an unridden track.
I totally forgot about this.
-Well, you have a legacy here, Alden. -I forgot.
-It's just easy to forget.
Wow.
I got to tell you, it still looks like a fun track.
I got half a mind to rake this thing
once it dries out in a month, then come out here and ride it, man.
You're always welcome to come back and work on the track, Alden.
-You're always welcome. -What you're saying is,
-free labor is always welcome. -Absolutely.
-Free labor is always welcome at summer camps. -Yeah. That's right.
All right, let's go see if we can find one more bike.
-All right. -Come on.
Well, here they are.
I don't know what they look like, Alden.
Well, they... Yeah, they had a twin stabilizer bar.
Rear end.
Um... These are cool bikes.
This is a... This looks like SE racing,
SE racing, SE...
All these are SE. What is this?
That's another SE racing right there.
Oh, you got a Redline.
And what is this bike?
Oh, it's a Trek.
That's a Trek with a...
With an interesting...
frame, but not a Homestead.
This is it, huh?
That's all we have.
Argh.
Well, there might be one at the warehouse if you want to go check there.
So here are where the bikes are. They're up there in the rafters.
Oh, wouldn't it be awesome if there's just one.
Even just one. Wouldn't that be awesome?
This is it, huh?
Yeah. This is all the bikes we have.
Well, you had me going there.
I thought we might find one back here.
Man, it would have been awesome to find one, but it's still fun to come back here.
Even the ones that are here bring back memories.
Oh, yes!
-Wow!
-What's up, man? -Welcome, brother.
-Oh, my. -How are you doing?
Dude, I've been good.
So how many years has it been?
I was trying to think about, I think it's been 28.
Oh, my gosh, 28?
Well, since we met.
-So would you... -The last time we rode,
you had just gotten the bikes out of the shop.
-You'd only got about half of what you were getting. -Yeah.
But I think you were only about 25 in.
Did I bring you the bike?
-Do you remember? -You brought me one.
And then you had the black one still in the trunk,
and we dropped by DJ's house and DJ's like, "I want one, too."
Whoo-hoo!
Nice.
Oh, man, I remember that color.
There was only a couple of that color, man.
You got a rare one.
So what number is this one?
Twenty-five.
Twenty five. Mark Wilson.
Do you remember the first time you heard
I was starting a bike company?
-Yeah. Camp. -Yeah.
We had talked, and 'course riding.
And you talked about the Homestead Bicycle company
-and your dream. -Yeah.
And of course, we were proud and excited for you.
What was it like owning a Homestead bicycle
and actually riding it around every day, being on a unique bike?
You're one of, at the time, was going to be 50...
And everybody'd stop ya...
Of course, that was the hardest part about riding
because you didn't want to be stopped.
You wanted to go ride. You wanted to go jump.
You wanted to go have fun.
Kids were always asking where they could get a Homestead,
but I didn't want to divulge my information, you know?
I had one... I was one of two guys in the town that had a Homestead.
DJ and I still talk about Homestead, you know,
'cause it was all part of our life.
To think that something that I did mattered.
That I assumed was a failure.
It mattered to people back then
is already empowering
and extremely redemptive and fulfilling.
I never thought I would be revisiting Homestead Bicycles.
DJ.
Hey, you still got your Homestead?
Why don't you bring it by?
I got a guy here interested in it.
Dude.
Number 11.
Number 11! Awesome.
You could be totally honest,
but you felt that it was a little tighter out of the gate
with the way that rear triangle was designed?
I remember my Homestead got me through the gate
and got me out in front of the pack.
-Thanks for keeping it, man. -Oh.
Thanks for keeping it in good shape.
Right on.
-Still rocking the vdub, man. -Yep.
-I made an impression. Dude, Brad Hodges. -Hi, Alden.
What's up, man?
-How are you? -It's been a long time. I'm good.
-Let's go into my shop. I'll show you around. -I can't believe
you've got your own welding shop, man.
So you do still have the Homestead?
-- Yes, I do. -- Nice.
Part of my BMX collection.
And I posted a photo of it to BMX Museum a couple of years back,
and somebody contacted me
and offered me a ton of money for it.
-No way. -Strictly over the factory Foster paint.
And then he said that it's a very rare CycleCraft item.
And I guess that some of the CycleCraft owners
remember your production run of those bikes.
And so they're a sought after CycleCraft product
as well as a very rare BMX product alone.
You're telling me that online with BMX Museum,
there's this whole community that knows
that CycleCraft welded Homesteads
and that they're valuable as like a weird CycleCraft offshoot or something?
Exactly.
