O'Neal MX - since 1970
"That old fridge was meant to keep my beers cold and my ice cubed. In 1969 I put 3 stickers on it: CZ, Castrol and Bell, my 3 main sponsors. When the guys in the office insisted on displaying my old fridge in the center of our lobby last year, I just didnīt get it...
I started our company in 1970. I was in my early 20's and racing motorcycles was all I cared about. It was easy enough to call the company Jim O'Neal Distributing. It started with my family and I selling product out of my gerage in Reseda, California. My weeks were soon filled with endless days on the road in my van selling product from shop to shop throughout the west. My weekends were consumed with racing those same products against some of the fastest riders in the world, and that's what I lived for. We worked hard to make those products better and of course the goal was to always get bigger and go faster then the rest of 'em.
Things have grown a lot since then and in many ways things are exactly as they were 40 years ago. The business has grown tremendously, and I still can't get enough time in the saddle. I've made myself a family and a lot of friends along the way, and I still love to help our crew design and test the absolute best possible products. After all, it's what I've done for my entire lief.
...that old fridge is covered with hundreds of stickers now that contain the logos of products we distributeed and raced with over the past 40 years. It's funny how an old ice box can be worth so little yet mean so much. I guess I'm lucky...
Our fridge holds a lot more than just cold beer."
Enjoy the ride.
Jim O'NEAL
