Scot Breithaupt

Scot Alexander Breithaupt (July 14, 1957 – July 5, 2015) was an entrepreneur, "Old School" professional motorcycle MX and bicycle motocross (BMX) racer and a founding father of BMX in 1970 whose prime competitive years were from 1970 to 1984. Many consider him, in some ways, a founder of "Old School BMX"—an era from roughly 1969 to 1987 or 1988, from its very beginnings to just after its first major slump in popularity from 1985 to 1988. Racing started to rise in participation again around 1988–89 and is considered the start of Mid School BMX, roughly 1988–2000. He was born in Long Beach, California.

Note: This listing only denotes the racer's primary sponsors. At any given time a racer could have numerous co sponsors. Primary sponsorships can be verified by BMX press coverage and sponsor's advertisements at the time in question. When possible exact dates are given.

SE (formerly Scot Enterprises, now called Sports Engineering, Inc.) Racing: January 1977 – November 1999. Scot Enterprises, Breithaupt founded and owned this company as an advertising and promotional organization. It expanded into Scot Enterprises Racing Division, which made and sold stickers, T shirts, and hats. In 1978 it produced its first BMX component the JU 6 frame (JU stood for Jeff Utterback, a top racer at the time, the six referred to his status as the number six rider in the country in the National Bicycle Association (NBA) after the 1977 season). Breithaupt's friend Mike Devitt, took over SE Racing in the late 1980s. After a failed bid to buy out foreign investors, Breithaupt and Devitt lost control of SE Racing's trademarks, and control of the company passed to the foreign investors on October 15, 1999. Devitt and Breithaupt left SE Racing as a result. Later, with Gary Turner (co founder of GT Racing, later called GT Bicycles), they founded Alliant Bicycles. after Breithaupt and Devitt left the company, a Taiwanese firm acquired SE Racing, but it lay dormant for several years, not making or selling any bikes. Sports Engineering is now owned by Advanced Sports International, which bought SE in August 2002. SE Bikes (Sports Engineering Bikes, formerly Scot Enterprises Racing Division): 2005–2006 Showing that BMXers never really retire, on May 15, 2005, Breithaupt announced he had signed a contract to race for SE Racing the old company he had founded but left in 1999, in the BMX cruiser class. At an approximate age of 50 in 2006 this would mean he would race in the 46–51 Cruiser class in the American Bicycle Association (ABA) and 50–54 Cruiser class in the National Bicycle League (NBL).

Note: Listed are District, State/Provincial/Department, regional, national, and international titles in italics. "Defunct" refers to that sanctioning body in question no longer existing at the start of the racer's career or at that stage of his or her career. Depending on point totals of individual racers, winners of Grand Nationals do not necessarily win National titles. Series and one off Championships are also listed in block.

He co founded BMX Plus! magazine and was contributing editor to both Bicycle Motocross Action and Minicycle/BMX Action (not to be confused with Bicycle Motocross Action, which later condensed its name to BMX Action), which subsequently became Super BMX. Therefore, he had a large hand in all three major founding BMX magazine periodicals. He put on the first event that could be called a pro class race anywhere in 1975 at Saddleback Park in Orange, California (US$200 purse). He was a founding member and President of the Professional Racing Organization (PRO), the first attempt to form a BMX professional racers guild. He both invented the modern BMX racing Cruiser and the Cruiser class to race them with. In September 1978, Breithaupt appeared at the famous Corona Raceway, in Corona, California, on a converted Emory beach cruiser. It had wheels and low rise handlebars from a motorcycle. That same year he convinced the National Bicycle Association (NBA) to start the Cruiser class. He also invented the inverted BMX racing bicycle stem (also known as a "gooseneck"). Unlike the standard "quill gooseneck" stem, BMX bicycles in need of a stem with a much tighter clamping force on the bars to eliminate movement forward or back. That could be caused by the more violent physical abuse racers put upon it like pulling with maximum force during racing and jumping their bicycles, these stems were four point block clamps secured with Allen bolts, unlike the single point quill gooseneck that had a single "pinchbolt" configuration to clamp the bars. Most other stems of this type, like the standard gooseneck, raised the bottom level of the handlebars up, the inverted stem dropped them down. Breithaupt was heading to an NBA National in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1979 to race cruiser class a new division in BMX that at the time was made up of BMX bicycles (during this time most were converted Beach Cruisers with 26" diameter wheels, built for the larger rider as opposed the standard 20" vehicle). As he was fitting his handle bars onto the stem of the bicycle he noticed that it was to high for his liking and presumably it couldn't be lowered far enough down to get the feel and leverage he desired. he then removed the clamp the part that actually held fast to the handlebars, from the stem, that was inserted into the head tube and into the fork's neck. He flipped it over and reattached it. He was able then to drop the bottom of the bars another few millimeters to his liking. He later won his Cruiser class at this national using that configuration. He would then persuade "Tuff Neck", a leading manufacturer of BMX bicycle parts at the time, to mass produce the new component. Held the long distance jump record for bicycles in 1979 at an average 76 feet. * He accomplished it on a SE OM Flyer 26" Cruiser. The record held for 10 years. He won the very first Pro Cruiser Main of the first Pro Cruiser class in BMX history at the ABA Northwest National in Seattle, Washington, on January 18, 1981, defeating Tim Lillethorupt and Jess Goymon who came in second and third respectively. In 1990, Breithaupt was inducted into the ABA BMX Hall of Fame. *The third and last jump for the average was only 58 feet, so the average was brought down and therefore the previous two jumps were significantly longer than 76 feet.

Broke ankle in November 1974 during photograph session for a book. Was thought never to be able to race again. He was laid up until March 1975.

After a failed bid to buy out foreign investors Scot Breithaupt and Mike Devitt lost control of SE Racing trademarks and the control of the company passed to the foreign investors on October 15, 1999. Breithaupt was survived by his two sons, Scot Breithaupt Jr. and Brandon Breithaupt, his mother, Carole White Breithaupt, his brother Jeffrey Breithaupt, sister Lynda Breithaupt Muenzer, and several nieces and nephews.

"Interview with Scot Breithaupt" Bicycle Motocross News June 1974 Vol. 1 No. 1 pg. 7
"Scott Breithaupt" Bicycle Motocross News August 1974 Vol. 1 No. 3 pg. 18 article in which Breithaupt gives racing pointers. "Talkin' Twenty Fours" BMX Action May 1982 Vol. 7 No. 5 pg. 53 side bar
"The Origins of BMX" Super BMX March 1984 Vol. 11 No. 3 pg. 60
"The Origins of BMX" (part II) Super BMX April 1984 Vol. 11 No. 4 pg. 27