Vector — The Knoxville Bar-and-Stem Brand Bob Haro Helped Design (1982 Onward)
A BMXRacingHistory.com chapter · hosted on Legend Bike Co
Vector
The Knoxville bar-and-stem brand Bob Haro helped design, and VDC helped build
A note on the name. More than one product called Vector has existed in cycling over the years, and the name is generic enough that mix-ups happen. This page covers Vector USA, the Knoxville, Tennessee bar-and-stem brand founded around 1982 and confirmed in Voris Dixon's own interview as a VDC handlebar client. It's not connected to any unrelated product carrying the same name.
An integrated bar and stem, and the name behind it
Vector USA ran out of Knoxville, Tennessee, fronted by Mark Bauman. In March 1982 Vector introduced something the BMX freestyle world hadn't seen packaged that way before: an integrated handlebar-and-stem system, a single unit replacing the standard bar-plus-separate-stem setup. It was lighter than a conventional bar and stem together, and it took the stem out of the equation entirely. Bauman worked directly with Bob Haro, already the biggest name in freestyle, on the design.
Where VDC comes in
Voris Dixon's Santa Ana job shop, VDC, built Vector's aluminum handlebars. By Dixon's own account, they were machined from 2024 aluminum, a grade not generally considered weldable. Dixon's shop got around it with a special filler rod and heat treatment after welding, though by his own admission the bars “were not guaranteed to hold up.” That's a plainer statement about the tradeoffs of the material than most brands put in their own ads. Beyond the bars, nothing in Dixon's account or elsewhere in the record checked for this page ties VDC to any Vector frame or fork. Vector, on the evidence available, was a components brand, not a complete-bike brand, and VDC's role appears limited to handlebars.
The lineup
Collector references list a wide range of Vector bar models: a Standard 6-inch, a Pro, a Cruiser, Bob Haro Replica bars (with and without stem knurling depending on manufacture date), an Alloy Mini and a Chromoly Mini, and freestyle-oriented models including the VC FS, VC8, and VC10. Production reportedly started in Knoxville and later moved to Japan, though the record checked for this page doesn't pin down an exact year for that shift.
Where the record runs thin
- Mark Bauman's exact role. He's consistently described as Vector's frontman; whether he founded the company, owned it outright, or held some other position isn't spelled out in the sources checked here.
- How long Vector operated. The 1982 launch is well documented. A closing date, or how long VDC kept building bars for the brand, is not.
- Whether Vector built anything beyond bars and stems. Nothing found here points to a Vector frame.
The VDC connection
Vector is one name on a longer client list. Voris Dixon's Santa Ana shop built parts and frames for a wide range of BMX brands through the early 1980s, several of which raced against each other on the same gate, including Traker and Star Products, both VDC clients in the same years. The fuller story is on the Voris Dixon Bikes / VDC chapter.
Sources
BMX Icons // Voris Dixon Interview, conducted by Jay Stark, hosted at snakebitebmx.com — the primary source confirming VDC built Vector's aluminum handlebars, and the detail on the 2024 aluminum and its weld/heat-treat workaround. Search-indexed summaries of BMXmuseum.com's Vector USA brand and reference pages, including the Vector Standard Bars reference entry, used for the Bauman/Haro/1982 launch story and the bar model lineup; these pages could not be loaded directly and are disclosed as secondary, search-derived sourcing.