OzVMX is here to stay
OzVMX has developed into an ‘Institution’ in our old dirt bike community, the premier VMX site in Australia and for many years has been held in the highest regard both here and abroad. It’s a goto place for information, parts, bikes, and more often than not, some good fun online bench racing . I am sure most of you will agree that as a community we are very grateful for Graeme’s huge efforts and want to give him an equally huge thanks for creating and maintaining OzVMX over the years. Like many of you when I read about Graeme’s intention to close down OzVMX I thought what a waste. I do however understand that after 15+ years of spending 100s of hours of his personal time Graeme is well overdue to feel completely satisfied with his achievement and move on to other pursuits. Doing all the back end work, piecing the IT together and troubleshooting it, dealing with the politics, and trying to cover costs, must have been very taxing. In the end to feel the pride of providing the premium information service for our VMX community, can only satisfy a person for so long. For Graeme to be prepared to close it, he had obviously reached his limit, and it was time for someone to step up and take over so all of his good work did not go to waste and he could move on.
As a VMX fan and someone not shy of a challenge, I asked Graeme if he would consider allowing me and my team to take it over. A request Graeme has kindly agreed to and it is humbling the trust he has shown to hand over the reins of such a valuable resource. I am confident that with some support, we can continue to keep the OzVMX network of sites strong, relevant and an enjoyable place for the VMX enthusiast to visit. As many of the NSW VMX riders know I am a keen VMX enthusiast and racer. I raced Motocross, in Hong Kong, Guam, The Philippines & Australia through the late 70s and early 80s, and found VMX through OzVMX back in 2000 where it introduced me back into the sport I loved so much in my teens. I am one of the people behind the scenes in the running of Heaven VMX events and I manage the Heaven VMX website and Social Media pages. With my business partner Jon Caplan I run a custom merchandise screen printing and embroidery business in Sydney which relies heavily on a number of websites and social media to bring in new business so we are working in this area every day. Going forward, with some assistance from our team, I will be the new driving force behind OzVMX.
Our plan is to review all the infrastructure behind the Ning site and the forum, and while there will be changes to streamline the back end of the sites to fit in more with our preferred IT platforms, the over-riding premise though will be to keep the integrity of the sites intact by preserving all the great knowledge & history built up over the years and keep it easily accessible to the OzVMX community. To cover costs we’ll use the platform and Facebook page to advertise a small amount of VMX relevant products and services.
For the time being, not much will change. We’ll take our time to familiarise ourselves with each platform and when we have planned the changes we want to make, we will inform you well ahead of time. In the meantime please feel assured OzVMX is here to stay. Thank you Graeme, be proud, your great work will continue.
