Bill Ryan
A BMXRacingHistory.com chapter · hosted on Legend Bike Co
Bill Ryan
45 Years in BMX — From the Pit in Torrance to Founder of Supercross BMX
By Bill Ryan · Founder of Supercross BMX · 37+ years in BMX · Designer of 8× Bike of the Year race frames · Started at SE Racing, 1981
This is my own page, in my own library. I've spent this whole project writing other people's history — riders, brands, tracks, the whole record of BMX. This one is mine. SE Racing at 12, a frame I welded myself at 13, a company I lost to a name and a company I built on what was left of it, GT Bicycles, and Supercross BMX, 37 years running. Here is the whole line, straight, no polish.
The Pit, age 7
I found a spot in Torrance called the Pit before I ever knew BMX was a sport — dirt mounds and jumps and turns, more fun than I knew what to do with. Then my mom brought home a copy of BMX Action magazine and there it was: you could race this. And the guys in the pages — Donny Jones, the Emrich brothers, Scot Breithaupt — I already knew them from riding the Pit with them. It took me a month to get up the nerve to ask about racing. They pointed me to Entradero and Ascot.
The first time I rode my bike to the track I wore a borrowed football helmet and got turned away for not having the right gear. Felt like a fool. Had to learn everything from everybody else at the track from that day forward. I still think about that morning every time I write a beginner's guide.
Harbor BMX, age 10
By 10 I was taking clinics at Harbor BMX in San Pedro, taught by Hall of Famer Turnell "Tuni" Henry — the same Tuni who later owned La Palma Cycle Center, and the same shop I'd end up working out of years later. That's where BMX really took hold in me.
SE Racing, age 12
Spring of 1981 I was still riding the Pit, getting to know Scot Breithaupt — founder of SE Racing, "OM," the godfather of BMX as far as I'm concerned — along with the Emrich brothers and Donny Jones. That same spring Eddie Fiola got his first Hot Shot in BMX Action on an SE Quad with Webco mags. We were already crossing paths, at the shop and at his ramp in Lakewood.
Scot saw I was a latch-key kid who needed somewhere to go after school, and he gave me my first industry job at 12 — part-time at the SE building on Paramount Blvd, picking orders, sweeping floors, stickering frames. I worked next to Perry, Byron Friday, Kendall, Rod, Mike, and Scot himself, and watched Jeff Utterbach, Fred Blood, and Toby come through the shop regularly. Every time I asked Scot for a real sponsorship he'd tell me "just wait a little bit." I waited three years.
Cracked frames and a welding lesson, age 12-13
While I was at SE I picked up a co-sponsorship from Torker in Fullerton — not the factory team, just a discount on frames and a jersey. I was a big kid who rode hard, and I cracked three Torker frames. They eventually told me they couldn't keep replacing them.
My friend Larry Elliott's dad, Ry Elliott, owned Certified Metal Products — the shop that built the Pedalproof aluminum wheels featured in BMX Action, and welded up the chromoly and mild steel frames for Lagona Distributors. After Ry got tired of fixing my cracked Torkers, he told me: next day off, meet him at his van, 6 a.m., bring my bike. That's where I learned to miter tubes, cut compound miters, set argon percentage, run a tungsten tip. The first frame I built had no name on it. I rode it at every trail and every track I could find. It never cracked. I still have it — unrestored, original rattle-can white paint.
Hi-Tech BMX, age 13
Randy Rizzo introduced me to Voris Dixon, and we launched Hi-Tech BMX out of my bedroom at 6912 Tahiti Drive, Cypress. Twenty-five frames total, a pierced-and-cut-short seat mast, a welded-on seat post clamp, dropouts welded inside and outside for stiffness, one of the first frames anywhere pairing a 1-3/8" down tube with a 1-1/4" top tube. It ran as a new-products feature in BMX Plus! Magazine's January 1984 issue — I'd submitted it in the summer of 1983, so I designed and built that frame at 13 going on 14.
