We love racing. No bull.
When Big Shark Bicycle Company first opened in 1993, owner Mike Weiss (a.k.a. The Hebrew Hammer) had just gotten into racing. The shop at the time didn’t actually have a team when it first started selling bicycles.
A couple of years in, Big Shark actually “adopted” the team that was affiliated with The Touring Cyclist in St. Louis. During that time, a very important bicycle distributor in St. Louis, Riteway Products, supplied GT and Schwinn bicycles, as well as components. Their representative to Big Shark, Kevin Buckley, helped the shop when the fledgling team first started. He was a Cat 4 who got Mike into racing and eventually brought the St. Louis Rockits Racing team into the fold to create what is now known as Big Shark Racing. With a first truly organized effort at the shop, the team dazzled in a red/green/white pizza delivery guy look.
Vintage Rockits Racing via Jim Klages
It was an era that every bike shop had a team, and since, many have disbanded or separated from the shops they were affiliated. Today, many teams align to community, culture, and friendships in in St. Louis. As Big Shar Racing grew, Mike recognized that one team didn’t necessarily have all of the answers for reach rider and racer type, so Big Shark Bicycle Company embraced supporting as many teams as it could.
Big Shark Racing has seen a wide range of pro and world tour cyclists join our roster. The big hitters in the day were Jeff Rasch, Jeff Gold, Russ Murphy, Igor Volshteyn, Kurt Fletcher, Chris Martel, Eric Martin, Eric Pirtle, Mike Murray, Chuck Coyle, Lonnie Kennedy, and a few others. Joe Hill was incredible. Some of the best riders from that era still are around and ride with us today: Chris Harre, Terry Keenan, and Chris Hulse, to name a few. Women including Liz Heller, Stacy Bragg, and Amy Strahan have had amazing racing careers with Big Shark Racing over the years.
Dan Schmatz raced for our team, and worked at Big Shark, but was also the Sprinter for Health Net, 7 Up, and BMC. He has won Athens and other big US races. At one point we had Scott Moninger, Dan Schmatz, Colby Pearce (from Garmin) and a few other ex-pro’s on our team that brought us a victory at Gateway Cup that year.
Today, we enjoy a large contingent of teammates across our Elite, Racing, Tri, Club, and Little Sharks segments. Our Domestic Elite Team is Big Shark Racing’s third iteration of an Elite team. We’ve had teams compete at the Nature Valley Grand Prix, Joe Martin, and the Tour de ‘Toona. Another women’s team joined our ranks when Hannah Schell, Ashley Weaver, and a few others raced for Big Shark Racing.
It’s been an amazing 30 years of Big Shark Racing.
