BMX Museum NL likes to say hello to all old school friends over here.
Let me tell you something about this museum.
BMX Museum NL
”Our tribute to Old School BMX”BMX Museum NL was founded February 9th 2009 and is located in Megen, close to Eindhoven/Oss in NL.
It contains a big collection of Old School BMX bikes, parts, clothing and all kind of BMX stuff from the area 1978 – 1989.
How it all started. In the eighties BMX was very popular in NL, and it still is. I spend a lot of time on and beside the track riding my BMX bike. Every spare minute I was on the bike. And we raced and travelled every weekend. In NL the race season already starts in March and ends finally in October. And often we had indoor races during the winter period so it was all about racing for us. I was 12 when I started racing in a serious competition.
Those were great times and we had a lot of fun but we also took it very serious. We trained and tried a lot. It was all about racing and winning for me.
So the sport took a lot of time and energy from me. I really was addicted to the sport. However we decided in 1986 to stop with racing so that I could concentrate on my study. This was needed because with all the racing there was too less time for studying so we needed to change our priorities. School was and still is more important than racing! So I stopped racing and sold everything (bike, clothes, helmet and even the bike carrier) to be sure that I wouldn’t start racing again. It was a tuff decision but I’m glad we made that decision else I was not where I’m now.
In 2002 I came up with the idea to search for my old 1984 GT Pro Series bike again. I wanted to have my bike back! So I called a lot of people in the city where I lived to ask if they knew where my bike was but I couldn’t and still haven’t found it. However during this search I found some other old school bikes like Hutch, Skyway, Kuwahara and Redline which I started to collect. And that was the start of my collection.
I kept searching and the collection grew every month a little by little. This process was speeded up a lot when I friend of my, Wim Kuiper, launched in 2005 my
www.bmxmuseum.nl website. That brought a lot of exposure and visitors to the website. Some of the visitors asked if they could have a look at my collection so that was a signal for me that there was interest in NL to set-up a BMX museum.
In 2008 we made the decision to look for a location for my collection so that we could show it to the public. After a long search I found a perfect location in Megen. And February 9th 2009 we had our official opening. The BMX Museum NL was opened by Mr. BMX himself, Mr. Gerrit Does. Gerrit was the founder of BMX racing in the late seventies in NL. That was how it all started, that was the start of BMX Museum NL!
The BMX Museum NL collection.The museum contains more than 100 bikes, 50 frames and a lot of parts, clothes, helmets, magazines, pictures and videos.
Some names of brands which are part of the collection; GT, GHP, Redline, Kuwahara, Skyway, Hutch, CW, Vector, Diamond Back, Vitus, DP, Boss, Haro, National Pro, Patterson, Raleigh, Mongoose, PK Ripper, Quadangle, Zeronine, Wheels, Asco, JT, Odi, Tuff Neck, Shimano etc. etc.
We also have unique collector items like the pink Hutch Hollywood frame of Mike Miranda or the “Still the one” racing pants of Stu Thomsen which he used during the World Championships in Slagharen.
If you visit the museum please be sure you’ve plenty of time. We’ve a lot of magazines (BMX Action, Fietscross Magazine, Freestyler etc.) and books which will take you back in time and you definitely want to stay there. So reserve at least 3-4 hours for visiting us.
Furthermore is the collection still growing due of donations and gifts from Old School racers.
Right now I live in Sweden and Gerrit Does is taking care of BMX Museum NL and their visitors so that “our tribute to Old School BMX” still can continue.
The entrance and coffee are for free. Of course any (financial) support is welcome to keep the doors opened. For your information, it is a 100% private project.
And whenever you want to visit BMX Museum NL or if you’ve materials which you want to donate, or you’ve interesting news for us, please send an email to info@bmxmuseum.nl and we’ll contact you.
See you in the BMX Museum NL! See you in the world of Old School BMX!
Mike Janssen
www.bmxmuseum.nlinfo@bmxmuseum.nl
