Key Figures · Performance shop

Steve Bamdas

Named by magazines in 2015 and 2018, with Lynn Bamdas, as starting the Pompano Beach business that became the dealer RIVA Motorsports, and in 2012 listed among the principals and owners of the dealership.

The BaddJet shop sells RIVA Racing parts. This page is the archive's record of what the documents say, it links to no product, and nothing on it was written to sell one.

1. The early years, in print, 1981 to 1993
2. The makers and their machines, 1985 to 2005
3. Noise, safety and federal rules, 1996 to 2002
4. The rule book years, 2002 to 2018 (this page's records)
5. Three rule books, 2021 to 2026

1990200020102020

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Business

2012 · Likely

Powersports Business lists Steve Bamdas among the principals and owners it lists for RIVA Motorsports & Marine in the fact box of its Power 15 dealer profile of 28 December 2012. The box gives Pompano Beach, Florida, as the location, three locations, and 1979 as the year founded, and the profile says the dealership has an aftermarket personal watercraft parts business, RIVA Racing. The box prints the given name Steve in a list of given names followed by one family name; reading that family name as Steve Bamdas's is the archive's inference. The box gives no office to anyone it lists (read in full, 2026-10-07).

Sources: Powersports Business RIVA profile 2012

Likely

The Watercraft Journal's shop tour of RIVA, printed on 17 July 2015, says that in 1979 Steve Bamdas and Lynn Bamdas started a small motorsports business in Pompano Beach, Florida, then known as Lambretta South, selling mainly scooters, mopeds and go-karts, and that a few years later the business acquired the Yamaha "Riva" scooter line and was renamed Riva World. RIVA Racing's own history page, read on 5 October 2026, tells the same story and places the Riva scooter line in the early 1980s. Both tell the company's own account, one as told to a visiting magazine and one on its own page, and neither cites a document, so the 1979 date is that account's and nothing more (each read in full, 2026-10-07).

Sources: Watercraft Journal 17 July 2015; RIVA Racing About page

Likely

Coastal Angler's business profile of 1 February 2018 says Steve Bamdas and Lynn Bamdas opened a small business in Pompano Beach, Florida, which they named Lambretta South after the Lambretta scooter line, that in 1983 it picked up the Yamaha Riva scooter line and adopted the name RIVA World, and that in 1987 Yamaha approached RIVA World to sell WaveRunners. The magazine's 1983 for the Riva line fits RIVA's own page, which says the early 1980s, and the 2015 shop tour gives no year; none of the three cites a document (each read in full, 2026-10-07).

Sources: Coastal Angler on RIVA 2018

Likely

Powersports Business of 19 December 2023 says Steve Bamdas opened RIVA Motorsports in 1979 in Pompano Beach, Florida, and that the dealership "originally carried Yamaha motor scooters", which the report says allowed an easy addition of Yamaha watercraft in 1987. The 2015 and 2018 accounts above name Lambretta scooters first and the Yamaha Riva line later, so the documents differ on what the business first carried. A photograph caption in the same report names Steve Bamdas among six people of RIVA Motorsports. The history in the report is the dealer group's own telling to the writer, so the 1979 date is that telling's and nothing more.

Sources: Powersports Business RIVA Space Coast 2023

Elsewhere in the archive

• History chapter: The aftermarket: shops, dealers and the teams they ran
• Era: The rule book years

What the archive has not read (2)

• No registry record held names Steve Bamdas as owner or officer of the business, and no document held and dated before December 2012 names Steve Bamdas at all (searched the archive's mirror and research cache for Bamdas, 2026-10-07). Every account of the 1979 start is the business's own telling or a magazine repeating it. The Florida Division of Corporations record is searched through a web form, which was not used.
• The association's associate member lists of 2005 and 2017 name RIVA Motorsports with no contact name in the copies held, so neither list ties Steve Bamdas to the association (read 2026-10-07).

Documents cited on this page

• Powersports Business RIVA profile 2012 (powersportsbusiness.com): RIVA Motorsports & Marine (Power 15 Dealers, Powersports Business, 28 December 2012), Powersports Business, 2012-12-28; editorial, medium. A dealer profile in the trade magazine's Power 15 series, with a fact box that gives the year founded (1979) and lists the principals and owners by name, and a body that quotes one of them on the dealership's departments. Medium: an independent trade publisher printing a fact box of unstated origin, so it records who the magazine listed as principals and owners in 2012 and not a registry's list of officers. The profile says the dealership has an aftermarket parts business, RIVA Racing. Family details in the body are replaced in the held copy and nothing from them is used.
• Watercraft Journal 17 July 2015 (watercraftjournal.com): The Golden Ticket: Behind-The-Curtain of RIVA Motorsports and RIVA Racing (The Watercraft Journal, 17 July 2015), The Watercraft Journal, 2015-07-17; enthusiast media, medium. A shop-tour feature on RIVA written from a visit, naming the racers the dealer's team sponsored in the 1990s. Medium as trade press; what it says of RIVA's own past is the company's account as told to the writer, and it gives no years for the riders it names. The held copy has one family detail and an editor's address placeholder replaced in place.
• RIVA Racing About page (rivaracing.com): RIVA Racing's History: Humble Beginnings (RIVA Racing About page), RIVA Racing; manufacturer primary, low. The company's own account of its history, read from a copy saved on 5 October 2026: a shop opened in 1979, its watercraft years from 1987, and the dealer's appointment as the first official Yamaha factory race team for personal watercraft competition in 1992. Low, because every date on it is the company's own telling of its history, and it cites no Yamaha document. The held copy omits the site menus and replaces one family detail and the phone numbers in place.
• Coastal Angler on RIVA 2018 (coastalanglermag.com): Built In Broward: RIVA Motorsports (Coastal Angler, Fort Lauderdale edition, 1 February 2018), Coastal Angler Magazine, 2018-02-01; editorial, medium. A short business profile in a regional fishing and boating magazine. Medium as printed trade-adjacent press; what it says of the company's past (its 1997 date for Yamaha's designation of the dealer as its official factory race team, and its superlatives) is told without a source, so a page citing it attributes the year to the magazine and uses none of its praise. The held copy omits the site menus and replaces phone numbers in place.
• Powersports Business RIVA Space Coast 2023 (powersportsbusiness.com): RIVA Motorsports dealer group expands alongside space industry, by Madelyn Pegg (Powersports Business, 19 December 2023), Powersports Business, 2023-12-19; editorial, medium. A trade-magazine report on the dealer group's fourth location, built around an interview with one of its owners, with a photograph caption that names six people of RIVA Motorsports and a section on the group's history that dates the first store to 1979 and names who opened it. Medium as trade press; the history is the owner's telling to the writer. The interview also dates the start of RIVA Racing to 1992 and a Yamaha race budget to 1993, which the figure records do not print but which bear on the dates for the Yamaha factory team in the aftermarket chapter on shops and teams. Family and personal details in the body are replaced in the held copy and nothing from them is used.

Cite this page

“Steve Bamdas”, BaddJet archive, https://baddjetarchive.com/key-figures/steve-bamdas/

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