R&R Racing Products
A Legend Bike Co. BMX history chapter · researched from bicycle-industry and museum archives
R&R Racing Products never became a household BMX name the way Mongoose or Redline did. What it left behind instead is a start: two future professional racers, Harry Leary and Jeff Kosmala, both rode an R&R before anyone outside their local track knew who they were. Here's what the record shows about the brand that gave them that start.
What R&R actually was
R&R Racing Products was a BMX bike and parts brand out of North Hollywood, California, documented in the record from at least 1975 into 1978. The plan behind it, according to a period account written by bicycle-industry figure Howie Cohen, was to build a line of BMX bikes and related products and sell them direct to bicycle dealers - skipping the distributor layer that most of the early brands relied on. R&R Racing Products bikes turn up often enough in collector circles today that BMXmuseum.com's own archive holds close to fifty of them, a working sign of how much the brand actually shipped in its short run.
Rick Varner, his father, and the North Hollywood shop
The company was run by Rick Varner and his father. Cohen's account puts him meeting with the two of them in January 1977 at their North Hollywood facility to talk over business, and a follow-up letter dated May 2, 1977 was addressed directly to Rick Varner at R&R. The same account names Bruce Varner, Gary Varner, Sandy Finkelman, and Larry Curry as people planned to be brought on as employees - Bruce and Gary Varner sharing the family name suggests R&R stayed a family operation on top of being father-and-son at the top.
One wrinkle worth flagging directly: R&R shared its North Hollywood building - office, factory floor, and equipment - with a separate brand called White Lightning. White Lightning's founder was also named Rick - Rick Ankrom, a different person from Rick Varner. Two brands, one building, two Ricks. It reads like a natural mix-up waiting to happen, and nothing in the record suggests the two companies were the same business under two names - they were separate brands that happened to share space and a first name at the top.
The frames
R&R's line ran through a handful of models across the mid-to-late 1970s, best documented today through the bikes that survived: an R&R Centurion line running from 1975 through at least 1978 model years, the CR-1 road-tested at length by BMX Action in its December 1976 / January 1977 issue, and a novelty Sidehack model - a sidecar-style build - built around 1976. R&R also offered chrome-moly frames alongside the mild steel line; the BMX Action test mentions them directly and steers serious racers toward them. Full model-by-model specs and exact production windows are not documented in a factory catalog we could locate; what's presented here comes from surviving bikes and period print rather than a company parts book.
The CR-1, as the magazine actually tested it
An earlier version of this page listed the BMX Action CR-1 test as confirmed by title only, never read. It has now been read in full, and it is the single most detailed period document on this brand that exists.
The test runs from page 11 of the December 1976 / January 1977 issue of BMX Action, under the banner "Big Test of the R&R CR-1," with the story and photographs credited to Bob Osborn. The magazine had the bike for three months before it ran, which the opening describes as three months of trying to destroy it — and that length of use is what makes the verdict worth something.
Price and market
The CR-1 was pitched as a moderately priced bike you could race straight out of the crate, and BMX Action agreed that it was. The price is given as about $130, a little higher east of the Rockies once shipping came into it. That is the number to hold onto: this was an entry-level complete bike, not a boutique chromoly frame.
The frame
A double top tube design in mild steel tubing, with 1/8-inch plate used three ways — boxing the top tubes at the steering head, tying the bottom bracket to the chainstays, and forming the gusset that wraps the seat tube. The welding is heli-arc, TIG specifically, and the magazine goes out of its way to praise it after examining the bead penetration. The finish is chrome plating, which the test rates as close to bulletproof and better than nickel for oxidation, with a note that the extra plating step brings slightly more hydrogen embrittlement — a trade-off the reviewer waves off for a bike at this price.
The design point the test keeps returning to is how low the twin top tubes sit. The magazine credits that with about the lowest center of gravity of any 20-inch bike then available, and hangs most of the bike's handling reputation on it. That is where the subhead "Instant hot dog, right out of the crate" comes from.
The build
- Forks: Ashtabula, reinforced and heat-treated, built specifically for BMX. Rated a shade heavy but the best thing going for the money. With them fitted, the wheelbase comes out about the same as a standard Schwinn.
