LRP — The Frame That CW Killed. Pete Loncaravich and Bill Ryan Brought It Back. | Legend Bike Co
Legend Bike Co. — LRP
The Frame CW Killed.
We Brought It Back.
Pete "Pistol Pete" Loncaravich built LRP with his father before he ever won his first title. CW made him shut it down. Forty years later, it's finally finished.
Pete Loncaravich won the ABA #1 Pro plate four times across nearly a decade. He did it in CW colors — on a factory team that signed him on one condition: bury the brand he'd built with his own dad. The LRP frame got cut short before anyone found out what it could really do. This is us finishing it.
Pete didn't sit around waiting on a sponsor to make something happen. He'll tell you that himself. Back when he was riding for Diamond Back, he and his father were already out in the shop turning out parts — seatposts, pedal cages, hubs — and selling them under the name Loncaravich Racing Products. LRP wasn't some someday plan. It was a real company with a real product line, run by a kid who had zero interest in being handed anything.
By the time Pete turned pro he already had a frame on his mind. Diamond Back cut him loose — two pros on the team already, no room for a third — and he barely blinked. One race for SE, that was it. Then he and his dad sat down and drew up the LRP race frame from nothing.
The Record
Pete: My Dad and I Built LRP from Nothing
LRP didn't start as a frame company. It started with me and my father building parts. I was still racing for Diamond Back, still trying to figure out my next move, and we were already making seatposts and pedal cages and hubs by hand and selling them to real riders. That was LRP. It was up and running before most kids my age had even figured out what they wanted to do on a Saturday.
Then Diamond Back let me go. They had two pros on contract and no room for a third, and it didn't matter that the third one was me — that's just how it shook out. I went to SE for one race. One. And that was plenty to show me that sitting around hoping another team would decide what I was worth was not how this was going to go.
The geometry on the LRP frame came off the TW — one of Pete's first sponsors, back when he was 12. He didn't start from a blank sheet. He started from the bike that taught him how to race.
So my dad and I built the LRP race frame, and we built it off the geometry I'd been riding since I was a kid. None of it was theory. It came straight out of what I already knew worked under me. I rolled into the AA Pro class as one of the youngest guys out there, on a frame my dad and I designed ourselves, and I was right in the mix from the start. Nobody handed me a ride. I made the ride.
CW Wanted Pete. The Price Was LRP.
When CW came calling, they weren't putting me on the main factory team. They wanted me for Shadow — a smaller CW deal, basically a development program. It was a good offer. There was just the one catch. I had to shut down LRP to take it.
I took it. LRP went dark and I went to work for CW. You make the call you make at 19.
"He dominated so fast, they moved him straight up to Factory CW."— Bill Ryan, Legend Bike Co.
It didn't take me long on Shadow. I was winning enough, fast enough, that CW pulled me off the development side and put me on the main factory team. That's when the titles started landing. 1984. Then 1986. Then I went away for a while and the kids changed over and I came back and took it again in 1991 and 1992. Four ABA #1 Pro plates spread across almost ten years. I'm proud of that.
But LRP was gone the whole time. The titles were real and the frame my dad and I built — the one that put me in the pro class and got me the CW deal to begin with — never got to find out where it could have gone.
Four Number Ones
Still Racing. Still Winning.
The titles ended but the riding never did. This sport doesn't really let go of the people who grew up inside it. These last few years I've been back out on the track for the fun of it, racing Supercross BMX geometry. I'm not out there proving anything to anybody. I'm just doing the thing I've done my whole life.
Bill Ryan and I go back to when we were 14, racing out of the Orange Y in Southern California. That never went anywhere. So when I got back on a bike and LRP started coming up again — what it was, what it almost became, what it might still be — it turned out Bill had been chewing on the exact same thing.
Bill Ryan founded Supercross BMX, has 45 years in the sport, and has built enough frames to know one when he sees it. When Pete came back to racing on Supercross geometry and the LRP talk picked up, the road forward was plain to both of them.
The Modern LRP — Under the Legend Banner
Here's where I'll take it. I'm Bill. Pete and I sat down and did this one right. The modern LRP runs on the same Supercross geometry he's been racing — tightened up, dialed in — and we styled it after the original LRP frames. Same idea behind it. Better tubing. Forty years of stuff we know now that nobody knew the first time around.
We made it in three sizes — 20-inch, 24-inch cruiser, and 26-inch. Pete's career ran across every class and every age group, and the people who grew up watching him race that whole stretch ought to be able to ride something that covers all of it.
"A celebration of what could have been."— Pete Loncaravich on the modern LRP
The frames are here. They're shipping. This isn't a pre-order and it isn't a concept. Pete and I built it the same way he and his dad built the first one — you do the work, you put it out there, you let it ride.
The LRP Frames
Three sizes. All built on the geometry Pete has been racing. All carrying the name he had to put away when he was 19 years old.
The standard. Built on Supercross race geometry, chromoly tubing, styled to carry the LRP name the way Pete always intended it to look. Pete Loncaravich Signature.
Shop the 20" LRPPete raced cruiser. This is the 24-inch version for the riders who want the same geometry and the same name in the cruiser class. Pete Loncaravich Signature.
Shop the 24" LRPFor the riders who grew up watching Pete in the 80s and 90s and are back on a bike in a bigger wheel class. The LRP name. The right geometry. Pete Loncaravich Signature.
Shop the 26" LRPThe Full Legend Bike Co. Story
Eddie Fiola. Pete Loncaravich. Bill Ryan. Three careers that shaped what BMX became — and one company built to honor where it came from.
Meet the Founders Shop All FramesAbout LRP and Pete Loncaravich
What is LRP?
LRP stands for Loncaravich Racing Products. Pete Loncaravich and his father started LRP as a small parts company — making seatposts, pedal cages, and hubs — while Pete was still riding for Diamond Back. They later designed a race frame, which Pete rode to the top of the AA Pro class before CW signed him and required him to shut the brand down.
Why did Pete have to shut down LRP?
When CW signed Pete to ride for Shadow — a small CW subsidiary — part of the deal was that he had to close LRP. Pete agreed. He then dominated so quickly that CW moved him up to the factory team, where he went on to win four ABA #1 Pro titles: 1984, 1986, 1991, and 1992.
How many ABA #1 Pro titles did Pete Loncaravich win?
Four: 1984, 1986, 1991, and 1992. That makes him one of the most decorated racers in BMX history, with titles spread across nearly a decade and two distinct eras of the sport.
What is the modern LRP frame?
The modern LRP is a collaboration between Pete Loncaravich and Legend Bike Co. co-founder Bill Ryan. Built on the Supercross BMX geometry Pete has been racing in recent years, and styled in the visual language of the original LRP frames, it comes in 20-inch, 24-inch cruiser, and 26-inch sizes. The frames are in stock and shipping now.
Who is Bill Ryan and how does he connect to Pete?
Bill Ryan is the founder of Supercross BMX and co-founder of Legend Bike Co. He and Pete Loncaravich have been friends since they were 14 years old, racing out of the Orange Y in Southern California. When Pete started racing again and the LRP conversations came back up, Bill was the obvious partner to bring it to life.
Historical BMX racing records sourced from BMXmuseum.com. ABA championship years confirmed by Pete Loncaravich and Bill Ryan, May 2026.