Welcome to the History of BMX International and in some way, the history of BMX itself.

Cast your thoughts back

Many tides have passed under the bridge since 1977 when the sport was becoming known down here in the little unknown island nation of Australia. It was hotting up though in the States, the birth place of BMX.

The first vision of this new sport was captured in the mid 70’s pages of a USA publication called “Minicycle Action”. This was soon to change its name to “Minicycle BMX Action” and includes many pages on the latest styles of BMX bikes. The author, Bob Osborne saw what was happening and decided to do something about it. His son RL Osborne was later to make his name in the industry as well. Redline, Mongoose, DG, SE Racing, Race inc. were just a few to grace the pages back then and the workshops around the nation were all getting involved in manufacturing on an ever increasing scale.

Down here in the land of Sun, Surf and Melanomas, an enterprising bike shop owner on the Gold Coast called Bob Panter (formally Bob Panter Cycles in Elkhorn ave) had just imported two of these strange BMX bikes. One was an Ashtabula and the other an R&R. Most old-timer BMXers have probably never heard of these before but believe me, they were the first bikes of this nature to visit our shores.

Meanwhile Brisbane businessman Blair Shepherd purchased these two bikes from Bob and saw the potential of the sport, having a 15yr old son of his own. He persuaded the council to donate a parcel of land to the cause and proceeded to gather truckloads of dirt to make Australia’s first BMX racetrack, The Windsor BMX Track. This track operated for many years into the 90’s before a highway access road was gazetted to be built through No3 berm. The track, later known as the Windsor/Gap BMX track lasted into the early 90’s before its demise.

Blair, being the promoter that he was, called the Courier mail and had a front page shot of his son Scott doing a jump with the story reading, “practice this Friday night, racing in 3 weeks”. No public liability problems then. So it was, the racing started and the kids needed to outfit themselves with bikes, which were not available in reliable quantities at this time.

A trip to the USA

Blair planed a family trip to the USA, which forged relationships that still exist today. We went to a local BMX meeting and met the father of the BMX scene, the late Howie Cohen, a huge fun excitable man with enthusiasm to burn. He distributed all the available parts through his business, “Everything Bicycles”. He introduced us to his good friends Linn Kastan (Redline), Skip Hess (Mongoose) and Chuck Raudman (Skyway).

These four men were the most influential drivers in the BMX scene at the time and we had the opportunity to be their representatives in our country (which they had never heard of). We organized a container of Skyway Tuff Wheels to be sent out immediately (Tuff Wheel 1’s coaster brake in yellow) and when they arrived they sold out straight away.

Blair opened a small shop up above his car yard office in Horace Street at Windsor, which was 50 meters from the track. He also, with Bob Panter’s help, set up a pro shop at the track to sell tyres, tubes and of course, Yellow Tuff Wheels. Soon lights were installed and the night racing was drawing huge amounts of racers and spectators alike. The media loved it.

Blair was two time national speed car champion and was known throughout Brisbane in the 60’s and 70’s. Anything he did, the media followed. This helped him with his next venture when he introduced Stadium Motocross (Supercross) to Australia in 1979. But that’s another story.

BMX Promotions kicks off

The shop in the upstairs office of Performance Cars was getting a bit squeezie. Scott was running it for a while when Howie asked if we needed any help to set up. We agreed it was a good idea so a young boy from California called Spencer Salem flew out to help for 6 months or so. We then had a visit from Keith Stevens, son of Chuck Stevens who owned and operated ACS (American Cycle Systems). When they left it was now late 1978 and we needed someone else to steer the ship. We had a call from a young bloke who we had been dealing with at Cycles Australia called Bill DeMaid. He wanted a job and we needed him so within an hour, he was employed and believe it or not, still is today.

Business was now booming. The racing scene was hot with interstate challenges and visits from the Americans like Stompn Stu Thompson, Jeff the Kos Kosmala, and many others taking on our locals like Peter Wort, Michael Wilkinson and in the younger class, a long haired Mick Doohan.

