A Legend Bike Co. rider history page. Heavy first-hand record on torkerracing.com and bmxsociety.com; cross-checked against Wikipedia, the USA BMX Hall of Fame directory, BMXmuseum.com, FatBMX, ESPN Action Sports, and the period BMX press.
Eddy King
"King Edward" / "Silver Bullet" / "The 1$" · born October 9, 1964 · ABA BMX Hall of Fame, 1989
At a glance
Born
October 9, 1964, Philippines. His family settled in Chula Vista, California in 1970.
Nicknames
"King Edward" · "Eddy the King" · "Silver Bullet" · "The 1$" (his Torker tag) · "The Dynamic Duo" (shared with Diamond Back teammate Harry Leary)
Known for
The rider most synonymous with the original Torker factory team · Two ABA #1 number plates on Torker · First rider in Torker history to have a signature frame · The Diamond Back factory pro who turned before Pete Loncarevich in the brand's Team Trophy strategy · Brother of Mike King
Major titles and honors
ABA BMX Hall of Fame, 1989 (Pioneer) · Two ABA #1 number plates on Torker · 1978 NBA 14 Expert National No. 1 · 1979 NBA 15 Expert Grandnational Champion · 1981 NBL 16 & Over Expert Grandnational Champion · 1982 NBL 17 Expert Grandnational Champion · 1987 IBMXF World Championships Silver Medal · 1979 Torker "Eddy King" complete bicycle — the first signature complete in Torker history · Bicycle Motocross Action cover, June 1980 (five-page pictorial) · BMX Action cover, August 1987
Primary sponsors
S & W Bike Shop (Jan 1975 – early 1976) · The Bike Shop of El Cajon (early 1976 – Mar 1977) · D.G. Performance Specialties co-sponsorship (Mar 1977 – May 1977) · Wheels N' Things / R & R Racing (May 1977 – Jun 1978) · Wheels N' Things / Torker Engineering co-sponsorship (Jun 1978 – Fall 1978) · Full factory Torker Engineering (Fall 1978 – Sept 1980) · Diamond Back / Centurion (Sept 1980 – Feb 1989) · Diamond Back / Free Agent / Stay Strong (2009–2010 comeback)
Active years
1975–1989 (first career) · 2009–2013 (return) · Currently riding mountain bike and e-bike after rehabilitating from a 2013 spinal cord injury
Hall of Fame
ABA BMX Hall of Fame, inducted 1989. Verify on the USA BMX Hall of Fame directory.
Eddy King sits right at the center of the first ten years of American BMX. As an amateur, nobody touched him for long. California State Champion. NBA national champion. NBL Grandnational champion. Factory rides stacking up before he was old enough to drive himself to the track — he started at age 10. Then Torker. Two years carrying the yellow-and-black, two #1 plates, and his name on the first signature frame the brand ever built. Then Diamond Back, where he did something almost nobody in his generation managed: he stayed put. Over eight straight years on the same brand, September 1980 through February 1989. Worlds in Whistler. Worlds in Holland. The full U.S. circuit. He hung it up at 24, sold real estate, came back twenty years later for one more run, and after a crash in 2013 that nearly killed him, he is still on a bike.
This page covers all of it.
Chula Vista beginnings and the K-Mart Huffy
Edward King was born October 9, 1964 in the Philippines. His father was in the U.S. Navy, and the family settled in Chula Vista, California in 1970. The way Eddy tells it in interviews, the household was lower-middle-class, getting by on his father's military pay. BMX showed up as the affordable version of motorcycle racing. For a Navy kid who couldn't ask his dad to bankroll a motocross hobby, that was the whole appeal.
He found the sport in 1974 off a flyer taped in the window of Chula Vista Schwinn. The owner, Rick Gentilella, has since passed away; Eddy named him by name in his FatBMX interview. His first race was Friday, January 15, 1975, at Silver Wing BMX track in San Diego. He was 10. The track ran downhill. "It took 60 seconds to ride the track, that's how slow we were," King told FatBMX. He won his class anyway. There were no proficiency divisions back then.
His first race bike was a $29.95 Huffy his parents grabbed from K-Mart in December 1974. He and his buddies retrofitted it the way every BMX kid did then — knobby tires, motocross bars, gas tank, mud flaps, banana seat with the struts cut off so it didn't snap clean. Inside a few months he'd moved up to a yellow Webco with Redline forks, A&A bars, and a front Tuff Wheel. Still 10 years old.
