Bob Osborn — The Man Who Built BMX Action
Bob Osborn
Founder and publisher of BMX Action magazine. Founder of Wizard Publications. USA BMX Hall of Fame, Industry, 1988.
A Legend Bike Co. founder history page. Sourced from the USA BMX Hall of Fame entry, the BMX Action Symposium pages, the 23mag.com magazine indexes, oldschoolmags.com PDF archive, bmxsociety.com community threads, and Bob's own first-person quotes captured in the period record.
The man who put BMX on a magazine cover
Bob Osborn started BMX Action magazine out of his family's house on Arvada Street in Redondo Beach, California, with a debut issue dated December 1976 — 48 pages, $1 cover price, 10,000 copies on the first print run, and a Brian Lewis at Corona BMX cover shot by his daughter Windy. He worked part-time as a firefighter to pay for it, raised $30,000 in startup capital between selling his house, a loan from his sister, and a third investor, and started a publishing company called Wizard Publications to print it. His son R.L. and daughter Windy were on the masthead from day one. Bob ran the magazine for 13 years. It defined what BMX looked like in print for an entire generation.
1974 — the LA Coliseum Yamaha Gold Cup
Before BMX Action, Osborn was already inside the sport. On September 14, 1974, at the LA Coliseum final of the Yamaha Bicycle Gold Cup series, Bob was the flag-waving starter — the man who dropped the flag to start the first major BMX event ever put on. That race put 5,000+ spectators in front of BMX for the first time. Bob saw what the sport could become. Two years later he started the magazine.
Issue 1 — December 1976
The debut issue of Bicycle Motocross Action (the magazine's original masthead title) hit newsstands in December 1976. 48 pages. $1. 10,000-copy first run. Brian Lewis at Corona on the cover. The Pit — the test track Bob built in Torrance — was already operational. Bob hired Bob Haro on as staff artist in summer 1977 (Haro had been mailing cartoons in on spec; Bob brought him in formally). The Pit became the magazine's product test ground; the editorial team included Bob, his son R.L. (a test rider), and his daughter Windy (one of the first great BMX photographers, shooting for the magazine as a teenager).
The Pit and the test program
BMX Action's test-track operation — "the Pit" — ran out of a yard in Torrance. The magazine's test riders, including the Emrich brothers and Donny Jones, would ride every new frame, fork, crank, and accessory hard, then write up what broke and what didn't. The Pit became the standard against which BMX Action measured product, and the format every BMX magazine that came after copied. For a stretch in the late 1970s and early 1980s, getting a Pit-tested checkmark in BMX Action was the difference between a product selling and not.
1984 — FREESTYLIN' launches
By 1984 freestyle had become its own discipline. Bob launched FREESTYLIN' magazine under Wizard Publications that summer — the first dedicated BMX freestyle title. The two magazines ran in parallel through the rest of the decade, with FREESTYLIN' covering the trick side and BMX Action holding the race side. FREESTYLIN' is where Mike Dominguez, Eddie Fiola, R.L. Osborn, Bob Haro, Martin Aparijo, and Mat Hoffman became national figures.
1989 — BMX Action ends, GO begins
BMX Action published its final issue in September 1989, just shy of 13 years of monthly publication. Wizard Publications didn't fold — in November 1989 Bob merged BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' into a single new title: GO: The Rider's Manual. GO ran through the early 1990s.
1988 — USA BMX Hall of Fame
The American Bicycle Association inducted Bob Osborn into the National BMX Hall of Fame (now USA BMX) in 1988, in the Industry category. The HOF citation walks through Wizard Publications, BMX Action, FREESTYLIN', the Pit, and Bob's role in putting BMX on the magazine rack at every grocery store in America.
2020+ — the BMX Action Symposium era
BMX Action lives on as a heritage event. The BMX Action Symposium — a multi-day reunion of the magazine's former contributors, riders, and photographers — has been hosted by the BMX Society since the late 2010s. Bob was Guest of Honor at the 2020 Symposium and was awarded the BMX Society Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2022 Symposium. The BMX Action team, the Pit crew, and the riders who came up through Wizard Publications all still talk about Bob as "Oz" — the man who saw what BMX was and built the platform that proved it.
