Did Lonnie Tatton ever turn pro?

No. He was an amateur for his entire racing career. Super BMX ran an item headed "Privateer Pro" in November 1987, and earlier versions of this page read those two words as a rider classification. They were not. Privateer was a frame brand built out of the Peddlepower bike shop in Orange, California, Pro was the frame size, and the item was a bike test with Tatton as the test rider (Bill Ryan, firsthand, 2026). Tatton later rode for Privateer and finished his career on the brand, so the test reads now as a rider trying a frame he would go on to race. Bill Ryan states that Tatton never turned pro, never held a pro plate, and never raced a pro class.

What was the Super BMX "Privateer Pro" item?

A bike test. Privateer was a BMX frame brand run out of the Peddlepower bike shop in Orange, California, and Pro was the size of the frame. Lonnie Tatton was the test rider on the Pro-size Privateer for Super BMX in November 1987 (Bill Ryan, firsthand, 2026). The heading was a product name and a size, not a rider category. Tatton went on to ride for Privateer and finished his career on the brand, so the test now looks like an early meeting between a rider and a frame he would later race.

Did Lonnie Tatton ride for a team?

Yes. Bill Ryan, firsthand in 2026, gives the whole chain: Pro Neck first, then SE Racing, then a brief stint with Answer Racing, and finally Privateer, Rob Lynch's brand, where he finished his career. He is also identified in SE Bikes' own archive photos alongside SE Racing riders Rod Beckering and Bubba Hayes, and SE factory rider Mike Lynch recalled Tatton traveling with the team's touring group. No period team roster or advertisement naming him has turned up for Pro Neck or SE.

What happened to Lonnie Tatton after he stopped racing?

He settled in Tujunga in Los Angeles' northeast San Fernando Valley, stayed close to BMX by helping build dirt jumps with friends, and died of heart failure in early December 2015 at age 45.

Lonnie Tatton

Q: Who was Lonnie Tatton?

Lonnie Tatton was a Southern California BMX racer of the 1980s. He never turned pro — he raced as an amateur for his whole career. He rode for Pro Neck first, then for SE Racing, then briefly for Answer Racing, and he finished his career on Privateer, Rob Lynch's brand. He appeared in Super BMX magazine's November 1987 issue and in a widely shared BMX Action spread, and he raced the 1987 Vision Street Wear World Cup in Irvine, California.

A Southern California Amateur Racer of the 1980s

A Legend Bike Co. rider page · researched from period magazine archives, BMX community memory, and the SE Racing record, and corrected on the record by Bill Ryan, firsthand, 2026

At a glance

Born December 29, 1969
Died Early December 2015, Los Angeles, age 45
Scene Southern California, mid-to-late 1980s
Class Amateur — he never turned pro (Bill Ryan, firsthand, 2026)
Rode for Pro Neck first, then SE Racing, then Answer Racing briefly, and finally Privateer — Rob Lynch's brand — where he finished his career (Bill Ryan, firsthand, 2026)
Known for Riding the mid-to-late 1980s Southern California circuit against the fastest company in the state, a run at the 1987 Vision Street Wear World Cup, and his time with the SE Racing touring crew

Lonnie Tatton raced BMX through the middle and back half of Southern California's 1980s scene, and he raced it as an amateur. He never turned pro. He rode for Pro Neck first, then for SE Racing, then briefly for Answer Racing, and he finished his career on Privateer, the brand Rob Lynch built. Along the way he lined up in mains that also held Eric Carter and Glenn Pavlosky. Staying amateur is a plain fact of a lot of BMX careers — plenty of the sport's best riders never turned pro — and it is simply how Tatton's ran. He's remembered less for a trophy case than for showing up, race after race, against the best riders of his era.

An Amateur in a Loaded Field

Super BMX magazine put Tatton in its November 1987 issue under a "Privateer Pro" heading. Those two words are not a rider classification. They are a frame and a size. Privateer was the frame brand built out of the Peddlepower bike shop in Orange, California, and Pro was the size of the frame on test. Tatton was the test rider (Bill Ryan, firsthand, 2026).

Earlier versions of this page read that heading as a race class and described Tatton as a pro throughout. A frame model and a frame size sitting side by side in a magazine headline look exactly like a rider category to anyone who wasn't around the shop at the time, and that is how a product test came to be filed as a result. Corrected, it removes the one item that ever appeared to sit against Bill Ryan's account. Bill Ryan, firsthand, 2026: Tatton never turned pro, never held a pro plate, never raced a pro class, and was an amateur his whole career.

The frame has a history of its own. Peddlepower turned out three brands from one counter in Orange — the SR frame, Powerlite, and then Privateer under Rob Lynch — and that story is told in our chapter on the bike shops that made BMX. Tatton's connection to the brand did not stop at the magazine. He rode for Privateer later on, and it is where his career finished (Bill Ryan, firsthand, 2026). Read from that end, the November 1987 test looks less like an unconnected rider borrowing a frame for a photo shoot and more like a first meeting with a bike he would go on to race.

He also turned up in a two-page BMX Action spread from that stretch of the decade, pictured alongside fellow racers Danny Millwee and Mike Kiniyalocts. A surviving race photo from the period shows him gating in a main under plate #9, with Millwee's #12 alongside him. The class that main was run in isn't recorded with the photo.