At BMX Promotions we were now importing Redline, Mongoose, DG, Race inc, PK Rippers and Quadangles, GJS, Cook Bros, Webco plus many more lesser known. The containers were pouring in so we decided to try a rep on the road. Jack Cornish was a friend who took on the task of travelling Australia in a Hiace van loaded up with the best money could buy.

1979 saw us move our upstairs office to a larger warehouse across Lutwyche Road so the Detail bay of the car yard could once again accommodate cars. It was a horrible place but at the time, we knew no better. At this stage Redlines and Mongooses were selling by the thousands, but only as frames as complete bicycles were to come later.

By 1980, we had well and truly outgrown our shed (more like a shack) so we moved to a huge premise at Montpellier road, Bowen hills. Here we pinched Blair’s secretary to work full time at BMX, as the Supercross, BMX racing and many other ventures were becoming a full time job. Heather Hunter was her name and she did a fine job right up to 1995.

Redline-made in AUS

Another packer was needed so a Factory Redline rider Bruce Skardon was given the job. We were now a group of 4, Bill, Heather, Bruce and Scott. This was also the time we started manufacturing the Redline frames here in Brisbane. Linn Kastan (Redlines owner) visited down under to set the process up and we contracted a Gold Coast specialist Chromoly welder, Gary Gardiner to do the job.

The frames were being made, painted and decaled right here until the demand for complete bicycles became too great, so the Redline brand was then imported from Japan as a boxed bicycle. BMX Promotions was now experiencing the first of many troughs in the BMX sales and something had to happen if we were to survive. Like many wholesalers who just sprung up, we going to the wall.

Bruce left us to pursue a Mackerel fishing career and Bill decided to venture into Taiwanese made bicycles in BMX and standard bicycles. This was before Taiwan was supplying large scale production of bikes to the world. Dave Fuller was recruited from Redcliffe Cycles to replace Scott in 1983 who ventured into another life for 3 years. Dave was to be a major driving force in the company with bill for the next 20 years.

1985 saw Blair rebuild some new sheds on his Windsor property opposite the Windsor BMX track so it was a natural progression to move the business to there. Now back at Windsor, the business was starting to show growth again so in 1986, Scott returned and the business was firmly in a grip of enormous growth distributing the Univega brand of MTB, Road, Triathlon and BMX bikes.

One of the reasons for growth was the introduction of the mobile showroom. Scott decked out an old Ford Trader Pantech and started travelling North, South, East and West. After a year it was upgraded to a Toyota Dyna but reliability was a problem. So in 1990 we purchased a brand new Isuzu FSR450 and lined the Pantech and decked it out with 15 bikes and many parts. Scott and Dave took it to all but Western Australia and helped increase our dealer network to in excess of 400.

Mongoose was dropped in favour of Redline, which was a decision we never regretted, and now our resources were stretched to the max. We needed another recruit so in 1988, we employed the services of 16yo Jason Gibson from Strathpine Bicycle Centre. Jason stayed for 12 years before opening his own retail shop at Agnes Water in Central Queensland.

Odyssey hits our shores

The big event for us at this time was the rights to distribute the Odyssey brand of BMX parts, which at the time was a small company growing slowly to the point where they are the number 1 parts BMX supplier in Australia. World Expo also gripped Brisbane in 1988 and Skyway were producing the TA series of bikes which in their day, were the best money could buy. The Tuff Wheels were still a very strong seller as well.

Heather needed help now as well, so Blair’s daughter Debbie joined us and remains the office driver to this day.

Movements were happening in the USA as Seattle Bike Supply took over the Redline Name and Linn Kastan started his own company, “Kastan”. This was the start of our very long and successful relationship with the SBS crew that still exists today under the ANA banner.

