Joseph Bradford (born October 10, 1989 in Monterey, California, United States) is an American professional "New/Current School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years are from 1999 to the present. His nickname is simply "Joey".
GT (Gary Turner) Bicycles: December 20, 2005–Present. Joey would turn pro with this sponsor.
Professional/Elite Men
GT (Gary Turner) Bicycles: December 20, 2005–Present.
Amateur/Junior Men
National Bicycle League (NBL)
1998 8 Expert National No.1
1999 9 Expert & 9-10 Cruiser National No.1
1998,'99,'00 California State Champion
1998,'99,'00 Western-Regional Champion
1998 8 Expert President's Cup Champion
2002 12 Expert and 12 Cruiser Grandnational Champion
2002 12 Expert and 12 Cruiser National No.1
2003 13 Expert and 13 Cruiser Grandnational Champion
2003 13 Expert & 13-14 Cruiser National No.1
2004 14 Expert Grandnational Champion.
2004 14 Expert National No.1
2005 15 Expert National No.1
2006 16 Expert National No.1
American Bicycle Association (ABA)
1998 8 Expert Gold Cup West Champion
1998,'99,'00,'01,'02,'03 California State Champion
1998 10 Expert Redline Gold Cup Champion
1999 10 Expert & 10 Cruiser Race of Champions Champion
2000 12 Expert & 12 Cruiser Redline Gold Cup Champion
2001 11 Expert World Champion
2001 12 Expert & 12 Cruiser Race of Champions champion
2002 12 Expert & 12 Cruiser World Champion
2002 13 Expert & 13 Cruiser Race of Champions champion
2003 14 Expert & 14 Cruiser Race of Champions (ROC) champion
2004 14 Expert & 14 Cruiser World Champion
2004 15 Expert & 15 Cruiser Redline Gold Cup Champion
2005 15 Expert & 15 Cruiser World Champion
2005 16 Expert & 16 Cruiser Redline Gold Cup Champion
2005 16 Expert National Age Group (NAG) No.1
2006 17 Expert Redline Gold Cup Cruiser Champion
Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)
2000 11 Boys World Champion
2002 12 Boys World Champion
2003 13 Boys & 13-14 Cruiser World Champion
2005 15 Boys & 15-16 Cruiser World Champion
2003 14-16 Pacific Oceanic Champion
2005 14–16 Boys Pan Pacific Champion
2006 14–16 boys Pan Pacific Champion
2006 North American Junior Men Champion
2007 Junior Men's Silver Medal World Champion
USA Cycling BMX
2007 Junior Cruiser National Champion
Professional/Elite Men
National Bicycle League (NBL)
American Bicycle Association (ABA)
Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)*
USA Cycling
BMX South Africa (BMXSA)
2007 Elite Men South African National Champion
Pro Series Championships
BMX product lines
2006 Fly Joey Bradford Signature Series Bars.
Product evaluation:
Significant injuries
Dislocated shoulder in a crash during the main at the 2006 UCI World Championships in the Netherlands.
Suffered a bad muscle bruise injury in his left lower back falling coming out of the first turn in the first moto at the ABA Winternationals in Phoenix, Arizona on March 25, 2007.
Miscellaneous
In early 2007 when Bradford was still just 17 years old he started the "Joey Bradford Disability Fund" to aid financially seriously injured and/or financially troubled BMX racers. BMX despite being an Olympic sport and gaining world respect, is still not truly a professional sport in which a racer could become financially independent. Sponsors provide professional racers their salaries as well as providing them with free travel, expenses, entrance fees for racers, and free bicycle parts as well as payment for appearing in advertisements. If he or she is let go by a sponsor, that racer would often be in financial straits. With no salary, free travel or other expenses paid. He would solely rely on race winnings to support his racing, which would be of course, partly offset by the entrance fees he would have to pay for out of pocket including travel cost. The financial pressures are even greater if the racer is married with children with a mortgage and car payments. As a result, a racer could find him/herself in dire straits if he is injured, particularly if it is a career ending one. There is no pensions for BMXers as there are in major long established sports like baseball football basketball etc.
To aid racers who have fallen on financially hard times Bradford along with veterans of the sport founded the fund. As described at the fatbmx.com website:
:"The Foundation, a federally recognized and regulated non-profit organization, aims to ease the burden of medical bills, either by injury or illness, for BMX professionals as well as BMX industry professionals, those whose primary income comes from the BMX industry itself. “Getting injured is the worst thing that can happen to a professional athlete,” states Professional BMX racer Brandon Meadows. “When I broke my femur for the second time, things seem to go downhill real fast. I just started a family, lost my sponsor, broke my leg, no way to make any money, and it soon came to a realization that it was going to be hard to make ends meet.”
Applicants must apply themselves or via a family member and their case will be reviewed by the five person Fund Committee. If the application is approved, up to 50% of the fund can be released to help with monetary medical obligations."
BMX and general press magazine interviews and articles
Bicycles Today & BMX Today (The official NBL publication under two names):
ABA Action, American BMXer, BMXer (The official ABA publication under three names):
Post BMX Career
Still active. However, in 2003 he started a simultaneous Mountain Bike Racing career, one of the few BMXers to do so at his stage in his career which was only six years into his BMX amateur career. Most BMXers who cross over to MTB racing do so after his BMX career or in its last few years. John Tomac, Tinker Juarez started MTB racing after their BMX careers. Pete Loncarevich, Eric Carter, Bas de Bever, Corine Dorland and Dale Holmes started their MTB careers during the one or two twilight years of BMX racing. Among the exceptions is Wade Bootes that started MTB racing essentially during the middle of his BMX career. It is difficult for a racer to train effectively at the championship level for either of the two disciplines although skills for one easily translate to the other, still the training regimen for one is different enough to adversely affect the other. As a result, most start the crossover just about at the end of their usually long BMX racing careers.
Mountain Bike career
Started racing: 2003
Sub Discipline: 4 Cross Downhil
First race result:
Sanctioning body:
Retired:
Amateur
Staats Bicycles: 2002-2003
Avent/Bomshell: 2003-2004
Hyundai/Mongoose: January 2005-Mid December 2005
GT (Gary Turner) Bicycles: December 20, 2005–Present. Joey would turn pro with this sponsor.
