Kiyomi Waller

Original Supercross BMX TECH Team Rider and Three-Time Pro Cruiser National No. 1

A Legend Bike Co. rider page · primary sources: Bill Ryan and the public BMX record

At a glance

Nicknames "Yo-Yo" · "The Coyote"
Born December 21, 1967 — Oceanside, California
Scene San Diego, then Southern California, 1977 to 1999, then 2005 onward
Teams PeddlePower · Hustler/Crupi · Redline · Haro Designs · Haro/Crupi · Parkpre Bicycles · Trek · Haro Bicycles · GT Bicycles · Avent/Bombshell — plus TECH Racing Team
Known for One of the five original Supercross BMX TECH Racing Team riders Bill Ryan founded the brand to sponsor in 1989; three-time ABA/NBL Pro Cruiser National No. 1

Kiyomi Waller raced BMX for the better part of three decades, under two nicknames, on nine different factory programs, and came out the other side with three national Pro Cruiser titles to his name. He is also one of five riders who, without quite meaning to, talked Bill Ryan into building his own bike company. Most riders get one of those stories. Waller has both.

Camp Pendleton to the Gate, 1977-1979

Waller grew up at Camp Pendleton near Oceanside, California, with his mother and brother. He discovered BMX in 1977 and started racing in 1979, at eleven years old, at Lakeside in the San Diego area — a scene that also had him racing regularly at Rancho and Kearny. His first race bike was a Diamond Back, his first result was a second place with no ribbon or trophy, and his first sponsor was Hidden Valley Bicycles in Escondido. He raced in the NBA's San Diego District "S" before the district structure shifted over to the ABA. A local shop rider named Shawn Texas gave him the "Yo-Yo" nickname, pulled from the third and fourth letters of his first name — Ki-YO-mi.

Amateur Years and a TECH Racing Team Spot, 1979-1991

Waller picked up a co-sponsorship from Torker around 1980, riding support alongside factory rider Eddy King, a rider he looked up to at the time. He quit racing for four years after the 1984 season, went to school, worked, and came back to it in the late 1980s in the 17-and-over expert class, picking up rides with Hidden Valley again, then PeddlePower.

It was during this stretch, in 1989, that Waller rode for TECH Racing Team, Bill Ryan's small factory program built around his TECH Racing Pants apparel brand. Per Bill Ryan's own firsthand account, Waller was one of five riders on that roster — alongside Billy Harrison, Brian Lopes, Glenn Pavlosky, and Brian "Bogi" Givens — that Bill Ryan built the first Supercross frame to sponsor when none of the outside frame brands could keep the team supplied. Waller was also among the riders doing gate starts out back of Bill's shop, alongside Pete Loncarevich, Eric Carter, and Billy Griggs, whose flexing rear triangles on every gate launch are what led Bill Ryan to design the secondary seat stay that became the first Supercross frame's signature feature. That frame, and the company built to sell it, launched in 1989 — the same year Waller rode for the team.

On the amateur results sheet, 1989 was also the year Waller won the 17 & Over Boys Southern California State Championship and finished National No. 3 in 17 & Over Expert. He moved through Hustler/Crupi Parts, then briefly Redline, before landing on Haro Designs in April 1990, where he stayed into his pro debut. As an amateur cruiser racer he was hard to beat: ABA 21-25 Cruiser Grand National Champion in both 1990 and 1991, 21-25 Cruiser No. 1 in the ABA's National Age Group ranking in 1990, and National Amateur No. 8 for 1991.

Turning Pro, January 1992

Waller turned pro in January 1992 on Haro/Crupi. His first pro race was a rough one — eighth and last place in A Pro at the pre-race Friday night of the ABA Winter Nationals — but his first pro win came soon after, in A Pro at the ABA Summer Nationals in Sunol, California. BMX Plus! named him one of the ten hottest and fastest rookie pros of 1992, a fair read on a rider who'd go on to hold three separate national No. 1 rankings before he was through.

Three-Time Pro Cruiser National No. 1

From 1994 to July 1996 Waller rode for Parkpre Bicycles, where he also worked as the brand's bike designer and engineer — not just a sponsored rider but a hand in what the team raced. He moved to Trek in mid-1996, then to Haro Bicycles in October 1997, riding out the rest of his top-level career there into early 1999.

The titles stacked up across that stretch: ABA Pro Cruiser National No. 1 in 1995, 1997, and 1998; NBL Pro Cruiser Grand National Champion in both 1997 and 1998; NBL Pro Cruiser National No. 1 in 1997. At the 1998 ABA Northwest Nationals in Sumner, Washington, he took first in AA Pro on day one and second on day two — the kind of weekend that defined his run at the top of Pro Cruiser.

Two Retirements and a Return

Haro dropped Waller in early 1999. He paid his own way to a few more races before retiring that July — his second retirement, after the four-year break he'd taken in the mid-1980s. He stayed out of competitive racing for six years, until mid-2005, when he came back to race Veteran's Pro and Master's class for GT Bicycles, finishing 2005 as NBL Elite Masters National No. 3. In 2006 he moved to Avent/Bombshell, won the NBL Masters Elite National No. 1 ranking and the NBL 30 & Over Open Wheels Grand National Championship, and kept racing masters-level events for years after.

These days Waller works at Magnaflow in San Diego, where he has been for more than 25 years, and rides motocross when he's not at work.

Where the public record runs thin

The TECH Racing Team roster and the gate-start detail behind the first Supercross frame come directly from Bill Ryan's own firsthand account and are not independently corroborated in the period magazine record checked for this page — Waller's own published race history (built from period issues of BMX Action, American BMXer, BMX Plus!, and Go) documents his bike sponsors year by year but does not list TECH or Supercross among them, which is not a contradiction: TECH supplied racing pants and number plates as a co-sponsorship layered on top of a rider's primary bike sponsor, not a frame deal. oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com were checked for independent period coverage of Waller specifically; neither returned results beyond general BMX archive material at the time of research. He does not appear in the USA BMX Hall of Fame inductee list checked for this page.

Where Kiyomi Waller fits in the bigger story

Riders: Billy Harrison, Brian Lopes, Glenn Pavlosky, Brian "Bogi" Givens, Pete Loncarevich, Eric Carter, Billy Griggs, Greg Hill. Brands: Torker, Redline, TECH BMX Products, Supercross BMX. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.

Sources

Bill Ryan, founder of Supercross BMX — first-hand recollection of the TECH Racing Team roster, the gate-start sessions behind the shop, and the founding of Supercross BMX in 1989 (primary source), as published on his own Legend Bike Co. page and on Supercross BMX's company history page. Kiyomi Waller, published race record (Wikipedia, compiled from period issues of BMX Action, American BMXer, BMX Plus!, and Go magazines, and ABA/NBL national rankings) — birth date, amateur and pro sponsor timeline, and national titles. BMX Weekly, "Podcast – Kiyomi Waller" (2024) — childhood at Camp Pendleton, discovering BMX in 1977, first race in 1979, and his current work and riding status. oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com were checked for independent period coverage of Waller; neither returned results beyond general BMX archive material at the time of research.