Larry Smith, owner of The Bicycle Shoppe in Shawnee, poses by the bicycle he designed in memory of BMX racer Rodney Cooper for Cooper’s sister Cindy Parsons. Cooper and Parsons will be inducted into the Oklahoma BMX Hall of Fame, in Tulsa, on Oct. 12. Smith was inducted in 2022 in the Industry category. Countywide & Sun/Natasha Dunagan
Growing up in Shawnee during World War II, Larry Smith’s first bicycle was his mother’s step-through, which she didn’t like. He began riding when he was five or six and said everyone rode bikes around town back then.
Smith opened The Bicycle Shoppe near Oklahoma Baptist University in 1972, and in 1973, he moved his business to the historic Sunshine Grocery building at 701 N. Beard Ave.
