Chris
Carter was born in Palo Alto, California on April 23, 1951. His life on two
wheels began, like many others, with a Schwinn Stingray bicycle which he used
for his paper route. Every day he’d pedal by some neighborhood kids riding dirt
bikes in a vacant lot. After hanging around long enough the boys let him have a
turn and Chris was hooked on dirt bike riding.
Saving his
money allowed Chris to buy his own bike in 1965, a Honda Scrambler, which he used
to trail ride around the open lands of his northern California home. Soon the
paper route was replaced by a job as a “Gunk brush” at a local dealership, A
& A Motors. At the time future great riders like Kenny Roberts, Jim Odom
and Mark Brelsford were launching their careers out of the same shop. Still a
teenager, Chris used to cut school on Fridays to drive these riders’ bikes down
south so they could race Friday nights at Ascot.
Soon the
Honda Scrambler was replaced by a Greeves and Chris began racing in local
off-road and motocross events. By 1970 he was racing in the Trans-Am Series on
a pre-production Yamaha DT2MX which had been supplied to A&A. Traveling
with Gary Jones, Chris got to see a lot of the country and hone his riding
skills. Soon Yamaha hired Chris as a test rider for their off-road development
program. Next Chris qualified for the International Six Day Trials (ISDT), an
event he would compete in until 1977. He won a Gold Medal in Austria in 1976
and won the final motocross special test.
By this
time he was working at Rocky Cycle where he would eventually become the West
Coast Sales Manager. In 1984 a Taiwan-based cable company asked Chris if he
would be interested in representing its brand in the United States. He decided
that if he were ever to start his own business, this was his opportunity. Chris
suggested he become their exclusive distributor rather than agent. They agreed,
and Motion Pro was born. Cables were a problem for most dealers back then with
multiple part numbers for the same cable, discontinued part numbers, poor
packaging, etc. Chris redesigned the whole business making the packaging and
identification of his product easier for distributors and dealers to inventory,
use and determine correct application, even color coding them red for Honda,
green for Kawasaki, and so on. This was just the beginning of the many
innovations in products, parts, specialty tools, etc. that have made Motion Pro
one of the most successful aftermarket companies in the world today,
celebrating more than 30 years in business.
But Chris’s
involvement with the sport and the industry goes far beyond his business. He
simply loves motorcycles and everything about the sport, the people, and the
whole culture. He still rides and tests new products, and gives back in every
phase of motorcycling. For example, Motion Pro is the official tool sponsor for
the American World Trophy and Junior World Trophy Teams. Motion Pro supports
virtually every professional Dirt Track racer in the USA, and also works with
Supercross, Road Racing, Motocross and off-road racing teams.
Chris is a
historian of the sport, sponsoring a book on Honda’s Dirt Track history, as
well as collecting many important vintage motorcycles once ridden by
Hall-of-Famers like Don Emde, Bubba Shobert, and Preston Petty. He also serves
on the AMA Hall of Fame Museum Board of Directors and supports many charitable
and nonprofit organizations like the Blue Ribbon Coalition, the California
Off-Road Vehicle Association, CRISTA Camps, the Trail Preservation Alliance,
and Riders for Health, Oasis for Kids and many more.
Truly,
Chris Carter is an inspiration to the sport and the industry he loves. The
TrailBlazers proudly welcomes Chris Carter to the 2015 Hall of Fame!
Lucile
Flanders Award
