People – FIREMANS BIKES

Firemans has a very loyal customer base, and a great group of longtime shop guys and bike assemblers. This family is what we attribute our longevity to, and also the quality of service and bikes we offer is a result of these relationships. Thanks to all of you who have contributed throughout our history!

SAL CORREA

Well we wouldn’t have gotten far without Sal – the legendary BMX frame maker who does our manufacturing out of this shop in San Marcos, CA, and has been making our bikes for us since 2000. Our first couple of runs of frames were made by Fabweld in South Florida. Thanks to the Esser Family – Greg and George – for taking me under their wing and helping me get those first bikes made – customers still love those FM originals. In the year 1999 or 2000 I contacted the USA manufacturing shop of SE Racing. Mike Devitt took me under his wing, and helped me adjust and redraw the Original Firemans Cruzer, and the Firemans Race was born and manufactured by SE at their USA plant. When I visited out there, luckily I had the opportunity to go to lunch with the shop crew, and at that point met Sal and we became friends. Sal was the foreman of the SE Racing USA shop since 1977, and made many famous SE models along with many other historical brands of framesets. When SE USA went out of business in the early 2000s, Sal started his own shop, and I moved with him and was his first customer at his new shop. Sal is a legend in the BMX community, and has been manufacturing BMX framesets in the USA for over 45 years! He also has his own line of bikes SCR Racing, and makes frames for many other companies too. If you are one of our customers, you know his workmanship and product is second to none. Visit him at SALBIKES.COM, and @salbikes on instagram. Thank you Sal for everything!

BMX MUSEUM
BMX Museum was started around the time of Firemans in the late 90’s. The owner GAry has supported Firemans from day 1, and is a huge supporter of all BMX – this site is an awesome showcase for BMX bikes. Our bikes are not true ‘vintage’ BMX bikes, but are designed in that vein, and after 25 years, some might consider them classic. Our customers have posted their bikes on here for many years, and it continues to grow. Please post your Firemans on there if you are a customer!

PROFILE RACING
Firemans is proud to use Profile Racing USA made cranks, bottom brackets, chainwheels, stems, hubs, and other parts on our builds. From the beginning, Profile parts have enhanced our builds and made them look great since day 1. Owner Jim Alley of Profile Racing makes USA MADE bike parts that are incredibly durable and beautiful and last forever-an amazing blend of killer aesthetics and funtionality that no one parallels. We have a longstanding friendship with this great American company, and recommend you use their parts if you are building a custom version of one of our bikes. Would like to mention our old friend-salesperson Matt Coplon who you can find on instagram, etc., and is a badass rider in addition to working for Profile for many years. Here’s one of his riding videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN6xugZhuSI

Matt came to visit us at Burnet Road Storage which used to be a drive in theater-we got to go for a ride and hang out, and here is a short article about that:

Profile Racing: Firemans Texas Cruisers, Austin TX

FIREMANS WORLD HEADQUARTERS
The local shop BMX PLUS! (AKA FMWH) which is run by Randy Niemann is a great place to have your FM built up. Randy is a lifetime Austinite, and has been building Firemans for our customers for years since the beginning. Randy provides years of experience, and can help you pick out the perfect build kit for your frameset. The shop is a few blocks away from Oat Willies Campaign Headquarters which opened in 1968, and to me the FMWH is connected philosophically with the old Armadillo World Headquarters-the whole thing as a unit is representative of OLD AUSTIN. Be sure to visit Jason the owner at Junior’s Beer And Wine right down the street to grab some beer, and you will find the same vibe there. You can reach Randy at 512-206-6195 for all your PRO BMX needs.

Firemans World Headquarters was originally a concept I was going to do with Joe Ender, owner of Monkey Wrench Bikes who built and carried our bikes for many years, but unfortunately he closed his location. However, if you are a customer/fan of Joe’s, and there are many, you can still go see him at the TJ’s Motorcycle/Bike shop where he works.

I would also like to take time to thank Vytis Vardys here, who owns OZONE bike shop and supported Firemans for many years while they were in business. They were with us since DAY 1 in OCT 1998, and a lot of killer FM builds came out of that location!

If there was an Austin Bike Hall of Fame, and I actually have been giving thought to creating one, these three guys would be first ballot. Would like to thank them all for their help over the years. It’s only through this type of association, and the support of all our great loyal customers that we have survived.