Brian Scura & BS Bikeworks

Inventor of the Gyro, the Race Lace Hub, and the SST Catalog

A BMXRacingHistory.com preview · hosted on Legend Bike Co

At a glance

Companies BS Bikes (1981-82 factory team era) · Scura Speed & Technology Inc. (SST) · later licensing partner to GT Bicycles and Odyssey BMX
Known for Inventing the Gyro cable detangler (1986) · the SST Race Lace hub, later the GT Superlace · the Dirt Skirt headset seal · the SST Command Post · the Take-a-Brake brake-adjustment tool · the Vans Kool Stop BMX brake shoe
Recognition 2025 USA BMX Hall of Fame inductee, Industry category

Brian Scura sits in a category of BMX figure most riders never read about by name: the inventor whose products everyone owned. A freestyle rider in his own right, Scura ran BS Bikes as an early factory team in 1981-82, founded Scura Speed & Technology Inc. (SST) to sell the parts he designed, licensed the Gyro to Odyssey, sold the Race Lace hub pattern to GT, and put his name on a string of small components that solved real problems on race and freestyle bikes through the 1980s. In June 2025, USA BMX announced his induction into the BMX Hall of Fame in the Industry category as part of the 40th-anniversary class.

BS Bikes — the 1981-82 factory team

Before SST became the brand most people recognize, Scura was running his own bike company under his initials. BS Bikes operated as a small factory team in 1981 and 1982 — the same window in which the "B.S. Dirt Skirt" first appeared and built the headset-seal product into the line. Billy Griggs ("Mr. Bill"), who would later turn pro and win two amateur World Championships, was sponsored by BS Bikes during his amateur years in 1981 and 1982. After complaints from parents about the BS shorthand, Scura renamed the company along with the wider brand rebuild — the operation that became Scura Speed & Technology Inc.

Scura Speed & Technology Inc. (SST)

SST was the umbrella for everything that followed. The earliest patent on file from the company — the design patent for the Take-a-Brake tool — was filed January 17, 1983 and granted October 29, 1985 under the assignee name Scura Speed & Tech, Incorporated. A second design patent for an SST bicycle hub was filed June 6, 1983 and granted the same day. Those two dates anchor SST as a registered, patenting product company by the start of 1983.

The SST product list spans both ends of the BMX bike. Race Lace hubs were the headline component: a hub-and-spoke pattern where all the spokes ran to the outside face of the flange, with only the heads showing on the inside. Forum collectors at BMXmuseum.com track Scura selling SST Race Lace hubs as early as 1983, and the pattern is generally placed as the top-end race wheel of 1984-85. GT Bicycles later bought the design from Scura and produced it as the GT Superlace.

SST also offered a Race Lace coaster-brake version for freestyle. The SST Command Post was a seat post built around an internal I-beam to resist bending. The Dirt Skirt was a headset seal that kept dirt and grime out of the lower bearings. The Take-a-Brake was a hand tool for adjusting side-pull brakes — Scura's first granted U.S. patent. He also designed the Vans Kool Stop BMX brake shoe, which by his own 1987 estimate was selling around a quarter-million units a year.

The Gyro — 1986

The product that put Scura's name into every BMX shop in the country was a small alloy assembly mounted to the head tube. The Gyro is a cable detangler — a split-cable system that lets a freestyle rider spin the handlebars a full 360 degrees without tangling the brake cables. One cable runs from the brake lever to a swivel on the frame; a second cable runs from the swivel to the rear caliper.

Scura was not first to the category. The ACS Rotor, the original commercial rear-cable detangler, came to market in 1985. The Gyro followed in 1986. The split between the two is widely reported by collectors and historians: the Rotor opened the category; the Gyro is the design that displaced it. Every detangler produced after the Gyro tracks back to its split-cable layout.

The commercialization path is well-documented in the period press. Scura licensed production to Odyssey BMX, which holds the Gyro trademark today out of Cerritos, California. Freestylin' magazine's October 1986 product feature named Scura as "the mastermind behind the new spinning system," priced the unit at $19, and listed nine color options. It also noted that GT bought the first production shipment, which is why so many 1986 GT Pro Performers shipped with a "gyro patent pending" sticker. Scura's own quotes in Freestyle magazine (August 1987) state the production estimate at the time: roughly half a million Gyros expected to sell that year.

