John Brain

Here is a close up of my Motomag front wheel, showing the lettering.

The Ross Apollos were cool bikes, very nice. I was 15 years old in 1975. Too young to drive, but old enough to have a little money for cool bike parts. $30 was a lot of money to spend on a wheel at that time though. So I had to buy them separately to afford it. John B.

Thanks man. I guess I'm totally out of touch with how far early BMX collecting has gone. I never thought of these old invoices as anything but a curiosity that survived from my youth. I just figured I couldn't be the only person who kept their old sales slips from this time - with so many wheels sold? I thought the most interesting thing was the price of the wheels. Take care. Are the Motomag 1s a lot more collectible than the 2s? I've also got a Motomag-2 front wheel that someone gave me a couple of years ago. They're fun to have. John B.

Thanks, I guess I'm a pack-rat. I wish I could find that original letter Skip sent me.

Thanks everyone for the positive words. I was in Jr. High in 1974/75. living near Toronto. There were no organized races at this time where I lived(that I knew of), it was all very informal. No BMX accessories were available in Canadian stores either, so we had to make do and be creative. Virtually all the bikes kids rode then were high-rise banana seat bikes. A few of us got wind of the BMX trend that was beginning to happen on the west coast, and we tried to get some of that happening for ourselves. I had an old Stingray frame I got from a neighbor (Schwinn did not sell bikes in Canada then) I bought a set of new motorcycle MX handlebars from a shop (as you couldn't get bicycle bmx bars yet), they were too wide so I cut them to be narrower. I pried apart an old forged handlebar stem to get them to fit and made shims to clamp them. I had a short Schwinn spring fork from a 1965 Super/Deluxe Stingray and I got ahold of a Krate sissybar - with the shock - to use with my black banana seat. The rear tire I used was a 20x2.125 tractor grip, and the front was a 20x1.75 tractor grip. The frame was painted black and I used snowmobile waffle grips on the handlebars. This made up my home made BMXer in 1975. In '74 or '75 I found a copy of one of the early BMX magazines (issue#1 as I recall),in a magazine store, and in it they had a story about the new Motomag wheels. In early '75 I wrote to the address that was listed in the article to enquire about prices and shipping. I eventually recieved a letter from "Skip" with the information, and as I recall he said they were the first Motomags to be sent to Canada. If I can find the letter I will post it. In those days of letter correspondence and mail shipping it took a long time for me to get those wheels in my hands. What happened to the wheels? I still have them. The bike they eventually went on was a kustom bike(see below) that I made back at that time. In late '76 I painted the wheels gold. kustom bicycles were also big then, and I used to show them at custom car shows. The wheels are still in virtually unused condition, and are still on my old show bike. I'll try and get a photo of the Simi wheel with the Patent# on it, and will post it to show. Thanks again.

I thought people would find this interesting. I just came across my original invoices for a set of Motomag 1s that I bought in mid 1975 and early 1976. I bought them by mail order. The 1976 invoice is cool because of all the parts and kits listed. My Motomag rear wheel is a Simi Pat.Pending while the front wheel is a Simi with the patent# on it, whats interesting is that the front wheel invoice is from Chatsworth, but the wheel is a Simi with the Pat.# on it. Has anyone seen these BMX Products invoices before? Have fun John Brain

This is great stuff! just the sort of info being put out there that I for one like to see. In my own opinion though I think it is the unknown kids from southern California that first thought this design up. All Mr. Mole and Mr. Fritz did was listen to their dealers in California and see the potential in the design. After that it was a race to see who could cash in first on this preexisting though local fad. But only Schwinn had the corporate juice to fully market their version on a truly national level. Both stories seem to follow the same arc. Both men Were made aware of a trend in a regional market then moved to capitalize on it. both had teething problems along the way that were overcome. The kids in California were definitely the ones who came up with the high riser bike style. The difference with Pete Mole and Schwinn was that Pete Mole and his company "John T. Bill" played an active part in promoting the style from the very beginning, actively supplying kids in California with the parts needed to convert bikes to the new style. Schwinn only got involved after the trend was established by guys like Pete Mole. Schwinn (as a company) did nothing to foster the early growth of the movement, by the time Schwinn released the Sting-Ray in June of 1963 the style was already spreading on its own. Schwinn got in at the perfect time for marketing ,but the Sting-Ray brought nothing new to the market. Schwinn was first to sell this style of bike on a national level. But Schwinn being the #3 bicycle company behind Murray Ohio (#1) and the Huffman Corporation (#2) merely held on to reasonably good sales, and did not dominate the market for these type of bikes. In 1969 Schwinn held about 12% of the overall industry market share for bicycles, next to Huffy with 22% and Murray with around 28%. Interest in the high rise style would have happened on a national level without Schwinn - maybe not quite as quickly - but it would have within a short time. Just as the style spread throughout the world in places where American bikes were not sold. Schwinn had the most durable frames in the 60's, and this is why they were popular with the early BMX crowd, including me and the bike I pieced together back in 1974. Schwinn was hardly the dominant bike company though, 85 to 90% of the bikes sold in 1960's America were made by companies other than Schwinn. Schwinn's frames made the difference for the early racers, and this is why they are remembered fondly. John B. I love bike history too, but so much B.S. has been circulating on the 'NET for the last decade that its sometimes hard to know fact from fiction. I figure you have to go back to the original media material, created at the time these bikes were originally made. Vintage bicycle trade journals are a good source for accurate information, but boy are they hard to find. Here is a cool page about what was going on in 1963: My link

I'm glad you found the article on the Huffy Penguin bike. Until recently most everyone in the collector bike world thought the Schwinn Sting-Ray pioneered the hi-rise style, and that Al Fritz had come up with the design. Stylistically the Sting-Ray is almost identical to the earlier "Penguin" bike, and both bikes shared a number of components. Both the Penguin and the Sting-Ray had a cantilever frame, Persons "Solo Polo" seats, Wald handlebars, Bendix brakes, 20x2.125 knobby tires in the back with 20x1.75 up front. Schwinn and Al Fritz didn't invent or design the high-riser (banana seat bike) style. They merely capitalized on the pre-existing concept. I am very much interested in giving creators and innovators their just do, and in this case it looks like Pete Mole is the one who deserves the credit for marketing these kind of bikes first. Thanks for posting the interview with Him. The complete Huffy "Penguin" article is here: My link A related article on the creation of the Schwinn "Sting-Ray" is here: My link Cheers John B.