BMX Racing History · Rider Profile · Legend Bike Co

Greg Hill

Dayton, Ohio, 1982. Greg Hill won the first IBMXF BMX World Championship, and his name went into the record books ahead of everyone else's. That title did more than crown a rider. It helped prove the IBMXF was the real thing — a legitimate world stage for BMX, and one of the early steps on the road that eventually led to the Olympic Games.

He came up through SE Racing first. Then Redline signed him at fifteen. Picture that for a second. A kid on the factory team, lining up next to Stu Thomsen, who was already the most dominant pro the sport had. Hill finished the NBA season ranked #2 in the country. The only guy ahead of him was his own teammate. That tells you exactly where his speed was. He moved on from Redline after that run, World Championship already in his pocket.

What came next is where it gets unusual. Most riders get one good chapter. Hill kept writing them. He rode for Shimano aboard a Mongoose. GT picked him up. He built his own company, GHP — Greg Hill Products — and then had to close it when manufacturing trouble made it impossible to keep the doors open. He went to Robinson. He brought GHP back for a second run. He landed at Answer Products while racing again for Redline, the same brand where he'd won his national titles years before. And he finished out his racing days on Balance Bicycles.

You don't get a career like that by accident. Multiple major brands. Two separate tries at your own company. A return to the team that made you. That only happens when a rider stays fast for a very long time and stays plugged into the sport at every level. Hill did both, and the record shows it.