♪♪ Let's go!

♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] So, a minibike basically has a pull start motor on it, so you have to pull it to start it.

(minibike engine) [Ryan Kenes] They have big, fat tires on them usually.

The fat tires are good for mud and stuff.

Like this one behind me, I can pretty much take it anywhere really.

Some of them are like older frames that they made back in the '70s and '80s.

Some are worth a lot of money and some are just like you can get for cheap, just to build something quick.

It gets crazy after a while.

You can spend a lot of money on one.

(minibikes revving) And they're off!

(minibike engine) (drill sound) ♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] I started skating when I was a little kid, probably seven years old.

I know it sounds weird, but we would go to church and on the way to church there was this street where a bunch of guys were always skateboarding and they had ramps set up.

Tighter than a banjo string.

[Ryan Kenes] And they gave me a board.

And then I had my first pro board and put it together and just started skating from then.

(sander sounds) [Ryan Kenes] I'm just going to make some more space in between the torque converter and the mounting plate, just because the chain is a little close on the back plate.

♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] Minibikes came into the picture probably like seven years ago.

Yeah, I got one, I bought it like an hour from here, it was like in a fire, cleaned it all up, painted it, made a new seat, put a predator 212 in it and then just took off from there.

There we go.

[Ryan Kenes] I built a few minibikes, some go karts, a little trike is still in the smoker right now, a few motorcycles and just some odds and ends stuff here.

I'm more of if I see it, I can pretty much do it I feel like.

[Ryan Kenes] A lot of people like to get into them because it's not really too crazy to work on.

You found a frame and put a motor in it and found parts for it you can probably spend about $400 or $500.

♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] So, this is called Helter Shelter.

It is an indoor private skate park.

It's just a big building where I have my shop and some concerts, some art shows, some minibike racing.

Some things happened and I started having my own race series and lots of people riding minibikes, building them for people and getting more people into it.

♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] But there's like ten of us that helped build that park out there.

We built every single one that we've had.

♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] Nothing's too crazy here but we just have like a few corners that are a little tricky.

I like jumps and grown up riding these and stuff all the time, it just makes it so much funner and there's corners, there's different turns, you've got sweeper corners.

You don't need to have all this stuff, but it just makes it look more like a racetrack.

I just like to make it look cool.

This is an old 1969 Little Indian minibike.

Pull start my heart.

(minibike engine) ♪♪ We're here for the Helter Shelter's 5th year anniversary and also Flyin' Ryan's birthday.

♪♪ [Kiera King] We have skateboarding contests.

I believe there's something going on with the grinding situation over there where if you make it all you get half of the grinding pole.

And then we have a big minibike race coming up.

♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] It's pretty much like an all-day deal basically.

Here we go!

(minibike engines) [Ryan Kenes] You've got kids class, stock class, fat tire class, like the pro class.

I've got 60-year-old people that race 'em.

Actually, the class that is fun to watch, the women's class.

We're getting so many more women, like they're battling just as hard as the guys are.

♪♪ [Kiera King] I would say that that's new, not feeling too hot about that thing right there.

I usually fall over here a lot.

I'm pretty sure those are two Christmas trees.

I'm not going to lie.

They look pretty fake to me.

But for the most part, it should be fun.

♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] Sometimes bumpin' is racin'.

You know what I'm saying.

So, like, you can throw an elbow in there, maybe a foot, or if you can nudge them out of the corner or something like that.

Then yeah, it's all fun.

♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] Everybody is just so happy.

You can be out there battling but as soon as the race is over, you're back to being friends.

It's nothing crazy.

[Kiera King] Yeah, I think it's a good scene right now.

It's always fun with the minibike crew.

We always have a fun time.

We laugh.

We're a big family.

♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] I just like to see people happy, have a good time.

Someone who hasn't seen it and they're seeing it for the first time, the look on their face, or they come up and talk to you about it.

Everybody is just happy, running around, just talkin', racin', chillin'.

I like to race and I get pretty competitive, I'll tell you that.

All right, let's get all the minibikes up there.

[Ryan Kenes] But right now it's just been basically like announcing a lot of the events.

He opened up a big gap.

[Ryan Kenes] Get the crowd going and just have a good time and get more people to come back out next time.

♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] We'll get people that will talk about it.

They'll be like man, I really want to come out and check out one of these races.

I need to get a bike.

I keep watching you guys have all this fun and man, it's like, yeah, anybody can do it.

Just get one and come out and have fun.

Most people ride it and they're like hooked.

♪♪ [Ryan Kenes] It's like, it's big everywhere.

It's really big in California and Florida but they do mostly drag racing is what they're really big into.

You've got people that like to collect them, you've got people that like to build them up and rip 'em.

But here in Iowa we're just trying to get it going, get it even better and bigger and it's growing every day.

♪♪