Not just a hobby
Local man turns pastime into career
By LARRY MEYER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Monday, October 27, 2008 11:02 AM PDT
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| Chris Ragus stands surrounded by bikes at his shop, Making Tracks Cyclery, in Ontario. |
ONTARIO — Chris Ragus, owner of Making Tracks Cyclery, Ontario, had little inkling he would be running his own bike shop in the future, when he took the training wheels off his first bicycle by himself when he was 4 years old, but he was off and running and rode bicycles and BMXs into his teens and then switched mountain bikes and also skate boards.
Ragus still remembers that first bike, plus the two that followed.
“It was a Huffy.” he said of No. 1. “I think it was a girl’s bike. I rode the wheels off that thing.”
Then there was the Schwinn “Orange Crush” and the yellow and blue one with yellow mag wheels.
“I was riding bikes all over the place.” Ragus said.
He raced on BMX bikes until he was 21, finishing in the old-man class, and when switched to down-hill mountain biking racing, participating in competitions as far as Monterey, Calif., and in races all over Idaho.
Ragus also got involved in skateboarding, which he did for several years.
“Most of my injuries came from skateboarding,” he said.
Following two knee surgeries and bicycling in physical therapy, his interest in biking was rekindled.
Born in California, Ragus said his family followed his maternal grandparents to Minnesota. Then his family moved to Oklahoma, where his parents went to Bible college. They lived in Oklahoma until he was in the 10th grade and then lived in Colorado for two years.
His family eventually moved to Nyssa because of another relative. Ragus said he arrived in Nyssa near the end of his senior year, and with the help of some counselors was able to get enough credits to graduate. After going to trade school, Ragus tried carpentry, which only lasted about six months.
“It wasn’t for me,” he said.
Other employment included a job at Nyssa Co-op, where he worked for several years, and the bike shop in Ontario part-time. In 2006 he was offered the opportunity to buy the shop and took advantage of it.
He has everything from BMX and road bikes to off road cruisers and skateboards.
“Gas prices really help us,” Ragus said of business. “We’ve seen so many old bikes come out of barns and garages.”
But other things take priority over his cycling, he said, now that he has five children.
“I put God first, then family and everything comes next,” Ragus said.
