Walmart goes Hyper with Donny Replica

BMX Racing has a rich history of “replica” bikes, dating back to the mid 1970s. The definition of a “replica” is, traditionally, a bike produced during the career of a famous rider or team, in the style and image of the bike that the rider is actually riding at the time. Hyper Bicycles has stayed graphically true to that tradition with the forthcoming release of a Donny Robinson Replica complete bike, out this March. The added bit of news on this project is that the bike will be marketed through Walmart stores nationwide. With millions of shoppers per day chain-wide, the dR Replica has a chance to put BMX Racing in front of a massive audience.

Though the initial rollout this March will be a market test to gauge consumer interest, it is still hitting 314 stores, which is bigger than most chains, in itself. Based on this test, Walmart will evaluate whether the bike gets a chain-wide rollout.

According to Donny, himself, on last week’s episode of our “Announcers Tower” Podcast, “This is the lightest bike on the (mass) market…I could easily run the frame—it’s an aluminum frame.”

It is clear that, by way of this model, Hyper hopes to sell some bikes. Commerce is a beautiful thing. But it goes beyond that. We see them making efforts to move merch, yes…but also to promote the sport of BMX Racing to a broad, general interest audience, who may not otherwise know about the sport.

And when promoting the sport is the topic of discussion, you know the ABA is never far off the lead. They have joined with Hyper to create a hangtag to go on all of the bikes on Walmart’s floor. The hangtag offers a free 30-day ABA membership with purchase of the bike—helping break down barriers to getting new wheels on the gate at the local track. Check out the hangtag.

For his part, Donny will be promoting the bike, and the sport in general through his “In Motion” Youth Mentoring talks at middle schools in places like Oldsmar, Phoenix, DeSoto, TX an other ABA National cities throughout 2010.

The bike will retail for $99—which makes it an irresistible starter bike for Joe and Jan Novice. On Vintage, over the past couple days, the forum has been alight with great ideas from people wanting to join in the fun. Tracks are talking about buying a few of them for loaner bikes, and some of the collector types have their eye on it as a “timecapsule” buy of BMX, circa 2010.

BMXNEWS will be keeping our eyes on the progress of the bike, and will show you first-photos when the time comes.

Meanwhile, here is the complete list of Walmart stores where the Donny Robinson Replica will be showing up next month.

“Announcers Tower” Interview: Donny Robinson

We saw Donny riding through the parking lot on Friday afternoon in Guthrie. He had just finished the first in a series of talks at middle schools as part of the Donny Robinson “In Motion” Mentoring Program. We had been aware of the program, and the visit, by keeping up with Donny’s Twitter updates. But we wanted to know more. So, we asked him if he would be our guest on this week’s episode of “Announcers Tower.” Donny graciously agreed and, in addition to the full scoop on the mentoring program, he also tells us about the forthcoming Hyper “Donny Robinson replica” BMX Racing bike to be test marketed in Walmart stores across the US this March.

In the second half of the interview, Donny talks about his views on equity between the mens and womens Elite classes in BMX racing, his plans for the 2012 Olympics in London, married life, and his “little quirks” when it comes to cell phone use and laundry.

This is a double episode, with a running time of 31 minutes. Thus, we are offering it as a “full-track” listen, and also in two parts.

We hope you enjoy the interview.

Listen to the Full Interview

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Part One

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Part Two

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Photos:

Donny addresses an auditorium of students from the Guthrie (Oklahoma) Middle School on how to lead a clean life, in bounds and overcome challenges and setbacks through goal setting and self discipline.

The Hyper “Donny Robinson” BMX Race bike will be test marketed in 314 Walmart stores across America this March. The $99 model is, according to its namesake, a perfect starter bike for kids interested in BMX racing.