Mike King
"The Snake" — Three ABA National No.1 Titles, a Clipless-Pedal First, and a Trip to Two Olympics as a Coach
A Legend Bike Co. rider page · researched from period BMX magazine coverage, Wikipedia's sourced rider record, and USA BMX's own Hall of Fame history
At a glance
Full name Michael Allen King
Born June 30, 1969, Washington, D.C.
Nickname "The Snake"
Teams Wheels 'n' Things, Torker, Huffy, Haro, Redline, Balance Cycles, GT Bicycles
National titles 1984 & 1987 ABA National No.1 Amateur · 1988 ABA National No.1 Pro
Hall of Fame National BMX Hall of Fame (1999) · U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame (2013)
Known for The King brothers, a clipless-pedal first alongside Brian Lopes, a Mountain Bike World Championship, and running Team USA's BMX program at two Olympics
Mike King spent his first few seasons racing in the shadow of his older brother. By the time he was done, he had three ABA National No.1 plates, a Mountain Bike World Championship, a spot in two Halls of Fame, and a second career picking the riders who'd represent the United States at the Olympics. Not many BMX careers cover that much ground.
Coming Up Behind His Brother
King started racing BMX on June 29, 1975, one day shy of his sixth birthday, at the Silver Wing BMX track in San Diego — about six and a half months after his older brother Eddy King had started at the same track. The King brothers became one of the more respected sibling combinations in the sport, and for years Mike rode in the shadow of Eddy's longer, more established career. He dropped in and out of national racing more than once as a kid — a year and a half off through most of 1981, another six-month break in 1983 — before coming back for good at the November 1983 ABA Fall Nationals. "When I was 13 I decided I wanted to make BMX my career," he told American BMXer in July 1985.
Huffy, Two Amateur No.1 Titles, and a Ski Boat
King rode for Torker as a young amateur in 1980 and 1981, then moved through Bicycle Parts Pacific/Dirt Slinger before landing at Huffy Corporation in March 1984. Huffy is where he broke through: the 1984 ABA National No.1 Amateur title, won as a 15 Expert. In 1985 he was still on Huffy, racing alongside teammates Brent Romero and Gary Ellis — the same Huffy lineup our Brent Romero page covers from Romero's side. King picked up the ABA Amateur No.1 plate again in 1987, becoming only the second rider in BMX history to hold two No.1 Amateur titles. The prize that year was the biggest amateur payout the ABA had ever handed out: a ski boat.
Turning Pro on Haro, Back-to-Back No.1s
King moved to Haro Designs/Bicycles in April 1986 and turned pro there in December 1987 at eighteen. His first pro season, 1988, is the one BMX record-keepers still point to: he was named BMX Action's professional Rookie of the Year, then went out and won the ABA National No.1 Pro title in the same season — becoming the first rider in ABA history to go from No.1 Amateur to No.1 Pro back-to-back, a feat that wasn't matched again until 1996. He was also only the third rider in BMX history to win a No.1 Pro title in his rookie professional season. He did it hurt, too: he broke his ankle and tore ligaments in a crash at the 1988 ABA Grand Nationals in Oklahoma City, then came back to finish second in the deciding main and clinch the plate anyway.
On the international side, King picked up NBL and IBMXF titles through the mid-1980s — Murray World Cup wins in 1985 and 1986, the 1987 Vision Street Wear World Cup, and the 1987 Supercross World Championship — and later won the 1988 "King of Bercy" title at the Paris BMX invitational. He left Haro on bad terms in 1990 (the two sides didn't patch things up until around 2000), then rode for Redline (1991–92), Balance Cycles (1993), and GT Bicycles (1994 into the late '90s), picking up ABA Pro Cruiser Grandnational titles in 1994 and 1995 along the way.
