Craig Reynolds

"Mr. Smooth," the Racer Who Built Bikes for Riders Too Tall for Pro Frames

A Legend Bike Co. rider page · primary source: Craig Reynolds' own first-person account on bmxmuseum.com, with additional sourcing from Black Enterprise Magazine and period BMX press

At a glance

Level AM through the 1980s, AA Pro through the 1990s and early 2000s
Scene Park Forest, Illinois, and the Midwest NBL circuit
Teams BADD & Co. (amateur) · Cyclecraft · Reynolds Racing (his own brand) · Mongoose
Known for Founding Reynolds Racing to build long-wheelbase frames for taller riders, and later riding a 2001 Mongoose signature model, the C.R.Xpress

Craig Reynolds, known in BMX circles as "Mr. Smooth," spent the 1980s as an amateur and the 1990s and early 2000s as an AA Pro out of the Midwest NBL scene. What sets his record apart from most racers of his generation is what he did in between: because he is tall and kept outgrowing production BMX frames, he started his own bike company out of his parents' garage rather than keep asking sponsors for custom builds. This page draws primarily on Reynolds' own written account of that story, published on bmxmuseum.com, cross-checked against period magazine coverage and his 1997 Black Enterprise Magazine feature.

A note on identification: there is more than one notable person named Craig Reynolds in public records — a computer scientist known for the boids flocking algorithm, and athletes in other sports entirely. This page is specifically about the American BMX racer and frame builder, sourced from his own BMX-specific account and BMX trade coverage.

Too Tall for the Bikes He Was Riding

By his own account, every sponsor Reynolds ever had except BADD & Co. had to build him a custom frame, because his long legs cramped on standard production geometry. In 1992, while attending Northern Illinois University, he told BADD he wanted to get paid, in the $200 to $500-a-month range. They stopped taking his calls. That was the push that started Reynolds Racing.

Building Reynolds Racing From a Garage

Reynolds called Shag at Cyclecraft to manufacture frames, and asked pro rider Barry McManus if he would ride for a brand carrying Reynolds' own name — McManus said yes, on the condition Reynolds put his name on it. Steve Buddendeck and Hal Brindley of 2B built the graphics and jerseys. Reynolds drew the first frame geometry himself: a 21.5-inch top tube, 12-inch bottom bracket, 16.25-inch chainstays. He guessed wrong on the seat tube angle for the first prototype, raced it anyway at a national in Memphis, then had it corrected. That corrected frame became the Fresh 40. McManus's own long-wheelbase build, the 42-inch Rap 42, followed — Reynolds has described watching McManus ride it for the first time, brakeless, and pull a hundred-yard manual around the corner of his street.

Reynolds later added The Puppy, a smaller frame built for the younger trail riders he grew up with at Monee Trails near his home, and the Formula, which filled the size gap between The Puppy and the Fresh 40 — a name that, in Reynolds' own telling, came out of a joke phone call with Steve Buddendeck about opening a dictionary to a random page. He ran the whole operation out of his parents' house in Park Forest, Illinois, shipping frames himself and racing the Midwest NBL circuit alongside McManus for several seasons.

Selling to System Cycle Supply

To grow beyond what he could manage from a garage, Reynolds sold Reynolds Racing's stock, database, and name to System Cycle Supply, with manufacturing shifting from Cyclecraft to Kastan. When SCS later ran into financial trouble and told Reynolds they could no longer keep the brand running, they offered to move production to Taiwan to keep it alive. Reynolds turned that down in under thirty seconds, by his own account, unwilling to risk the build quality he had built the brand on. His last race was at Lake Perris, California, where he finished out of a consi main, then rode a solo victory lap on the track by himself before stepping away.

Racing for Mongoose

After Reynolds Racing wound down, Reynolds went on to race for Mongoose, one of the sport's longest-running factory teams. In 2001, Mongoose built him a signature model, the C.R.Xpress.

Beyond Racing

Reynolds Racing and Reynolds' own profile earned him a feature in Black Enterprise Magazine in January 1997. In the years since, he has worked as a BMX broadcaster, emcee, and photographer, and he has been recognized as one of the notable Black professionals in BMX racing history in USA BMX's own tribute material honoring the sport's Black pioneers and champions.

Where the public record runs thin

Reynolds' exact national results ledger — year-by-year finishes, number plates, and title history across BADD, Cyclecraft, and Mongoose — is not fully documented in the sources checked for this page beyond the general career shape above. oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com were checked directly; bmxsociety.com's community forum surfaced a period thread referencing Reynolds' input on Mongoose Pro geometry, but neither site returned a dedicated period profile at the time of research.

Where Craig Reynolds fits in the bigger story

Sanctioning: NBL · USA BMX. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.

Sources

Craig Reynolds, "My RR Story," bmxmuseum.com Reynolds Racing history page — first-person primary source. bigandtallbmx.com, "Reynolds Racing Fresh 40" (excerpting the same bmxmuseum account). blackcycling.com, "BMX Legend Craig Reynolds Featured In Award Winning Video Campaign," including reference to his January 1997 Black Enterprise Magazine feature. sugarcayne.com, "The Rich History of Black Men in BMX Racing," February 2025. bmxsociety.com community forum thread, "Craig Reynolds design Mongoose Pro." oldschoolmags.com was checked directly; it did not return independent period coverage specific to Reynolds at the time of research.