BMX riders, like skaters, have gone quite urban in the last few decades, creating a street ballet by using the walls, handrails, stairs and other features they find in otherwise hostile city environs.

But a trio of downtown Los Angeles bike riders recently found new foils – the homeless – off which to create their aerial moves. A nearby bike shop posted a video (on the next page) of the antics, and many folks are not happy with it.

Today we talked to a co-owner of the OSS shop, Adam Grandmaison:
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He posted the video to the store's Facebook page Feb. 26. It was only recently discovered by the media.

Grandmaison says the shop did not produce the video. In fact, he said, he was in Estonia judging a BMX competition when the video was made in February. Two of the three riders have little connection to the shop, other than that they hang out there, he said.

A third rider, Brandon Begin, is an OSS-sponsored rider, Grandmaison said. However, he wanted to make this clear:

We didn't have anything to do with it. We can see how people could take issue with it. It doesn't represent our shop's attitude toward the people of Skid Row. 

Because no one got hurt, he said, the video would stay up on the OSS Facebook page. The video was also posted to YouTube, and not by OSS.

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The riders are teenagers who didn't know better, Grandmaison told us:

The guys in the video are 19 and 20. They didn't think about the ramifications.

Some comments on the OSS Facebook page decried the video, with one woman saying:

What a bunch of douchey jerks (those on the bikes, just in case anyone is confused). hopefully karma is a bitch and one of you guys ends up homeless and in this same situation.

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