Frank Post
Encyclopedia
Franklin Post was an American professional "Old School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX)
racer whose prime competitive years were from 1978-1981. Early in his career his nickname
was "CW Post", a play on his surname of Post which happened to be the same as a famous breakfast cereal manufacturer, C. W. Post
. When the BMX bicycle manufacturer, CW Racing became widely known in 1981 this nickname for Frank Post fell into disuse to avoid the implication that Frank Post was a sponsored racer for CW Racing, although he would be later in his career. Also toward the end of the 1970s he was known as "Wild Man" for his controversial actions on the race track. BMX Action publisher and photographer Bob Osborn bestowed this nickname onto him after a photoshoot.
Started racing: In 1976 at 14 years old at the McLaren Park Track.
Sanctioning body:
First race bike: An R&R given him by a friend.
First race result: After winning his first moto, he fell in the main.
First win (local):
Home sanctioning body district(s): National Bicycle Association
(NBA) District "N" (Northern California
);
First sponsor:
First National win:
Turned Professional: May 1978 at 16 years of age.
First Professional race* result: Made the 16 Expert* main at the 1978 NBA Grand National in Los Angeles, California
but crashed when Brent Patterson
landed in front of him after both of they negotiated a jump simultaneously. Ended in last place. In 1978 the pros could race in the 16 Expert amateur class. There was no purse in the 16 Expert class but he raced the likes of Stu Thomsen
and Kevin McNeal as well as Brent Patterson-all established pros-in 16 expert. There was a separate special pros only class that was the final of a separate series at the Grand Nationals with David Clinton
taking the Lion's share of a US$3000 pro purse.
First Professional win*: In 16 Expert at the National Bicycle Association
(NBA) Spring National in Watsonville, California
on May 27, 1979. He was also a pro at the time.*
Retired: He quietly faded out of the race scene after the 1986 season. In 1990 he had himself reclassified as an amateur and raced in the 26-30 class at the ABA winternationals.
Height & weight at height of his career (1978–1985): Ht:5'10½" Wt:165 lbs.
*At the time there was no separate pro class for pros due to the relatively small number of pros. They raced with the 16 Experts, making it a Pro/Am class essentially. This is why during the early years of the pro division the national number one racer of a sanctioning body could be either an amateur or professional. This practice continued until the NBA's 1979 season in which the pros earned separate pro points and a separate pro plate from the amateurs.
National Bicycle League (NBL)
United Bicycle Racers (UBR)
American Bicycle Association (ABA)
International Bicycle Motocross Federation (IBMXF)
(NBA)
National Bicycle League
(NBL)
United Bicycle Racers (UBR)
American Bicycle Association
(ABA)
United States Bicycle Motocross Association
(USBA)
International Bicycle Motocross Federation (IBMXF)
Pro Series Championships and Invitationals
Other titles:
, Machinist
and Salesman amongst other things.
Bicycle Motocross News:
Minicycle/BMX Action & Super BMX:
Bicycle Motocross Action & Go
BMX Plus!:
Total BMX:
Bicycles and Dirt:
NBA World & NBmxA World (The official NBA/NBmxA membership publication):
Bicycles Today & BMX Today (The official NBL membership publication under two names):
ABA Action, American BMXer, BMXer (The official ABA membership publication under two names):
USBA Racer (The official USBA membership publication):
BMX
Bicycle motocross or BMX refers to the sport in which the main goal is extreme racing on bicycles in motocross style on tracks with inline start and expressive obstacles, and it is also the term that refers to the bicycle itself that is designed for dirt and motocross cycling.- History :BMX started...
racer whose prime competitive years were from 1978-1981. Early in his career his nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
was "CW Post", a play on his surname of Post which happened to be the same as a famous breakfast cereal manufacturer, C. W. Post
C. W. Post
Charles William Post , also known as C.W. Post, was an American breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer and a pioneer in the prepared-food industry.-Biography:...
. When the BMX bicycle manufacturer, CW Racing became widely known in 1981 this nickname for Frank Post fell into disuse to avoid the implication that Frank Post was a sponsored racer for CW Racing, although he would be later in his career. Also toward the end of the 1970s he was known as "Wild Man" for his controversial actions on the race track. BMX Action publisher and photographer Bob Osborn bestowed this nickname onto him after a photoshoot.
Racing career milestones
----Started racing: In 1976 at 14 years old at the McLaren Park Track.
Sanctioning body:
First race bike: An R&R given him by a friend.
First race result: After winning his first moto, he fell in the main.
