| From: Mark Soria
To: Rockalot@bmxnonstop.com
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 1999 1:01 AM
Subject: Robinson Racing
------------------------------
Chuck Robinson started Robinson Racing around 1977.
At the time Robinson was a small shop operating out of Chuck's garage.
This frame helped Bobby Woods win the World Championships
and after the Worlds, the demand for Robinson frames and forks was phenomenal. Only
problem, Chuck was dependent on an outside machine shop who was also manufacturing Redlines
at the time and that was the machine shop's bread and butter.
After Chuck sold out of his first run of production It took us about 6 months to get more
frame and fork sets in. After they arrived and we filled all the backorders we found
out that the machine shop used a dead tube that was a fraction of a size to small in
diameter to accommodate standard bearing cups.
This was disastrous!
The machine shop would not rectify the situation nor manufacture more sets after we
refused payments.
Along came Rich Long and Gary Turner. Their GT
BMX line was just starting to become successful and they agreed to make the frame
and fork sets for Chuck, I believe more out of friendship than business. Because of
the above situation Chuck was never really able to recover the demand he once had.
He ended up selling his line to Rich and Gary (GT BMX) and becoming employed by them
somewhere around '83. I left Robinson Racing and went to become Team Manager of CW
Racing and Roger Worsham around '81 but stayed in touch with
Chuck throughout the years.
Chuck passed away a few years ago but he was one of the first in BMX, running FMF
prior to starting his own company and having riders like Stu Thompsen
(FMF), Bobby Woods, Gary Ellis (14 Expert at the time),
and Danny Nelson (one of the fastest 6 experts you ever saw).
Info submitted by...
Mark Soria, Robinson Racing Team Manager, Office Manager, Etc. 1979-80 |
