Jeff Bottema

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Jeff Bottema

Personal information
Full name	Jeffery Bottema
Date of birth	April 14, 1960 (age 46)
Country	United States
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Bicycle Motocross (BMX)
Role	Racer/Manufacturer/Team Manager
Rider type	Off Road
Amateur team(s)
1974-1975 1975-1976 1976-1977	Two Wheeler's BMX Webco Inc. D.G. Performance Specialist
Professional team(s)
1977-1979 1979-1981 1981-1983	D.G. Performance Specialist Raliegh Murray of Ohio Corporation
Infobox last updated on:
March 15, 2007

Jeffery Bottema (b. April 14, 1960 from Norwalk, California USA) was an American professional "Old School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1976 to 1981.

Contents 1 Racing career 1.1 Career factory and major bike shop sponsors 1.1.1 Amateur 1.1.2 Professional 1.2 Career bicycle motocross titles 1.2.1 Amateur 1.2.2 Professional 2 Notable accolades 3 Significant injuries 4 Peccadilloes 5 Post BMX career 6 BMX magazine covers 7 BMX press magazine interviews and articles 8 Miscellaneous 9 End Notes 10 External links

[edit] Racing career

Note: Professional first are on the national level unless otherwise indicated.

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Started Racing: 1974.

Sanctioning Body:

First race result:

First win (local):

First sponsor: Two Wheeler's BMX 1974.

First national win:

Turned Professional:

First Professional race result:

First Professional win:

Retired: At the end of the 1983 season.

Height & weight at height of his career

[edit] Career factory and major bike shop sponsors

Note: This listing only denotes the racer's primary sponsors. At any given time a racer could have numerous co-sponsors. Primary sponsorships can be verified by BMX press coverage at the time in question.

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[edit] Amateur

• Two Wheeler's BMX: 1974 May 1975
• Webco Inc.: May 1975-Late April 1976. Webco disbanded its team in March of 1976.^[1]
• D.G. Performance Specialist (The initials stood for Dan Hangsleben, Gary Harlow):^[2] Late April 1976-1979.

[edit] Professional

• D.G. Performance Specialist: Late April 1976-1979.

• Raliegh: 1979-January 1981.

• Murray of Ohio Corporation: August 1981-December 1983* In January 1982 Jeff Bottema became team manager as well as a racer.

*As an active racer. After his retirement at the end of the 1993 season he took an office possition with Murray.^[3]

[edit] Career bicycle motocross titles

[edit] Amateur

National Bicycle Association (NBA)

• 1977 16 Expert NBA/Mongoose Exhibition winner.†

†In 1977 the NBA held an exhibition race during the halftime period between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Los Angeles Rams NFL football game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California in August 1977 (the Rams moved from Los Angeles, California to St. Louis, Missouri in 1994).

National Bicycle League (NBL)

American Bicycle Association (ABA)

Fédération Internationale Amateur de Cyclisme (FIAC)

• None

International Bicycle Motocross Federation (IBMXF)

• None

Independent race series and invitationals:

• 1976 16 Expert California Cup winner.

The California Cup was a non sanctioned series of three qualifying races held at three tracks (for a total of nine separate races) in three different regions of Northern California. Then the finals were held. The series was sponsored and promoted by BX-Weekly Magazine, a BMX newspaper and Rick Ankron & Rick Varner (R&R) Racing Products. The finals were held at the famous Corona Raceway on September 5, 1976.

[edit] Professional

National Bicycle Association (NBA)

National Bicycle League (NBL)

American Bicycle Association (ABA)

• None

United States Bicycle Motocross Association (USBA)

• None

International Bicycle Motocross Federation (IBMXF)

Pro Series Championships

[edit] Notable accolades

• Created and manufactured one of BMX's most popular and famous bicycle components: the Bottema tubular unicrown fork manufactured by his company.
• He is a 1990 Inductee to the ABA BMX Hall of Fame.

[edit] Significant injuries

• His most significant-and life threatening injury happened off the track and a couple of months after his retirement from racing. In March of 1984 Jeff Bottema was stabbed multipule times in a robbery in Dallas, Texas while traveling with the Murray Bicycle Road Racing team. Police rushed him to the nearest hopital where he was placed on the critical condition list and given many blood transfusions.^[4] By September of 1984 he was virtually fully recovered and in good health.^[5].

[edit] Peccadilloes

[edit] Post BMX career

• After his retirement from completive racing after the 1983 racing season, he took a position with Murry Ohio as the Murray team coordinator and its in house BMX specialist.^[3]

[edit] BMX magazine covers

Bicycle Motocross News:

• None

Minicycle/BMX Action & Super BMX:

Bicycle Motocross Action & Go:

BMX Plus!:

• None

Bicycles and Dirt:

Snap:

• None

[edit] BMX press magazine interviews and articles

• "Win, win is motto" Bicycle Motocross News January/February 1975 Vol.2 No.1 pg.14. Brief profile within article about the Two Wheeler's Racing Team.
• "Interview: Jeff Bottema" BMX Weekly October 1, 1976 Vol.2 No.4 pg.13
• "Jeff Bottema-Superstar" The California BMX Rider September 1976 Vol.1 No.2 pg.2
• "Jeff Bottema" BMX Plus! October 1982 Vol.5 No.10 pg.82 Short mini article.

[edit] Miscellaneous

[edit] End Notes

1. ^ Bicycle Motocross News May 1976 Vol.3 No.5 pg.9
2. ^ BMX Plus! July 1988 Vol.11 No.7 pg.26
3. ^ ^{a b} BMX Plus! May 1984 Vol.7 No.5 pg.14
4. ^ BMX Plus! July 1984 Vol.7 No.7 pg.9
5. ^ BMX Plus! December 1984 Vol.7 No.12 pg.16

[edit] External links

• Short April 12, 2006 Ride BMX.com article on Jeff Bottema today with his (near) current photo holding his old racing uniform jersey, helmet and frame.
• The American Bicycle Association (ABA) Website.
• The National Bicycle League (NBL) Website.