Mike Redman — "Redbone," Bassett Bikes, MRC, and Redman Bikes
Mike Redman
"Redbone" — Bassett Bikes, MRC, and Redman Bikes
A Legend Bike Co. rider and builder page · researched from Bill Ryan's first-hand account, Legend Bike Co.'s own Bassett Bikes history, period BMX press, and the BMX industry's own tributes on Mike Redman's passing
At a glance
Name Mike Redman, known throughout BMX as "Redbone"
Home base Southern California — Orange County, then Lake Perris
Racing era BMX racer from the 1970s
Companies Bassett Bikes (licensed 1985, his first company) → MRC / Mike Redman Concepts (1986 onward) → Redman Bikes (frame brand and factory team)
Known for The BMX starting-gate cadence used at tracks worldwide is his voice; building the Redman/Yamaha WaveRunner factory team with Richard Huvard; operating Coal Canyon BMX and Grand Prix BMX in Lake Perris, California
Hall of Fame National BMX Hall of Fame, Lifetime Achievement, Class of 2023 (posthumous)
Died June 17, 2023
Bill Ryan knew Mike Redman from the Bassett year — that connection is on this site's Bassett Bikes chapter, where Bill's first-hand account carries the story of how the company wound down. This page follows Mike from there through the rest of a BMX life that touched nearly every part of the sport: racer, team owner, frame builder, track operator, and — most widely known of all — the voice that starts every BMX race.
A Racer Since the 1970s
Every tribute written about Mike Redman after his death starts in the same place: he was in BMX racing from the 1970s on, "all-the-way-in on every aspect" of the sport, in the words of BMX News editor Mike Carruth. He raced, and he raced well enough that people who worked alongside him describe him plainly as a pro racer. What's thin in the record is the ledger — plate number, class, national results from those early years. Nothing in the sources checked for this page pins that down, and it's boxed as an open question below.
1985 — Bassett Bikes, His First Company
In early 1985, Mike Redman licensed the Bassett family name from Doug Bassett and ran it as his first BMX company for one calendar year. He put a factory team on the track — Denny Davidow, Shawn Texas, Dave Cullinan, and Redman himself — and raced alongside them. When the liability insurance bill came due that summer, the company couldn't carry it, and Redman closed the doors. The full story, including the team and the wind-down, is on this site's Bassett Bikes chapter. It was the founding chapter of everything that came after — the first time Redman sat in the owner's chair, ran a team, and put his own name on a frame deal.
MRC — Mike Redman Concepts
Redman didn't sit out long. By early 1986 he had his second company running: MRC — Mike Redman Concepts. Its first public mark on the sport is on the record — MRC was the title sponsor of the YMCA BMX Pro Series, four straight Wednesday-night pro races at the Orange YMCA BMX track in Orange, California, across February and March 1986. Shawn Texas, the same rider who'd been on Redman's Bassett team the spring before, won the series.
MRC and what people came to call the Redman Factory Tribe turned into a proving ground for young BMX talent over the years that followed. Riders who came up through Redman's programs and went on to become some of the sport's top pros include Pete Loncarevich, Eric Carter, and X Games medalist John Whipperman.
Redman Bikes
Where MRC was the company, Redman Bikes is the name most riders came to know — the frame brand and the factory team both. The earliest documented Redman-branded race frame is the Redman Warrior, produced in a small batch around 1999 to 2000 and tested by riders Ion Stoffel and Danny Harper; a Warrior II was advertised in the January 2001 issue of BMX Plus! Whether Technique built the Warrior frames for Redman or Redman built them himself isn't settled in the collector record — both accounts exist, and this page isn't picking one over the other.
In 2000, Redman partnered with longtime friend and rival team manager Richard Huvard to build one of the strongest race programs in BMX. The next year they signed Yamaha Watercraft as a co-title sponsor, creating the Redman/Yamaha WaveRunner team — one of the most recognizable team names BMX ever had. The team and its sponsors went on to win back-to-back ABA World Champion and National No.1 Factory Team titles. Across its run, the Redman program collected four National No.1 Factory Team titles and three National No.1 Trophy Team titles. Corben Sharrah rode for the Redman program for about ten years before moving on in the mid-2010s — a measure of how long Redman kept top talent in his tent.
In spring 2005 — twenty years after Redman managed his first race team and built his first BMX bike, back in the Bassett year — Redman Bikes introduced the next generation of its race frame, the Redman Tomahawk, which stayed in the brand's lineup for years afterward.
Two Tracks and a National Microphone
Redman operated two Southern California BMX tracks over his career: Coal Canyon BMX and Grand Prix BMX in Lake Perris, California — a track where, by every account, the country's top elite racers showed up on any given Sunday. He trained thousands of local-level BMX racers at clinics over the years, from total novices to future Olympic gold medalists, and by every account people sought him out as much for his friendship as his coaching.
And he announced. For decades, Redman called BMX races nationally for the ABA, USA BMX, and the UCI — hundreds of national events, and thousands more at the local level. His voice is the one on the starting-gate cadence used at BMX tracks worldwide, a piece of BMX's everyday soundtrack that outlives any single race he called.