First win (local):
Home sanctioning body district(s): National Bicycle Association
National Bicycle Association
The National Bicycle Association , later known as the National Bicycle Motocross Association was an United States based Bicycle Motocross sports sanctioning body originally based in Soledad, California that was created by Ernie Alexander in 1973 and ceased operations as an independent body in 1981...
(NBA) District "N" (Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
);
First sponsor:
First National win:
Turned Professional: May 1978 at 16 years of age.
First Professional race* result: Made the 16 Expert* main at the 1978 NBA Grand National in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
but crashed when Brent Patterson
Brent Patterson (BMX rider)
Brent Hathaway Patterson is a former American "Old School" bicycle motocross racer....
landed in front of him after both of they negotiated a jump simultaneously. Ended in last place. In 1978 the pros could race in the 16 Expert amateur class. There was no purse in the 16 Expert class but he raced the likes of Stu Thomsen
Stu Thomsen
Stuart L. Thomsen was an American bicycle motocross racer.Stu Thomsen was one of the first of the "Old School" of professional BMX racers who gained fame in the early days of the sport beginning in 1974. His prime competitive years were from 1976-1985...
and Kevin McNeal as well as Brent Patterson-all established pros-in 16 expert. There was a separate special pros only class that was the final of a separate series at the Grand Nationals with David Clinton
David Clinton
David Clinton is an "Old School" former professional Bicycle Motocross racer whose prime competitive years were from 1973 to 1979. Nicknamed "Dynamite" early in his career David Clinton could be truthfully said to be the sport's first true superstar...
taking the Lion's share of a US$3000 pro purse.
First Professional win*: In 16 Expert at the National Bicycle Association
National Bicycle Association
The National Bicycle Association , later known as the National Bicycle Motocross Association was an United States based Bicycle Motocross sports sanctioning body originally based in Soledad, California that was created by Ernie Alexander in 1973 and ceased operations as an independent body in 1981...
(NBA) Spring National in Watsonville, California
Watsonville, California
Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 51,199 according to the 2010 census.Located on the central coast of California, the economy centers predominantly around the farming industry. It is known for growing strawberries, apples, lettuce and a host...
on May 27, 1979. He was also a pro at the time.*
Retired: He quietly faded out of the race scene after the 1986 season. In 1990 he had himself reclassified as an amateur and raced in the 26-30 class at the ABA winternationals.
Height & weight at height of his career (1978–1985): Ht:5'10½" Wt:165 lbs.
*At the time there was no separate pro class for pros due to the relatively small number of pros. They raced with the 16 Experts, making it a Pro/Am class essentially. This is why during the early years of the pro division the national number one racer of a sanctioning body could be either an amateur or professional. This practice continued until the NBA's 1979 season in which the pros earned separate pro points and a separate pro plate from the amateurs.
Professional
- Hank & Frank Bicycles (bicycle shop)/Cycle Pro: May 27, 1979-April 3, 1979. This was Post's first sponsor as a pro after racing as a pro totally independent for a full year. A week later Vance Patterson of Patterson Racing offered him a sponsorship. He accepted.
- Patterson Racing Products: April 3, 1979-September 1979. Frank Post left Patterson Racing because he couldn't get to races. Patterson had a told him that if he could get to races, they would pay for them. However, lacking funds and not being able to drive, he couldn't get to races. The Panda Bike Company offered to pay his travel expenses to races. He accepted.
- Panda Bike Company: September 1979-Late 1980. According to the July 1981 issue of BMX Plus! the reason for Post leaving Panda were "unclear" and explanations from either party, Panda or Post was "scarce".
- Wes' BMX (Bicycle shop): Late 1980-Late December 1980.
- Kuwahara Cycles, Ltd.: Late December 1980-Mid October 1981. After finalizing his deal with Kuwahara, Frank Post received his racing bicycle from the company on Christmas Day 1980, just two days before the JAG World Championships on December 27. Post quit Kuwahara less than a year later because allegedly they didn't follow through on what a major factory sponsor is obliged to do. Excerpt:
"I quit because they did`nt get me a ticket to 81` NBL GRANDS. They did`nt think I would want to go...HELLOOOO!!! Anyway they got me there, but had to pay for everything else w/my own $. in the end I could not get my bike on the plane. No more $, had to leave it in ST.LOUIS at the airport w/cute blonde that rode for Panda. Heavy hittin PP.Can't remember her name.(sorry) [Margo Carroll-ed.]. the next week was THE SILVERDOME, no ticket again...They say well how can you race w/ no bike...I say why isn't my bike here already...they say your responsible for getting your bike back here... but, I didn't win any $$...you have a whole wherehouse full of bikes out there, ya think I can use one. Well the answer was NOOOO!!!...Sooo...I told them to ~!@^!!...+_)!!(..*&^%!!...@##$!!...its sailor talk, not for young ears..."Habba dabba abba babba"...If you know... you know..."---January 12, 2006 Vintage BMX post
- JC BMX: Late 1981-December 1981
- Boss Racing Frames: December 1981-Mid February 1982
- Kuwahara Cycles, Ltd.: Mid February 1982-Late March 1982. Post second stint with this company. "Kuwahara" means "Mulberry Meadows" in Japanese. The company is named after Sentaro Kuwahara who founded the company in 1916 in Osaka, Japan.
