5 Most Influential/Important BMX Companies

[billstup]

Right I`ve thought of a 5th one :

5. Kuwahara, because they were big at the start too 

[theRuler]

my 5

1) haro - he is the dude
2) standard - front ad brakes and o/s steerers
3) primo - v monsters!!!!
4) odyssey - the gyro
5) mongoose - consistently good product

hard to choose just 5 though

[teamsano]

theres some lost souls on here, thats for sure.

primo? you having a laugh?

[Lazarou]

You must agree with the first 5 Gogo!

[theRuler]

primo? you having a laugh?

never ridden a v-monster tyre then?

[gt0733]

ummm there was more to Redline than just a set of tubular cro-mo cranks 
let's see:
first cro-mo race frame, first tubular fork, first cro-mo double clamp stem, first combination cro-mo and alloy stem, first cro-mo vee bars, first 5 inch head tube and then there was flights, forklifter etc.

there are no others that could honestly come close to the engineering/innovation of them, it's a shame some of you guys don't respect what happened back in the mid seventies to early eighties, which brought about some of the innovations that were taken for granted then and still are today.

Redline first..............daylight second 

[RATTY]

couldnt agree more

[dialledbikes]

there are no others that could honestly come close to the engineering/innovation of them, it's a shame some of you guys don't respect what happened back in the mid seventies to early eighties, which brought about some of the innovations that were taken for granted then and still are today.

It's not a lack of respect.  We all have respect for Redline's roots.  We just don't necessarily know about BMX in the mid 70's as it didn't come to the UK properly until the late 70's/early 80's.

And different companies mean different things to different people.

[Redline]

I'm with GT and Ratty for sure!  Wanted to say all that about Redline myself but didn't fancy a grilling from the anti-Redline guys or sound too biased!

John

[theRuler]

who are the anti-redline guys?

[Redline]

..... looking over the thread, Billy "Mr Air" Stupple and Kirk don't seem to rate Redline Bikes!

John

[teamsano]

You must agree with the first 5 Gogo!

yes i do, and i'd find it hard to narrow it down to a final five tbh. different riders on here dropped into or out of bmx at different times, hence having differing views which is fair enough.
i find the whole standard influence pretty over-rated tbh, wheras i can appreciate redlines/linn kastans engineering brilliance.
companies 'influence' bmx and riders in differing manners, eg skyway, who never really made many technological advances imho.
s+m was a huge influence on myself throughout the 80's and 90's, but not due to technological reasons.

primo? you having a laugh?

never ridden a v-monster tyre then?

yes i have, but it was only a couple of years ago, not in the  mid nineties when they came out (yes, i know its probably one of the biggest selling products of all time, EVERYONE HAD THOSE TYRES!). i was impressed with its performance tbh, however i feel it was more of a flatland tyre, and again i feel my opinion of primo is tainted after their treatment of sean mckinney/day smith or whoever else contributed to the development of this tyre. again, this is my opinion of odyssey, another blood sucking company, who deserve zero credit, but thats another topic. 

[Philbert]

just wanna get in on this primo tyre thing!

they might be one of the biggest selling products but i don't think they influenced the sport in any way! its not like they were a new idea, they were a flatland tyre firstly, when tyres like the haro multisurface and acs rl edge tyres were already around. the main reason they sold so well was because primo released a load of products just as the big boom hit around 96, they probably had he 'coolest' team and every kid wanted the products they were riding,

they are though a bloody good tyre and i still use them myself and have done now for 10 years, and will continue to use them! don't know whether this still rings true due to the mass production of the tyre, but when first released they quoted that when testing the tyres blow out point the black wall blew out at 700 psi and the amber wall at 500 psi as it was developed for flatland!

but influential? sorry not IMO, just a good product!

[Bob_Acid]

nobody's mentioned Schwinn.

[dialledbikes]

nobody's mentioned Schwinn.

Schwinn are like Huffy.  Come back to BMX when times are good, throw lots of money at a few select pros to get exposure, flood the shops with mediocre bikes with huge profit margins, then just as the bubble is about to burst again they drop the whole team and disappear for another 10 years.

Sure, Schwinn and Huffy have their place in history, but have shown they don't have the commitment to BMX long term as the likes of GT, Redline, Haro, Mongoose (across the range, not just the lower end) who have continuously made BMX bikes since the 70s/early 80s.

Where are Schwinn and Huffy now (other than Wal Mart)?

[Bob_Acid]

I'm not a schwinn fan but they surely had a major influence in BMX at it's beginnings. Were not BMX bikes born out of modified Stingways?

[billstup]

..... looking over the thread, Billy "Mr Air" Stupple and Kirk don't seem to rate Redline Bikes!

John

I rate the cranks, but never really thought much of the f/f tbh, just don`t like the look of the angles on them 

[gt0733]

ooh i forgot to mention the small parts innovators like, shimano and tioga.

two components are still revered today. shimano DX pedals and tioga compIII tyres.

[Dingobmxer]

For me it has to be :-
SE  (brought so many things to BMX)
Torker  (without their twin top tubes the Gen 1 would never have been made and maybe freestyle as we know it ((80's freestyle obviously)) would never have happened)
Redline  (for all the reasons GT mentioned above)
S&M  ( innovative and helped keep BMX alive)
S&MAlex Leech, (you L/H/D boys have many thanks to give to him as well as his other innovations he has no credit for)

  DINGO