Who invented bmx cycling

The story of how your favorite metal bike gained its iconic status. Written by Red Bull Kuwait. The true story begins sometime in the s when these bikes were first developed. It started off as a result of the popularity of motocross taking off as a sport in the USA - the name is inspired by motocross, standing for Bicycle Motocross. Picture this: Long Beach, California, in the s, kids were emulating their local motocross heroes; and the BMX was born.

The bikes we know as BMX started out as a model of bicycle that was easy to customize on your own, so you could get it to cover the types of terrain that you wanted - from asphalt to dirt tracks, to the custom-built BMX circuits that were popping up as the sport gained popularity.

Same dirt. Bart de Jong, www. I dropped it as soon as I could. When it comes to BMX history, it's a different story. The photo was taken in St. Seeing that there is a truth to this, it is acceptable to believe that there were kids around pretending they had motorcycles but riding their bikes instead. Bicycle Motocross anyone? Greetings from Holland, the country where BMX was born.

Introduced in , the original Schwinn Sting-Ray changed the world of bikes forever. The steering geometry of the Sting-Ray, combined with the short wheelbase and inch wheels, resulted in surprisingly good handling characteristics. Doing wheelies and riding dirt trails in vacant lots soon became popular. The motorcycle film " On any Sunday " produced by Bruce Brown was released in july of The opening scenes showed some kids on Stingray bicycles in a field in San Juan Capistrano, California, pretending they were racing motorcycles, complete with pie-plate numbers and two-stroke expansion chamber audibles.

It is credited that those few minutes in the opening scenes is really what opened the doors for BMX. With most guys riding Schwinn Stingrays at first, frame tweakage was abundant.

In , the first of the BMX frames started popping up -most of them being monoshocks. Yamaha introduces a fully suspended kids bike called the Moto-Bike. The manufacturers figured that the kids wanted to be like motorcycles, so Another attraction of the BMX bike to teenagers was its low cost.

As the sport started having mass appeal, bicycle makers began building designs with improved gears for BMX sports events. BMX racing soon exploded into a sport. Then, the American Bicycle Associate was launched to manage the sport. Also, the BMX Federation started in , then the first world championship was held in A BMX bicycle is used for racing in off-road tracks and performing stunts.

We have put the BMX bikes into five types by their use. Various types of BMX Bicycles are built from steel and aluminum for strength, speed, easy operation, and durability. Race bikes have long frames and lots of tread on the tyres to give the rider more control. They also have high gear ratios and lightweight parts. This enables riders to gain and maintain speed around the track. This sub-discipline of BMX is similar to racing. But, instead of going fast, far and low over jumps, trails riders focus on style and tricks.

Dirt jumping is all about big steep jumps and effortless style. BMX dirt jumps are usually built by local riders with spades. And, if the council finds out about them, they might knock them down if they view them as a safety hazard. Dirt jump bikes are thick, sturdy and long, with chunky tyres. The thickness and length of the bike gives the rider more control in the air on big jumps.

Thick tyres with lots of treads are favoured by trails riders too, as they give more traction at high speeds on loose ground. Street riding is a very creative type of BMX. Street BMXers ride in urban locations like city centres. Street BMXers love to trick stair sets and grind handrails and ledges.

Street BMX is very technical and requires a high level of manoeuvrability, which means the bikes have to be as light as possible.

Rounded tyres with minimal tread are popular with street riders too. They maximise the riders ability to lean and control the bike on flat concrete surfaces. This is for two reasons. Secondly, removing the brake makes the bike look a lot better.