The amateur run: S&W to Wheels N' Things
King's sponsorship ladder reads like a tour of the little San Diego shops that built BMX before the brands existed. S & W Bike Shop signed him after his second race in 1975. He moved to The Bike Shop of El Cajon in early 1976, picked up a co-sponsorship from D.G. Performance Specialties — Dan Hangsleben and Gary Harlow — in March 1977, and joined Wheels N' Things / R & R Racing, run by Rick Ankron and Rick Varner, in May 1977. He stayed on Wheels N' Things through the spring of 1978.
The results came fast. He took the 1976 NBA San Diego District No. 1, then the 10–11 Expert California State Championship the same year. He won the 1976 11-Boys California Cup, beating Brian Patterson in the main at Corona, and took the 1976 11 Boys iBMX Grandnational. In 1977 he won the 12 Expert title in the RC Cola / Two Wheelers Race of Champions Invitational at Ascot Park, Gardena. The 13 Expert California State Championship came in 1978, the 14 Expert National No. 1 the same year, the 15 Expert Grandnational in 1979. Then the 1981 NBL Grandnational, then the 1982 NBL Grandnational.
By 1978, every factory team scout in California knew his name.
Torker — Fall 1978 to September 1980
King picked up a co-sponsorship from Torker Engineering in June 1978 while still riding for Wheels N' Things. By Fall 1978 he was full factory at the US Nationals. Torker, built in Fullerton, California, known for the twin top tube and that yellow-and-black livery, kicked off its #1 factory team era in 1979. Eddy King was the rider you pictured when you pictured that team. Steve Johnson ran the program. Mike Aguilera, Jason Jensen, Doug Olson, Doug Davis, and Eddy's younger brother Mike King rode it in those years. Clint Miller came on as the Pro late in 1979.
King earned two ABA #1 number plates on Torker. He was featured in the landmark BMX Plus! Torker team profile in May 1980, a joint interview with Mike King, Clint Miller, Mike Aguilera, and Jason Jensen. The June 1980 Bicycle Motocross Action ran a five-page pictorial — "The Master of Style: Eddy King" — with him on the cover. He travelled the country promoting the brand at 13 and 14 years old, flying alone, the youngest face of the most-talked-about factory team in BMX.
Here's the piece of Torker history that still carries his name. The 1979 Torker "Eddy King" complete bicycle was the first signature complete in Torker's catalog and the first signature model the brand ever sold. He had input on the top tube length and the head tube angle. Torker Racing currently sells the modern EK 20 GEN II Frame Set, the direct successor, as part of the Heritage Vault relaunch line.
"When I got onto Torker, that's probably a whole different level because that's when I was getting things paid and I was being sent places to promote their brand. I was 12 / 13 years old and I was flying on planes with adults with no parents with me, it was crazy."
— Eddy King, FatBMX "Preserving BMX History" interview, 2024
By September 1980 he was gone. Diamond Back, under Centurion / WSI corporate ownership, came after him directly.
Diamond Back, and the pro-turn order with Pete Loncarevich
King signed with Diamond Back in September 1980. He raced as an amateur for the brand from 1980 to 1983. He turned pro the first week of March 1983, opening the season at an NBL national where he made the 20" "B" Pro main and did not finish. His first pro win came June 4, 1983, at an NBL national in Peoria, Illinois, in "A" Pro. He stayed with Diamond Back from September 1980 all the way through February 1989. Eight and a half years on the same brand. One sponsor for the whole pro career.
The pro-turn timing is the part of this story Pete Loncarevich's page tells from Pete's side. I know this one first-hand, and it lines up the same way on both ends. Diamond Back signed King and Loncarevich at the same time. King was about two years older. The brand wanted Eddy to turn pro first and asked Pete to wait one more amateur year, so the factory team could win the Team Trophy — the sanctioning-body award for the best factory program of the year. Pete turned pro anyway, against Diamond Back's wishes, and lost his contract after he finished second in "A" Pro at the 1982 ABA JAG World Championship as his debut. King's pro-turn went as planned the next spring.
The Diamond Back years are the most magazine-covered stretch of King's career. He was paired with Harry Leary, the two of them billed as "The Dynamic Duo," and the pair anchored the team through the mid-80s. King raced the 1985 World Championships in Whistler on Diamond Back. He took Silver at the 1987 IBMXF Worlds. He held high national rankings every year he raced pro.
The injuries off that late-80s schedule were real. He broke his right foot on March 7, 1987, at the ABA Gilley's National in Pasadena, Texas, when a rider went down in front of him and someone ran over his foot in the pile-up. He hurt his hand at the First Annual Palm Springs Aerial Tramway GPV and Ramp Jam in June 1987, then was laid up until the ABA national in Ogden, Utah. The August 1987 BMX Action put him on the cover.
The 1987 steroid quote
That same BMX Action issue carried an interview people have quoted ever since. King admitted that he and Harry Leary, along with four other people, had looked at anabolic steroids — because pro BMX tracks at the time favored power over finesse — and that the doctors had told them no. He named no one else, but said he knew of a couple of pros who were using.