I questioned myself so much back then
and now I realize you know what? My instincts weren't crazy.
I created a cool product that a certain, not everybody,
but the people that liked it really liked it.
-- It's in good company. -- Well.
Whoo-hoo.
Oh, I forgot it had a basket on it. Nice.
I totally forgot... Oh, yeah, of course.
Wow, dude.
Nice job, Brad.
Nice job.
Look at that original factory Foster paint job.
Brian Foster.
Number 16. Oh.
Most of the people say that, you know, they like the twin tubes
'cause they stabilized the rear end for racing.
But why did you like the frame?
So it supported the rear end for the bash card.
Nice. And, hey, I don't care why.
Well... And just be honest.
Tell me why you liked the frame when you were riding it?
I wanted something that felt like a race bike that I could also ride
as a street bike and the Homestead met all those criteria.
Why have you kept the Homestead all these years?
Well, it's a weird green bike.
It's limited production.
That's sort of sought after.
And I just remember that it being a good time in my life
and it having a lot of good memories and sort of like,
if you will, that was the bike that was like the end of my innocence.
What I created with Homestead Bicycles
was a unique vibe
and feeling about an inanimate object.
I think I created something more than I realized at the time.
This was an epic trip,
and reconnecting with these old friends was amazing.
But the truth was I was running out of funds and, hey, I had to face it.
I needed a job.
Good news.
I'm going to be selling water.
It's a refillable water bottle, kind of starting at the bottom.
But I think it's a good opportunity.
Best part about it, off the couch.
I got a cool apartment and things are looking up.
No.
Another job, just a means to an end.
But I was happy to have it.
Glad to do some work and come home at the end of the day tired.
I think it was because I finally had a clear purpose again.
Figuring out what kind of person I was at 19,
and what I created was addictive.
But what I really wondered was, "Would I find any more bikes?"
I'm about to call Joe Martino of CycleCraft in Tennessee.
I'm actually pretty nervous.
Enough time has passed.
I'm hoping that Joe will let me know, "What really happened, man?
"What happened to my bikes?
"Why'd you let me down for that final batch of bikes that I paid for?"
I actually found my receipt for 50 bikes that I paid,
and it's got a phone number here.
Let's do it.
You have reached a number
that has been disconnected or is no longer in service.
I have a sneaking suspicion that there's 20 more bikes,
and they're hidden in eastern Tennessee.
I learned from a local bike shop
that some of the '80s BMX riders I grew up following
still rode down at Huntington Beach, doing tricks and hanging out.
Eddie, the King, Fiola.
And Martin Aparijo.
They called him "the Chairman."
I couldn't believe I found these guys, and they're still doing it.
They were plastered all over my walls,
on the pages ofBMX Plus andBMX Action.
And of course, they rode inRAD the best movie ever about BMX.
I had to pinch myself when I saw them on bikes I used to ride,
doing tricks I used to do.
So you guys still come out here and ride?
Yeah. You know, we used to come out here,
underneath that pier, back in 1985,
and throw on a hat, make some money, and we just had fun doing it.
Now we're out here, you know, at50-ish.
Kind of like that movieTag
where we didn't end the game. We're still playing it.
And we're not getting old, so.
Nice. My name is Alden.
-Eddie Fiola. -Eddie Fiola. Nice to meet you.
Wow.
It's a prototype, so it's got no name on it right now.
-So how did you invent?
How many tricks did you invent?
-Like, 27 or something? -Uh, yeah, probably more than that.
But there was, like, 13 initial tricks,
like Cherry Picker, the Lawn Mower, the Backwards Long Slider
and all those tricks, those tricks that led to variations of those tricks.
-Right. -So, yeah, all the foundational tricks back in day.
I have to the tricks that only you invented?
-Lawn Mower! -Lawn Mower!
I guess I wanted to see if I still had it.
If I still fit into this world I'd walked away from.
All of a sudden the swarm of wheelie bikers showed up at the pier took over.
This was too much. Martin and Eddie and now Todd and the SE guys.
This journey was pulling me deeper into BMX than I ever could have imagined.
After months of trying, I finally nailed down freestyle guru Bob Haro.
Would he remember me or the letter?
Or our conversation about CycleCraft?
I was just stoked to finally meet my mentor and graphic design hero.
-What's happening? -Wow. Alden.
Bob Haro.
-Hey, buddy. Nice to meet you. -Oh, my goodness.
Just after all these years,
so many logos, so many designs and pictures and photos and...
Yeah, I'm just, um... I'm spinning a little bit.
All right, Well, yeah, I kind of can't believe things I've saved in my life.
