Ryan Keong Interview

Our Australian Correspondent, Aaron Bransdon, recently went on the hunt for a bit more information on the up and coming, Australian based store, Australian Scooter Parts.

I talked to the founder, owner, and manufacturer, Ryan Keong, a young, aspiring rider trying to do something to help out progression on the Aussie front. The 16 year old Queenslander has been designing, hand-making, and testing his products over the past year and a half, but only just released his company to the Australian land, in which we’re all sure he will make an enormous difference to the scene, and the way scooters are perceived in Australia, though only time will tell. Ryan’s riding reflects his nature: his consistent, well-paced style, cleanliness and frontside spinning is much like his Business; Legitimate, quick and a bit left field.

We here at Inside Scooters hope to see a lot from this man in the future, and hope his business prospers in to something that helps the scooter world everywhere.

Intro and Interview done by Aaron Bransdon

Name: Ryan Keong

Age: 16

Lives: Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia

Time Been Riding: 2 Years.

What's your business name, and how long have you operated?

I started making parts about 18months ago just for myself and a few close mates. Then whenever we would go to the skatepark kids there would always ask about them and want to buy them so i decided i would start selling them to kids at my local. Then after seeing that there was a shortage of aftermarket products in Australia i decided to make a myspace and start selling them off there which has now turned into Australian scooter parts. Altogether though I’d say Australian scooter parts has been around for about 8 months.

It seems you have plenty of experience, and from humble beginnings. What products do you offer at the present time?

At the moment we offer two kinds of one piece bars

Team bars which are similar to Proto slayers and standards one piece bars which are just regular T shaped bars.

We also have two types of deck in the testing stage; a one piece deck, as well as a deck with a folding mechanism for those who don’t want to worry about changing headsets and such.

Similar to PROTO 'slayer' bars? Were they designed before the 'Slayers' were released?

They were designed and made before the slayers were released and there are some differences in the bars.

Awesome. Do you have any plans for a team sometime in the future? If so, what are you looking for in team members?

Yes

At the moment we are running a small competition styled entry, where Australian riders submit videos and the three current team members will judge who they think deserves to be accepted. Personally I’m looking for riders who aren’t as mainstream as most of the riders we see today id rather see a sick 180 combo in street than a flyout inward briflip or backflip. But it’s also up to what the other team members like.

Sounds good, definitely looking forward to the results of it. Are you planning anything major for the team in the future, or are they just going to be more or less the advertising around Australia?

Yeah we don’t want to have to big of a team we are only looking at having four or five riders maybe making a team video down the track, hopefully we will keep selling products.

We all hope everything runs smoothly too. Are there any new products on the planning board?

After the decks are out and going good we might experiment with forks but that will probably sometime in the distant future.

Sounds good, maybe we'll see the ASP complete scooter somewhere down the track. What first got you interested in manufacturing scooter parts?

When I first started out I wanted a more solid scooter than just stock so I looked at buying some one piece bars but the only ones available in Australia (and I don’t know if many people would remember them was old VEX bars) and I sent them an email and they never replied. My dad manages a steel fabrication shed so I asked him about it and he said he should be able to get a pair made for me for a reasonable price so he did and that’s where it all started.

Then after snapping numerous decks I decided that there must be a better alternative, and made a dodgy looking deck with a folding Mechanism. After riding that for a couple of months and it showing no signs of cracking I thought that I might be on too something so vie been trying and redesigning new decks ever since.

Wow, you've got quite a back story there. What keeps you motivated to ride, design and create?

I just enjoy designing parts and then seeing them go from a drawing to real life and being able to ride them. I get a kick out of it, also knowing that you have built half your scooter from scratch. It’s something that you wouldn’t do or get props for in any other sport.

You seem like a really legit kid, all of us at Inside Scooters hope it goes well for you. Does ASP have a website? If so could you tell us what it is? And do you have anything more you'd like to tell us about ASP?

Thanks for the time to do this interview. And yeah we do have a website www.australianscooterproducts.weebly.com/ At the moment we only ship within Australia though so, any Aussies reading this get to it and buy some products, support the sport in Australia.

Thanks for you time Ryan, its been a pleasure.

Ryan Keong Mini 2 from ryan on Vimeo.