- Cockpit: black Ashtabula gooseneck; box bars the test calls exactly right for the bike; clear plastic hex grips, which the test riders rated about a seven and suggested swapping for Oakleys.
- Cranks and drive: heat-treated 6½-inch cranks, with enough bottom bracket clearance for 7½-inch arms if you want them. Gearing 40-tooth front and 19-tooth rear, which the magazine says is far too low and blames on CPSC regulations rather than the manufacturer, recommending a 14 or a 13 out back.
- Pedals: SeCor steel rattraps.
- Wheels: Sunshine black alloy front hub, Bendix rear, laced to Araya 20x2.125 steel rims with 105 gauge spokes. The rear spokes worked loose early and needed snugging until they seated, then behaved.
- Tires: 2.125 Super-Grippers, which the test describes as a copy of the Goodyear Eagle — and says they stick anyway.
- Dropouts: long-slotted at the rear so you can change sprockets between motos without changing chain length. The test calls that mandatory.
- Seat: a spring seat, and the one part everybody involved disliked. Both test riders and the writer say it doesn't belong on a racing bike.
Three months of abuse, and the verdict
Over the full test period exactly one thing failed: the lower bearing cup in the steering head. That's the whole failure list. The magazine's conclusions call the CR-1 odd-looking at first sight and easy to love once you've raced it, rates the supplied equipment as first-rate for the money apart from the seat, and says the frame holds up. Faults, in the magazine's own summary, come down to the steering head cups and the seat. It closes by calling it one of the neatest bikes they had tested and telling readers to go for it.
For a brand with no surviving catalog, that is an unusually complete picture: what the CR-1 cost, what it was made of, what it came with, what broke, and what a period magazine thought of it after ninety days of racing it.
The riders who started here
Two names carry R&R's reputation forward. Harry Leary rode an R&R early in his career, before the run that made him one of the sport's biggest names. Jeff Kosmala, born September 16, 1961, in Van Nuys, California, also started on an R&R before turning pro with Mongoose in July 1977. Kosmala's Mongoose years produced the Kos Kruiser, one of the best-selling cruiser models of the era, and by 1980 he'd won 21 of 24 nationals along with the ABA number-one, the NBA number-one, and the JAG World Championship. He moved to Redline in April 1982, where he helped design the Redline PL-24. Neither rider's R&R years lasted long - it was a starting point, not a career-defining sponsorship - but it's the reason R&R shows up in BMX history at all beyond the bikes themselves.
What we don't know
- What the two Rs in the name actually stood for.
- The exact year R&R Racing Products started, and the exact year it stopped.
- A complete model lineup with factory-documented specs and production years.
- Total production numbers for any R&R model.
- What became of Rick Varner, his father, and the North Hollywood shop after the brand's last documented model year.
- Who the CR-1's two test riders were. BMX Action names them only as Donny and R.L. and never expands the initials, so we're leaving them as printed rather than guessing.
- Model designations and pricing for the chrome-moly R&R frames the test refers to.
Related Legend Bike Co. chapters
The History of BMX (1970–1995) · Mongoose · Redline · BMX Action
Sources
Primary. BMX Action, December 1976 / January 1977 issue, page 11 onward — "Big Test of the R&R CR-1," story and photos by Bob Osborn. Read in full for this page from the archived PDF scan on oldschoolmags.com. Source of the $130 price, the mild steel double top tube construction and 1/8-inch plate detail, the heli-arc welding assessment, the chrome plating discussion, the complete component list, the three-month test duration, the single steering-head bearing cup failure, and the published conclusions.
Secondary. Everything Bicycles / proteanpaper.com archive, "R and R Brand BMX Racing Products" - Howie Cohen's first-person industry account of meeting Rick Varner and his father in January 1977, the dealer-direct business plan, the planned employee list, and the shared North Hollywood facility with White Lighting. BMXmuseum.com - R&R Racing Products brand and model pages, confirming the Centurion and Sidehack models, model years 1975 through 1978, and the size of the surviving collector population. Wikipedia, "Jeff Kosmala" - race record, sponsor timeline, and career dates. bmxsociety.com and oldschoolmags.com were checked directly for additional period coverage of R&R; no material beyond what's cited above was found through available search access.