Jump to content

BMX

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 75.33.54.99 (talk) at 08:39, 16 October 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

ː

A BMX Race. First round of the 2005 European BMX Championships held in Sainte Maxime, France on 23rd April 2005

BMX (Bicycle Moto-cross(X)) is a form of cycling on specially designed bicycles which usually have 20-inch wheels (smaller than the 26-inch wheels found on mountain bikes and the 700C or 27-inch wheels found on more conventional road racing bicycles). The sport includes races on sandy and hilly tracks—BMX racing—as well as the performances of tricks on flat ground, wooden ramps, trails (jumps made of dirt) or obstacles found on the streets—BMX freestyle. Recently, the sport's international governing body—Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)—began sponsoring the UCI BMX World Championships.

BMX originated in the state of California, United States in the late 1960s, when teenagers imitated their motocross heroes (most notably Steve McQueen) on their bicycles. Scot Breithaupt is credited as the founder of BMX. The 1971 motorcycle racing documentary On Any Sunday is generally credited with inspiring the movement nationally. In the opening scene, kids are shown riding their Schwinns off-road. It wasn't until the middle of that decade that the sport achieved critical mass, and manufacturers began creating bicycles designed specially for the sport. In the case of Freestyle BMX, it wouldn't be what it is today without Bob Haro's contribution. He merged skateboarding tricks with freestyle BMX which led to the current-day style of this extreme sport.

Bicycle design

In the beginning of the BMX movement kids would strip down their Schwinn Sting Ray bicycles and add knobby tires and perhaps motorcycle handlebars, and in time modify the frames for performance, strength or personal preference. Early BMX bicycle manufacturers, such as R&R Racing Products, Mongoose, Webco and RedLine, eventually created bicycles expressly for the sport. Mongoose can be credited with building the quintessential early BMX bike, featuring a straight-tubed, gusseted frame; reinforced handlebars; Motomag wheels and long crankarms. The initial construction emphasis was on durability, but weight became a consideration as racing gained popularity. R&R Racing Products, noted for introducing the first 3 pound frame, forged the path for light weight, yet strong BMX bikes designed specifically for racing. Other manufacturers soon followed using lighter materials like aluminum and chromium molybdenum (CrMo, chromoly) for frames; steel rims, mag wheels and coaster brakes were replaced by aluminum rims with freewheels and caliper brakes. Once BMX racing became a professional activity, racing bikes became as specialized as in all other forms of cycling competition.

The next wave of innovation came with the advent of freestyle BMX. Freestyle bikes look much like BMX racing bikes, but they have extra places to position the feet while performing tricks and are much stronger. Many freestyle bike also feature a detangler, a device located by the headtube that allows the handlebars to be spun 360 or more degrees without tangling the brake cables. A detangler is often known by specific brand names, such as the ACS 'Rotor' or the Odyssey 'Gyro'. The design of the Gyro was based on the rotor of a helicopter, which requires blade adjustments while maintaining a steady speed of rotation.

The explosion of BMX created many startup companies, and lured many known manufacturers into the market. In addition to the above mentioned, other notable companies include GT, Haro, FMF, Fit Bike Co, S&M, Schwinn, Eastern Bikes, Diamondback, Hoffman Bikes, Volume bike co, Poverty, Cook Brothers, CW, Free Agent, FBM, The Take, Fly Bikes, Bandito, Twenty, Superstar, Sputnic, Dragonfly, Primo, Odyssey, Skyway, Mosh Bikes, WTP, Kuwahara, DK, Huffy, Murray, Federal, Hutch, SE Racing, JMC Bicycles, Specialized, Rockmachine and many more.

Many manufacturers also produce 24" wheel versions of their BMX bikes called Cruisers, that run in their own classes.

In the late 1990's, largely due to popular video parts by riders like Ron Wilkerson, Eddie Roman and Mat Hoffman, BMX 'street' riding has become hugely popular and caused quite a change in the way BMX bikes are designed and built. The stresses from impacts and hard landings on cement, often times from height, has brought about the introduction of high quality CroMoly steel tubesets into BMX frame manufacturing. It has become common to find frames constructed of Reynolds 853 steel tubing, Japanese Sanko Steel Tubing, and unbranded but high quality aircraft grade 4130 CroMoly steel. Advances in tubing have allowed the creation of BMX frames that are both stronger and lighter than what has been manufactured previously in the sports history. The weight of newet frames averages around 5 pounds, and these frames can withstand copious amounts of abuse.