But apparently, I did save this letter that you wrote back to me.
I don't know if you remember that.
To go back and look at this and, uh...
this is my writing and all of my typos
because, like I told you, I'm good at putting typos in everything.
But, um, yeah, it's cool that you saved this,
and I'm flattered. Thank you very much.
I was thinking about dropping out.
I wasn't sure what to do about a bike company,
but I thought, if there's one place I know where to start,
it's my BMX hero and that's Bob Haro.
A lot of what I did, and I continue to do that, is to try to help other people
because when I was young, people helped me.
Well, since this did start with a conversation in a letter,
it's kind of cool to see what came from it.
And that is my frame.
I remember seeing them. I don't remember seeing one in real life.
Right. Well, there were only 30.
-So. -What number is this one?
This is number one.
So tell me your logic behind these stabilizers.
I don't know if there's a placebo in my mind,
but it felt stiffer for a racing frame,
this definitely did the trick.
If I decide to dive back into Homestead Bicycles and relaunch this company,
is there any advice you can give me?
If it's something you want to do and you've got the energy and... You could do it.
You don't have to-- it doesn't have to be 500 bikes.
It can be a small quantity. And you get that to market.
And maybe that closes a chapter in one of your aspirations.
Okay, that was crazy.
I was dying for some time to chew on Bob's words, and I was about to get it.
No sooner had I got back from meeting Bob,
that I got laid off from the bottled water job.
I didn't have time to get bummed out, though,
because a BMX collector in the Bay Area had just confirmed he had a Homestead.
-Wow, Darren? -Hey, Alden.
-What's up, man? -Nice to meet you after all those texts.
I know. Texts and...
And after giving all the excuses why I couldn't dig out your frame.
I put it together, and I wanted to get the NorCal flavor with the boss and the VG.
And look at this VG. I have not seen these for so long.
-Dude, I was started thinking I wasn't going to find any more. Really.
There's nothing like the true old-school stuff made in the '90s or '80s.
You can always copy the older designs and stuff, but, you know,
it's not the real original thing,
just like this frame right here.
All right. Well, Darren, you're in the book, man.
-Okay, thanks, man. -021, Darren Chan.
Those dropouts look familiar. Like CycleCraft dropouts. But that's not a CycleCraft.
No, that's not a CycleCraft. That's actually a-a block frame.
Um, there's a guy by the name of Rich Bartlett.
He had some frames made. It had that wishbone design.
That name Rich Bartlett does sound familiar from the late '80s, early '90s.
B93.
-Yeah, I heard there were only like a hundred of those. -Wow, XLX. Yeah.
That does-- You know what? That does sound familiar. Block.
Rich and I both had bikes welded by CycleCraft, both in the early '90s.
Maybe Rich could shed some light on what happened with Joe Martino.
Maybe even lead me to the missing 20 bikes.
Wow, Rich.
Man.
Dude, after all these years.
-Good to see you. -How you doing, man?
Great. Awesome.
Sheesh. This is-- What an awesome property you got.
-Yeah, I lucked out. -You got jumps front and back, looks like.
Yeah, the lifestyle.
When I left the Martinos, I was done with CycleCraft, like I'd--
when I moved out of the house, I was no longer wearing
CycleCraft stuff from that point on.
CycleCraft was their hobby. It had nothing to with making money.
Betty was kind of over it. They'd been doing over a decade
of being number one team and that kind of thing.
Terry Shaughnessy from Florida assumed the brand.
'Cause he been on the team since as long as it was.
And he took all of CycleCraft down to Florida.
So while I'm waiting for more frames,
wondering what I'm going to do, I'm driving around the western U.S.,
going to be ABA races. I had a sponsored rider. A kid.
-The company, meanwhile, moved to Daytona Beach. -Yeah.
I never knew about it, and then I call him two years later.
No wonder they didn't know what I was talking about with 20 extra frames.
And he wouldn't have assumed your liability.
So Terry's gotta know more, though.
-He's gotta know at least what he bought... -Yeah.
...all these years. The past is different than I thought.
Man, that's bizarre.
I guess it's clear I gotta go to Daytona Beach, find Shag.
I had to finish this journey. So I packed up and headed to Daytona Beach
to track down Shag and get to the bottom of this once and for all.
But first, I had one last bike lead to follow up on just outside of Oklahoma City.
I'm tracking down this mystery bike that I never thought I'd find.
This is the first bike that was posted on this BMX foreign website
that got this whole movie started.
This whole project of tracking down these bikes.
This guy's name is Derek.
It looks like a Homestead, but there's no serial number.
-Derek. -Nice to meet you.
