Firemans Texas Cruzer was born in an Austin garage in June 1998. A return to the days of 26” BMX, the idea quickly went from a napkin drawing to a locally welded frame. The prototype was tested during that summer, and later that fall reached production as a frame and fork set.

The Firemans Texas Cruzer was released on Halloween 1998, and received immediate local acclaim. The Cruzer has received great reviews in Bike, Mountain Bike Action, BMX Plus, and Dirt Rag. Firemans has a great loyal customer base all around the US and beyond.

Firemans Production History

As mentioned above we were able to take the napkin drawing and turn it into a rideable prototype thanks to Tommy Gardner-an amazing local Austin BMX welder that helped build that frame by hand. We worked together over two nights at the old Homeless BMX factory in East Austin to complete it. After we had that prototype, luckily we were able to get a manufacturing reference from a friend at A1 bikes in Austin, who knew about Fabweld in Pompano Beach, Florida because they had made a small run of the chrome “GBJ” 26 cruisers for them. There are many amazing occurrences that have happened along the way to keep Firemans moving forward. These two – finding someone to help create the prototype, and then finding someone to make our first run right off the bat, were very essential. Our first few runs of frames were made by Fabweld – The amazing part is that they were able to get our first order done in less than 6 months. Thanks to the Esser Family – George and Greg – for taking me under their wing and helping me get those first bikes made in their shop – customers still love those FM originals. The Essers were THE family in East Coast BMX, and contributed to that history, including MCS Bicycles and BMX racing in Florida. (Greg Esser BMX.) In the year 1999 or 2000 I contacted the USA manufacturing shop of SE Racing (History of SE as told by Mike Devitt.) Mike Devitt (Mike Devitt BMX) took me under his wing, and helped me adjust and redraw the Original Firemans Cruzer, and the Firemans Race Looptail was born and manufactured by SE at their USA plant. When I visited out there, I had the opportunity to go to lunch with some of the guys, and luckily at that lunch met Sal Correa – we became friends and unknowingly that lunch changed the direction of Firemans history forever! (See people section for more on Sal.) Sal was the foreman of the SE Racing USA shop from 1977 until it closed in the early 2000’s, and made many famous SE models (PK Ripper, Floval Flyer, and OM Flyer, etc.,) along with many other historical brands of BMX framesets. When SE USA went out of business in the early 2000s, Sal started his own shop, and I moved with him and was one of his first two customers at his new shop – see people page (SAL CORREA section) for further info on that association and how it played out and is still going strong today – but at Sal’s shop SC Bikes/Sal Correa Racing, Inc. instead.

Check it out: FM CUSTOMER BIKES ON BMX MUSEUM

FEATURED PRESS LINKS

LAST DIRT RAG ARTICLE – This is the best summary of Firemans – This author Adam Hunt came and hung out and rode with us, and really understood and wrote our whole scene and purpose of the company with perfect insight. Would like to thank Dirt Rag for all the support they gave us over the years, and also to Maurice the owner and his awesome crew, and all they did for cycling and always offering an alternate view on it, and never settling or conforming. Dirt Rag contributed so much to cycling history as no one else could – you will always be greatly appreciated and missed! Long live Dirt Rag!

Congrats! — Fireman’s Texas Cruiser’s celebrates 25 years.

Other Magazine Articles Written on Firemans Over The Years –

FIREMANS NO.4 BEER
Firemans No. 4 ale is brewed by Real Ale Brewing Co. in Blanco, Texas. Firemans Bikes and Real Ale got together in the late 90’s when both companies were getting their start. After co-sponsoring single speed bike races together in central Texas, they came up with the idea for the beer. The beer is named after the Firemans Texas Cruzer, and has quite a following and has created a great new modern Texas legend. Below you will see some of the collaboration bikes we did, the original label, trucks, and billboards.