- JC BMX: Early April 1982-Early May 1982
- Wes' BMX: Early May 1982-Early 1983
- Boss Racing Frames: Early 1983-October 1983.
- Race Incorporated: Late October 1983-March 1984. Race Inc. went out of business in the late spring of 1984.
- Boss Racing Frames: March 1984-July 1984
- CW (Custom Works) Racing: July 8, 1984-Late 1984. This was a factory support sponosorship. "CW", regarding the bicycle manufacturing firm, never stood for "Coast Wheels" as it is widely thought. Coast Wheels was a bike shop that Roger Worsham owned. Custom Works was a completely different and independent company. This is in contrast with JMCJMC BicyclesJMC, or Jim Melton Cyclery was a bicycle company in the 1970s and 1980s. It started as a bicycle shop in 1969. It began manufacturing bicycle components in 1974, mostly to make a bicycle look more like a motocross motorcycle, including fenders and false fuel tanks. In 1977 JMC began manufacturing...
(Jim Melton Cyclery) which did start out as a bicycle shop and then began manufacturing its own BMX components including entire bicycles. - U.S. Boss Racing Products: Late 1984-December 1984
- JMC (James Melton Cyclery) Racing Equipment: December 1984-Early/Mid 1985. JMC went out of business in July 1985.
- Wes' BMX: Early/Mid 1985-Early July 1985
- U.S. Boss Racing Products: Early July 1985-July 14, 1985 (the day of the ABA Mile High National)
- Wes' BMX: July 20, 1985-Late August 1985
- Livermore Schwinn: Late October 1985-Mid November 1985 (he also worked there as a bicycle mechanic) He transferred to full factory Schwinn shortly after.
- Schwinn Bicycle Company: Mid November 1985-
- MCS Magnum Force (Co-Factory): Early 1989
Amateur
National Bicycle Association (NBA)National Bicycle League (NBL)
- None
United Bicycle Racers (UBR)
American Bicycle Association (ABA)
- None
International Bicycle Motocross Federation (IBMXF)
- None
Professional
National Bicycle AssociationNational Bicycle Association
The National Bicycle Association , later known as the National Bicycle Motocross Association was an United States based Bicycle Motocross sports sanctioning body originally based in Soledad, California that was created by Ernie Alexander in 1973 and ceased operations as an independent body in 1981...
(NBA)
- 1980 Pro Grandnational Champion.
National Bicycle League
National Bicycle League
The National Bicycle League is a United States based Bicycle Motocross sports sanctioning body originally based in Deerfield Beach, Florida but after several moves it was based in Hilliard, Ohio...
(NBL)
- None
United Bicycle Racers (UBR)
- 1979 Pro Class and Open Expert Grandnational Champion
- 1979 National No.1 Pro
- 1980 Pro Grandnational Champion
American Bicycle Association
American Bicycle Association
The American Bicycle Association is a United States-based Bicycle Motocross sports governing body in Gilbert, Arizona created by Merl Mennenga and Gene Roden in 1977. It is the largest sanctioning body in the United States concerning BMX. It has tracks in Canada and Mexico as well as in the USA...
(ABA)
- 1980 Pro Grandnational Champion
United States Bicycle Motocross Association
United States Bicycle Motocross Association
The United States Bicycle Association was a short lived Bicycle Motocross national sanctioning body based in Tempe, Arizona. It was founded in March 1984 by five former members of the American Bicycle Association : Rich Mann, Dave Cook, Geoff Sims, Steve Schaefer and Rod Keeling, who became the...
(USBA)
- None
International Bicycle Motocross Federation (IBMXF)
- None
Pro Series Championships and Invitationals
Other titles:
- 1982 "A" Pro Mongoose/GNC BMX International Champion.*
Notable accolades
- Won the 1980 UBR, NBA, and ABA Grand Nationals, the first racer to win the Grand Nationals of three different sanctioning bodies in the same year. Also, he did so without having a major factory sponsor backing him, just a sponsorship from Wes' BMX, a bicycle shop.
