Interesting read I found on the Ryder site related to Sun Cycle, BMX, Mountain Bikes and Ryder Cycle. I have contacted them, waiting on a reply.
Origins of Ryder Bikes
In 1972 a United States rocket scientist felt Bradenton needed a premier bicycle shop. The founder, Bruce Ryder opened ”The Bicycle Center” with a small nine hundred square foot space, next to a pub called the “ Inn” in the back of the old K-Mart Plaza, at 14th Street and Cortez Road.
All the neighborhood kids would come by and set up ramps behind the shop. He talked a Bradenton adult three-wheel manufacturer, Sun Cycle, and his Sertoma Club, into building a BMX racetrack on 23rd Street East and the rest is history. Manatee County became the model for the State and then the Nation. Bruce recalls, “I took a van of our local riders around the country and we set them all back on their heals. We could hear them announcing over the speaker systems at the tracks as we pulled in, “The riders from Bradenton are here!””
“I remember Frankie John had a bunch of buddies from the Islands who wanted “Moon Cruisers” that were more than just single speed bikes”, Bruce recalls. We kept building custom off roads for all our locals and called them TR- STARS. Each one wanted it better than the previous one. Now many manufactures make them and call them “Mountain Bikes”.
Bruce says to customers leaving the shop, “If this was the finest experience you had, tell every one you know, if not tell me”. His employees convinced him years ago, to change the name of the shop to Ryder Bikes. Now, the oldest and largest shop in Bradenton, features the Nation’s most unique bicycle shop. “I receive more pleasure launching lives, rather than launching rockets.” Says Bruce. His daughter, Alanna, and wife, Madeleine, exclaimed with a smile, “Manatee County community opened their arms and hearts to us and we’ve never looked back”.
Bradenton Herald - March 2002
Readers choice
"Best Bicycle Store"
