Billy "Mr. Bill" Griggs

"Mr. Bill" · born September 16, 1968 · two-time 1984 amateur World Champion · 2013 National BMX Hall of Fame

A BMXRacingHistory.com preview · hosted on Legend Bike Co

At a glance

Born: September 16, 1968, Anaheim, California (full name: William Luther Griggs)
Nickname: "Mr. Bill"
Major titles: 1982 ABA California District 14 No.1 (20-inch and Cruiser) · 1983 ABA 15 Expert National No.1 · 1984 NBL 15 Cruiser National No.1 · 1984 USBA 7-UP 15-16 Cruiser World Champion · 1984 IBMXF Murray World Cup III 15 Cruiser Champion · 1985 ABA CA-14 16 Expert Winter Season District Age Group No.1 · 1988 ABA Yamaha Supercup Pro Champion · 1990 ABA National No.2 Pro
Active years: 1981-1996. Turned pro Feb 1987 on Redline. Retired from full-time AA Pro racing July 1995.
Hall of Fame: National BMX Hall of Fame (Racer category), inducted 2013

Here is the thing about Billy Griggs. Most riders get one chapter. He got three, and they all hold up. Top amateur in the early-1980s SoCal scene. A steady AA Pro through the late 80s and into the 90s. And then, when the racing was over, the welder behind some of the most important race frames anybody built in the 2000s. He made 140 AA Pro mains. He made every Grands main from 1987 through 1993. Then he went and built the bikes the next generation of pros would race.

BS Bikes and the Brian Scura Years: 1981-1982

Griggs started racing on January 21, 1981. Twelve years old. His first national result was a third in 12 Beginner, and his first sponsor was BS Bikes — Brian Scura's brand, run out of Santa Ana. Scura was mentoring a crew of young Anaheim and Orange County amateurs back then, and Griggs was on the list from day one. He stayed through 1982. That same year he also took the ABA California District 14 No.1 in both 20-inch and Cruiser as an amateur.

Griggs was also a two-time honoree in the BMX press before he ever turned pro. A 1984 survey of four prominent BMX figures — racers Brent Romero and Mike Poulson, plus team officials Dr. Gary Scofield of GT and Howard Wharthon of Diamond Back — ran him as the sixth of BMX Plus!'s "25 Hottest Amateurs." That same year, Super BMX & Freestyle named him one of eight top amateur "Pros of the Future" alongside Eric Carter, Mike King, Doug Davis, Matt Hadan, Brent Romero, Darwin Griffin, and Brad Birdwell. BMX Action followed in 1986 by naming him to its "Terrible Ten" — the magazine's list of top amateurs about to turn pro.

CW Racing: May 1982-December 1983

Griggs joined CW Racing in May 1982 and stayed nineteen months. CW — Custom Works — was about as strong an amateur and pro program as California had at the time. In 1983 he grabbed the ABA 15 Expert National No.1 ranking and finished National No.2 Amateur Overall behind Doug Davis. Same year, he won the 14-15 Cruiser class at the non-sanctioned Jag BMX World Super Bowl.

The Schwinn Detour and the Voris Dixon Frame: January-June 1984

Griggs signed with Schwinn in January 1984. The deal lasted about six months, and it produced one of the better behind-the-scenes stories of the era — plus a thread that runs straight into my own history.

In Super BMX & Freestyle, February 1985, Griggs laid out why the Schwinn-built bikes never worked for him. His words: "The bike I had was made by Voris Dixon ... it said Schwinn, but that's as far as it went. I had to put Schwinn stickers on it because I had to fool everyone with it."

Now, that Voris Dixon is the same Voris Dixon who co-founded Hi-Tech BMX with me back in 1982 — my first frame brand, built out of my bedroom when I was 13. So the Schwinn-stickered frame Griggs was racing in early 1984 came out of a Voris Dixon shop that was, at that very same moment, building Hi-Tech frames with me. Small world. It always was in BMX.

Mongoose and the Two 1984 World Titles: June 1984-September 1985

Mongoose picked up Griggs on June 24, 1984. What followed was the best single stretch of his amateur career — NBL 15 Cruiser National No.1, the 15-16 Cruiser class at the 1984 USBA 7-UP World Championship, and the 15 Cruiser class at the IBMXF Murray World Cup III. Two World titles in one year, and he was still a 15-and-under amateur doing it.

He was also pulling a paycheck as a BMX Plus! test rider through that whole period, a gig that ran from July 1984 all the way to June 1992.

The 1985 season brought a setback: Griggs separated his shoulder in a practice run before the pre-race at the ABA Land of Lincoln Nationals in Springfield, Illinois, on April 27, 1985. He was laid up roughly seven weeks, missing races into mid-June before returning at the NBL/IBMXF Murray World Cup in Nashville, Tennessee. He still closed out the year ranked CA-14 District Age Group No.1 for the 16 Expert Winter Season.