What Bob Osborn actually built
Almost every figure in the BMX Hall of Fame got there in part because Bob Osborn put their face on a magazine cover. Bob Haro got his career start as Wizard's staff artist before founding Haro. R.L. Osborn became one of the founding freestylers because his father was running the magazine and let him test ride. The Trick Team, the Pit, the cover shots, the rider profiles, the bike tests, the ads that built the brand contracts — all of it ran through the building Bob set up in Torrance.
If you grew up reading BMX magazines between 1976 and 1989, the magazine you were reading was Bob's. The covers you cut out and taped to your wall were Wizard Publications covers. The bike tests that told you what to buy were Pit tests. The freestyle riders you knew the names of were FREESTYLIN' cover riders. Bob Osborn is the BMX media industry of that era. There is no other word for it.
Sources
USA BMX Hall of Fame — Bob Osborn (1988, Industry) at usabmx.com/about/hall-of-fame/1420. bmxaction.org/pages/bob-osborn-symposium — the BMX Action Symposium pages tracking Bob's 2020 Guest of Honor + 2022 Lifetime Achievement events. 23mag.com — BMX Action master index (issue-by-issue, December 1976 through September 1989), FREESTYLIN' index, GO: The Rider's Manual index. oldschoolmags.com — PDF archive of BMX Action, FREESTYLIN', and GO. bmxsociety.com community forum threads on the 2020 + 2022 Symposiums. USPTO trademark filings for Wizard Publications. Wikipedia — R.L. Osborn, Bob Haro, BMX Action, Wizard Publications. Steve Emig blog — first-hand account of the 3162 Kashiwa Street, Torrance Wizard offices.
Bob Osborn and Legend Bike Co.
Bob Osborn isn't a Legend Bike Co. founder, but everyone on this site grew up with his magazines. Bob Haro, R.L. Osborn, Eddie Fiola, and the founding generation of BMX freestyle all came up through Wizard. The Stu Thomsen / Greg Hill / Mike Miranda magazine-cover era that defined BMX racing in the late 1970s was Wizard's cover lineup. Bill Ryan, who started at SE Racing in 1981 at age 12, learned what BMX looked like from BMX Action.
Related pages
Core: History of BMX · Bob Haro (Wizard staff artist 1977) · R.L. Osborn (son, Trick Team co-founder) · SE Racing · Haro
Peer founders + builders: Skip Hess · Linn Kastan · Scot Breithaupt · Jim Melton · Ernie Alexander · Vance Patterson · Turnell Henry · Chris Moeller · Gary Cook · Jeff Utterback · Mike Devitt · Craig Kundig · Bob Hadley · Ralph Mundia
Riders + writers: Stu Thomsen · Greg Hill · Mike Miranda · Perry Kramer · Pete Loncarevich · Eddie Fiola · Martin Aparijo · Scot Breithaupt · Tommy Brackens · Clint Miller · Denny Davidow · Jeff Bottema · Damian Fulton · Billy Griggs · Darwin Griffin · Brian Bogi Givens · Todd Steen · Matt Hadan · Eddy King · Byron Friday · Frank Post · Kevin McNeal · Brian Hernandez · Dave Clinton · Brent Patterson · Brian Patterson · Eric Rupe · Robby Rupe · Mike King · Darrell Young · Bobby Encinas · Cheri Elliott · Kyle Fleming · Charlie Litsky · Tinker Juarez · Richie Anderson · Ronnie Anderson · Jeff Kosmala · Scott Clark · Gary Ellis · Anthony Sewell · Dennis Dain · Thom Lund · Cindy Davis · Jeff Ruminer · Travis Chipres · Cecil Johns · John Crews · John George
Brands: CW Racing · Diamond Back · Centurion Cycles · GT · Haro · Hoffman Bikes · Hutch · JMC · Mongoose · Redline · Schwinn · Skyway · S&M Bikes · Torker · Webco · TW BMX · CRD · Bottema Forks · Hustler Bikes · Voris Dixon Bikes · Hyper Bikes · Hi-Tech BMX · Panda Racing Products · Robinson Racing · Free Agent · White Bear · Rebel Racing · Titan BMX · Brian Scura / BS Bikeworks · LRV · S&S Performance · Bassett Bikes · Patterson Racing · Cook Brothers Racing · Speedo BMX · Nomura BMX