BMX Timeline GT Bicycles Timeline
The Schwinn Sting-Ray is introduced and gives kids smaller bikes to emulate their motocross heroes. 1963
Scott Breithaupt, credited the founder of BMX, organized the first BMX Race in Southern California. 1970
The Motocross documentary, On Any Sunday, opened featuring kids on their bikes riding hand-made tracks and imitating motocross riders. Suddenly, there was a new sport emerging. 1971
1973 Gary Turner was a dad who loved to watch his son race on the big dirt tracks. Turner noticed that the frames the kids were riding were heavy and fragile. He began to make frames for his son to race.
1974 Gary's frames had gained enough popularity to generate attention from Richard Long, a local bike shop owner in California. Richard asked Gary if he could sell his bikes in his store and so the history of GT Bikes began.
The first professional BMX Race debuts and manufacturers start producing bikes with 20” wheels specifically for this growing sport. 1975 Richard and Gary invested in a shop dedicated to making top quality BMX frames in Santa Ana, California. In 1979 the incorporated into GT Bicycles and begin selling frames as fast as they can to US and Europe. Business is big and so is BMX. Richard and Gary start to sponsor the best riders in the sport.
Bob Osborn founded BicycleMotocross Action magazine. BMXA was the main voice for BMX for almost three decades. 1976
BMX Race sanctioning body, American Bicycle Association is created. Bob Haro begins doing funny tricks on his BMX bikes and soon Freestyle BMX is born. 1977
1980 GT expands exponentially every year and enters the new off-shoot sport of BMX, Freestyle. The first frame designed for freestyle, the Performer, becomes a legend in freestyle. The company moves to a new campus that features four separate buildings. During this time GT dominated the BMX Race sport as it became a world-wide phenomenon.
International BMX Federation was founded 1981
The movie E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial shows characters riding BMX bikes which slingshots BMX into popular culture and media. The first BMX World Championships were held. 1982
Freestyle BMX became an official sport after Bob Morales formed the American Freestyle Association 1984
BMX Racing became established around the world and it experienced exponential growth. The growth technology and competition fed the evolution of BMX racing leading to the experimentation of new frame and parts materials along with innovative geometries. In parallel with the advancement of the equipment, the racing tracks evolved pushing the skill levels of the athletes to where they are today. 1985
1986
1990
1987 As the late 80's approached BMX racing tapered off and BMX business got hard. Richard turned his focus to the sport of Mountain Biking although he never forgot BMX. GT signs MTB legend Julie Furtado who won more World Cup races than any rider of her time. Team GT was one of the most powerful teams in history.
BMX has been fully integrated into the international cycling organizing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). 1993
1994 July 1996 As GT prospered and grew the competition could do little but watch. BMX Racing was coming back and GT was on top. Richard Long is killed in a horrific motorcycle accident that rocks the entire bicycle industry to its core.
BMX Race continues to grow but is overshadowed by BMX Freestyle when competitions like the X-Games and Gravity Games are created. 1995
1996 After a brief surge in stock price the company started to fall apart. Schwinn buys GT for 175 million dollars.
1998 Schwinn's owner, Questor, operates GT and Schwinn for a three years then declares bankruptcy and the brands are sold to Pacific Cycle for 86 million dollars in 2001.
2001 Pacific does its best to re-build the once powerful brand of GT Bicycles. By investing in product development and marketing, GT was slowly on its way back to rebuilding itself to the brand it once was.
2003
The IOC (International Olympic Committee) voted to include the sport of BMX racing in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing China.
2005 Present - The GT development team gains more steam. The GT Mountain bike and BMX Race teams are still an integral focus to the company. Once again, GT is poised to grow their brand with all-star athletes, bikes and innovation.
As of 2007, there are over one thousand BMX tracks around the world. On any given day there are races being held on local tracks in which male and females of all ages and abilities challenge others as well as themselves in the spirit of competition and sportsmanship. 2007