Modern Race Frames with Retro Looks

By Bill Ryan · Owner, Torker Racing · 45 years building BMX frames

Three Torker race frames are in production right now. Two of them look like 1978 and 1984. All three are drawn on the same geometry that wins world championships today. That is not a marketing sentence — the numbers are published, and you can put them side by side yourself. So we did.

The problem with most retro bikes

Most heritage BMX frames on the market are built to be looked at. They copy the silhouette, they copy the decals, and they copy the geometry too — which is the part that should have stayed in the era it came from. A 1978 head angle and a 1978 chainstay length made sense on a 1978 track with 1978 gates. Put that same frame on a modern eight-meter hill against modern gate technology and the rider is fighting the bike.

We took a different route. The LP, the PRO-X and the Diesel keep the tubing, the gussets, the dual top tubes and the stance that made these frames what they were. Underneath, every one of them is drawn on current race geometry. You get the old shape in the photographs and 2026 out of the gate. If you want the whole line side by side first, start with the Torker frame comparison guide.

The LP — 1978 looks, current numbers

The LP Race Frame Set is the reissue of the frame that defined Torker. The 1978 Low Profile is what the 1979 factory team rode to the National Number One team title — Eddy King, Mike Aguilera, Doug Olson, Doug Davis, Patti Gammil, Cathy Hanna, Jason Jensen and Clint Miller. In 1980 Clint "The Barbarian" Miller won the first IBMXF World Pro Championship ever held, and he won it on an LP. That makes the LP the frame of the world's first BMX Pro World Champion. It is documented on BMXmuseum.com, and it is the reason this frame gets treated the way it does. The whole story is in The Fullerton Era.

What we build today keeps the traditional sideplate gussets and the dual top tube shape that make an LP look like an LP across a swap meet. Everything a modern racer touches has moved on: seamless 4130 chromoly throughout, a 1 1/8" threadless steertube, an integrated Campy® head tube, a Euro bottom bracket shell, a 27.2 seat mast, V-brake mounts, a modern chainstay brace, and double-thick quarter-inch laser-cut chromoly dropouts. The 4130 chromoly heat-treated tapered-leg fork comes with it.

Currently available in Pro XL at 21.25" top tube and Pro XXL at 21.75". Both run a 15.25" chainstay, 11.625" bottom bracket height and a 74.5° head angle, and so does the Pro at 20.5" when it is in the run. Triple show chrome, gloss black, candy red or candy blue. LP Race Frame Set — $599.95 →

Those numbers, next to the frames winning now

Here is the part worth reading slowly. The published geometry of the Torker race frames sits alongside the geometry of the current Supercross race frames — the same drawing board, because the same person draws both. The Supercross ENVY RS7 and the SX450 are what those numbers have been winning on.

Pro XL, 20"	Torker LP	Torker PRO-X	Torker Diesel	Supercross RS7	Supercross SX450
Top tube	21.25"	21.25"	21.25"	21.25"	21.25"
Head angle	74.5°	74.5°	74.5°	74.5°	74.5°
Chainstay	15.25"	15.25"	15.25"	15.2"	15.2"
BB height	11.625"	11.625"	11.625"	11.6"	11.6"
Material	4130 cro-mo	4130 cro-mo	6069-T6 alloy	6069-T6 alloy	Butted cro-mo

Figures as published on each product page, 9 August 2026. The 15.2 / 15.25 and 11.6 / 11.625 pairs are the same measurements rounded differently by two stores, not different frames.

The PRO-X — the Torker Twins frame

The PRO-X is 1984. It was the first Torker to drop the traditional sideplate gussets for small triangle downtube gussets, and it came with a machined head tube and a machined bottom bracket. Mike "Hollywood" Miranda and Tommy "The Human Dragster" Brackens — the Torker Twins — raced it through one of the most dominant stretches in the brand's history. Tommy won the 1983 European Championship and took the number three NBL Pro plate. In his own words: "I got my first AA Pro back-to-back wins on a Torker." Everything from that year lives in the 1984 Collection.

The reissue is full seamless 4130 chromoly with the same modern package as the LP: 1 1/8" threadless steertube, integrated Campy® head tube, Euro BB, 27.2 seat mast, V-brakes, quarter-inch laser-cut dropouts, modern chainstay brace, chromoly heat-treated fork included.

Five sizes, which is more than the original ever offered. Three 20" — Pro 20.5", Pro XL 21.25", Pro XXL 21.75" — and two 24" cruisers at 21.5" and 22" top tube, both on a 15.35" chainstay and 73.5° head angle. Triple show chrome or gloss white. PRO-X Frame Set — from $599.95 →

If you are choosing between the LP and the PRO-X, the frames are mechanically the same class of thing at the same geometry. Pick the era and the rider you connect with. The LP is 1978 and the first world champion; the PRO-X is 1984 and the Torker Twins.

The Diesel — the alloy one

The Diesel is where Torker went aluminum, and it is named for Matt "The Diesel" Hadan, the last factory Torker pro of the mid-school era. Oversize down tube, dual top tubes, and the stance of a frame built for a big rider putting down real power.

It is built from 6069-T6 aluminum, and that alloy choice is worth a paragraph because it is the same call we made on the 2026 Supercross ENVY RS7. Aluminum in the 6xxx family takes the full T-6 treatment: solution heat treatment, a liquid quench, then artificial aging. The frame hardens after it is welded, weld zones included. Alloys in the 7xxx family can crack under a liquid quench, so they get a gentler air cool that only partly restores the metal around each weld. Welds are where a race frame gets tested. 6069 lands around 380 to 414 MPa yield against roughly 290 for 7005, and 410 to 448 MPa tensile against 350. That is about 30 percent more force before the metal takes a permanent set. The long version is on Why We Use 6069-T6 Aluminum.

Five sizes: 20" Pro XL at 21.25" top tube, 20" Pro XXL at 21.75", then 24" at 22", 26" at 22.75" and 29" at 23.75". The big-wheel sizes slacken the head angle as the wheel grows — 73.5° at 24", 73.1° at 26", 72° at 29" — because a 29" front wheel needs the room. Retro integrated Campy® head tube, Euro BB, 3/8" dropouts, chromoly heat-treated fork included. Diesel Frame Set — from $649.95 →

Which one

You want chrome and you want to race it. LP or PRO-X. Same geometry, same build spec, same price bracket. Choose on history.

You are a bigger rider, or you want aluminum. Diesel. It is the lightest of the three by material and the only one that goes past 21.75" in a 20" wheel, and it is the only Torker platform that runs 26" and 29". See the rest of the big bike range.

You want to race a cruiser. PRO-X in 24", or the Diesel in 24", 26" or 29".

You want the freestyle version. That is the LP-F, not the LP Race — 25.4 seat mast, U-brakes, mid BB, 14 mm dropouts, removable gyro tabs. The rest of that side of the house is in the Freestyle Collection.

You want it built, not boxed. Use the Build Your Torker page, or look at the complete bikes.

One last thing

Every one of these is a limited run with its own serial number, built in small batches. The LP runs 50 chrome XL and 25 of each color in the other sizes. The Diesel is 25 per size. That is not a scarcity tactic, it is the size of run a family-scale operation can do properly. If you want to know what you have got or what you are looking at, the serial number guides cover every era, and the Torker Bike Archive runs from 1976 to today. They ship the same day from Apple Valley, California when the order lands before 2 PM Pacific.

Eight years of production in Fullerton. Forty-two years of waiting. The frames are back, and they are quicker than they were.