SE Racing, Long Beach, mid-1980s — A First-Hand Note from Me

I was inside the SE Racing building from 1981 forward, and I remember Griggs in the regular gate-start crew that practiced behind the SE warehouse in Long Beach during the restart era. He was just part of the furniture out there.

When I think back on how the first Supercross frame came to be: I was watching my riders do gate starts out back — Pete Loncarevich, Eric Carter, Kiyomi Waller, Billy Griggs — and I kept seeing the rear triangles flex and the chains droop on every single launch. That is what pushed me to lower the seat stays on the prototype Supercross frame. Griggs wasn't contracted to SE. Redline paid his bills. The SE connection here is informal practice-track history, nothing more — but I was there, and he was there.

Redline, Turning Pro, and the AA Years: September 1985-December 1990

Redline Engineering signed Griggs on September 2, 1985. He stayed five and a half years — the longest single tenure of his career — and he turned pro on the team. His first pro race was the 1987 ABA Winter Nationals on February 14, 1987, where he took fourth in "A" Pro. He won the next day. First pro victory, US$680 in his pocket.

In 1988 he won the ABA Yamaha Supercup Pro series — the prize was a Yamaha 350 "Big Wheel" off-road motorcycle. In 1989 he finished NBL National No.3 Pro. In 1990 he won the ABA "Pros in Paradise" series and closed the ABA season at National No.2 Pro.

Haro, Iron Horse, and the Final Lap: 1990-1995

Griggs signed with Haro Designs/Cycles on December 21, 1990. He stayed at Haro through December 1992, moved to Iron Horse for 1992-1993, then came back to Haro Bicycles for 1994 and most of 1995. He retired from full-time AA Pro racing in July 1995. The final tally: 140 AA Pro mains, an average national ranking of 12.7, three top-3 rankings.

The Shimano Return: November 1997-September 1998

Griggs came back for one more sponsored stretch before moving into frame-building full time, riding for Shimano from November 1997 to September 1998. It's a short, lightly documented chapter compared to the Redline and Haro years, but it's the bridge between his 1995 retirement from full-time AA Pro racing and the GT Bicycles R&D job that defined the rest of his BMX career.

GT Bicycles R&D and the Ultra Box: 1999-2001

Griggs joined GT Bicycles in product development in January 1999. The lasting work from that stretch was the GT Ultra Box race frame, which he developed alongside Gary Turner. And here is the part that still gets me. Per USA BMX's 2013 Hall of Fame announcement, the custom GT frames Mike Day (silver) and Jill Kintner (bronze) raced at the 2008 Beijing Olympics — the first BMX Olympic podium in history — were welded by Billy Griggs.

Hall of Fame: 2013

The National BMX Hall of Fame inducted Griggs as the 2013 Racer Category selection. He went in alongside Pioneer Racer Rob Fehd, Industry inductee George Esser, Freestyler Ron Wilkerson, and Woman inductee Leigh Donovan. The ceremony was held September 28, 2013, at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California.

Legacy

Griggs sits in a slightly different spot than the World Pro Champions or the brand-defining ad-campaign guys. He won World titles as an amateur, but never as a pro. The Hall of Fame case for him was built on durability — 140 mains, every Grands main from 1987 through 1993 — and on the build-side work that put Griggs-welded GT frames on the 2008 Olympic podium under Mike Day and Jill Kintner. From BS Bikes in 1981 to Beijing in 2008. On a bike and at the welding table both. That is a rare kind of career.

Sources

Wikipedia, "Billy Griggs." USA BMX, "BMX Hall of Fame's Class of 2013 Announced," June 14, 2013. BMX Museum, Billy "The Kid" Griggs rider page. Super BMX & Freestyle, "Mr. Bill," February 1985, Vol. 12 No. 2, page 16. BMX Plus! "Trading Places: Mikey King and Billy Griggs tell all!" June 1991. BMX Plus! November 1984 Vol.7 No.11 pg.48 ("25 Hottest Amateurs" survey). Super BMX Magazine April 1986 Vol.13 No.4 pg.43 ("Pros of the Future"). BMX Action May 1986 Vol.11 No.5 pg.72 ("Terrible Ten"). BMX Plus! August 1985 Vol.8 No.8 pg.12 and BMX Action August/October 1985 (1985 shoulder injury, Land of Lincoln Nationals). Bill Ryan, founder of Supercross BMX (first-hand recollection of SE Racing Long Beach restart-era practice sessions). Period magazine covers verified via oldschoolmags.com.

Related

Riders: Scot Breithaupt, Eddie Fiola, Perry Kramer, Pete Loncarevich, Clint Miller, Jeff Bottema, Damian Fulton, Matt Hadan, Darwin Griffin, Brian Bogi Givens, Eric Carter, Brent Romero. Brands: History of BMX, SE Racing, CW Racing, GT Bicycles, Redline, Haro, Mongoose, Schwinn, Hi-Tech BMX, Voris Dixon, Brian Scura / BS Bikeworks. Sanctions: BUMS, NBA, NBL, ABA, IBMXF, USA BMX.