-Hey, nice to meet you. -This is Harper.
Hi, Harper. How you doing? Nice to meet you.
Meet the camera.
-Say hi! -Hi!
This is truly a treasure hunt.
Oh, my gosh.
No way!
I mean, look at this.
This is what got me on the BMX website.
These, I think, are pretty much are CycleCraft dropouts.
This is bizarre, dude. You have, like, the most rare Homestead
aside of not having a Brian Foster paint job.
That mystery frame was truly bizarre.
What exactly it was, I still didn't know.
It was a two-day drive to Daytona Beach.
Plenty of time for me to digest everything I'd learned on this journey.
Who I'd met and the bikes I'd found.
I was hoping Shag would have some answers.
-Terry?
-Wow. -Yeah, Terry Shaugnessy.
-Shag, I guess so. -Shag. Yeah. Just call me Shag.
CycleCraft has moved to Florida.
I mean, this is basically like, Alden thinks his bikes are in Tennessee
-and CycleCraft is moving to Florida.
And we got the proof. We got the proof right here.
I came to Florida in '91, in September, '91. End of September.
So your timeline must've been close.
You must've just built them right before I went over and took over, I guess.
So Joe never mentioned anything about, "Hey, you're buying CycleCraft
"and by the way, we got this guy in California, we got to make some frames for?"
I never heard about us making your bikes,
or, you know, carrying it over. 'Cause we would've made 'em.
So I didn't think nothing about it.
And now that you only got 30 of your 50, I'm like, "Wow, that could be Joe."
-Yeah, that was when I folded Homestead Bicycles.
And all this time I assumed it was something I did wrong.
Or I failed or I didn't do a business plan or--
Now it seems like I just got the shaft.
So why did Joe not just tell me, "Hey, give Shag a call."
I don't know. That's something you're going to have to find out from Joe.
And I don't know what I would say to him, honestly.
At the time, I was just so disappointed that I felt like here's another thing in my life
that I put effort towards, and here we go again.
It's just not going to quite work out. I'm not going to quite be normal.
I'm not going to quite have a normal bike company.
And I had a shot, man. People liked my bikes.
Do you have Joe's number?
Like, does he live in the same-- I don't know, in the same house?
As far as I know, still in Kingsport, Tennessee.
I don't really know if I'm going to see Joe
or if I'm going to see what that 19-year-old kid was thinking.
But maybe I'm wondering what I'll find when I go back to my past.
Hello?
Tell you one thing. that's not the house that I stayed at 25 years ago.
So I might have to do some searching around Kingsport and see if I can find Joe.
Even though I know CycleCraft isn't welded here,
I think we should start at the old factory.
So this is Shipley Ferry Road, Kingsport, Tennessee.
Yeah. This is it. This is the address.
This is where CycleCraft frames were welded.
I guess, until-- What did Terry say? '91?
And Homestead Bicycles were made right here.
We gotta try to find Joe. Someone's got to know where the heck he is.
I drove around Kingsport trying to remember what Joe's house looked like
but it was impossible.
Out of total desperation, I saw these ladies
sipping lemonade on their front porch, and I took a chance.
Hello.
Um, this might be kind of weird, but...
I wanted to know if I could ask you a couple questions
about someone in your neighborhood.
- Sure. - And the name is Joe Martino.
Does that name sound familiar? Do you--
It does? No way.
I see two ladies sipping lemonade on the porch in East Tennessee,
and they know right where the Martinos lived.
Hello?
Is this Joe Martino?
You're looking for my dad, I think.
I'm just wondering if I can talk to Joe. Yeah, Joe Sr. I guess.
I'm outside at your gate. Do you mind if I come in and say hi?
Yeah, hang on a second.
Dude, we got it. All this way.
And I found it 3,800 miles all across the country,
and Joe's son is coming out to open the gate for us.
He might not live here, but we got him.
You up for some company?
No, are you up for some company?
Okay, um, be just about two or three minutes.
- Hey, Joe. - Hey.
How you doing, man?
-I'm good. -You remember me?
-Not really. -Alden Olmsted.
I remember the last name.
-That's good. -You from the West Coast?
Remember these frames that...
-Yeah. -...you made back 30 years ago?
How many?
-30 years ago, 28 years ago. -Wow.
-You didn't ride it much, did you? -Not that one.
I rode the other ones. Yeah, I got the other one on my car.
So I finally just decided to tell the story of this little bike company.
And I've been tracking down as many of the bikes as I can.
And I've tracked down nine of them.
-Really? -One of them in Oklahoma City on the way out here.
Well, they've been after CycleCraft like that, too.