Street riding has also introduced the concept of 'micro-gearing' into BMX. Riders found that if they were not racing, or using their BMX bike for travel purposes, that they were carrying around 'too much' gearing, and chainrings have shrunk from 44 teeth, all the way down to 25 teeth in some cases. These smaller gear setups further reduce the weight of the bike by using lighter chainrings, smaller rear drivers on cassette hubs, and shorter chain legths. Many companies, such as Odyssey and Profile Racing, have taken race equipment, such as cassette hubs, and strengthened them to withstand the abuse of street riding. Cassette hubs allow the use of smaller rear drivers, down to 9 teeth, which allow the gear ration to remain constant with smaller chainrings.

The second wave of street riding innovation, pioneered by New York City BMX'ers has seen the advent of a riding style that emphasises grinding and peg tricks on rails, ledges and found urban objects. This riding style has influenced bike setups immensely, and New York street riding has become synonymous with a bike that has no mechanical brake and 4 pegs. Brakeless riders maintain that without brakes, a rider develop superior bike control and balance, as well as keeping the bike light, durable and simple. By using 4 pegs, riders are able to attack urban objects from both sides creating the opportunity for a greater variety of tricks on a wider array of terrain.

Racing

Main article: BMX racing

BMX racing is where BMX started. The courses emulate motocross tracks, but are generally smoother, and are about 900 to 1,100 feet in length. Races last about 25 to 40 seconds hitting speeds of 15 to 35mph depending on track conditions, the skill level and age bracket of the class. The participants race for points in which the rider with the most points under district (local), state/provicial, regional, national and international rules and regulations is declared the number one (#1) or Champion Racer. These rules and qualifications are determined by governing organizations who promote and sanction these events called Sanctioning bodies. BMX racing in the US consists of 2 leagues, NBL (National Bicycle League) and ABA (American Bicycle Association). Both are similar, but still have differences.

Freestyle

Main article: Freestyle BMX
BMX Flatland rider at Santa Monica beach.

Freestyle BMX (also known as Bike Stunt), a name given it by Mat Hoffman is a creative way of riding 20" wheel-base bicycles. mat hoffman is also known to be the man with the largest white penis.

In most countries, the popularity of Freestyle BMX has outgrown that of racing. Many of the top-selling magazines have no, or very limited, coverage of racing, while extensively covering every aspect of Freestyle with perhaps the notable exception of Flatland.

Freestyle has now been split further into a number of disciplines with bikes being specialized to cope with the demands of different riding styles and terrains. These disciplines include Street, Flatland, Vert, Park and Dirt.

Street is a form of BMX riding, which boils down to riding anything that isn't meant to be ridden; this includes stairs, ledges, handrails, banks, walls, and just about anything else. However, because these obstacles are often on private property, this leaves participants of this sport at risk of prosecution for trespassing, and possibly destruction of property.

Flatland is the art of riding 20" wheel base bicycles on flat ground in various unique and interesting ways. Though Flatland was the basis for almost every other form of modern Freestyle riding, it has fallen wayside in popularity, yet maintains a very loyal following of dedicated riders.

Vert riding is riding any half pipe that reaches vertical, and is at least 9 feet tall or bigger. Aerial tricks are performed above the ramp on either side, and peg tricks are performed on the coping at the top of the ramp.

Park is of course, riding in skateparks; this style of riding pulls elements from all of the other forms, even Flatland. Skateparks, while traditionally designed for skateboarders, are just as well if not better suited for BMX riders. There are many skateparks all around the world, but unfortunately, BMXers are often at risk of arrest or fine due to restrictive rules set by insurance companies or city councils; luckily there is a growing number of BMX specific or friendly facilities.

Dirt, also know as Trails riding, is the direct descendant of BMX racing, and involves jumps made almost entirely of dirt or clay (sometimes carpeting is layed on top of the jumps to protect them and help them hold their shape). Riders usually take off of one dirt ramp, perform an aerial trick, and then land on another. This combination of a take-off and landing ramp is usually referred to as a "double". A series of "doubles" in a row, make up a "line", which is completed (hopefully) in succession.

In the media

The early days of BMX - both racing and freestyle - was chronicled in the movie Rad. The movie, filmed in Calgary, Canada featured many talented and famous BMX riders of the 1980s as stunt riders, including Eddie Fiola, Travis Chipres, Mike Dominguez, Hollywood Mike Miranda, Martin Aparillo, and Fred Blood.

Other films featuring BMX include BMX Bandits, Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and more recently Joe Kid on a Stingray which documents the early days of the sport from an American perspective.

The musical group Wheatus penned BMX Bandits on their 2005 album Too Soon Monsoon.

BMX also has its own dedicated magazines to promote and popularize the sport. The more notable and historic American publications included Bicycle Motocross News, a tabloid newspaper published by Elaine Holt which debuted in June 1973, It was the first BMX publication, now defunct; Bicycle Motocross Action, later shortened to BMX Action now defunct*; Freestylin', BMX Action's twin publication focusing on freestyle riding, also defunct*; BMX Plus!, formerly BMX Action's biggest competitor (still publishing); Super BMX & Freestyle which evolved from Minicycle/BMX Action (not to be confused with the other BMX Action) which in turn derived from Minicycle Action. Super BMX & Freestyle ended publication in 1989.

