A BMXRacingHistory.com chapter · hosted on Legend Bike Co

Rebel Racing

The Story of the San Antonio BMX Brand — 1981 to 1987

By Bill Ryan · Founder of Supercross BMX · 37+ years in BMX · Started at SE Racing, 1981

We are telling this story the same way we told the SE Racing and JMC chapters: neutrally. Rebel Racing is a smaller brand in the BMX timeline, but the line that runs from a 1981 San Antonio garage to the founding of USA BMX makes it more important than most of the bikes it built.

The name and the brand

Rebel Racing was a Texas brand. Two signature frame models — the Johnny Reb and the General Lee — carried Southern American imagery typical of consumer products marketed in the South during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The General Lee traded on the name of the orange 1969 Dodge Charger from the CBS television series The Dukes of Hazzard, which ran from 1979 to 1985 and was at the height of its popularity exactly when Rebel was launching its first frames. We note it here because any honest history of Rebel Racing has to.

Where it started — 1981, San Antonio

Bernie Anderson and Roland Chankin founded Rebel Racing in 1981 in San Antonio, Texas. Anderson was already a fixture of the San Antonio BMX scene — he operated the Lonestar BMX track, one of the early Texas tracks racing under American Bicycle Association sanction.

The first-generation Johnny Reb and General Lee frames went out the door in 1981. Manufacturing was not in Texas. It was in Phoenix, Arizona, contracted through a man named Gene Roden, who was connected to the ABA. That Phoenix shop was building frames for more than one Texas brand — the Blazer brand was coming out of the same line at the same time.

1982 — sold to Charles Bruce, moved to Houston

In 1982, Anderson and Chankin sold Rebel Racing to Charles Bruce, who already owned Blazer. Bruce moved the brand to Houston, Texas and took over the marketing arm of the company. After the ABA Texas Tour in 1982, Roland Chankin and Bernie Anderson parted ways over personal differences. Bruce stepped in to manage the factory race team directly from late 1982 onward. Brock Bruce rode for the Rebel factory team across the brand's full run, from 1981 to 1987.

The Arizona quality problem and the move to Tennessee

The Gen 1 frames coming out of the Phoenix shop had a structural problem. Many of them were cracking at the head tube. The same issue showed up across the Blazer line built on the same equipment.

In late 1983 or early 1984, Charles Bruce pulled manufacturing out of Phoenix and moved it to Tennessee, to a shop that was already building Vector frames. The Tennessee-built frames are the ones collectors call the Gen 2 Stick Tail generation — a different rear-end design from the Gen 1 frames, with a cleaner build and the head-tube issue solved.

1987 — the closure

Charles Bruce closed Rebel Racing in 1987. The closure was part of the broader collapse of the U.S.-built BMX industry through 1986 to 1988. There is an overseas Rebel BMX division catalogued separately on BMXmuseum.com — a distinct entity from the U.S. Rebel Racing brand covered here.

The Bernie Anderson line — from Rebel to USA BMX

The most important part of the Rebel Racing story is not the frames. It is what Bernie Anderson did next.

In 1985 — while Rebel Racing was still operating under Charles Bruce — Bernie Anderson purchased the American Bicycle Association, the Arizona-based sanctioning body that had been founded in 1977 by Clayton John. The same year, Anderson formed the National BMX Hall of Fame to recognize the riders, builders, and organizers who had built the sport during its first decade. He was inducted into the BMX Hall of Fame himself in 2008. The ABA grew steadily under his ownership and was later rebranded as USA BMX, the sanctioning body that runs U.S. BMX racing today.

Bernie Anderson passed away on October 14, 2025, at his home in San Antonio. He was 93. USA BMX, the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame, and the Texas BMX Hall of Fame all published memorials in the days that followed. The line from a 1981 garage brand in San Antonio to the national sanction every American BMX racer holds a number with today runs through one person, and that person started by co-founding Rebel Racing.

Where Rebel Racing stands today

Originals trade on bmxmuseum.com. Reproduction decal sets for both generations of both models are produced today by BMX Products USA. Rebel Racing was not one of the biggest BMX brands of its era. It built two recognizable frames, ran a factory team for six years, navigated an ownership change and a manufacturing move, and shut down when the boom ended. What makes Rebel Racing worth a full chapter is the founder.

Sources

BMXmuseum.com Rebel Racing brand page. BMX Products USA Rebel Racing collection. USA BMX news release "Bernie Anderson Passes at 93" (October 15, 2025). U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame inductee record. Texas Bicycle Motocross Hall of Fame inductee record. Bicycle Retailer and Industry News "BMX pioneer Bernie Anderson dies at age 93" (October 17, 2025). FatBMX news release on Bernie Anderson's induction. oldschoolmags.com archived PDF scans of BMX Action and BMX Plus! 1981-1985.

About this page. See also: The History of BMX, SE Racing, JMC, Torker. Sanctions: BUMS, NBA, NBL, ABA, IBMXF, USA BMX.