The patent record matches the timeline. Three later U.S. patents in Scura's name cover refinements to the cable-detangler system itself: 5,829,314 (granted November 3, 1998), 6,164,153 (granted December 26, 2000), and 6,205,635 (granted March 27, 2001). After the Odyssey licensing agreement ended, Scura released an improved version under the name ORYG — "Gyro" spelled backward.

The SST Trick Team

SST was not only a parts company. Scura put together one of the earliest freestyle teams, the SST Trick Team, with Woody Itson, Martin Aparijo, and himself riding. Sponsored by GT Bicycles by 1985, the team rode product showcases at local shops and open houses with choreographed routines built to keep kids' attention. Scura's own riding came with a list of named tricks. In his 1987 Freestyle interview he claimed authorship of the Gut Lever (worked out with Martin Aparijo), the ScuraTuck, the Scurfer (a one-footed handlebar stand), the Hurricane (an infinity roll with the bars spinning), and the Miami Hopper Overture.

The 2025 USA BMX Hall of Fame announcement also credits Scura with two world records for longest wheelie, the second of which clocked in at 2 hours, 57 minutes.

The mentor list

USA BMX's own Hall of Fame copy names the riders Scura tutored personally over the years, several of whom are now Hall of Famers themselves: Pete Loncarevich, Greg Hill, Billy Griggs, Woody Itson, Martin Aparijo, Denny Davidow, and Dave Voelker. He also designed early plans for quarter pipes that were featured in BMX Plus! magazine.

USA BMX Hall of Fame — Class of 2025

On June 11, 2025, USA BMX announced the Class of 2025 inductees for the 40th anniversary of the BMX Hall of Fame. Scura was named in the Industry category alongside Mike Poulson (Early Racer), Greg Romero (Racer), Cathy Hanna (Woman), Eddie Roman (Early Freestyle), and Kevin Robinson (Freestyle). The induction weekend was held September 19-21, 2025 at the Hardesty BMX Stadium, just outside the BMX Hall of Fame & Museum at USA BMX headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Where Brian Scura fits in the bigger story

Two threads run through Scura's career that the BMX industry rarely puts together. He was an early example of a working rider who made his living from the product side rather than the contingency side — he was paid by the Gyro and the Kool Stop, not by the podium. And he is one of the small handful of inventors whose work changed what was physically possible on a freestyle bike. The Gyro is the most obvious of those changes: 360-degree bar spins were a fight against the cable until 1986 and a non-issue after.

Riders: Scot Breithaupt, Eddie Fiola, Greg Hill, Mike Miranda, Perry Kramer, Pete Loncarevich, R.L. Osborn, Stu Thomsen, Todd Anderson, Tommy Brackens, Denny Davidow, Clint Miller, Jeff Bottema, Damian Fulton, Martin Aparijo, Billy Griggs. Brands: CW, Diamond Back, GT, Haro, Hoffman, Hutch, JMC, Mongoose, Redline, Schwinn, Skyway, S&M, Torker, Webco, TW BMX, CRD, Bottema Forks, Hustler, Voris Dixon, Hyper. Sanctions: BUMS, NBA, NBL, ABA, IBMXF, USA BMX. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.

Sources

USA BMX / Bicycle Retailer and Industry News — "USA BMX Announces Inductees For Their 40th Anniversary BMX Hall Of Fame" (Tulsa, OK, June 11, 2025). 23MAG BMX — Brian Scura profile page. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records via Justia Patents — design patents D281,140 (Take-a-Brake tool, granted October 29, 1985) and D281,155 (bicycle hub, granted October 29, 1985); utility patents 5,287,765, 5,829,314, 6,164,153, 6,205,635, and 6,968,927. BMXmuseum.com forums — SST, Race Lace, and detangler threads. Freestylin' October 1986 (Gyro product release). Freestyle August 1987 (Scura interview). Vintage BMX Ads — "GT PRO PERFORMER — Brian Scura" (October 1986). BikeParts Wiki — "Detangler" entry. Wikipedia — "Billy Griggs" and "Odyssey BMX."

About this page. A preview of the forthcoming BMXRacingHistory.com.