Company > History

History of BMX Products, Inc. 

Skip Hess started BMX Products, Inc. out of his home in Simi Valley, California in September 1974 with his first product being the famous Motomag One wheel. According to Skip “When the Motomags were the first and only product I produced, I could remain working from my home and garage in Simi Valley. I bought a van to transport the Cragar made heat treated castings to shot peening and then to the machine shop where after machining, the wheels were boxed and shipped. About a 1 ½ years later when I chose to manufacture frames and complete bikes I leased a small industrial shop in Chatsworth. Within the next 2 years we moved three times in Chatsworth to accommodate our rapid growth. We settled in the Irondale facility until April 1984 when we moved to our wholly owned, newly built, 105,000 sq. ft. Moorpark facility”.   

According to Skip, at its largest point BMX Products, Inc. employed about 85 people. In the early years Skip recalls that about 600 frames per day were produced at the Chatsworth location.

RECO (Racer Engineering Company) was a wholly owned manufacturing division created for insurance purposes to be separate from BMX Products, Inc, even though RECO was always in house. It was headed by Vice President of Manufacturing Hoppy Brooks in his attempt to market motorcycle frames but was according to Skip “totally unsuccessful”.