"Right now, pro racing is all power. I know of a couple of pros who are taking steroids and about half a dozen have looked at it, including myself and Harry. The doctors told us, 'No way. Don't do it.' Maybe the association will have to crack down on it like in other sports. Or change the tracks."
— Eddy King, BMX Action, August 1987
The 1988 Grand National — a changing of the guard
The 1988 ABA Grand National in Oklahoma City was the race where the King brothers traded places at the top of the sport. Eddy's younger brother Mike King won the 1988 ABA National No. 1 Pro title at the Grands. Eddy came in sixth in Pro Open, took home $210, and started thinking about what came next. He'd just bought a new house. He was tired. His body was tired. The travel and the schedule left no room for anything else.
His last race as a Senior Pro was the ABA Winternationals on February 19, 1989. He came in eighth in "AA" Pro. He retired. He was 24.
"I was tired and my body was tired. I had just purchased a new home and I wanted more time to pursue other interests and move forward in a different direction in life. Racing left little to no time for anything but racing, training, traveling, product development, and photo shoots. That is why I retired."
— Eddy King, interview, 2008
He'd picked up his real estate license while he was still racing. He sold his first house — his own — in the summer of 1987 for $180,000. That became his second career.
1993 and 1994 — two more starts
Eddy raced twice more after retiring. He entered the ABA Springnationals in Bakersfield, California on March 20–21, 1993, in the new Veteran Pro class — a class that put retired pros back on the gate against each other. He came in fourth on Saturday and fifth on Sunday. His old Diamond Back teammate Harry Leary won both days. He ran Veteran Pro one more time at the ABA Fall Nationals in Burbank on October 22, 1994 and finished sixth, with Brian Patterson taking the win.
2009 — back on a bike
Diamond Back gave Eddy a new bike in 2009 — a peace offering of sorts, two decades after his contract had run out. He started showing up at local tracks in San Diego. Then he decided to enter the 2009 ABA Grand National in Tulsa.
What pulled him back was Stephen Murray. Murray, a British BMX pro, had suffered a catastrophic crash at the 2007 Dew Tour in Baltimore and become quadriplegic. The BMX community rallied around him; Murray and his wife Mel had launched Stay Strong apparel. King watched that response and decided he wanted in. He called his old friend Dale Holmes, who put him in touch with Murray and with Free Agent Bikes. King raced the 2009 Grand Nationals in Stay Strong colors on Free Agent, with co-sponsorship from Diamond Back, Oakley, Intense BMX, Exustar Shoes, SixSixOne, GHP, GunSlinger Bikes, ODI grips, and Dog Tags Designs.
"Stephen Murray's accident made a big impact on me. I kept track of his progress through the Internet and was inspired by his courage, his positive outlook, and determination. I was impressed the way the BMX community came together for him."
— Eddy King, ESPN Action Sports interview, 2009
2013 — the Big Bear crash
In 2013 King crashed at Big Bear Bike Park. The crash damaged his spinal cord. The injury was severe, and what made it harder was the not knowing — what he would recover, and what he wouldn't.
"It's such an unpredictable injury. The doctors really don't know, so they won't tell you what chance they think you may have of making a full recovery, partial recovery or no recovery. I didn't want this injury to label me for the rest of my life."
— Eddy King, Shimano Tools of Empowerment, 2019
The years after were rehab. First walking again with assistance. Then training every day with sports-medicine specialist Chad Dunn. Then building, piece by piece, the strength to swing a leg back over a bike. The road back to mountain biking came through an e-bike. Shimano filmed his recovery in the 2019 short documentary Tools of Empowerment, produced and shot by Sterling Lorence. Perry Kramer and Dale Holmes — both BMX names King had known since the 80s — appear in the film alongside him in San Diego.
He rides now. He goes out alone. Loads the bike, drives to the trail, rides, comes home. He has called that independence the part of the recovery that means the most.
The Mike and Eddy King record
Eddy King's place in the brother-brother record of BMX is settled. He's the elder of the King combination. The Wikipedia entry on him puts the King brothers behind only Ronnie & Richie Anderson and Brent & Brian Patterson in the all-time brother rankings — and with Mike King's 1988 ABA No. 1 Pro plate and his later UCI career, that ranking holds up.
Eddy is 4½ years older than Mike. They both started on Wheels N' Things in Chula Vista. They were on Torker at the same time during the Wheels N' Things / Torker co-sponsorship phase in 1978. When Eddy went fully factory Torker, Mike stayed at Wheels N' Things because Torker already had Doug Davis racing in his class. Eddy has said the split was good for Mike — it gave him something to chase. Mike caught his older brother and passed him on the pro side in 1988.
