Is BMX's Speedo Racing Products related to the swimwear company?

No. Speedo Racing Products was a small, independent BMX frame and fork maker based in Hayward, California, active in the late 1970s. Nothing in the period BMX magazine record or the company's own advertising connects it to the Australian swimwear brand of the same name.

Where was Speedo Racing Products based?

Hayward, California, in the East Bay north of San Jose. A June 1977 BMX Action ad lists the address as 2477 American Ave., Hayward, CA 94545, and period team jerseys read Speedo Racing Products, Hayward, Calif.

What did Speedo make?

Documented Speedo products include BMX forks, sold with a choice of single or double axle dropouts and a 60-day guarantee, advertised in BMX Action in June 1977. The company was also developing a BMX race frame, funded in part by Vance Patterson, though period sources describe that frame program as stalled rather than completed.

How did Speedo become Patterson Racing?

Vance Patterson had invested in Speedo to help bring a BMX frame to market. When development showed no progress, he started Patterson Racing Products in November 1977, signing the entire Speedo rider roster, including his own sons Brent and Brian Patterson. A June 1978 BMX Action report confirms Speedo Racing Products continued operating as a company even after its whole team left for Patterson.

Who raced for Speedo?

Documented Speedo team riders include Brett Patterson, listed racing for Speedo in a February 1977 BMX Action race report, and Kevin Ridling, pictured racing for Speedo in the February 1978 issue. Brent Patterson and Brian Patterson, per their own Wikipedia rider infoboxes, also rode for Speedo Racing Products before joining Patterson Racing Products.

Speedo Racing Products — The Hayward Shop That Became Patterson Racing

A BMXRacingHistory.com preview · hosted on Legend Bike Co

Say the name Speedo to most people and they think swimsuits. Say it to a Northern California BMX racer from 1977 and they'll picture a fork with a choice of single or double axle dropouts, an address on American Ave. in Hayward, and a small team that got scooped up whole when its biggest investor got tired of waiting. This chapter is about that second Speedo — a BMX company, unrelated to the swimwear brand, that mattered less for what it built than for what it turned into.

A Team Out of Hayward

Speedo Racing Products operated out of 2477 American Ave. in Hayward, California, in the East Bay, according to its own ad in the June 1977 issue of BMX Action. The company was racing riders under its name by February 1977, when BMX Action's race coverage listed number 447, Brett Patterson, competing for Speedo. The June 1977 ad itself was for Speedo forks, offered with a choice of single or double axle dropouts and backed by what the company called an "iron-clad, unconditional 60-day guarantee." Brent Patterson, per the same ad, rode them.

Vance Patterson's Investment

Behind the team was Vance Patterson, whose sons Brent and Brian both raced. According to a BMX Action retrospective published years later, in the magazine's April 1982 test of the Patterson Kit, Vance had invested in Speedo specifically to help the company bring a BMX race frame to market. The frame program didn't deliver. Per the bmxmuseum.com company history for Patterson Racing, Vance Patterson started Patterson Racing Products in November 1977 "after Speedo... showed no signs of progress toward developing a BMX racing frame, the original reason why Vance Patterson invested in the first place."

The Whole Team Migrates

When Vance walked, he didn't walk alone. Patterson Racing Products signed the entire Speedo rider roster, including his own sons. Both Brent Patterson's and Brian Patterson's own Wikipedia rider pages list Speedo Racing Products as their team before Patterson Racing Products. But Speedo the company didn't fold on the spot. A BMX Action report from June 1978 — seven months after Patterson launched — put it plainly: "Speedo Racing Products is still going strong but the whole team migrated to the new Patterson team which will be out in force for the nationals." Other Speedo riders in the period record include Kevin Ridling, pictured racing for the team in BMX Action's February 1978 issue.

The Fork Design's Afterlife

Speedo's fork design left a small footprint beyond its own team. A bmxmuseum.com page on Diamond Back's company history notes that Diamond Back's original forks were "dual dropout copies of a race fork 'speedo' because Sandy Finkelman liked their design." We're presenting that as a single, disclosed source-snippet rather than a fully corroborated claim, but it lines up with what Speedo's own June 1977 ad was selling: a fork built specifically around the single-or-double dropout choice.

What we don't know

Who founded or owned Speedo Racing Products. No source reviewed for this chapter names an individual founder; every reference we found is to the company or the team, not a person running it.
The exact founding year. The earliest confirmed reference is February 1977 race coverage. Whether the company started that same year or earlier is not established in the sources available.
When Speedo Racing Products actually closed. The last confirmed reference found is the June 1978 BMX Action note that the company was "still going strong" as a business even without its team. No source documents when it stopped operating.
Speedo's full frame and fork model lineup. Only the fork product is documented in the ad record reviewed; no complete frame model names were confirmed.
Whether the Diamond Back "dual dropout" reference describes a literal design copy or a general similarity. Sourced to a single bmxmuseum.com page snippet, not independently corroborated elsewhere.

Related Legend Bike Co. chapters

Sources

oldschoolmags.com — BMX Action archive: February 1977 issue (Brett Patterson racing for Speedo, race number 447), June 1977 issue (Speedo Racing Products fork ad, address, and guarantee terms), February 1978 issue (Kevin Ridling racing for Speedo), June 1978 issue (Speedo Racing Products "still going strong" after the team's move to Patterson), and the April 1982 Patterson Kit test/retrospective (Vance Patterson's investment in Speedo and the frame program's stall). en.wikipedia.org — Brent Patterson and Brian Patterson rider pages, listing Speedo Racing Products as their team preceding Patterson Racing Products. bmxmuseum.com — the Patterson Racing company history page (founding narrative and date), the "What's up with the Patterson stuff" forum thread, and the Diamond Back company history page (dual-dropout fork reference, disclosed here as a single snippet). Legend Bike Co. — Patterson Racing, Brent Patterson, and Brian Patterson chapters, cross-referenced for team-history consistency.

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