../companies/Bully

Bully's popularity continued to grow into the new decade. Their line extended to include traditional, bashguard-less frames, complete bikes, gimmicky bar and stem combos (the T-bar, later spoofed by S&M), a video ("Slow Ride") and summer tours. New riders were introduced to the team as well, including Canadian Jay Miron, vert rider Jon Byers, flatland Pete Brandt and dirt legend Todd Lyons.

And then, the unexpected happened. As quickly as Bully rose in popularity, the brand waned. For years, I figured that R.L. Osborn walked away from Bully for reasons relating to the quality of the product. Turns out, I was wrong. A few circumstances led to Osborn's eventual sale of Bully and Hammer. He missed riding. "It was really hard to ride and run the company, because your head was so in the business all the time, and then you have to stop that and go out and ride and try to be good. And I think that's when I started fading out of riding pro -- when I started getting more into the business," Osborn said in the 2008 Freestylin' book Generation F. The momentum has disappeared. "The sport was slowing down at the same time, and the economy was in the can, and it was that whole thing of energy not being there -- lack of money for the sport. The sales were going down and the economy got worse, so it was hard," Osborn added. And R.L. was done with the bike industry. "I just couldn't sell my soul anymore. I spent my life building my name to run that business, and make a living off of it, but after a while, when you know the inside of the industry, you see who's screwing who, who's ripping off who, and you're afraid to come out with a new design, because the bigger companies will have it reproduced," he continued. In 1991, Bully and Hammer were sold to MCS in Florida, and R.L. returned to riding. "The plan was to go back and ride by myself as an unknown and that's exactly what I did. The path I took out of the bike industry was not the smartest financial move, and I knew that," he says.

Bully continued on, and sponsored notable pros such as Kevin Porter, Leigh Ramsdell, Mike Aitken, Mark Flippowicz and Cory Nastazio in the late '90s, but about the only thing that carried over from the first incarnation of Bully was the name. The graphics, bikes and general feel of the brand had changed with the times.

Still, to this day, the influence of R.L. Osborn and Bully Bicycles remains. Riders may not have the greatest memories of strong frames built to withstand the abuses of street riding, but the look, feel and ethos behind Bully Bicycles at the turn of the '90s helped to kickstart a rider-owned revolution that brought BMX freestyle into the next generation. Respect is due to R.L. Osborn.

Founder: RL Osborn

RL Osborn vient de mettre au point avec MCS un nouveau vélo plus approprié au street et au free. Le nom du vélo: Bully.

Bicross and Skate magazine mai 1990: Ce vélo apporte légèreté et bonne géométrie mais il est très peu solide, les pattes arrières sont trop fines et il n'a pas de tirage central.