Brian Lopes inducted into the BMX Hall of Fame

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This year Brian was also inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame — and, more importantly, he won the Intergalactic Pump Track Championships at SolVista.

Keep reading for the BMX Hall of Fame press release.



How rad is this? BL says that seat-less bike was really hard to control. Image from Paula Lopes.

2008 ABA BMX Hall of Fame Inductees announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The American Bicycle Association is proud to announce this year’s inductees to the ABA BMX Hall of Fame. The ABA is in its 31st year of operations as the largest BMX sanction in the world. The ABA BMX Hall of Fame began in 1985 and is now in its 24th year. The annual ABA BMX Hall of Fame Banquet takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma at ABA’s host hotel, the Crowne Plaza, This event is the first of many great events over the ABA BMX Grands weekend and takes place on Wednesday November 26th 2:00pm. Seats are very limited to the first 200 people so be sure to get there early!

This year, the ABA BMX Hall’O Fame welcomes the following people for their contributions to the sport of BMX:

Marvin Church
Began his BMX career in the early 70’s, when the only bike to race was a Schwinn Stingray with 4 inch cranks. Marvin and his dad are credited with building the first straight-tube BMX frame in 1972, as well as cutting cranks apart and welding them to the future standard of 7 inches. He briefly rode for the famous Dirt Masters team. Marvin was a pioneer in the mono-shock and sidehack era. He also rode for Rick’s Bike Shop, Kawasaki, and Shimano. After years of retirement, Marvin came back in the early 80’s, racing cruisers for Mongoose. Marvin still shows up to race every few years in the older cruiser classes.

Brian Lopes
Starting at the ripe age of 4 1/2 years old, Brian took his Schwinn Pixie and Rams football helmet to the track at Saddleback Park in California, and the rest is history. From that day, he was a hard core racer until he turned 8 years old. He stopped racing, but was still active at the local jumps in the neighborhood. At age 10, Brian came back into the sport full-force, and started hitting the National scene. Riding for a local bike shop, future BMX Hall of Famer Toby Henderson would help the team out with their gate starts. That is where he noticed Brian and introduced him to the folks at SE Racing. At the age of 17, Brian was looking for a new challenge in racing and decided to turn Pro. His first Pro race, he scored a second, and within 5 races, Brian was AA. While sponsored by Elf Bicycles, Brian was enjoying the Pro life. He then moved on to Mongoose Bicycles, Brian had heard how ex-BMXers were making a good living racing mountain bikes. Mongoose, gave him a shot and the rest is history. Brian has won many national and world titles in the mountain bike world. At one time, he held the world record for bunny hopping and jumping on a BMX bicycle.

Jon & Chuck Raudman
Owners/founders of Skyway Products, of Redding, CA. Revolutionized the wheel business with the introduction of the light weight (compared to MotoMags) and (mostly) indestructible Skyway Tuff wheels. Makers of the state of the art T/A Frameset (circa 1982); it was one of the most well thought BMX frames at the time, utilizing tear drop and tapered True Temper tubing. They had a major impact on the freestyle frenzy of the mid 80’s introducing a variety of colors that would influence the entire 20-inch juvenile market. Supported the sport of BMX through sponsorship, from the early MT. Dew Demo Team, to their Skyway race team (which helped put Hall of Famer Cheri Elliott on the map), along with the Skyway freestyle team in the late 80’s (featuring Robert Peterson, Eddie Roman and Matt Hoffman). To this day, they continue to manufacture Tuff Wheels for the bicycle, lawn and garden and healthcare industries. They are also doing a re-issue of their ground breaking Skyway TA frame sets.

The ABA would like to thank all the voters, fans, racers, and industry for their participation. We would also like to send a HUGE congratulation to the newest ABA BMX Hall of Fame inductees!

For a complete list of all ABA BMX Hall O’ Fame members and past inductees, please click the link below-

http://www.ababmx.com/index.php?page=halloffame