October 1995 — Clipless Pedals with Brian Lopes
On October 21, 1995, at the ABA Fall Nationals in Burbank, California, King and Brian Lopes became the first riders to race a BMX national on clipless pedals — borrowing the locked-in pedal system from mountain biking. It wasn't universally popular; old-school racers argued for years that clipless pedals took away a rider's ability to free a foot in a tight turn, and it would be the end of the decade before most of the pro field followed King and Lopes onto them. King later said his real motivation was more practical than trend-setting: the ABA had introduced a pro time trial in 1995, and locked-in pedals helped there before they ever helped him in a turn.
From the BMX Gate to a World Championship Downhill
King moved into mountain bike racing in 1993 and barely slowed down. His rookie season he won the NORBA Dual Slalom National Championship and the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Championship in Métabief, France — a BMX National No.1 turning around and winning a World title on knobby tires in his first year on them. He spent the next several seasons on GT, taking a bronze medal in downhill at the 1995 World Championships, then closed out his racing career with Haro before stepping away from full-time competition in the mid-2000s.
Running Team USA's BMX Program
In January 2007, USA Cycling hired King as its BMX Program Director, tasked with building the team that would represent the United States at BMX's Olympic debut. He led Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics, and Team USA brought home three Olympic BMX medals across that span, including Mike Day's silver and Donny Robinson's bronze in the sport's first-ever Olympic BMX final at Beijing. King still lives in the sport today: he's the BMX Supervisor at the Novant Health BMX Supercross facility in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and holds consulting and brand-ambassador roles with Vee Tire Co., Felt Bicycles, Turbine, and XRCEL.
Our own Brian Lopes page and History of BMX hub date the King-Lopes clipless-pedal first to October 21, 1995, at the ABA Fall Nationals in Burbank, and we've kept this page consistent with that record. Wikipedia's Mike King entry dates the same event to October 22, 1994, citing BMX Plus! February 1995 (Vol. 18, No. 2, pg. 26) — a magazine reporting in February 1995 on a race that already happened fits an October 1994 date better than an October 1995 one. We're flagging the discrepancy rather than silently picking a side; it's worth a second look before it's repeated further. Separately, sources vary slightly on King's 1993–94 sponsor timeline: Wikipedia's team list has him on Balance Cycles in 1993 and GT from 1994, while USA BMX's own Hall of Fame writeup places the Balance Cycles season in '94. And the exact tally of which riders won which of Team USA's three Olympic BMX medals under King's coaching (2008 and 2012) isn't detailed in the sources checked here.
Where Mike King fits in the bigger story
Riders: Eddy King, Brian Lopes, Brent Romero, Billy Griggs. Brands: Torker, Haro, Redline, GT Bicycles. Sanctions: ABA, NBL, IBMXF, USA BMX. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Mike King (BMX rider)" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_King_(BMX_rider)) — a heavily footnoted rider record citing period BMX Plus!, American BMXer, Super BMX, and ABA Action coverage from 1981 through 1997; used here for the amateur/pro sponsor timeline, national and international titles, injuries, and the clipless-pedal background. USA BMX, Hall of Fame — "Mike King" (usabmx.com/about/hall-of-fame/1122), 1999 induction bio confirming the three ABA No.1 titles and the back-to-back Amateur-to-Pro record. Mountain Bike Action, "The Bridge From BMX to Mountain Biking" by Ron Koch, October 22, 2021 (mbaction.com/the-bridge-from-bmx) — King's mountain bike career, GT and Haro years, and his current role at Rock Hill. oldschoolmags.com period magazine scans referencing King (BMX Action January 1986, Super BMX March 1987, BMX Action April 1988, BMX Plus! October 1988, GO May 1991) — checked for corroboration, snippets only. bmxsociety.com — searched directly for independent Mike King coverage; no results returned at the time of research. Our own Brian Lopes, Brent Romero, and Donny Robinson pages (Legend Bike Co.) — cross-checked for the 1985 Huffy teammate detail, the October 1995 clipless-pedal date, and the 2008 Beijing podium result.