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: 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 · 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

Billy Griggs is one of a small group of riders whose career arc reads cleanly across three decades — top amateur in the early 1980s SoCal scene, consistent AA Pro through the late 80s and early 90s, and welder behind some of the most important race frames of the 2000s. He made 140 AA Pro mains, made every Grands main from 1987 through 1993, and after the racing was done, kept building the bikes the next generation of pros raced.

BS Bikes and the Brian Scura Years: 1981-1982

Griggs started racing on January 21, 1981, at twelve years old. His first national result was third in 12 Beginner. His first sponsor was BS Bikes — Brian Scura's brand, run out of Santa Ana, California. Scura was mentoring a group of young Anaheim and Orange County amateurs at the time, and Griggs was on that list from the beginning. He stayed with BS Bikes through 1982. In 1982 he also won the ABA California District 14 No.1 in both 20-inch and Cruiser as an amateur.

CW Racing: May 1982-December 1983

Griggs joined CW Racing in May 1982 and stayed nineteen months. CW — Custom Works — was at that point one of the strongest amateur and pro programs in California. In 1983 he took the ABA 15 Expert National No.1 ranking and finished National No.2 Amateur Overall behind Doug Davis. The 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 produced one of the more memorable behind-the-scenes stories of the era — plus a direct connection to Bill Ryan's own backstory.

In Super BMX & Freestyle, February 1985, Griggs explained why the Schwinn-built bikes did not work for him. In his own 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."

Voris Dixon is the same Voris Dixon who co-founded Hi-Tech BMX with Bill Ryan in 1982 — Bill's first frame brand, built out of his bedroom at 13. So the Schwinn-stickered frame Griggs was racing in early 1984 came out of a Voris Dixon shop that was, at the same time, building Hi-Tech frames with Bill.

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

Mongoose picked up Griggs on June 24, 1984. The remainder of that year turned into the strongest 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 the same year as a 15-and-under amateur.

Through that period he was also a paid BMX Plus! test rider, a role that ran from July 1984 through June 1992.

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

Bill Ryan — founder of SE Racing's spiritual successor Supercross BMX, who was inside the SE building from 1981 forward — remembers Griggs in the regular gate-start crew that practiced behind the SE warehouse in Long Beach during the restart era.

In Bill's account of how the first Supercross frame came to exist: "Bill was watching his riders do gate starts out back — Pete Longerich, Eric Carter, Kiyomi Waller, Billy Griggs — and seeing the rear triangles flex and the chains droop on every launch." That observation is what pushed Bill to lower the seat stays on the prototype Supercross frame. Griggs was not contracted to SE — Redline paid his bills. The SE connection here is informal practice-track history.

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 turned pro on the team. His first pro race was the 1987 ABA Winter Nationals on February 14, 1987 (fourth place in "A" Pro). He won the next day, taking US$680 for his first pro victory.

In 1988 he won the ABA Yamaha Supercup Pro series. In 1989 he finished NBL National No.3 Pro. In 1990 he won the ABA "Pros in Paradise" series and finished 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, and returned to Haro Bicycles for 1994 and most of 1995. He retired from full-time AA Pro racing in July 1995. 140 AA Pro mains, average national ranking of 12.7, three top-3 rankings.

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 period was the GT Ultra Box race frame, which he developed alongside Gary Turner. 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, in the same class as 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 riders. He won World titles as an amateur but not as a pro. The Hall of Fame case for him was about durability — 140 mains, every Grands main from 1987 through 1993 — and about 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.

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. 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. 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.