Racing habits and traits
- Reportedly he had a reputation of having a temper on the track. Getting in some altercations with racers. One most notable instance was during the 1981 ABA Summernationals in Amarillo, TexasAmarillo, TexasAmarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
in which Post thought Kevin McNeal had collided deliberately with him in the first turn. They both went down. Post got up and attempted to hit McNeal, connected, knocking McNeal's visor off. ABA track officials stepped in to prevent things from escalating. What had really happened was that Greg Hill attempted to pass McNeal in the first turn when there was limited space between McNeal and the inside line. Hill and McNeal collided instead both went down. In the same instant McNeal had collided with Post, who was on the outside of McNeal, sending him down. From there the misunderstanding ensued. Adding to the incident. The two, McNeal and Post, had reported personality conflicts when they were teammates on Kuwahara. Post received a 30 day suspension for his actions. Ironically, and perhaps contributing to Post's erroneous belief that McNeal rammed him deliberately, in the previous year it was Kevin McNeal who had the bad reputation as an overly aggressive racer, receiving two suspensions from racing from the NBA and the ABA. McNeal soon after cleaned up his act.
- For incidents like this he was called the "Excitable boy of BMX" and even "slightly eccentric" He had a hard time getting along with many sponsors and teammates over things like team policy. Post seemed to have a rootlessness about him that was reflected in his "unstructured life style" as reported in July 1981 issue of BMX Plus! citing the fact that Post left three telephone numbers with them with Post telling them: "I'll probably be at one of those three sometime." Perhaps due to this he had been with many sponsors during his pro career. As this excerpt from the February 1984 issue of BMX Plus!'s "Inside Scoop" states:
"Frank Post problem is that he has never been able to get along with most of his major sponsors for more than a few months at a time." He has ridden for Patterson Racing, Panda, Kuwahara, Skyway, and Boss."
- Post in a post he left of the RoostBMX website provided an explanation for his erattic behavior:
"well im a reputed bad guy...but really just mis-understood. tim did you know i was never paid a salary by a team? the only money i made was on the track. i believe i may have cut you short a time or two, but never out of malice. just business, it was all i had...greg, stu, 50,000, 75,000, 1000,000 [sic]...i had to earn my money, yet i felt i was as fast any day as stu, or greg. this was a very heavy mental blow. i did the best i could, it was`nt always the best, but it is what i did." Frank Post's Roostbmx.com post.
Post BMX career
His post racing career seems to match his racing career: Restless. He has been a Culinary Chef, Pool SharkHustling
Hustling is the deceptive act of disguising one's skill in a sport or game with the intent of luring someone of probably lesser skill into gambling with the hustler, as a form of confidence trick...
, Machinist
Machinist
A machinist is a person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts, a process known as machining. This is accomplished by using machine tools to cut away excess material much as a woodcarver cuts away excess wood to produce his work. In addition to metal, the parts may...
and Salesman amongst other things.
BMX press magazine interviews and articles
- "Post-Haste" Super BMX August 1980 Vol.7 No.8 pg.10
- "Frank Post" BMX Plus! July 1981 Vol.4 No.7 pg.20
BMX magazine covers
----Bicycle Motocross News:
- None
Minicycle/BMX Action & Super BMX:
- None
Bicycle Motocross Action & Go
- None
BMX Plus!:
- April 1980 Vol.3 No.4
- March 1986 Vol.9 No.3 in top insert (18) behind Ronnie Anderson (1) Pete LoncarevichPete LoncarevichPeter Loncarevich is a former Bicycle Motocross racer. Loncarevich was an "Old School" professional BMX racer whose prime competitive years were from 1980 to 1994....
(1) Eddy KingEddy KingEdward King is an "Old School" former professional Bicycle Motocross racer whose prime competitive years were from 1977 to 1985....
(7) Don Johle (10) and Brian Patterson (6) in bottom right insert skateboarder Lester Kasai and in bottom left insert freestyler Mike Dominguez. In main image both Dominguez and Kasai.
Total BMX:
Bicycles and Dirt:
- None
NBA World & NBmxA World (The official NBA/NBmxA membership publication):
Bicycles Today & BMX Today (The official NBL membership publication under two names):
ABA Action, American BMXer, BMXer (The official ABA membership publication under two names):
USBA Racer (The official USBA membership publication):