At 15 I got a phone call saying Hi-Tech would be sued over the name, and I shut it down. The design didn't die, though — it walked over to Pro Neck and became the National Pro. The full story, and how I know it holds up, is on its own page.
SE sponsorship, finally — and TECH Products, age 15
Right as Hi-Tech was shutting down, Scot Breithaupt saw it at the track and told me, "Billy, I was going to tell you on Monday that we were going to help you out." I got my blue SE Quadrangle frame and a Flow Flyer — the factory sponsorship I'd been asking for since I was 12.
That same year I started TECH Products, my first apparel company, also run out of the bedroom on Tahiti Drive. TECH Racing Pants was the lead line — it ended up supplying the Redline team, Haro, S&M, Cyclecraft, Diamond Back, and a lot of other brands through the '80s. TECH is still running today, under my guardianship.
SE goes bankrupt, GT Bicycles begins
SE eventually went bankrupt. I was in the building the day Rich Long and Gary Turner came in and bought the equipment out of the Paramount Blvd shop to start GT. On my last day at SE, the front office handed me my check and said, "Hey, you started GT on Monday. I brokered you out a job, and away you go."
I was one of the first fifteen employees at GT Bicycles, doing customer service and sales. First day, I rolled up in my SE jersey with the sleeves cut off, riding my SE Quadrangle. Gary Turner started laughing and said, "You and me, Bill, we're going to get along just fine." I want to be straight about one thing people sometimes get wrong: I was not involved in designing the GT Performer. That was Gary and Eddie Fiola, full stop. My part was loading product into Eddie's camo lifted Toyota, and later running the Robinson Division as team manager, where I managed Glenn Pavlosky — who'd go on to ride for me again a few years later.
La Palma Cycle Center and Brackens Bikes
I left GT when Rich Long capped warranty frames at 200 for the year and we hit the cap early. I went to work for Tuni Henry at his La Palma Cycle Center — the same Tuni who'd taught me to ride at Harbor BMX at age 10. While I was there, Tommy Brackens and I designed and started his own brand, Brackens Bikes. I hand-drew the graphics myself with Letraset and halftone type on a drafting table. That's also where I met Brian "Bogi" Givens. The fork dropouts from that Brackens frame later carried straight into the first Supercross frame — a piece of design heritage I kept.
Power Plus Cycles and the Vans team
I opened my own shop, Power Plus Cycles, in Stanton, not far from Eddie's Lakewood neighborhood or GT's Huntington Beach shop. TECH Racing Pants ran out of Power Plus. I also ran the Vans Freestyle Promotion Team for Eddie Fiola, my roommate Todd Anderson, and Danny Hubbard — the ramp and truck lived at my house and parked out front of the shop.
The Assassin, and the frame that taught me a lesson
When SE tried to restart in the mid-'80s, I designed the SE Assassin for them — one of the first straight-tube race frames, built around Quadrangle dropouts and rear stays. Billy Harrison rode the prototype and loved it. I asked SE to build Assassins for the whole TECH Racing Team. They couldn't do it. That's what pushed me to build the frames myself.
Between Brackens and Supercross I also built a personal frame — just for me, not a product. Twin down tubes borrowed from Pete Loncarevich's LRPs and TWWs. It taught me the twin-down-tube design flexed too much once a frame got stretched out long. That lesson went straight into the frame I designed two years later.
Founding Supercross BMX, 1989
With SE unable to keep the TECH Racing Team supplied — Billy Harrison, Brian Lopes, Glenn Pavlosky, Brian "Bogi" Givens, Kiyomi Waller — I built my own frame and launched Supercross BMX. I hadn't planned to start a company. I was watching my riders do gate starts out back — Pete Loncarevich, Eric Carter, Kiyomi Waller, Billy Griggs — and seeing the rear triangles flex and the chains droop on every launch. I'm a Ducati fan, so I pulled from motorcycle engineering: lowered the seat stays, added secondary seat stays welded at the bend point, ran a 1-3/8" down tube with a 1-1/4" top tube. Brian Lopes turned pro that same year on that frame. The full story of the company is on its own page.
