1985 also saw GT produce their first Mountain bike for the emerging sport and market. Robinson Racing was acquired by GT Bicycles in 1987 from founder Chuck Robinson due to financial troubles with the company. Chuck went to work for GT and did promotion for them as well as heading up the South America sales because he spoke Spanish as well as other languages. Robinson Racing was founded in the late 1970s after Chuck worked for DG BMX and Webco Bikes Inc. In 1989 GT Bicycles acquires Auburn Cycles another company that Bob Morales started along with Todd Huffman only one year earlier. Originally Auburn was going to be Honda Cycles but the Honda Motor corp. pulled out at the last minute declining to license the name. Bob and Todd continued with the project and Huffman came up with the Auburn name and Bob designed the original logo. When Auburn merged into GT Huffman was hired by GT to manage the brand in addition to his Marketing Director title. GT produced Auburn frames and bicycles until 1997. Also in 1989 GT acquired Powerlite. Powerlite was founded in 1977 by Steve Rink in Orange County, California as a frame for Peddlepower bike shop called the Peddlepower SR. In early 1979 this would change and the decals would read Powerlite. The company name was resurrected as an independent in 2002 as Powerlite Bicycles USA which produces BMX racing bikes and accessories. Ownership Change & Public Offering With lost public interest in the sport of BMX and declining sales, Long and Turner sold a controlling interest to Boston-based investment firm Bain Capital in 1993, which then took the company public in October 1995. In 1996, GT won the commission to manufacture a highly aerodynamic bike design that would later become known as the "Superbike" and later banned by Olympic regulations. A byproduct of a year-long development program with the U.S. national team known as Project '96, the bike featured a carbon graphite frame with no top tube, extremely thin seat and downtubes, a seat tube with a deep cutout to accommodate the rear wheel, as well as differently sized aerodynamic wheels. Describing the bike, the U.S. Cycling Federation's track endurance coach Craig Griffin said "it's so thin and light, and it's as strong as anything built. It's so aerodynamic that when you look at it from the front, it disappears." Controversially, just prior