June 2023
Mike Redman died on June 17, 2023, from complications of a stroke he'd suffered days earlier. His family and closest friends were with him; his adult children, Austin and Tallon, were at his side as he passed. His longtime friend and team-running partner Richard Huvard, of Daylight Cycles, wrote a public tribute the day Redman died, calling him "an absolute legend who was arguably the greatest announcer in our sport" and, in the same message, simply "my best friend." BMX tracks around the country dropped an empty gate in tribute the week after.
That October, the National BMX Hall of Fame inducted Redman into its Class of 2023 as a Lifetime Achievement honoree — one of three inductees honored posthumously that year — for his full career: racer, track operator, owner and manufacturer of Redman Bikes, trainer, and national announcer for the ABA, USA BMX, and the UCI.
Where the public record runs thin
Mike Redman's own racing career — his plate number, his class, his national results in the 1970s and into the 1980s — isn't documented with specifics in the sources checked for this page; every account calls him a racer and a pro racer without naming a result. His birth date and hometown, beyond "Southern California" and, later, "Orange County," aren't pinned down either. The exact date MRC was formally stood up is open — Bassett wound down in summer 1985, and MRC was sponsoring races by February 1986, but nothing closer than that surfaced. The exact founding date of Redman Bikes as a distinct frame brand is also open: the earliest documented model is the Warrior, around 1999 to 2000, but whether the brand name predates that model isn't settled. The collector record is split on who physically built the early Redman Warrior frames — Technique building them for Redman, or Redman building them himself — and this page hasn't resolved that either way. The years Redman ran Coal Canyon BMX aren't dated in what we found. If you have a dated period ad, a magazine feature, or firsthand knowledge that fills any of this in, the invitation at the bottom of this page stands.
Where Mike Redman fits in the bigger story
Companies: Bassett Bikes. Riders who rode for him or came up through his programs: Denny Davidow, Dave Cullinan, Shawn Texas, Pete Loncarevich, Eric Carter. Sanctions he raced and announced under: ABA, NBL, USA BMX. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.
Sources
Bill Ryan, founder of Supercross BMX — first-hand recollection of Mike Redman and the Bassett year, as published on this site's Bassett Bikes chapter. Mike Carruth, "Remembering Mike Redman," BMX News, June 23, 2023 (bmxnews.com/2023/06/23/remembering-mike-redman) — primary obituary text, including Richard Huvard's tribute message, the stroke, the starting-gate cadence, and the "Redbone" name. PULL BMX, "Mike 'Redbone' Redman," June 17, 2023 (pullbmx.com/post/mike-redbone-redman) — the day-of tribute, confirming Redman's role as a pro racer and multi-facility track operator, and naming his children Austin and Tallon. PULL BMX, "Eight BMX Legends," October 6, 2023 (pullbmx.com/post/eight-bmx-legends) — 2023 Hall of Fame Class writeup, Orange County home base, the four National No.1 Factory Team and three National No.1 Trophy Team titles. USA BMX, "2023 BMX Hall of Fame Inductees," July 14, 2023 (usabmx.com) — official Hall of Fame announcement naming Redman a Lifetime Achievement inductee and confirming Coal Canyon BMX and Grand Prix BMX in Perris, CA as the two tracks he operated. BMXmuseum.com, Redman Cycles brand page (bmxmuseum.com/bikes/redman_cycles) — MRC and the Redman Factory Tribe, the 2000 Huvard partnership, the 2001 Yamaha Watercraft co-sponsorship, the Redman/Yamaha WaveRunner name, the 2005 Redman Tomahawk launch, and the riders (Loncarevich, Carter, Whipperman) who came up through the program. BMXmuseum.com forum threads, "Redman Warrior info?" and associated Warrior listings — the production window (circa 1999–2000), the Technique-versus-Redman build question, and the January 2001 BMX Plus! Warrior II ad. Richard Huvard, Daylight Cycle Co., company heritage page (daylightcycles.com/heritage) — Huvard's own account of becoming a partner at Redman Bikes in 2000, team-managing the Redman/Yamaha WaveRunner program, and Corben Sharrah's roughly ten years riding for the Redman program before leaving in the mid-2010s. Our own Bassett Bikes page (Legend Bike Co.) — primary source for the 1985 licensing, the factory team, and the insurance wind-down. oldschoolmags.com — checked directly; period Bassett-brand product tests turned up (from the pre-Redman family-era Bassett, already covered on our Bassett Bikes page), but no period MRC or Redman Bikes ad scans surfaced in the material accessible through search at the time of research. bmxsociety.com — searched directly for independent Mike Redman, MRC, or Redman Bikes coverage; no results returned beyond general community-forum indexes at the time of research.
If you raced for Mike Redman — on Bassett, in the MRC days, or for the Redman/Yamaha WaveRunner factory team — trained with him at Coal Canyon or Grand Prix BMX, or worked alongside him at the microphone, we'd like to hear from you. Write in.