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Bassett Bikes

Mike Redman's First BMX Company — a one-year run in 1985

By Bill Ryan · Founder of Supercross BMX · 37+ years in BMX · Started at SE Racing, 1981

Bassett under Mike Redman is a one-year chapter, but it is the start of one of the most influential careers in modern BMX. In early 1985 Mike Redman licensed the Bassett family name from Doug Bassett, ran a real factory team for a few months in spring and early summer, and shut the doors when the insurance bill came due. He went straight from there to MRC, then to Redman Bikes, and eventually to Grand Prix BMX in Lake Perris. The Bassett year is where it all began.

Before Mike Redman: the original Bassett

Bassett did not start as a BMX company. It started in the late 1970s as a side product line off the Bassett family's Southern California metal-shop and boat-headers business. The story repeated on bmxmuseum.com from period accounts is that the original Bassett wanted a BMX bike to ride around the pits at the boat races, so the shop built one. The first frame, a 26-inch Star Cruiser, shipped in 1978 to 1979. From there the line grew to include a 20-inch Turbo (later renamed the Pro), a 20-inch Swooper, and a 24-inch mini cruiser.

The brand was a Bassett family operation through the early 1980s. Doug Bassett, one of the Bassett brothers, was the family member who carried the brand into the BMX side of the boat-headers shop and who later, in 1985, licensed the family name to Mike Redman. The Bassett family kept the name; Mike took the brand into the factory-team era for one season.

The original Bassett era also touched the early test-bike press. The 1982 Super BMX magazine Bassett product test, with Denny Davidow as the test rider, sits in the period record from the original Bassett family era — the same Denny who would, three years later, end his pro career on Mike Redman's version of the same brand. We touch the 1982 test in the Rebel Racing chapter.

1985: Mike Redman licenses the Bassett name from Doug Bassett

By the early 1980s Mike Redman was already a known quantity in Southern California BMX — a racer with a face people recognized at the tracks and a head full of plans. In early 1985 he made his first move as an owner: he licensed the Bassett family name from Doug Bassett. It was his first BMX company. 1985 was the only year Mike Redman ran Bassett.

The model under Redman was small and direct. He ran the brand, rode for the brand, and put together a factory team built around the riders he had relationships with from the racing side. The plan was the same plan every small American BMX brand in 1985 was running on: build frames the team raced on, get the brand into the magazines through the team's results, sell what the team built demand for.

The factory team

The Bassett factory team under Mike Redman in 1985 was four riders, per Bill Ryan's first-hand recollection of the period:

• Denny Davidow rode for Bassett during the Redman year. Bassett was Denny's final pro sponsor before he stepped away from racing. His career, including the corrected full sponsor chain ending on Mike Redman's Bassett, is covered on his own page on this site.
• Shawn Texas was on Bassett in early April 1985 through early July 1985, per his Wikipedia career-sponsor entry, which is sourced to period BMX press. His post-Bassett career ran Bassett → CW Racing → National Pro → White Bear — with the White Bear signature T-Bone frame and fork set arriving from May 1988 to March 1989. Texas had taken the 1984 7-UP World Championship Unlimited Pro title before the Bassett ride; the 1986 NBL Pro Cruiser Murray World Cup and the 1987 NBL Pro Cruiser Grandnational came after.
• Dave Cullinan was on the Bassett team in the Redman year. From Bassett, Cullinan moved to Factory Kuwahara, and from there into mountain biking, eventually taking the 1992 UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Championship. The Bassett line is the earliest factory-team chapter in a career that crossed the BMX-to-MTB bridge as cleanly as anyone in the sport.
• Mike Redman himself, riding for his own brand — the working-owner setup that he carried through every BMX company he later ran.

The insurance bill that ended the chapter

Bassett under Mike Redman ran for the one calendar year of 1985 start to finish, and most of the visible factory-team activity is compressed into the spring and early summer. The reason it ended is the same reason a lot of small, owner-run American BMX brands ended in this era: the liability insurance bill came due, and the company could not carry it.

Bill Ryan, who knew Mike Redman through this period, has been direct on what happened: Mike couldn't afford the insurance, and that was the end of the company. The Wikipedia entry on Shawn Texas, sourced to period BMX magazine coverage, lines up with that timeline almost to the week — Texas's Bassett sponsorship ends in early July 1985, and he is recorded as “unsponsored for almost the entire summer of 1985 after Bassett went out of business.” Two independent accounts, same answer.

It is worth being clear about the scale of what shut down. Bassett under Redman was not a Redline or a GT in 1985. It was a small Southern California race-team brand with a working owner, a handful of factory riders, and an insurance exposure that did not match the cash on hand. When the policy renewal came in, the math did not work. The company wound down rather than over-extend.

From Bassett straight into MRC

Mike Redman did not stay out of the game for long. By early 1986 he had MRC — Mike Redman Concepts — standing up as his second BMX company. The first public mark MRC put on the sport is in the period record: MRC was the title sponsor of the YMCA BMX Pro Series, four consecutive Wednesday-night pro races held at the Orange YMCA BMX track in Orange, California, in February and March 1986. Shawn Texas, the same rider who had been on Bassett the previous spring, won the series.

MRC opened the door to everything Mike Redman became known for over the next four decades. The Redman Factory program that grew out of MRC put riders like Pete Loncarevich, Eric Carter, and John Whipperman through its ranks. The 2001 Redman/Yamaha WaveRunner team, co-run with his longtime friend Richard Huvard, took back-to-back ABA World Champion and National Number-One Factory team titles. Redman Bikes followed as his third frame company. He operated Grand Prix BMX in Lake Perris, California. He announced the gate cadence on what became the default starter audio at BMX tracks around the world. He was inducted into the BMX Hall of Fame in 2023. Mike Redman passed away in June 2023.

