Scot Breithaupt was a motocross racer for Yamaha who liked to ride his motorcycle on a rugged dirt track in Long Beach, Calif. One day in November 1970, he noticed that he was being followed by teenagers pedaling Schwinn Sting-Rays.
“Kids would come out and imitate me — they would follow my trail,” Breithaupt said in the documentary film “Joe Kid on a Sting-Ray” (2005).
Breithaupt, 57, who was found dead on Saturday inside a tent in a vacant lot in the city of Indio, Calif., recognized the sport’s potential. He went on to become the pre-eminent early promoter of bicycle motocross (BMX) racing, a national champion in the sport and a member of the National BMX Hall of Fame.