S&M BIKES
HISTORY
Founded mid 1987 by friends Greg “Scott” Swingrover and Chris “Mad Dog” Moeller,
S&M Bikes was created to craft BMX bikes that could handle the use and abuse the founders and their friends were dishing out.
In early 1987, a then 16-year-old “Mad Dog,” was causing a ruckus in the race scene
and working as a test-rider for BMX Action Magazine.
In other words, coming across plenty of products that left a lot to be desired. Swingrover, 19, was racing and dirt jumping while working at South Coast Bike Shop in Santa Ana,
California. By the summer of 1987 the two decided to go into business with their own frame and fork – the K-9 D-Zine.
According to Moeller, their first offering was a mishmash of his three favorite frames at the time:
“We worked from a Profile, my custom team-issued Privateer and a Robinson. It added up to a frame that could be raced well and ridden hard at the trails or on the street without falling apart. We just designed a cool bike for ourselves, gathered money and made two framesets. Our friends wanted them too, so we had 25 framesets made.”
By the fall of 1987, S&M had replaced the K-9 D-Zine with Moeller’s signature Mad Dog frame.
In 1988 they went on to release the now legendary Slam Bar, and in 1989 the Dirtbike!
Throughout 1989 and early 1990 as The Shield gathered a following in the BMX scene,
Greg and Chris found it increasingly difficult to balance the books with their steady diet of BMX hedonism.
By the summer of 1990, Swingrover had taken a job at GT to help support his young family,
and choosing to concentrate on his new career path, left S&M in Moeller’s hands.
In a van loaded with guys like
Dave Clymer and John Paul Rogers, Chris zig-zagged across the country living
the “BMX Lifestyle” a.k.a. sleeping on people couches, drinking their beer and riding as much as possible.
For more than two decadent decades since,
Moeller has steered the S&M ship through hell and high water. Crazy nights, ideas and antics aside,
the goal at S&M has always been the same: to make good bikes and run things their way.
With American flags and middle fingers waving in the wind, S&M will continue to sail the seas of BMX cheese until other companies make bikes as good as theirs
or it’s not fun anymore. Neither of which looks likely to happen soon.
(source S&Mbikes)
Check out some of their riders.
MIKE HODER

D.O.B.: OCTOBER 1, 1986
FROM: SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Mike Hoder is Bigger Than Most, both on a bike and in person.
From huge 360s and death drops to an après-ride reputation that precedes him,
you’d be hard-pressed to find a dude more down for the cause than Hoder.
Born and raised in Seattle, Mike’s bounced around NYC and SoCal,
but is outspokenly Northwest for life.
Hoder joined the squad in 2010 and wrote himself into the history books
as one of S&M’s most notorious characters shortly thereafter…
being the first dude to 360 El Toro and inking a Shield on your face will do that.
CLINT REYNOLDS

D.O.B.: AUGUST 21, 1985
FROM: DERRY, NEW HAMPSHIRE
LIVES IN: NEW PALTZ, NEW YORK
They don’t come much cooler than Clint Reynolds. The New Hampshire native turned Austinite,
welds his own frames, builds some of the best trails in the business
and shreds everything in sight with style to spare.
Clint started building frames for himself and his buddies back in high school after his pops,
a bike-welder by trade, showed him the ropes.
He and his crew joined forces with S&M in 2012 so that woodsmen the world over could roast dirt curls on a Credence.
S&M has always been a D.I Y. operation… add likeminded dudes like Clint and his boys
Matty Aquizap and James P. Nutter to the equation and the stoke is high. Credence X S&M -as legit as it gets.
CHARLIE CRUMLISH

D.O.B.: APRIL 7, 1987
FROM: AMHERST, NEW YORK
LIVES IN: BUFFALO, NEW YORK
Charlie’s tall, but dat ain’t all! Mr. Crumlish is a technical wizard on the bike and in the edit booth
he definitely brings the wiggidty wock wock to both.
When he’s not riding, filming or editing, one might find Chuck building his BMXFU empire.
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