Clint "The Barbarian" Miller
"The Barbarian" · born 1962 · 1983 IBMXF World Pro Champion
A BMXRacingHistory.com preview · hosted on Legend Bike Co
At a glance
Born April 29, 1962, Pomona, California
Nicknames "Miller Time" (early career) · "The Barbarian" (Torker era forward)
Known for 1983 IBMXF World Pro Champion on Kuwahara (Holland) · Recipient of the first production Long JMC Standard frame (serial JMC20, built June 15, 1977) · Torker's "Barbarian" ad campaign promoting the Torker 280
Major titles 1976 NBA Grandnationals, 14 Novice (first national win) · 1981 Anglo-American Challenge Invitational Champion (Redditch, England) · 1983 IBMXF World Pro Champion, Holland · 1984 Qantas BMX Titles — Australian Champion · 1984 USBA Pro Cruiser National #3
Turned pro 1978, age 15, on JMC Racing
Primary sponsors JMC Racing (Nov 1976–June 1978) · D.G. Performance Specialties (June–Dec 1978) · GJS So. Cal (Dec 1978–Dec 1979) · Torker (Dec 1979–Dec 1982) · Kuwahara (Jan 1983–Sept 1984) · Cycle Pro / GHP (Sept–Dec 1984) · CW Racing (Oct 1985–early 1986)
Hall of Fame ABA BMX Hall of Fame, inducted 2005
Picture a kid on a bike-shop team in 1975 who finishes his career a World Champion. That arc belongs to Clint Miller, and it ties together two halves of BMX that most people treat as separate stories. There's the bike-shop-team beginning of the mid-1970s. Then there's the magazine-cover era of the early '80s, all gloss and Europe and full-page ads. Clint lived through both. He started as a teenager in the first wave of organized BMX out in Southern California, turned pro at 15 on Jim Melton's JMC Racing factory team, and rode for five major brands before it was over. He won races on three continents. And Torker built one of the most-remembered ad campaigns of the whole era around his face.
The JMC Years
Clint was born April 29, 1962 in Pomona, California. He found BMX back when nobody quite knew what BMX even was yet. One of the early bike-shop teams ran out of Jim Melton Cyclery in Long Beach, and Clint was on that original 1975 JMC Bike Shop Team. He rode alongside Harry Leary, John Begin, Ronnie West, and a handful of others. He was 13.
By late 1976, Melton had started welding his own chromoly frames under the JMC name. Clint's formal factory deal ran from mid-November 1976 through June 1978, and he grabbed his first national win in that same stretch — the 1976 NBA Grandnationals, 14 Novice class. A teenager beating a national field.
Here's the part I love. On June 15, 1977, Jim Melton finished the very first production Long JMC Standard frame — serial number JMC20 — and handed it straight to Clint Miller. That frame sits in JMC's own production records to this day. Clint turned pro on JMC in 1978, still 15 years old.
The In-Between Years
Then came eighteen months with two more brands that mattered in that period. D.G. Performance Specialties from June through December 1978. GJS So. Cal from December 1978 through December 1979. Riders bounced between programs back then, and Clint was no different.
The race that stands out from this stretch was the December 1979 JAG BMX World Championships at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis — the one Perry Kramer won to effectively become BMX's first World Champion. Clint took fourth in Open Pro. Fourth in the world, and still just getting started.
Torker and "The Barbarian"
Torker signed Clint in late December 1979, and he stayed a Senior Pro through December 1982. Three years. That's the stretch most people remember when they picture Clint Miller.
The "Barbarian" name came straight out of Torker's advertising. Somebody at the brand built a full-page campaign around Clint in the early '80s — shot him shirtless in war paint, Conan-style framing, the works, all of it pushing the Torker 280 race frame. It ran in BMX Action and BMX Plus! and turned into one of the single most-remembered images of the era. After that, "The Barbarian" was just his name.
Clint first threw a leg over the Torker 26-inch cruiser in April 1981 and won the first time out. Pro Cruiser was brand new in 1981, and most of the top 20-inch pros couldn't be bothered with it. Clint went the other way. He racked up wins through 1981 and 1982 and basically helped build the class himself. His international career kicked off in these years too, with a win at the Anglo-American Challenge Invitational at Redditch, England on May 3, 1981.
Now, did Clint win the very first IBMXF Pro Worlds in 1980 on a Torker LP? The record handles that one two different ways, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Torker's own heritage page lists it. So does the write-up in his Wikipedia entry. But the structured "titles held" box on that same Wikipedia article only credits the 1983 World title. The 1983 one is clean and documented. The 1980 one is contested. I'll leave it there.
Kuwahara and the 1983 World Title
Clint left Torker at the end of 1982 and signed with Kuwahara Cycles that January. Didn't take him long. Inside a few months he won the 1983 IBMXF World BMX Championships, Pro class, in Holland — the biggest international win of his career, and he did it in Kuwahara colors rather than Torker.
He stayed with Kuwahara through September 1984. The 1984 Qantas BMX Titles down in Australia came next, where Clint won the Pro class and was credited as 1984 Australian Champion. A World title one year, an Australian title the next.
GHP, CW, and Retirement
From September through December 1984, Clint rode a short run for Cycle Pro / GHP. His last stint was with CW Racing from October 1985 into early 1986. By then the ground had shifted under everybody. Freestyle was splitting off, Mike Miranda's pink uniforms were setting the look of the mid-80s, and a fresh wave of pros was crowding the front of the magazines — Pete Loncarevich on CW, the early Tommy Brackens peak.
Clint hung it up in early 1986 at 24. Ten years of racing, eight as a pro. That's a full career packed into not very many years.
The Magazine Record
Eleven covers. That's what Clint landed across the five biggest titles in a six-year window — BMX Action (Jan/Feb 1979, May 1982, June 1982, Feb 1983, Aug 1983), BMX Plus! (Dec 1979, May 1982, Sept 1983, March 1984), Super BMX (Winter 1983 World Championship Special), BMX Action Bike UK (Oct 1983), and ABA American BMXer (Jan/Feb 1984). Eleven covers puts him right in the same bracket as Stu Thomsen, Perry Kramer, and Greg Hill. That's elite company.
California Racing Designs
Clint had his own company, California Racing Designs — and get one thing straight: it was never a frame brand. It started with T-shirts, moved into seat posts, then brake guards, and then Clint became the exclusive importer of Muscle Power, a protein powder out of Holland the pros were using. Accessories and gear, start to finish. The California Racing Designs chapter has the full story.
Hall of Fame and Legacy
Clint went into the ABA BMX Hall of Fame in 2005 — the body that became the USA BMX Hall of Fame after the ABA and NBL merged in 2011. The induction recognized the whole picture: the pro career, the international wins, and his place as one of the riders who carried BMX racing out of its bike-shop beginnings and into the magazine era. That's the part that lasts.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Clint Miller" (densely cited to period magazines). Jim Melton, "About" page at jmcbmx.wordpress.com. BMX Museum, JMC production record entry. fortyfour16.wordpress.com, "To the Max: The History of Torker, Part 7" (Gamstetter). Torker Racing, "Clint Miller — The Barbarian" rider profile (torkerracing.com/pages/clint-miller-the-barbarian). USA BMX Hall of Fame, induction record for Clint Miller, 2005. University of BMX, "History of BMX (1978–1979)." BMX Action, BMX Plus!, Super BMX, BMX Action Bike (UK), and ABA American BMXer cover archives via oldschoolmags.com.