7 thoughts on “Old School Sundays with RL Osborn

  1. For a number of reasons El Cid was my fave rider in this era. If it’s true, that he made $350,000 in ’88 or ’89, he surely was the highest paid flatlander in history, at least that I’m aware of & in the right place, at the right time. It’d be interesting to know, how much some big names have been earning in the last 10 years or so.

    • That`s something I`ve never heard of before. DMC had big time sponsors like Adidas and I never heard of him making insane money like that and I`m sure they can pay a LOT more than a company like Redline. As for the highest paid flatlander in history you probably can probably look at Matt Wilhelm or possibly Terry Adams. Flatland has never been about making money. A lot of the top guys over the years have packed it in because it`s too tough to make a living with flat.

  2. Well that’s what I read R.L saying in an interview. Bare in mind, he had numerous co sponsors, the tours, that helped. Prior to reading this, he said he wanted to be a millionaire by the time he was, I think he said by 25. His Dad owned Bmx Action magazine & Freestylin also. When he was part of the Bmx Action Trick Team, he had even more co sponsors during those days. Then, he started Hammer/Bully after he left General Bicycles. Some may not be aware of this, but apparently Redline & Gt were paying Stu Thomsen & Greg Hill about $75,000 a year in or about ’82. That’s big $ for that era, but it was the boom years. Yes, they were racers, but it was Bmx’s boom years & Freestyle was taking off in ’84 and that’s when Ron Wilkerson & Eddie Fiola were reportedly on $100,000 a year.

  3. Just adding, read that R.L was into property in those years, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that added to his bank balance.

  4. Good comments Tristan Carver. I have read about Wilkerson making $100k a year too. Possibly RL made that kind of money from several different channels. Something to consider is I recall reading somewhere a few years ago he was badmouthing the world of BMX and said that he made way more money with his carpet cleaning business than he ever did with BMX. So if that really was the case then what money was he making carpet cleaning then….because I know they don`t make the kind of money anyone boasts about.

  5. Yep, read about his carpet cleaning business & saying he made more from that, than Bmx. Not to minimize what you’ve said Fred, because we don’t know each other, but I personally didn’t get the impression he was bad mouthing Bmx. I do recall reading, that he really wished he could ride again & this was roughly in his 30s, but he said his injury/injuries made it impossible and there wasn’t any type of surgery, that could get his body up for riding. No hard feelings, smile.

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