What we don't know about Eddy King
The exact dates of his two Torker #1 number plates aren't consistently archived in any single public source. Torker Racing's own current history page credits "two #1 number plates on Torker," and the original-period magazine record backs up national-level dominance through 1978 and 1979, but the year-by-year, plate-by-plate breakdown isn't surfaced publicly the way it is for some later pros.
The internal Diamond Back / WSI / Centurion paperwork around the 1980–1983 amateur years, and the negotiations over the Loncarevich pro-turn order, have been described from both sides — King's, in interviews, and Pete Loncarevich's, in his own published account — but the actual Diamond Back side of those contract documents, the ones that would settle the timing question for good, have never been published.
Legacy
Eddy King's place in BMX history is fixed by what's on the record. The first signature complete in Torker history. Two ABA #1 plates as an amateur Pro pre-1983 and a long Diamond Back pro career through 1989. ABA BMX Hall of Fame, 1989. A magazine record on the cover of Bicycle Motocross Action, BMX Action, BMX Plus!, and Super BMX across the whole eight-year arc of his pro time. The Diamond Back / Centurion factory rider who turned before Pete Loncarevich because the brand was building toward a Team Trophy and needed its order set.
What sets King apart from a lot of his contemporaries is the second half of his life. He retired at 24, walked into real estate before Wikipedia and Instagram were around to keep score, came back at 45 to race the Grands one more time in support of a friend's recovery foundation, then survived a spinal cord injury at Big Bear Bike Park that by every actuarial measure should have ended his time on bikes. He rides anyway. He drives himself to the trailhead. He earned the Silver Bullet name out of the gate four decades ago. The same word fits the recovery.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Eddy King" (primary biographical reference). USA BMX / ABA Hall of Fame directory, Eddy King induction record, Class of 1989 (Pioneer). Torker Racing official history page, "The #1 BMX Factory Team in America" and the dedicated Eddy King rider page on torkerracing.com. BMXmuseum.com reference page for Eddy "King Edward" King. FatBMX, "Re-Up; Preserving BMX History. Episode 60: Eddy King (USA)" — long-form interview by Bart de Jong, February 29, 2024. ESPN Action Sports, "Back on Track: Eddy King" (2009 comeback interview). Pinkbike / Shimano, "Eddy King's Story of Regaining His Freedom in Tools of Empowerment" (November 26, 2019). BMX Society community forums — long-running first-hand discussion of the 1979 EK Torker, the Eddy King reunion at the Bellflower BMX Society get-together, and the 2013 cycling-accident updates. Period magazine coverage including: Bicycle Motocross Action, "The Master of Style Pictorial: Eddy King," June 1980 (cover); BMX Plus!, "Torker Team," May 1980; BMX Action, "Harry & Eddy," February 1984; BMX Action, "On the Cover... Eddy King," August 1987 (cover); BMX Action, "Bros. Eddy & Mike," January 1988. Personal correspondence with Bill Ryan (Supercross BMX, Torker Racing, Legend Bike Co), for the Diamond Back Team Trophy pro-turn-order context.
Eddy King and Legend Bike Co.
Eddy King isn't a Legend Bike Co. rider the way Eddie Fiola, Pete Loncarevich, and I are co-founders of the company. He's on this page because two of the brand stories Legend tells run straight through him.
The first is Torker. Supercross BMX and I acquired the Torker name from Accell North America starting in 2015 and officially relaunched the brand in April 2024. The first signature frame in Torker history was the 1979 Eddy King. The first reissue frame in the modern Torker line carrying the same name is the EK 20 GEN II.
The second is Pete Loncarevich. Pete is a co-founder of Legend Bike Co. with Eddie Fiola and me. The pro-turn-order story between Eddy and Pete on Diamond Back — the Team Trophy strategy, the year Pete was supposed to wait, the contract Pete lost when he turned pro anyway, and the eight-and-a-half year Diamond Back pro career Eddy got out of going first — is one of the foundational episodes of early-80s BMX.
Read more on Legend Bike Co.
Riders: Pete Loncarevich · Eddie Fiola · Matt Hadan · Clint Miller · Billy Griggs · Damian Fulton · Scot Breithaupt · Greg Hill · Mike Miranda · Perry Kramer · R.L. Osborn · Stu Thomsen · Todd Anderson · Tommy Brackens · Denny Davidow · Jeff Bottema · Darwin Griffin · Brian "Bogi" Givens · Todd Steen · Martin Aparijo
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Sanctioning bodies: BUMS · NBA · NBL · ABA · IBMXF · USA BMX
Overview: The History of BMX