Scott McNew, owner of One13 Suspension and Service Specialties in Redmond, Oregon, has been riding dirt bikes since he was 7 years old. Growing up in Coos Bay, Oregon, he was in the heart of the logging area and close enough to utilize the forest for riding. So, at the ripe old age of 7, Scott worked to earn the money he needed to buy his very first dirt bike: “I never got allowance…I worked as a kid pushing a lawnmower around and stuff,” until he saved up the $100 he needed to buy a 1975 XR70. According to McNew, the bike wasn’t in its prime condition: “It needed work.”
Originally supposed to be $125, that $25 McNew saved in the purchase turned into a priceless experience that would in turn shape the rest of his life.
McNew took that bike home, and it became a sport he couldn’t shake.
At the start, he rode his bike around camping with his dad in the Tillamook forest. “I grew up riding on the coast,” McNew says, “it was mostly old logging roads, hiking trails, et cetera.” Until McNew started racing in 1998, he spent his time as any beginner should: learning how to ride and learning how to work on the machine.
Between understanding the mechanics of the bike and having spent his time learning the fundamentals of riding, when McNew did start racing, he did well. His best year in racing was 2002 where he won 20 of the 22 races in the Open Expert class, and has since collected 12 OMRA championships.
In 2008, McNew took a break from racing to go to SW Community College where he studied Fire Science. He put that on hold for another 6 years while he continued racing, and then he went on to finish up his degree at Central Oregon Community College. Upon graduation, he took a few various jobs, all the while working on his own dirt bike and riding in his free time. “I’d been working on my own bikes since I was 7, and in high school I worked in a bike shop,” McNew says.
By then, working on bikes was a usual occurrence, so in 2018, McNew took the leap and started his own suspension company, One13 Suspension and Service Specialties.
With the amazing riding that Central Oregon has to offer, it’s no surprise that One13 Suspension and Service Specialties has taken off. His shop is always full of bikes, and his work is consistently getting done, but that doesn’t mean that McNew doesn’t escape every so often to get back to the sport he loves.
Since beginning this journey, he has been back to racing. That is, before COVID-19 shut down a large majority of the races throughout the nation. In his time on a bike, McNew may have learned the precision and speed it takes to get those 12 OMRA championships under his belt, but, at the end of the day, he still rides for the sheer love of the sport.
Go check him out on Instagram and Facebook @One13SSS and be sure to follow and tag @RideBeyondMoto to share your story.
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