What brands sold out?
 

I have a few old BMX frames at a shop I frequent. There are a few GTs, a few Redlines.. and I few more I can't remember. Did Redline eventually sell out and become a department store bike? I'm pretty sure GT did not (as their mountain bikes are still pretty good...)

mongoose did .. Redline is still sold by Seattle bike supply, to bike shops .

Bikes Direct is all using recycled names .

though as their name suggests, you buy from the Importer warehouse ,
not in a shop.

"Sold out" is not really a good way of looking at it... the US bike industry went through some very hard times in the late 90's, for a variety of reasons, and many companies wound up as brands of other companies.

GT's founder died in a motorcycle wreck. It's now owned by Pacific Dorel (along with Schwinn, Cannondale, Roadmaster, and Mongoose). Pacific sells some brands (Mongoose, Roadmaster, Schwinn) at Walmart but retains others (better Schwinns, GT, Cannondale) for bike stores.

Redline is owned by Accel (along with Diamondback and Raleigh).

Very cool. We had two redlines at the shop, both were too small for me. They were kid's BMX bikes. There were 2 GTs as well, which were also too small for me. Finally I found an old Haro. It's beat to hell, bit of surface rust here and there from where the bike was scratched, but nothing some fine sandpaper and a clearcoat can't fix. The frame isn't painted, it's just clear over the steel. Yes, it is steel, and it's not particularly light. I think the reason it was donated was because there was a small dent on the outer edge of the BB. Nothing a punch and a few small taps with a hammer can't fix (and perhaps a bit of rethreading.) The BB unscrewed easily enough, but it did have a plastic end on that side, so I'm assuming the plastic deformed to take the shape of that small dent.

We also had a few old school BMXs, Kawasaki (ok, after googling it's not that old, only a 97 Z1), a few old Mongooses, and an old schwinn or two. At least, they LOOK old school to my untrained eye. It's pretty easy to pick out the new schwinns and mongooses, these ones just looked... old. Maybe it was the smaller round tubing that gave it away.

Depends on what you mean by selling out --- Most of the old school brands that still survive today "sold out" in one way or another - as was mentioned, GT sold out to Pacific,

SE sold out, although they still remain an enthusiast based company

Most of them had to sell out to survive

I really meant "Sold out and are now sold at a lower quality." Mongoose, schwinn, etc. (Although schwinn does have nicer, more expensive bikes still. I think it's called the pro series, not BMX though.)