JMC Bicycles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

JMC, or Jim Melton Cyclery was a popular bicycle company in the late 1970s and early 1980s. JMC started out as a bicycle shop in 1969. It began manufacturing its own bicycle components in 1974, mostly accessories to make a bicycle more like a motocross motorcycle including fenders and false fuel tanks. This was still the monoshock era when having a bicycle looking as close as possible to a motorcycle was the fashion. In 1977 JMC began manufacturing true BMX bicycles, becoming a factory as well as a bicycle shop.[1] During the 1970's it sponsored many racers in the sport of bicycle motocross (BMX), exchanging paying for entry fees and granting discounts for talented racers for the racers wearing the shop's uniform, thereby giving the shop publicity and advertising. Some of the most respected professionals of the sport was once sponsored by JMC including Harry Leary, Clint Miller, Tinker Juarez, and Darrell Young to name a few. By 1979 it had sold the bicycle shop becoming a pure factory. Sales peaked in 1981 when it was near the top of the American Bicycle Association (ABA) title for top BMX factory team (a group of sponsored racers racing its bicycles for publicity in exchange for paying entry fees up to in some cases of highly talented racers paying the racers a salary) coming in number two three years in a row.[2] Jim Melton folded up the company in July of 1985 because, in addition of his wife Vera's poor heath[3], he was proud of his bikes being made in America and did not want to go the "Taiwan route" as most bike manufacturers were doing at that time. JMC is remembered as one of the prestigious companies with Webco, Torker, Mongoose and Redline of BMX's formative years of the 1970's

[edit] End Note

  1. ^ History
  2. ^ BMX Plus! September 1985 Vol.8 No.9 pg.12
  3. ^ BMX Plus! September 1985 Vol.8 No.9 pg.12

[edit] External links