That level of competition wasn't a one-off. At the 1987 Vision Street Wear World Cup in Irvine, California, Tatton lined up in a field that also included Mike King, Eric Carter, Billy Ow, Danny Millwee, Glenn Pavlosky, and James Dean. Which class he rode there isn't documented; on Bill Ryan's account it was an amateur one, because Tatton never raced a pro class.

Pro Neck, SE Racing, Answer Racing, Privateer

Bill Ryan's account sets the order, start to finish: Pro Neck first, then SE Racing, then a short run with Answer Racing, and Privateer at the end. Pro Neck was Mike Scurto Sr.'s Pomona, California operation — the company that grew out of the Tuf-Neck stem and went on to build the National Pro frame. Earlier versions of this page named SE only, and put nothing ahead of it or after it.

The SE side has its own paper trail. SE Bikes' own archive has resurfaced period photos of Tatton alongside SE Racing riders Rod "Bronco" Beckering and Bubba Hayes, captioned by SE itself as "BMX roots." Separately, Mike Lynch — an SE factory rider on the team's famous touring bus in the mid-1980s — recalled Tatton being part of that traveling group in an interview years later, describing a prank Hayes and Beckering pulled on him mid-tour. What no source turned up for this page is a team roster or advertisement naming Tatton for either brand, so the order and the rides themselves rest on Bill's firsthand account.

After SE came Answer Racing, and it was brief. Bill Ryan's description of the stint is that it lasted a minute. No years are attached to it on this page, because none were given and nothing in the sources searched fixes them. Answer does not yet have a chapter in this library.

The last ride is the one that closes a circle. Tatton finished his career on Privateer, the brand Rob Lynch built during his Peddlepower years in Orange, California (Bill Ryan, firsthand, 2026). The frame Super BMX handed him for a test in November 1987 turned out to be the frame he ended up racing. Nothing on this page dates that ride either.

After Racing

Tatton settled in Tujunga, in the northeast corner of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, and stayed close to the sport that shaped him — building dirt jumps with friends at a local trail spot rather than chasing a comeback. He died of heart failure in early December 2015, weeks short of his 46th birthday. He was survived by his parents, Jean and Ron; his partner, Laurie; his daughter, Vera; and his stepdaughter, Jessika. Friends held a gathering for him at the jumps he'd helped build.

Where the public record runs thin

Tatton's national number, his full results ledger, and the exact years he raced are not documented in the period magazine archives or databases checked for this page. His class is settled — Bill Ryan, firsthand, 2026: amateur, start to finish, never pro — and the Super BMX "Privateer Pro" heading, once the only apparent evidence against it, turns out to be a frame model and a frame size. What is not settled is which amateur classes he rode, and in which years. The old open question on this page, whether SE Racing ever actually sponsored him or he simply rode along with the crew, is answered by Bill's account: he rode for them, with Pro Neck before and Answer Racing and Privateer after. The full chain rests on that account alone. No period document naming Tatton has turned up for any of the four brands — no roster, no advertisement, no catalog page for Pro Neck or SE in the sources searched, and nothing at all for the Answer or Privateer rides. No years are recorded here for either of those last two, because none were given. oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com were both searched directly for his name and returned no dedicated coverage beyond what's cited here. This page is built on Super BMX, BMX Action, SE Bikes' own social archive, BMX community recollection, and Bill Ryan's firsthand correction — not a period results database.

Where Lonnie Tatton fits in the bigger story

Riders: Eric Carter · Glenn Pavlosky · Danny Millwee · Mike King · Rod Beckering. Brands: Pro Neck · Tuf-Neck · SE Racing · Powerlite · Answer Racing, which does not yet have a chapter here. Shops: The Bike Shops That Made BMX, and Rob Lynch, who built the Privateer out of Peddlepower and gave Tatton his last ride. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.

Sources

Bill Ryan, founder of Supercross BMX and co-owner of Legend Bike Co., firsthand, 2026 — corrected this page's central claim and supplied the full sponsor chain. Tatton never turned pro and was an amateur his whole career. He rode for Pro Neck, then SE Racing, then Answer Racing for a short stretch, and he finished his career on Privateer, Rob Lynch's brand, during Lynch's Peddlepower years. Bill also identified the Super BMX "Privateer Pro" item as a bike test rather than a rider classification: Privateer was a frame made by the Peddlepower bike shop, Pro was the frame size, and Tatton was the test rider. Those corrections lead the page, and they remove what this page had previously recorded as a conflict. Super BMX, November 1987 issue — bike test of the Pro-size Privateer frame, run under the heading "Privateer Pro" (referenced via BMX community archive posts). BMX Action magazine — two-page spread pairing Tatton with Danny Millwee and Mike Kiniyalocts (referenced via BMX community archive posts). SE Bikes' own social media archive — period photo of Tatton with Rod Beckering and Bubba Hayes. BMXNJ.com, "Broken Spokes" interview with Mike Lynch — SE Racing touring-crew recollection naming Tatton. Jessika Bee, "Lonnie's Memorial Fund," GoFundMe, December 2015 — birth date, death circumstances, and survivors. Lonnie Tatton memorial page, Facebook. oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com were both searched directly for this page; neither returned dedicated Tatton coverage beyond the items cited above.

Country/region