Other notable magazines are Dig BMX and Ride BMX (both UK-based), Transworld BMX(now defunct) which was a descendant of BMX Action and is now part of Ride BMX. In 2006, BMX World began publication, an offshoot of BMXPress an Australian BMX magazine.

As a youth culture sport the BMX industry has seen itself both fully embraced by the mainstream media during the late 70's and early 80's as well as abandoned during the late 80's and early 90's. In part due to this, as well as the inspiration of an often very underground and local network of individuals, the BMX scene produced many 'zines'. Zines were a non-commercial, privately published magazine. These were often freely distributed and/or non-profit and formed a creative outlet and means of communication between BMX riders the world over. In the beginning as personal computers were few and far between, the majority of these zines were handwritten or typed black & white photocopied pages produced as a smaller (often DinA5 due to the practicality of being able to fold a standard DinA4 page in two) magazine. They had become a more in-depth version of the very earliest forms of single-page newsletter that had previously been used to communicate the very first BMX events, echoing the advancements in the BMX scene as a lifestyle. As the mainstream media, general public interest and with it large companies' interest and money left the BMX scene, zines helped maintain communication and inspiration between BMX riders.

Many BMX companies (particularly the rider owned ones) also produce videos to showcase the skills of their team riders and to promote their products.

* BMX Action and Freestylin would recombine in October of 1989 as Freestylin'/BMX Action. This publication would in turn become Go beginning with the November 1989 issue (although the cover still carried the Freestylin'/BMX Action Title on it until the February 1990. Go, the direct heir to BMX Action, ceased publication with the March, 1992 issue. However, a second (albeit merely spiritual) descendant of BMX Action magazine called Snap, started publishing in September 1994. Its tie to the venerable BMX Action was its revival of the Number One Rider Award (NORA) Cup in 1998. That was BMX Action's coveted annual award to the most popular racer via reader's poll. Beginning with the June 2001 issue Snap changed its name to TransWorld BMX to reflect the diminished emphasis on racing and traditional freestyle and the rise of streetstyle (generally speaking an urban version of trails riding) and dirt jumping. Racing was still covered, just not as much. TransWorld BMX ended independent publication with the January 2005 issue. It was combined with its sister publication Ride BMX which makes it the closest descendant to the venerable BMX Action.

Women in BMX

Back in the mid 1980's near the peak of the first wave in the sports popularity, female BMX racers were about 4% of the racers in the United States. In freestyle today it is estimated that 1% of Freestyle riders are female. This number continues to grow with advocacy from female riders and support for female competitive events from contest organizers. See (http://www.wofbmx.com) and (http://www.magnoliabmx.com) for the only female rider support group in BMX, Women of FreeStyle BMX. See also (http://www.bminx.com) and (http://www.cakebmx.com) for European girl riders.

There was one female BMX rider that truly received great fame during the 1980's, Cheri Elliott. For most of her short BMX career she raced on the Skyway Recreation factory team in the girl's division which used to be known as "Powder Puff", but was so dominant she often raced against the boys in her age groups (9-15 over the years) when there weren't enough girls to make a separate division during an event. She often won. Cheri paved the way for other females as well, such as Melanie Cline, who dominated the sport for much of the 80' and 90's, ultimately winning 10 national and 4 world titles. Another is Corine Dorland from the Netherlands who won 10 World titles in her career. On September 25th. 2005 Corine Dorland did compete in her last race and finished a 25 year cycling career. Up till this date, Corine is the unbeatable Queen of BMX. After 14 years in BMX she changed to mountain biking in which she was active eleven years.

Today's top women riders include Nina Buitrago and Stacey Mulligan.

BMX Industry

The BMX Industry is a niche group of both mass market and "core" companies that supply nearly every country around the world with BMX bicycles, parts, accessories, and lifestyle products. The industry is generally broken into factory owned companies and rider owned companies, where most hardgoods products are manufactured in Taiwan and China. Textiles and other lifestyle products are generally manufactured in China and the United States. Many bicycle shops stock BMX products, and mailorder catalogs that focus on BMX bikes, clothing, parts, etc. are also popular across the world.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to BMX.

BMX and/or Freestyle themed movies or with BMX and/or Freestyle included. Links are to their Internet Movie Data base listings.

BMX Racing Sanctioning Bodies.

BMX Freestyle Sanctioning Bodies.

BMX Media BMX Media Sites.

BMX Racing Links

Freestyle BMX Links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=BMX&oldid=81752449"