OM | cruiser revolution

Scot Breithaupt made it happen

7 07 2015

Like many in the BMX world, the news of Scot Breithaupt’s passing on the weekend came as a shock to me.

It didn’t seem real.

And while there has been an outpouring of positive messages from the BMX community celebrating Scot’s achievements…he basically wrote the template for BMX back in the day…it still hurts.

I’ve been in a funk ever since I heard.

And going back and forth in my head of what to write about the topic.

What more can you say about this guy?

We owe so much to Scot. As a race organizer, promoter, businessman, a showman and as a fierce competitor.

The SE roadtrips back in the day are the stuff of legend. He packed a bunch of crazy BMXers in a bus (or van) and traveled across the US with them. In the process creating experiences and stories that will last several lifetimes.

This, like so many things Scot pioneered, lives on today…How many BMX memories have been made during BMX roadtrips? Too many to count.

SE Bikes, the legendary bike company he founded, has the slogan “We make it happen.” That was just as (or even more so) fitting to describe Scott. He “made it happen” in so many ways when it came to BMX. He gave us the template to make it happen.

It’s up to us now to continue to make it happen…whether that’s holding a jam, piling into a car with friends for a BMX roadtrip or just getting out on a bike for some fun…we have to continue to make it happen. This is his legacy.

C-Ya on the other side Scot.

(The Youtube video above was produced by Diana Frerick, a friend and business associate of Scot, for his 57th birthday last year.)

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Tags: OM, RIP OM, Scot Breithaupt, Scot the OM Breithaupt, SE Bikes, We make it happen
Categories : Old School, Racing, shenanigans, Trails/Jumping

BMX racing: from BUMS to the boob tube

8 08 2012

The hype factor has reached a fever pitch leading up to BMX hitting the Olympic stage today for the 2012 Summer Games,

The New York Times is doing features on Alise Post, Tory Nyhaug is showing up on Olympic TV spots in Canada and the list goes on and on.

It’s pretty amazing to see how far we’ve come.

And to think that much of modern-day racing has its roots with a guy in a vacant lot that wanted to hold some bike races. That guy being Scot Breithaupt.

He didn’t just put BMX racing on the map…the “map” of BMX was basically set on its current course by much of what he learned holding those first few races in the vacant lot.

You could say that Scot Breithaupt, figuratively and literally, wrote the book on BMX racing.

He also founded what could be called BMX’s first sanctioning body of any kind, the Bicycle United Motocross Society (B.U.M.S). Breithaupt…set up organizational features around his races very much as…the sanctioning bodies would base theirs; rulebooks, a point system, a skill level structure, a racing season, trophies and promotions of special races that were the prototype for Nationals. (Wikipedia)

Scot played a role in almost every aspect of BMX: as a promoter, manufacturer, sponsor, team manager and last, but certainly not least, as a racer.

Scot is also widely credited with bringing Cruiser classes to the various sanctioning bodies which also brought more adults to the sport in its early days.

So as we await those first few minutes of the Olympic BMX event, let’s take a minute to thank Scott “OM” Breithaupt for getting the ball rolling in those early days.

Little did he know that it would go from BUMS right up prime time coverage on the boob tube in so short of a time frame.