I met a really good guy here and he is very humble, honest and smart. He admits to not being "old school" (like me) but more "mid school" and he is a serious collector and had some amazing information on what I think is a very cool part of history: The Bicycle Mag Wheel.

He said he was somewhat apprehensive about posting a thread on here because he thought some guys may be a bit too "heavy" or they may not want to hear about another Motomag, Webco, or Tuff story because it's been said before, but I told him I thought much still needs to be told and it would be a great thread. He went all the way back to Iversons and the time just prior to BMX which was the Chopper/Muscle bike 60's era and then right into the minutiae of the first BMX mags and the first magnesium mags and then on to the "first commercially available" magnesium wheel, then on and on and finally into all the rest up to now! Pretty frickin' impressive I said!

Anyhow, I know this is already quite a long post but, I'm going to start this thread for him!

This is what was exchanged in just one of our messages on the topic:

You should really start a new post on VBMX called "Who made the first Mags" that would be really cool... You could get to the bottom of the whole history from the very first to the latest/last... You could include all the "Magnesium" stuff history as well. Webco still is the only company to have offered commercially available Magnesium mags for BMX as far as I know because the small run Skip made were never made for public sale and were only for the "Rick's Bike Shop" boys which they claim was a team secret! They are much lighter as you know than any Aluminium amalgams...

Many, many people would have no idea about those Iversons as I surely didn't... That's really going back to the roots! Don't forget though, I talked about the first "BMX Mags"... Which I'm pretty sure Skip can still claim with the MM'1s... Funny though how the Chopper/Muscle bike era pre-dates BMX by a good 5 years at least but then they kind of morphed together with the old Stingrays being tricked out for early bicycle Motocross/Pedalcross (as some called it then) and then boom - full production, race specific BMX stuff appears all at once, ala Webco, Cook Bro's, Mongoose and Redline etc. all around the same time - early to mid 70's... Then it just goes all the way until now... It's an absolutely amazing piece of American history - although the Dutch claim to have started BMX way before all that, as early as the 1950's which you may already know... I'll find that article again... Here:

http://www.fatbmx.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2372

I don't know a lot but I do know that the famous George Barris car customizer dude came up with much of what's here:

http://bikerodnkustom3.homestead.com/JohnBrain_Archives.html

you'll see the design that Webco used, as well as the basis for the "motomag" style-- without webbing.

the" Barris design" bikes were built by Iverson.
check it out here.

Also two cool links at the bottom of that page.
look here
Notice the sprocket on the blue 1970 "Dragger" bike on the bottom of this page.

here too.