Craig Kundig

Growing up in the family shop

Craig Kundig is the son of Joe and Imogene Kundig, who owned the Riverside Redlands Schwinn shops — the RRS name that became a real force in BMX racing and frame-building in Southern California. The fuller story of the family and the shops is on our RRS chapter. Craig ran the RRS BMX team and, later, designed RRS frames himself, credited with putting cantilever brake mounts on a BMX frame for the first time along with an eccentric bottom bracket and vertical dropouts — though at least one account credits the bottom-bracket design specifically to Richard "Dick" Reens rather than Kundig, a detail our RRS chapter already flags as unresolved.

The 1981 cruiser breakthrough

Kundig's clearest, best-documented result as a coach and frame builder came in 1981, when he put amateur rider Joe Claveau on a 24-inch RRS frame. Claveau won the ABA National No. 1 Cruiser title on it, and that result is generally credited with helping set the standard for what a 24-inch BMX cruiser was supposed to be. It's the single most concrete, independently-repeated fact in Kundig's record — it shows up in his own American Bicycle Association Hall of Fame nomination material and in secondary coverage of RRS's frame history alike.

The Corona question

Kundig's ABA Hall of Fame nomination material, from his 2004 induction, makes a specific claim about Corona: "Around that same time, Craig Kundig was also running the infamous Corona BMX track — still talked about today as thee gnarliest track in all of BMX. When the property was sold to homebuilders, Craig was forced to shut down the track."

That's Kundig's side, and it's the version his own Hall of Fame record carries. But it isn't the only account. Period coverage — and our own Corona Raceway chapter — points to Steve and Nancy Rink's Peddlepower Bike Shop as the operational throughline for Corona's BMX racing program. Bill Ryan, Legend Bike Co's owner, raced at Corona as a kid, and his memory lines up with Kundig's account — while noting plainly that he was about 12 years old at the time and can't swear to it.

So there are three threads here, not two: the period press pointing to the Rinks, Kundig's own Hall of Fame record pointing to himself, and Bill's memory of Kundig running the program with the Rinks present, supporting their own company and team. We're not picking a side. Between the period coverage, Kundig's Hall of Fame record, and Bill's recollection, who actually ran Corona's BMX program is a genuinely open question, and it stays open on this page exactly as it does on the Corona chapter.

Later career: Cyclery USA

Kundig went on to become corporate president of Cyclery USA, the business that grew out of the RRS shops across Redlands, Riverside, and Rancho Cucamonga. Under his leadership the company's team took three consecutive ABA No. 1 Bike Shop Team titles in the late 1990s — a long, sustained run that speaks to the same combination of shop-floor knowledge and team-building that produced Joe Claveau's cruiser title back in 1981.

Where Craig Kundig fits in the bigger story

Kundig is one of a handful of people in this library whose career runs on both sides of the counter — racer, coach, frame designer, and eventually the executive running the business his parents built. The Corona question matters less for who wins an argument than for what it shows about how thin BMX's local history really is: two well-documented sources, a family shop's own Hall of Fame record, and a firsthand childhood memory, and none of them fully agree. Read the fuller shop history on RRS, the track's own story on Corona Raceway, and the wider era in The History of BMX.

Frequently asked questions

Did Craig Kundig run Corona Raceway's BMX program?

It's an open question. Kundig's own ABA Hall of Fame nomination material says he ran it and was forced to shut it down when the property sold. Period coverage points instead to Steve and Nancy Rink's Peddlepower Bike Shop. Legend Bike Co owner Bill Ryan, who raced at Corona as a kid, recalls Kundig running it with the Rinks present supporting their own team — but says he can't swear to it. We're not resolving it.

What was Craig Kundig's connection to Riverside Redlands Schwinn?

He's the son of Joe and Imogene Kundig, who owned the RRS shops. Craig ran the RRS BMX team and later designed RRS frames himself.

What is Craig Kundig's best-documented BMX result?

Coaching amateur rider Joe Claveau to the ABA National No. 1 Cruiser title in 1981 on a 24-inch RRS frame Kundig built — a result credited with helping set the standard for the 24-inch cruiser class.