Editorial career
Alongside the businesses I spent years on the writing side of BMX. I was BMX Plus! Magazine's Technical Editor in the mid-1980s, wrote the Workshop column at GO Magazine, and took one-off assignments from Dave House at Super BMX for whatever the issue's budget allowed. In 1996 I ran the BMX section of Schwinn's 100th Anniversary Catalog, produced by the same publisher — but under the byline "Ryan William," my name reversed, because the publisher didn't want Schwinn to know another BMX company owner had written their history. Every other byline I've ever run under is my own name.
Leeworld, Balance Bikes, and building Supercross for the long run
After Power Plus closed I took the Sales and Marketing Manager job at Leeworld, running Supercross on the side. Then I left to help Harry Leary start Balance Bikes for Ming Ta Supply, running the West Coast as Sales Manager, still building Supercross nights and weekends. It didn't have the legs yet to support a growing family. Thirty-seven years later, it's the flagship of everything I do.
Legend Bike Co and today
These days I run Supercross BMX, Torker Racing, Speedline Parts, TECH BMX Products, and a handful of other brands, and I co-founded Legend Bike Co with Eddie Fiola and Pete Loncarevich — the same two guys I've been crossing paths with since Lakewood and the Vans team. This site is part of that project: putting the real record of BMX down in one place before it gets lost. It stays a family business — my sons are part of it too, same as the shop always has been.
Frequently asked questions
Did Bill Ryan help design the GT Performer?
No. That was Gary Turner and Eddie Fiola. Bill's role at GT Bicycles was customer service and sales, and later team manager of the Robinson Division.
What frame brands has Bill Ryan founded or designed for?
Hi-Tech BMX (1982-1984, his own bedroom-run brand), the SE Assassin (designed for SE Racing), and Supercross BMX (founded 1989, still running). Eight of Supercross's race frames have been named USA BMX Bike of the Year.
Why is Bill Ryan credited as "Ryan William" on the 1996 Schwinn centennial catalog?
Challenge Publications produced Schwinn's 100th Anniversary Catalog and hired Bill to run the BMX section, but ran his name reversed — "Ryan William" — because the publisher didn't want Schwinn to know a competing BMX company owner had written their brand history. It's the only place that byline was ever used.
What is Bill Ryan's connection to Supercross BMX and Legend Bike Co?
He founded Supercross BMX in 1989 and still owns and runs it today. He also co-founded Legend Bike Co with Eddie Fiola and Pete Loncarevich.
Where did Bill Ryan get his start in the BMX industry?
At SE Racing in 1981, at age 12, sponsored by Scot Breithaupt after Scot saw he needed somewhere to go after school.
Sources
Primary source: Bill Ryan's own first-hand account, drawn from his published BMX origin story and editorial record. Corroborating: BMX Plus! Magazine, January 1984 issue, new-products feature on the Hi-Tech frame (scan preserved at 15.ie); the Voris Dixon / Snakebite BMX interview on the Hi-Tech-to-National-Pro lineage; the TECH BMX Pants and Hi-Tech BMX chapters on this site; Torker Racing's Max BMX collection page, which independently records the TECH Racing Pants launch. Supporting interviews: bmxultra.com, 15.ie.
About this page. This is a chapter of the forthcoming BMXRacingHistory.com, hosted on Legend Bike Co as a placeholder. See also: Supercross BMX — 37 years of race frames, The History of BMX, Hi-Tech BMX, TECH BMX Pants, SE Racing, GT Bicycles, Robinson Racing, Torker, Eddie Fiola, Pete Loncarevich, Tommy Brackens, Todd Anderson, Vans, Brian Lopes, Brian "Bogi" Givens, Billy Griggs, BMX Plus!, GO Magazine, Super BMX, Entradero BMX, Ascot BMX, Scot Breithaupt.