Keith Bontrager was a motorcycle racer who later turned to a developer of the mountain bike. At the age of 11 (!!!) he built his first lawnmower engine powered mini-bike! At the age of 15 he began racing motocross, funding his racing through motorcycle repair work. Many of the motorcycles he tuned won road racing titles. Later he got into bicycling and developed road, mountain and BMX-bikes, the company he founded, the Bontrager Company, was later bought by the famous Trek Bicycle Corporation.