Jeff Bottema

Racer, Fork Designer, and BMX Hall of Famer — 1960–2025

A BMXRacingHistory.com preview · hosted on Legend Bike Co

At a glance

Born April 14, 1960, Norwalk, California · Died September 19, 2025, age 65 · Nickname "Battling"
Pro teams D.G. Performance Specialist (1977–79) · Raleigh Cycle Company (1979–81) · Mountain Dew exhibition team (1981) · Murray of Ohio (1981–83)
Known for Designer of the Bottema Bullet Fork · Murray BMX road team manager · ABA BMX Hall of Fame, 1990

Jeff Bottema spent his racing years inside the brands that built BMX's first commercial wave — DG, Raleigh, Mountain Dew, Murray — and his post-racing years inside a single product that outlasted his pro career: the Bottema Bullet Fork. He was a finals-grade pro across the late 1970s and the start of the 1980s, one of the first Americans to ride exhibitions in Europe, and one of the few racers of his generation to turn a personal product idea into a household name. He died in September 2025 at age 65.

Coming up — Two Wheeler's, Webco, and DG

Bottema started racing in mid-1974 at age 14. He raced NBA District X and signed with Two Wheeler's BMX the same year. He moved to Webco in May 1975, and when Webco disbanded its team in March 1976 he landed at D.G. Performance Specialist a month later. DG — for founders Dan Hangsleben and Gary Harlow — ran both a BMX team and the manufacturing arm that built frames under the Green Duck name (Green Duck also built the SE Basher and the SE OM Flyer in the same period; see SE Racing).

His first national win came at the NPSA Eastern Nationals in Atlanta on September 7, 1975. He went up the ranks fast: the 1975 NBA 14 & Over Intermediate Grandnational, the 1976 NML/Schwinn Gold Cup Class F at halftime of a Dolphins / Vikings preseason game in the Orange Bowl, and the 1977 16 Expert NBA / Mongoose halftime exhibition at the LA Coliseum.

Turning pro — DG, 1977

Bottema turned pro in 1977 and became a founding member of the Professional Racing Organization (PRO), the short-lived racers' guild built to give pros a voice with the sanctions. He stayed with DG through July 1979.

Raleigh — July 1979 to January 1981

The door opened when Chuck Robinson — the same Robinson behind Robinson Racing — contacted Raleigh Cycle Company of America. Raleigh wanted to launch a U.S. BMX program; Robinson recommended Bottema and Henderson. Raleigh signed them. The Raleigh years were Bottema's most visible pro stretch: NBA pro finals across the circuit, a Jeff Bottema signature-series frame in the catalog, and the November 1979 and December 1981 BMX Action covers. In 1980, Bottema and Henderson became two of the first Americans invited to Europe to promote and demonstrate BMX racing.

Raleigh shut its BMX team down in mid-January 1981. Raleigh restarted its BMX program about a year later.

Mountain Dew — 1981

Through the spring and summer of 1981, Bottema toured the country on the Mountain Dew BMX exhibition team running race demos, freestyle shows, and safety clinics alongside Stu Thomsen, Perry Kramer, Harry Leary, Brent Patterson, Bob Haro, and R.L. Osborn.

Murray of Ohio — August 1981 to December 1983

Bottema signed with Murray in August 1981 and stayed for the rest of his competitive career. In May 1982 he stepped into the road-team-manager role at Murray while continuing to race. He spent his last two racing years primarily in the 24" Cruiser class. His September 1982 Total BMX cover — wearing an ABC television camera-equipped helmet at the 1982 Murray World Cup I — came out of this stretch.

The off-track injury, March 1984

On March 16, 1984, traveling with the Murray Bicycle road racing team in Dallas, Texas, Bottema was abducted and stabbed multiple times during a robbery. He went through two surgeries and multiple blood transfusions in critical condition at Parkland Memorial Hospital. The press reported him virtually fully recovered by September.

The 1987 Masters race — the comeback that started a class

On January 18, 1987, at the ABA Supernationals in San Bernardino, Scot Breithaupt staged what was called the 1st Annual Masters Series. The rules were strict: no frame newer than 1978, vintage uniforms and helmets. Bottema raced his old DG frame in his complete vintage DG kit and won the race. The race was meant as a one-off. It became the seed of the Veterans and Masters classes the ABA and NBL formalized in the early 1990s — classes that are still on today's USA BMX schedule.

The Bottema Bullet Fork

Bottema designed the original fork in 1978 and brought it to market in 1979 under his own company. Full brand story: Bottema Forks — the history of the Bullet Fork.

The first model — the M-1 Bullet Fork — was a tubular chromoly unicrown built around two ideas most race forks of the era did not pair: thicker tubing at .065 inches and longer leg tubes that extended roughly an inch below the dropouts. The combined result cut flex and gave the fork a profile no other product shared. Bottema tested it with Toby Henderson before he sold any. Once it shipped, the M-1 picked up its biggest following in an audience he hadn't designed it for — freestyle skatepark bowl riders. Jeff Watson and Eddie Fiola are the names most cited running M-1s.

A C-1 cruiser model followed in 1979; in early 1981 Bottema released the lighter M-2 racing model. In October 2020, Montreal-based American BMX Company signed a long-term licensing deal with Bottema to bring the fork back.

After racing

Bottema retired at the end of 1983 and moved to Nashville, taking an office position with Murray as Race Team coordinator and in-house BMX specialist. He left Murray in 1985, joined Lee World, then moved to Mor Distributing (maker of the Scootster scooter line). The fork company kept running through all of it.

Hall of Fame and legacy

The ABA inducted Bottema into the BMX Hall of Fame in 1990, recognized for both the racing career and the fork. What he put into BMX splits across two ledgers: a finals-grade pro across three factory programs in the sport's most competitive years, and one of the two or three most recognizable forks in BMX history, built as a working pro running his own company on the side.

Sources

Wikipedia, "Jeff Bottema." BMXmuseum.com, "Jeff 'Battling' Bottema" reference page. Rose Hills Memorial — Jeffery Bottema obituary (September 2025). Bicycle Motocross Action — February 1982. BMX Plus! — October 1982, May 1984, July 1984, December 1984. BMX Action — August 1982, May 1984, October 1986, December 1986, May 1987. Bicycle Motocross News — 1975 and 1976 issues. BMX Weekly — October 1976. Super BMX-Freestyle — May 1987. Bicycle Retailer and Industry News — "Race Inc.'s new owner plans to bring back the Bottema fork" (October 2020). USA BMX / ABA BMX Hall of Fame — Bottema 1990 inductee record. BMXmuseum.com Forums — "Jeff Bottema, the legend, RIP!!" memorial thread (September 2025).