Jim Melton clearly loves BMX, and was, is not just a guy trying to make money from the sport. He loved the whole lifestyle, the family aspect, the joy of traveling and the thrill of competition. He loved giving riders a chance, regardless of race or gender.
He got his start working at a bike shop in Oklahoma City. He would work on old bikes in the basement when things were slow. After moving to California he met the guys from CYC and decided to open his own bike shop, Jim Melton Cyclery, in Azusa, CA. In 1975 he was also working at the local BMX track in Covina, CA as a flagman. A local racer by the name of John Begin asked him to start a team.
The JM Cyclery team was born. Harry Leary would help dial in the team with uniforms for the factory look and they may have been the first team to use Bill Walter’s leathers for a BMX team. Jims son would dial in the bikes and numberplates later and actually designed the JMC shield logo.
In 1975 or 1976 he opened a second bike shop. Actually he bought it and just kept the name, Bills Bike Shop, in nearby Monrovia, CA. Monrovia as well as Azusa both had BMX tracks. Rich Long helped run the Azusa track and Barbara Foster (no relation to JMC ace Dennis Foster) helped run Monrovia.
With the success would came the first two bikes. Actually a bit of an interesting story behind that. But the short version is after a failed attempt to buy GT/Pedals Ready he would launch JMC/BMX.
JMC XP1 and XP2 were the first two bikes made. Jim told me who he gave them too but I’ll have to ask him again. The first production long bike, JMC20 went to Clint Miller.
Did you know JMC made a batch of Chainring adapter discs? I didnt. They made I think 50 of them. All were same color and all were engraved.
Did you know that the biggest dealer of JMC frames was Bicycle Harbor in Arizona?
Did you know why the seat post stamp is cutoff on the real JMC seat posts and not on the forged ones? Jim used the same stamp that he used on the back end of the top tube for both. Obviously the top tube is bigger then the seat post tube, hence the seat tube logo was cutoff.

All the detailed records were kept by his office manager. Jim also keep all the original bike jigs in storage, but a massive flood in the early 90′s by the Mississippi River destroyed the storage building and they have been lost since. After closing down JMC in 1985 he returned to the job he held between his his Oklahoma City bike shop days and JMC, a mechanical engineer in the Los Angeles area.

Presently he has brought back the JMC name by reissuing pad sets, decals and more. He hopes to bring the brand back as a bike company as well, but at this point there are no concrete plans. But if I can twist Jim’s ear, I will make sure to tell him he needs to do 20 and 24 and 26, that all us older guys want. If the name does return to bike shops and race tracks near you, I can tell you this. The frame sets will be made in the USA. But as of this writing, no prototypes have been made.

Photo courtesy Bob Osborn. Do not reproduce or republish without his expressed written permission.