Yeah, and I just came from Shag in Daytona Beach.
-You're kidding. -Yesterday?
Just came from seeing Shag yesterday.
Weren't you from Washington state or...
-Northern California. -Northern California.
-And you've come all this way... -To see you.
Shit.
What was happening at CycleCraft right before I came along?
So this is the middle of 1990.
We were in a growth spurt.
We were doing production for other companies.
I don't know where you got our name, but when you called,
I felt like, here's a young kid that wants to fulfill a dream,
and I invited you to come, and you came enthusiastically.
Not many 19-year-olds. In fact, you're the only 19-year-old I knew that...
came and asked to have something made.
I had other 19-year-olds. But their daddies backed 'em.
I think the timing was right for you.
But it was wrong for us
because of us getting out of the business, regrettably,
and that might've hindered you some. I don't know.
So when Shag bought the company, were there any other commitments
or bike companies that he was responsible for?
He bought CycleCraft lock, stock and barrel. Except for my machinery.
I know that you were just getting started about the time Shag bought us out.
I don't know whether he chose not to...
make your stuff or not because he was getting somebody else to make it.
I've been pretty hard on myself
about when the company didn't work out.
Why would you be hard on yourself?
I guess because, you know, when your dad leaves when you're a year old,
you put a lot of burden on yourself, even if there's no reason for it.
How many of them were brave enough to take first steps? You did it.
I think you might be beating yourself up a little bit.
I don't know if you are, but on your-on your bike production, manufacturing.
But you did a dream. Very few ever do.
If you've planted a seed for someone by having a unique bike,
you did what your intended purpose was.
I mean, you had a success.
Yeah, maybe that's the first step for me to move on
is to stop thinking of it as a failure and realize it was a success.
-Well, yeah, it's a learning experience, for one. -Yeah.
In fact...
there's some tubing, I think, still down there, that was yours.
-You're serious? -I'm serious. Never sold it.
Never shipped it to you because it's 20-foot lengths
and the cost of shipping would have been more than what the tubing was worth.
-And where's the tubing now? -It's down in my old barn.
Yeah.
Top shelf, second shelf a little on the third shelf.
-That might be my 20 bikes right there. -It could be.
It could be. You can walk over here and look a little closer if you want.
That tubing up there is the beginning of Homestead bike frames.
This is not where I thought I'd find my 20 bikes.
I could not believe the 20 bikes had been there all along,
just sitting, as raw steel tubes in a barn in Eastern Tennessee.
But now I had some bigger questions. What was I going to do?
I said I wanted my life to change,
and I did feel a huge weight had been lifted.
But what was I supposed to do with that?
Maybe this was just about the journey.
About finding myself.
About forgiving that 19-year-old kid I was so hard on.
I took a chance and called Brad, the welder up in Sacramento
and asked him if I could meet at his shop the next Saturday.
Do you have time to build me a bike?
-Always. Come on in. -All right.
You know, my entire life changed after I met you...
because you came to my life at a very pivotable time.
I was a young, impressionable 15-and-a-half-year-old kid
who just wanted to build bikes and, like, you did it.
You were the guy that started the bike company and made it happen.
And much like you talked about writing the letter to Bob Haro
and like, that kind of changing your existence and your path, I saw you do it.
And so at that point in time, everything changed for me.
Watching the bike come together was surreal.
It was the past. But it was now.
It was another step deeper into this world.
What I did know is that I just wanted to ride.
I wanted a new old style Homestead that I could ride with pride.
I didn't care if I got back in the business.
I didn't care about the future.
I felt like a customer.
I wanted the bike that all these people were talking about so positively.
I wanted one for me.
I was shocked at how quickly I felt at home again.
This was my community.
They didn't go anywhere. I did.
These were my people, but they were more than that.
They were family.
And to think the strangest meeting of all was meeting myself,
my 19-year-old self.
I'm no Freudian scholar, but after what I just went through,
I'd say it's pretty important once in a while to check in with that dude.
That person you were. That kid who didn't even blink at risk.
Who laughed at failure.
That kid was confident, enthusiastic, creative, relentless.
And going forward wherever this life takes me, I have to remember...
that kid was me.
off of the rack
ride around in cul-de-sacs
start growing long
it's going to be
all these silly dreams
and another time
back on the rack
there's no take backs
begin to fall
he still recalls
it's going to be
I hate these dirty jeans
these broken dreams
like my wheels keep spinning
you'll never know
And it's all been done
you'll never see
And it's all been done
back off of the rack
still ride
Dink! I can't remember that part. I'm sorry. I'll figure it out.