None of that happens without the Bassett year. The Bassett year is where Mike Redman first sat in the owner's chair, first ran a factory team, first put his name on a frame deal, first ate an insurance bill he could not pay. The lessons came forward into MRC and into everything after.

What Bassett under Redman left behind

The frame production from the Redman year is not large, and surviving examples are scarce in the way short-run, owner-operator BMX frames from that period tend to be. The legacy is in the people more than the units shipped.

For Denny Davidow, Bassett under Mike Redman was the last factory ride of a pro career that had run through Skyway and Delta Racing Products back to the late 1970s. For Shawn Texas, Bassett was the launch of the chain that ran through CW Racing, National Pro, and the 1989 White Bear T-Bone signature frame and fork set. For Dave Cullinan, Bassett was the first factory chapter of a career that crossed the BMX-to-mountain-bike bridge and ended with a UCI World Championship rainbow jersey. For Mike Redman, Bassett was the founding chapter of a forty-year run as an owner, team manager, frame builder, track operator, trainer, and the single most recognizable voice on a BMX starting gate.

Open questions

For honesty's sake, here is what we have not been able to nail down on Bassett under Mike Redman:

• The exact licensing-deal terms and date in early 1985 between Mike Redman and Doug Bassett.
• The full team roster beyond the four named riders (Davidow, Texas, Cullinan, Redman). If the team carried additional regional or amateur racers, those names have not surfaced in the public record.
• The exact final date of the Bassett wind-down in summer 1985 and the formal MRC stand-up date in late 1985 or early 1986.
• Period magazine ad scans from the Redman year — Bassett ads in BMX Action, BMX Plus!, and Super BMX from spring 1985 would close a lot of the open questions on the model line and team at once.

If you raced for Bassett in 1985, worked for Mike Redman in the Bassett year, or have a spring 1985 Bassett ad in a magazine in a box somewhere, we would like to hear from you.

Sources

Bill Ryan, founder of Supercross BMX, primary source on the Mike Redman Bassett year — the 1985 licensing of the family name from Doug Bassett, the one-year run, the liability-insurance wind-down, and the four-rider factory team (Davidow, Texas, Cullinan, Redman). Wikipedia, "Shawn Texas" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Texas), career-sponsor section sourced from period BMX press including BMX Plus! October 1986 Vol.9 No.10 and BMX Action coverage of the era — confirms the Bassett April-July 1985 window, the post-Bassett summer 1985 unsponsored gap, the CW Racing chapter, and the May 1988 to March 1989 White Bear signature run. Same Wikipedia entry on the YMCA Pro Series: "The YMCA BMX Pro Series Championship was a private four race pro series held at the Orange YMCA BMX race track in Orange, California on four consecutive Wednesdays in February and March 1986. It was sponsored by MRC, Mike Redman Concepts." Source for the YMCA Series item: BMX Plus! June 1986 Vol.9 No.6 pg.11. BMXmuseum.com brand page for Bassett Racing (bmxmuseum.com/bikes/bassett_racing) — period frame examples and model-line names: 26-inch Star Cruiser 1978-1979, 20-inch Turbo / Pro, 20-inch Swooper, 24-inch mini. BMXmuseum.com forum threads on Bassett Racing history and team riders — period accounts of the Bassett family's metal-shop and boat-headers business and the Star Cruiser launch. BMX News, "Remembering Mike Redman" by Mike Carruth, June 23, 2023 (bmxnews.com/2023/06/23/remembering-mike-redman) — primary obituary text including the Richard Huvard tribute message, MRC and Redman Bikes career arc, Grand Prix BMX, the BMX-track gate-cadence audio. USA BMX Mike Redman tribute photo set. Wikipedia, "Dave Cullinan" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Cullinan) — BMX-to-MTB career arc, Factory Kuwahara BMX ride, 1992 UCI MTB Downhill World Championship; the Bassett line per Bill Ryan's recollection. Cross-references on this site: Denny Davidow for the full Davidow career and the Bassett final-ride detail. White Bear for the Shawn Texas signature T-Bone frame and the post-Bassett Texas timeline. Rebel Racing for the 1982 Super BMX Bassett product test reference from the original-owner era. Hi-Tech BMX for the Pro Neck / National Pro design lineage that intersects Shawn Texas's post-CW chapter.

About this page. See also: The History of BMX, SE Racing, Denny Davidow, White Bear, Rebel Racing, Robinson Racing, LRV, CW Racing, DiamondBack, Centurion Cycles, GT, Haro, Hoffman Bikes, Hutch, JMC, Mongoose, Redline, Schwinn, Skyway, S&M Bikes, Torker, Webco, TW BMX, CRD, Bottema Forks, Hustler, Voris Dixon Bikes, Hyper Bikes, Hi-Tech BMX, Panda Racing Products, Free Agent, Titan BMX, Brian Scura / BS Bikeworks, S&S Performance, Eddy King. Sanctions: BUMS, NBA, NBL, ABA, IBMXF, USA BMX. Riders: Scot Breithaupt, Eddie Fiola, Greg Hill, Mike Miranda, Perry Kramer, Pete Loncarevich, R.L. Osborn, Stu Thomsen, Todd Anderson, Tommy Brackens, Clint Miller, Jeff Bottema, Damian Fulton, Billy Griggs, Darwin Griffin, Brian "Bogi" Givens, Todd Steen, Martin Aparijo, Matt Hadan, Eddy King.

→ Related chapter: Denny Davidow — whose final pro ride was the Bassett year