BMXmuseum.com Bikes / Origin of Robinson and history

Chuck Robinson started Robinson in the mid to late 70's. He had worked for
DG, Webco and LRV. Chuck decided to start his own brand of bike after
marketing and building those other brands. I was his first PRO rider, later
he added Bobby Woods. Chuck always had his bikes fabricated by third party
sources. He was under funded and was never able to run full time ads in the
magazines. He did what he could on the budget he had. Chuck was a big
promoter of the sport of BMX and did an excellent job in taking things to
another level.
In the early days he made smaller frames for the younger kids
and then went into production of larger bikes within a year or so. I have a
couple of catalogs from the late 70's with the product listings. In the 1980
catalog he had two larger frames they were called the "Pro Series" One had
an American BB and it was the "Bobby Woods" Signature model. The other "Pro
Series" frame had a European BB and it was the "Scott Clark" Signature model.
He also had a mid sized frame called the "Amateur Series" all with American
BB's. There was also an "Amateur" "Small Size" frame. In addition to the
frames there were two model of forks "Full Size" and "Small Size", Two
handle bar models "Pro Bars" and "Expert Bars". As for soft wear... he sold
Stickers, Hats, T-Shirts, Racing Pants, Gloves, Jackets, Gear Bags, Jerseys
and Pad Sets.
In 1980 the "National Factory" team consisted of Pro's Scott Clark and Bobby
Woods. The amateurs were Duane Ballenger 13expert Norwalk, CA , Gary
Renteria 11expert Irvine, CA , Rory Ingano 18 Expert and from Honolulu HI ,
and finally Mark Wegener 18expert from Atlanta, GA
The Support team was: Dave Hilton 16 Pro Portland, OR, Don Johle 15expert
Dallas, TX, Scott Robbins 15expert Atlanta, GA and finally some rider by
the name of Gary Ellis 14expert Tacoma, WA...(by the way ask Gary who taught
him to iron his clothes on summer tour...not his mom...I did...lol)
Chuck actually caught wind of the Murray deal and helped get me on the team.
Due to his under funding he was having a hard time getting us to all the
races. He was a terrific person and always looked out for his riders. Even
if it meant letting them go for a better deal. Later after the Murray deal
faded I had my own company "SCP" I sold pad sets, T-shirts and race pants. I
rode Chuck's bikes and co sponsored the team with my racing pants. I
traveled to England in the mid 80's and did a promo tour for a month
promoting Robinson and SCP. After I retired from BMX to race Speedway
Motorcycles Chuck began having his product line manufactured by GT ( who at
the time was making many of the BMX bikes on the market ) Chuck ran into
financial troubles and GT acquired Robinson at that time. Chuck went to work
for GT and did promotion work for them as well as heading up the "South
American" sales because he spoke Spanish as well as other languages. Chuck
was not happy at GT, in particular with Rich Long. Chuck came to me looking
for a job (I was running an aquarium manufacturing plant in L.A.) I didn't
have anything for him. We kept in touch and I had him over my house for
BBQ's, Shooting Pool etc... One such day we BBQ'd , shot some pool and
planned to go to a baseball game later in the week. Chuck went home around
10:00 pm, I called two days later and learned he had passed away that night
around 12:00. He was a terrific man, did a ton for the sport of BMX and is
truly one of the "unsung" hero's of our sport.
I hope this will help with the product line but mostly understand there was a
terrific man behind the name on that bike "Robinson" .
Sincerely,
Scott Clark