Durability and robustness were now on offer and that meant only one thing, that the burning desire of BMX to advance was now well supported, a platform for progression had arrived. Fittingly, this article starts with Skip Hess, the founder and brains behind Mongoose until his directorship ended in 1985 (to which it was sold to American Recreation Group). Born in 1937, on the back of his fathers untimely death, Skip and his mother moved to California where a love for all things mechanical and speed were fostered. Skip spent his days hanging out at a local body shop, immersing himself in the track community as well as racing track and road bicycles, not to mention picking up a mechanical engineering degree from San Diego State University. Mongoose is a bike company which started in 1975 in the Simi Valley garage of a young Skip Hess.
At Ivanhoe Cycles, we have one of the largest range of Mongoose BMX bikes in Australia. From the base level Legion L10 to the high-end Legion L100. Brunswick sold Mongoose to Pacific Cycle in 2000 and Pacific Cycle was bought by Montreal-based Dorel Industries in 2004. As of 2018, Mongoose models are available through Pacific Cycle in Madison, Wisconsin.[2]On 11 October 2021 Pon Holdings, headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands announced that they acquired US-based bike company Dorel Sports. By combining Pon.Bike and Dorel Sports, a leading bicycle company in the world will be created, with a combined revenue of around 2.5 billion euro.
Founded in 1974 in a Southern California garage, Mongoose has always been an aggressive brand with products that push the limits of what a rider can do. From the biggest hits on the mountain or in the park to the urban jungle, Mongoose is an authentic brand that produces durable products built for real riders. From the first products – to our current crop of BMX, Mountain and pavement bikes, Mongoose is synonymous with bikes that perform on the smoothest single track to the biggest drops and riders looking for trails that never end and keep the party going. Very few complete bikes are available in this size, and some manufacturers appear to be ignoring the segment in hopes it will fade away.
The 80’s are back, baby – live it up on the iconic Mongoose Supergoose. Classic Mongoose fans rejoice – the California Special BMX bike is back! Based on the original 1983 design, the new California Special is great for turning heads around the neighborhood or at the mongoose excursion track. It features a Hi-ten steel Mongoose frame built on original geometry of a legend for superior performance and durability. The single speed drivetrain is easy to use and maintain, while the DiaCompe MX brake kit delivers super-fast, reliable stopping power.
Coming only a year later was the 1983 Australian film ‘BMX Bandits’, arguably resulting in an even more significant impact on BMX than ET. The film is famous for being shot in the northern beaches of Sydney (primarily Manly), featuring Nicole Kidman in one of her first ever acting roles and for its portrayal of BMX in its freestyle form. Originally written with 9 year old characters schwinn mountain bicycles in mind, the lack of finance meant that the script was re-written by a different team, this time pivoting to teenagers as the central characters. This was a crucial shift, and one which ultimately led to the success of the film and in turn, the cementing of BMX in popular culture. Inevitably, wider society was sooner or later going to come into contact with BMX.
For the Mongoose brand and its long history, the role of BMX bandits further improved the iconic status with the chrome ‘Supergoose’ model (with blue wheels and accessories) being ridden by one of the central characters ‘Goose’. Young ‘Goose’ is joined by another BMX bike enthusiast ‘P.J.’ who one day have a run in with a young trolley collector by the name of ‘Judy’ and embark on a journey to help her tally funds to buy a BMX bike. From here, the film centers on the trio as they find themselves embroiled (unintentionally) in a series of shady situations as propelled by a couple of halfwit goons attempting to rob a bank. As earlier eluded, ‘Judy’ was played by a teenage Kidman, emerging out of a field of 200 audition hopefuls, Nicole was noted as having a remarkable ability to understand, interpret and adapt to a script. Shifting back to Skip, with his mechanical engineering knowledge and in working as an automotive rim designer at the time, the design and production of the first BMX specific wheelset (i.e. ‘MotoMag One’), the aforementioned problem had met its solution. Surely enough, purposefully crafted design was met with demand as the ‘MotoMag One’ was soon accepted by the BMX community as a superior product thanks to the trellis shape, ribbed spokes and light-weight alloy.
The urban “bike life” movement has primarily been powered by 26-inch-wheeled singlespeeds, with enormous 29-inch-wheeled variants gaining steam in the past two years because they’re more stable and predictable for some of the more extreme stunts beloved of the community. Those larger wheels, however, can be downright intimidating for smaller or younger riders. The 26-inch Flyer is the way to go if you want to jump into the Bike Life culture without feeling like you’re mounting a steed of a 29-inch. Plus, it looks fantastic with its retro style based on BMX culture of decades past. Sunday’s Primer can take you all the way to serious skatepark riding; riders between five to six feet tall will likely find exactly what they need with this bike. It features an Odyssey Springfield brake system, Path Pro tires, and a super durable hi ten steel frame for eating those inevitable spills.