With SBS now handling Redline, the production moved from Japan to Taiwan and saw the growth of Redline to the mass market for the first time. Their race bikes were still the best around, but now the average punter could afford one as well.

1989 saw another staff member join us in Andrew Murray. Andrew was from the building industry and a friend from cycling. He helped us out for a year before departing to become a male nurse at Nambour Hospital.

The nervus 90’s were here and business could not have been better. A record couple of years saw us looking for a bigger warehouse and as Bill, Dave, Jason and Scott all rode to work on Bicycles, it was decided to move out of the fringes of the CBD to a more friendly location. This location was purchased in 1993 and we moved hundreds of bikes and thousands of dollars worth of parts.

So now firmly grounded in a 500 sq meter warehouse in Geebung in the heart of Brisbane’s North, we set about working out how to plan our future. A decision was made to can the Univega name, as Redline was now becoming our main driving force. At this stage, we were focusing on Redline, Odyssey, Kastan, Skyway and an array or Japanese parts and Taiwanese parts. We now branched out into a bigger range of parts to include in excess of 2,000 lines.

1995 saw BMX Promotions install our first computer to handle our increasing freight load. This was our first steps in modernizing our workload and to do this, we needed to employ a data guru to get us started and there was no better choice than Blair’s daughter in law, Janene Shepherd. This was now the turning point in BMX Promotions history as now in 1986, we formally go fully computerized. With this move, and our end to promoting the sport of BMX Racing now done by BMX Australia, we had a name change to our current name, BMX International.

Our Isuzu truck was finally sold in 95, as we had no time to be on the road so we again needed another warehouse staff member so a young friend of ours, Danielle Hannah from Redcliffe Cycles took the job. She did a fine job but after a year decided to venture back to Retail and then we started a young Ipswich boy, Aaron from Super cycles. This was also when Heather retired after a loyal service to Blair for over 25 years.

A month went by when Aaron departed and that saw us with another long time friend, Don Harrison filling the position. Our staff levels had grown now to include Bill, Dave, Jason, Scott, Don, Deb and now heathers replacement, Allison Reinbot. Allison stayed with us for 4 years until her husband transferred to Proserpine with his job, so she moved on with him. Kylie Barling then took over full time and quickly became our graphics and art guru and still is to this day.

With Jason leaving after 12 years and then Dave after 20 years and Don after 7 years, we decided to head in a new direction. Brad Hay spent 9 months with us but now after careful choosing and mixing enthusiasm, experience and commitment, we found the future of our company. Mark Turvey from Strathpine Bicycle Centre, Kevin Craft from Bums On Bikes and Scott Duton from Breakaway Cycles joined Bill, Scott, Kylie, Janene and Debbie to take BMX International into the future.

So in 2005, we had a network of over 780 dealers Australia wide and also supply New Zealand with selected products. Our product line exceeded 3000 and is being constantly updated.

For 30 years, we distributed only Redline Bicycles but times were changing. In 2008 we took over distribution rights for Sunday Bikes, MirraCo bicycles in 2010and in 2012, we also took on Wethepeople Bikes as well. We now found that we were expanding too fast for our allocated 500 square meter space so in 2013 BMX international mover 1 KM east to Virginia, to our current location in a 2,300 sq Metre warehouse. This enabled us to take on Radio bikes and United Bikes. So now with 6 brands, BMX International certainly is the largest BMX Wholesaler in Australia with the best brand locked up.

Our staff now is a good steady mix of youth and experience. Bill, Scott, Debbie, Janene, Kylie and Kevin are still at the helm and are now joined by Michael, Chris, Alan and Katrina, our newest member. We also have our part timer Josh for when we can’t keep up.

Our association with our suppliers is probably our most successful achievement. We are all like one big family as our years together have forged friendships that could never be repeated in this day. We still remain very close friends with Linn Kastan as well, as he visits every second year or so to catch up on his love of our country and our fishing.

(This history of BMX International was updated in December 2015.)