Almost two years ago I posted about the legendary Rockville BMX, the now defunct shop in Rockville, Maryland, and posted some shots of its 1984 catalog. Over time, old school BMX riders from all over came across the post — presumably in their search for what had become of Rockville. People left memories in the comments, and even former owner Jay Metzler left a comment (hopefully leading to some old friends getting back in touch with him). Since then, I’ve intended to post some shots of another catalog I held onto from the Rockville era, this one being four years later, from 1988. If you’re not familiar with Rockville, or its history, go back and read my previous post and even the comments, or check out a post by an original Curb Dog, Maurice Meyer, here.

In its time, Rockville was ahead of the curve. It was THE mailorder shop for BMXers. By 1988 they’d stepped up to a full-color cover, and started buying action photos from Wizard Publications, giving their mailers a high impact, authentic feel. This particular catalog was also distributed as a tear-out in an issue of Freestylin‘ Magazine. Of course, by this point, former Rockville employee Spike Jonze was also shooting photos for Freestylin‘. Looking back, it’s funny to think people actually filled out and sent in those mailorder forms. What can now be done at the click of a button once took days, and even weeks. The frame and fork prices of $169.00 seem funny given today’s $300+ frames.

Last night I noticed a sticker on the side of my toolbox (which I’ve had since the ’80s)… Rockville BMX. If you rode BMX in the 80s, Rockville was THE bike/mailorder shop, and its catalog was your bible. Twice a year I’d await the latest Rockville catalog to arrive in the mail, much as I would the latest Freestylin’ or BMX Action Magazine.

Rockville was the ultimate shop. Every summer the big companies like Haro, Hutch and GT would send out touring Freestyle teams, and I remember seeing photos from the demos at Rockville with seas of people. Just about every Pro rider backed Rockville, and couldn’t wait to do a show there. The DC suburb of Rockville, Maryland was like Mecca for BMX kids around the globe. The scene surrounding the shop bred eventual legends like the Alder Brothers and a scrawny kid working behind the counter who would ultimately take over Hollywood, Spike Jonze.

Staff moved on, more mailorders and local shops sprung up, and today, 817 Hugerford Drive, is home to a computer shop, a far cry from the thousands of screaming kids who’d crowd its parking lot every summer. Today there are a whole host of reputable endemic mailorders like Goods, Empire, Staff, Albe’s. Just about every large BMX scene has a decent shop, some of them rider owned and operated.

Fortunately, I held onto a Rockville catalog from 1984, the only one still in my collection. Later used moved onto color printing, but ’84 was black and white in all its glory. I’ve included some photos…