Here is a funny thing that happened this week, and necessitates a deep dive into Nzo history.
Just after the turn of the millennium, we somewhat naively decided to go to Interbike in Las Vegas. It was a gigantic trade show, we shared a booth with some other kiwi hopefuls.
We had a lot of fun, and garnered a bit of interest but ultimately it went nowhere for us. The best opportunity we found was with a guy we really liked, he had some great plans and we geared up to try to execute them. Tragically, John died before we could make our plans come to life.
While we were hanging out with him in Vegas, we met all manner of famous people he was loosely connected to. One of them was a fellow named Steve Boehmke - he has had a part to play in the development of quite a few key products we all use, and the progress of our sport generally.
Over the next few decades we have reacted to one and other’s social posts maybe half a dozen times.
This Inktober, I drew a Ford Ranchero one sunny morning over a cup of coffee, and after I posted it Steve weighed in with the comment that he had a similar vehicle as his first car, but his was a Chevy El Camino.
The very next morning, my subject matter was a cool old grainy photo I found of a guy doing exactly what he should be on a Schwinn Stingray - having aimless fun, in this case a wheelie.
I drew my version of it (there it is at the top of the newsletter) and Steve commented “Yowza! Dude!”. By which I assumed he meant he liked the image.
Turns out the reason he yowza’d was because the image was him! In 1974, or thereabouts, racing BMX before there were really BMX bikes to do it on.
Small world.