doug schwerma knew nothing about geometry the champions were almost copies of the yamaha dt1 frames, just "cleaned up a bit.
not great frames but doug was a brilliant promoter of his product.
terry knight was doug schwermas shop-forman at 19 years of age . as schwerma , begin to manullipate
the us govt. small business loan program, finally went broke and douggy just walked away (from champion), and got into drugs before getting cut down.
mike conley the redline guy , bought the name and all the assets and machinery from champion bank forclosure
terry knight then went into business for himself ,and the
rest is history, as they say as Knight frames.
Carlo lucia made Boss frames early in the peice, then followed the money with the redline guys into BMX frames
the only guys to make any money and get to keep it are linn kasten and mike conley the
red-line guys. they made most of their money with mx bicycles. linn and
mike split up in early 70s and linn took the red-line name only, and
went straight to japan to have them made, he now has a factory just
into mexico from san diego, and has made and kept millions.
Poor ray hensley ,sold off trackmster ,for nothing, and pissed
away the money up in canada 500 miles north of detroit at lake
nippising trying to run a fishing camp.he died of lung cancer and
finally of "cancer of the everything"
Star racer frame are now being remade from the original jigs as are trackmaster but at $2500 grand a pop only BSa and triuph guys are building up resto units as many early units became farm pumps.
cheney frames are still made new and unptith other copies or fabricators are building things but the volume isnt there and youll pay hand build prices.
Mexican copies like gringos etc are still out there but not worth a lot.
kenny roberts built up a few so they are scattered out there also but he did yamma donks so thats you limitation there on Pplants.
i was only thinking about this the other day as it would be kewl to have one of each of the good ones, if i was to get another frame id be looking for a period redline, but they always seem to be Norton or honda, i i have neither.
if your still dreaming of building somthing id say find your power plant first and tracking down a roller or frame is still prity easy.
