Sean Nichols of Rad BMX Builds likes to say that he’s “constantly building memories.” After retiring from the military many years ago, this BMX lifer slowly started to build, collect, and sell retro BMX bikes. As a child of the 80’s, bikes from that era remain the core memories that have stayed with him through his adult years. Now he’s helping people reclaim those memories through his business, Rad BMX Builds. Sean got our attention once again, when he turned one of our 1984 Supergoose re-pops into an incredible-looking Mongoose Pro Class! We reached out to Sean to talk more about his love of BMX, and see what’s he’s planning in the future.
So, let’s start off telling me how you started Rad BMX Builds.
SEAN NICHOLS: Well, just around the time that I retired from the military I was looking for a hobby. So, I decided to get back into building BMX bikes as something to do to keep me busy and I quickly immersed myself and that was probably around 2016. I had a personal Instagram page back then and I would just post the picture of the progress I was making. I ended up building a 91 GT Performer and someone reached out in my messages wanting to buy it. After a lot of back-and-forth, because I didn't want to sell it, the offer seemed too good to be true and he bought my bike, so I had to build another one and then it was kind of rinse and repeat. Right about that time, old school really started taking off and I was looking all over the place on eBay to find bikes. I couldn't build them fast enough.
How much research do you do before you build a bike?
SEAN NICHOLS: That's a great question. It really varies on the bike, but some of these bikes take me 100 hours of research, resourcing and accumulating all the parts that I'd want for the build. I usually start off on eBay and find a decent frame and fork set whether I restore it or powder coat it and then I’ll start to accumulate all the parts and pieces that I want. I'm a very visual builder, so I lay everything out on the table once I have everything. I'll either make changes then or just build the bike completely, so it takes quite a lot of time for each build.
Out of the bikes you build, how many do you actually keep? What were the times when you were like “when I'm done, I'm keeping this”?
SEAN NICHOLS: Man, that happens all the time! I think I've built over 300 bikes at this point. Every single one of them I said I'm keeping this one, but there are a couple that I hung onto the entire time. My 1983 PK Ripper, and now recently added to my collection, I have an ‘87 GT Pro Series and an ‘89 GT Pro Series that are absolutely flawless bikes. I think I'm going to be hanging onto those for a little bit.
When you do bike builds, what's been the hardest part to find?
SEAN NICHOLS: Oh my gosh! So, I built a CW Phase One Lightning Bolt bike a while back and sold it. I didn't want to sell it, but the offer was crazy, and I’m a business so I had to let it go. You’ve got to let it go if you want to grow your business, so it went away and I thought I'm never going to find that bike again. I looked for years and occasionally one would pop up, but it won't be in the greatest shape. But one did come up and I ended up getting it and then right about that time my absolute unicorn bike showed up, and was a Cook Brothers racing bike. I ended up getting both right about the same time.
Do you have a favorite bike that you built?
SEAN NICHOLS: That might be my PK Ripper just because that's what I rode in high school. That's what I raced on and when I joined the military, I sold that bike and I only sold it for like $100, but it had bullseye hubs, maxi cross cranks, and other great parts on it, but this was back in like ‘89. They weren't really worth a whole lot back then, and I just needed a little money to go away with. So, when I got back in the building bikes, I finally found a frame and fork set, and built my better version of that bike, and I'm really happy with the way it came out
What was your first bike?
SEAN NICHOLS: Mine was a Schwinn Stingray, and I rode that bike like crazy!
What do you think about these retro re-pops people are doing, including us?
SEAN NICHOLS: Of course, I absolutely love it to be perfectly honest. I do have some mixed feelings on some of the company’s directions with the look of the bike, and I'm not a big bike fan. I'm not really into the big wheel bikes, I’m more into 20” and 24”, occasionally a 26” but I'm not you know I'm 53-years-old. I'm not riding wheelies down the middle of the street. I like the nostalgic part of it, so the companies that get it right and really make them look like they did back then, like the Mongoose Supergoose, really gets me in the nostalgic feels. I think more of the collector / builder guys want to hang them on the wall, and really lean into those re-pops.
What’s your next Mongoose build you're thinking about doing?
SEAN NICHOLS: Well, you know that's top secret, but since you're asking, I'll tell you I recently started another Supergoose from Mongoose, and I have two bikes that were just built by Craig Turner that are off to powder coat that are coming as well. So, three bikes as we speak are on their way and I'm sure there will be more shortly after.
Man, your garage must be insane!
SEAN NICHOLS: The only part of my property that my wife will let me do this is the garage, and I basically transformed this into more of a studio than a workspace. I never park a car in here. It's wall-to-wall bikes all the way around.
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