Greg Esser

Born in Sacramento, California, Greg was an Air Force brat and lived all over the country until his father, George, the founder of the NBL, retired and settled down in Pompano Beach, Florida. In January 1974, Greg attended the first ever NBL (running as the bicycle division of the NML) race, held on a portion of the motocross track at the Miami Hollywood Speedway.  When Greg was a 14-year-old he won his age class.  Later he became the first ever NBL Pro Champion.

During his amateur career Greg won many titles.  His last year in amateur, however, he placed second behind Sal Zeuner. The very next year in 1979, when Greg was 19, he won the first ever NBL Pro title.  During his pro career, Greg was very much a mental racer, if he did well his first moto, he would make the main.  If he bombed his first moto, he would do horrible on the weekend.  Greg continued to race in the Pro class for three more years. During his career he was sponsored by MCS, Skyway, GT, and Raleigh.

For Greg, his defining moment wasn’t in his racing, it was his part in the creation of MCS and the beginning of east coast bike companies and manufacturing.  In 1976, when Greg was 16 he made his first trip to California. He went to a place called North Brothers with Jeff Bottema, who rode for DG. North Brothers made the DG frames.  “I remember walking into the shop and thinking, ‘Why can’t we do this at home?’  I went home and told my dad about North Brothers.” Three weeks later, they had the first ten MCS frames.  Greg’s dad, George, had ordered the frames from a motorcycle shop called MotoCross South. One week later, MotoCross South delivered the bikes. The owner, Dick Keating, decided he no longer wanted to be in the motorcycle business and was just going to close their doors. Dick told this to Rick Connery who in turn called George Esser. George bought all the equipment, moved it to a shop across from the NBL offices, hired all of Dick’s former employee’s and opened up shop.  MotorCycle Specialties was born using the same three letters so they would not have to re-logo the already decaled MCS frames.

Greg’s love of designing and welding frames kept him in the shop at MCS through four different owners, including one time when he came back from a race to find all the employees had been laid off except for him and the welding equipment had been moved to Tennessee where a deal had been made with Cyclecraft to produce MCS frames.  Greg acted as a liaison for about six months when some shady deals happened and MCS brought all the equipment back to Florida.  MCS was later sold to Jeff Devido. Greg still has all of the bike manufacturing equipment and used it to create the bike company, Fabweld.  Greg’s shop is currently know as Metal Works and all the equipment that was once used to build MCS frames is now used on welding projects, including custom brackets for motorcycles, and the current building of hundreds of original 1986 Skyway T.A. frame kits that have been in storage for 22 years.

After his BMX racing career, Greg moved onto the professional motorcycle circuit, where in 1997 he finished 3^rd in AMA 250 GP Pro Road Racing series championship and remained in the Top Ten for the next eight years in the AMA.  He was sponsored by big names such as Honda and Bridgestone Tires. Although he never made a living at it, he considered it as a great hobby that paid for itself and allowed him travel all over the country racing motorcycles.

Growing up Greg used to joke, as all BMXicans do, that he would never get married. Greg has been married to his wife Melanie since 2005 and he became a father at 49 years old.

Today, Greg is credited with helping in the start-up of a new BMX website that is quickly growing in popularity due to its positive nature, BMXActiononline.com.  Greg and friends created their website due to some controversy over a “Clips Suck” thread at another popular site.