BMX Racing History · Chapter 8 · Legend Bike Co

Schwinn: The Accidental Godfather of BMX

No company did more to create BMX than Schwinn, and no company tried harder not to. The bike that seeded the entire sport came out of Chicago in 1963 with no idea what California kids would do to it. This chapter is the strange story of a giant that built the right bike a decade early, then watched from the sidelines as a sport grew up on it.

The Bike Nobody Asked Permission For

In 1962, Al Fritz — Schwinn's director of research and development — heard about a California fad: kids stripping 20-inch bikes and adding banana seats and high-rise bars to imitate chopper motorcycles. Management reportedly laughed at his prototype. Fritz built it anyway, and the Sting-Ray launched in 1963. It sold roughly 45,000 units within months, ran until 1981, spawned the Krate series in 1968 — Apple Krate, Lemon Peeler, Orange Krate — and became the bestselling bike Schwinn ever made. A 1965 Super Deluxe Sting-Ray sits in the Smithsonian today.

Then the kids took over. They stripped the fenders, rode the Sting-Rays into the dirt, and invented a sport. The opening minutes of On Any Sunday in 1971 — neighborhood kids on Sting-Rays, jumping plywood ramps — spread the idea to every town in America. The full story of those years is in Chapter 1.

The Hesitation

Here's the part that's hard to believe now: Schwinn looked at BMX and backed away. The company worried the racing was unsafe, and worried just as much about its famous lifetime guarantee — bikes "ridden to their limit on BMX courses" were bikes that came back broken. In Judith Crown and Glenn Coleman's history of the company, No Hands, Mongoose founder Skip Hess put it simply: "The people in Chicago only heard the echo."

While Schwinn hesitated, US BMX bike sales went from 140,000 in 1974 to 1.75 million in 1977 — and the brands that said yes, like Mongoose, Redline, Torker, and SE Racing, built the industry. By 1980 Schwinn held just 7 to 8 percent of the BMX market it had accidentally created.

Late, Then Heavy, Then Finally Right

The Scrambler arrived in 1975 — Schwinn's first BMX model, sturdy and well-meaning at around 38 pounds, which is a lot of bicycle to lift over a jump. The Competition Scrambler of 1977 brought a chromoly diamond frame at 32 pounds, and the 1978 line added the Scrambler 36/36 and the 28-pound Competition SX1000.

The bike that finally earned respect was the Sting, launched in 1980: hand-brazed, double-butted 4130 chromoly, developed with Factory Team Schwinn on the national circuit. In 1983 Schwinn produced its first catalog dedicated entirely to BMX and introduced the Predator — a name that guaranteed full 4130 chromoly construction. For a stretch in the early 80s, the Predator was the bike a lot of kids found under the Christmas tree, and factory amateur Mike Poulson raced one at the front of the national amateur ranks.

The Fall

Schwinn's BMX program wound down in the late 80s as freestyle took over its 20-inch sales, and the company's bigger problems caught up with it. Schwinn filed for bankruptcy in October 1992. Sam Zell's Zell-Chilmark fund bought the name and moved it to Boulder, Colorado; Questor Partners bought it in 1997 and merged it with GT; the combined company went bankrupt again in 2001; Pacific Cycle picked up both names for $86 million; Dorel followed in 2004, and Pon Holdings in 2021. The Sting-Ray, the Krates, and the Predator still get re-issued — proof that the bikes outlived the company that doubted them.

Timeline

• 1963 Al Fritz launches the Sting-Ray. ~45,000 sold within months.
• 1968 Krate series: Apple Krate, Lemon Peeler, Orange Krate.
• 1971 On Any Sunday opens with kids on Sting-Rays. BMX spreads nationwide.
• 1974–77 US BMX sales grow from 140,000 to 1.75 million bikes while Schwinn stays out, citing safety and warranty concerns.
• 1975 Scrambler launches — Schwinn's first BMX model, ~38 lbs.
• 1977 Competition Scrambler brings chromoly.
• 1980 The Sting — hand-brazed 4130, Schwinn's first true race bike. Market share: 7–8%.
• 1983 First all-BMX catalog; Predator line debuts in full chromoly.
• 1992 Chapter 11, October 7. Zell-Chilmark buys the name; HQ moves to Boulder.
• 1997–2001 Questor merges Schwinn with GT; second bankruptcy; Pacific Cycle buys both for $86M.
• 2004–21 Dorel Industries, then Pon Holdings.