BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation.
BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation.
BMX began during the early 1970s in the United States when children began racing their bicycles on dirt tracks in southern California, inspired by the motocross stars of the time. The size and availability of the Schwinn Sting-Ray and other wheelie bikes made them the natural bike of choice for these races, since they were easily customized for better handling and performance. BMX racing was a phenomenon by the mid-1970s. Children were racing standard road bikes off-road around purpose-built tracks in California. [1]
The motorcycle racing documentary On Any Sunday (1971) is generally credited with inspiring the movement nationally in the United States; its opening scene shows kids riding their Sting-Rays off-road. By the middle of that decade, the sport achieved critical mass, and manufacturers began creating bicycles designed especially for the sport.[ citation needed ]
In 1974, George E. Esser founded the National Bicycle League as a non-profit bicycle motocross sanctioning organization. Before they set up the NBL, Esser and his wife, Mary, sanctioned motorcycle races with the American Motocross Association (AMA). Their two sons, Greg and Brian, raced motorcycles, but also enjoyed riding and racing BMX with their friends. It was their sons' interest, and the lack of BMX organizations in the East, which prompted Esser to start the NBL in Florida.[ citation needed ]
By 1977, the American Bicycle Association (ABA) was organized as a national sanctioning body for the growing sport. [2]
Freestyle BMX is now one of the staple events at the annual Summer X Games Extreme Sports competition and the Etnies Backyard Jam, held primarily on the East and West coasts of the United States. The popularity of the sport has increased due to its relative ease and availability of places to ride and do tricks.[ citation needed ]
In the UK, BMX was a craze which took off in the early 1980s, specifically 1982 and 1983, when the BMX bike became the must-have bicycle for children and teenagers.[ citation needed ] The 1983 cult movie BMX Bandits helped establish the sport further worldwide. Previously a small niche area, BMX exploded at this time into the dominant bicycle for the younger rider, with older teenagers and even adults becoming known names through publications like BMX Bi-Weekly, featuring big names like Tim March and Andy Ruffell. The shift to freestyle from racing came in 1985 with popular styling moving from chrome frames and contrasting components in black blue or red being the norm, to brightly coloured bikes in one colour only, including their magnesium alloy wheels and even matching tyres. Because BMX exploded into Britain's streets so suddenly, it was perhaps inevitable that it would implode with similar speed, when the children who rode the bikes left school and went to work. By 1986–1987, sales in the UK had dropped off dramatically, with the new all-terrain bike or mountain bike (another trend from mid-1970s California) taking off, soon to become the most popular adult bicycle. [3] [4]
In 1980, the first BMX track in the UK was founded in Landseer Park, Ipswich, by the Ipswich BMX Club, which still provides coaching and races on a regular basis. [5] [6]
In April 1981, the International BMX Federation was founded, and the first world championships were held in 1982. Since January 1993, BMX has been integrated into the Union Cycliste Internationale. [7]
In 2003, the International Olympic Committee made BMX a medal Olympic sport for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China, and Māris Štrombergs (male, for Latvia) and Anne-Caroline Chausson (female, for France) became the first Olympic champions. [8] [9]
Many talented BMX riders go on to other cycling sports like downhill, including Australian Olympian Jared Graves, Eric Carter and youth BMX racer Aaron Gwin. Multiple world and Olympic champion track sprinter Chris Hoy also began as a BMX rider.
Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom.
BMX racing is a type of bicycle racing which features BMX riders sharing a short single-lap circuit or point-to-point course, with multiple banked corners, jumps and rollers. The format of BMX was derived from motocross racing, and sanctioned internationally by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), facilitated by a number of continental, national and local sanctioning bodies.
Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling sports include artistic cycling, cycle polo, freestyle BMX, mountain bike trials, hardcourt bike polo and cycleball. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is the world governing body for cycling and international competitive cycling events. The International Human Powered Vehicle Association is the governing body for human-powered vehicles that imposes far fewer restrictions on their design than does the UCI. The UltraMarathon Cycling Association is the governing body for many ultra-distance cycling races.
A holeshot is a term used in motorcycle racing to describe or reference the first racer to get through the apex of the first turn at the beginning of the race. Getting the holeshot gives the rider a competitive advantage and some level of control in the race, in some cases predicting the outcome of the race.
Gary Leo Ellis Jr. was one of the last American "Old School" professional bicycle motocross (BMX) racer whose careers started in the 1970s to early 1980s. His prime competitive years were from 1982 to 1996. He was nicknamed "The Lumberjack".
Stuart L. Thomsen is an American former bicycle motocross (BMX) racer.
The American Bicycle Association (ABA) was a US-based BMX racing governing body in Gilbert, Arizona. In 2011, the ABA merged with the former National Bicycle League and became the present-day USA BMX: The American Bicycle Association. The ABA was founded by Merl Mennenga and Gene Roden in 1977. Reportedly one of the world's largest BMX associations, it has tracks in the United States and in Canada.
The National Bicycle Association (NBA), later known as the National Bicycle Motocross Association (NbmxA), was a United States–based Bicycle Motocross (BMX) sports sanctioning body originally based in Soledad, California, that was created by Ernie Alexander in 1973 and ceased operations as an independent body in 1981. It was the first and for its first few years until 1980 the largest sanctioning body in the United States concerning BMX. It was known for its pioneering works in founding the organized sport of BMX. It was both the first true sanctioning body and the first nation-spanning one (as opposed to the regional ones that emerged), although at first it was concentrated in the west coast of the United States, where it was founded. It was the first body to hold true nationals in which racers coming from all over the country competed for points and in the case of professionals, money, to determine who would earn the right to run a National no. "1" plate in the several divisions and age classes the following year. It was the first sanctioning body to have a professional division, which was created as far back as late September 1974.
The National Bicycle League (NBL) was a United States–based Bicycle Motocross (BMX) sports sanctioning body originally based in Deerfield Beach, Florida, but after several moves it was based in Hilliard, Ohio. It was created by George Edward Esser in 1974 as first the bicycle auxiliary of the National Motorcycle League (NML) then set up as an independent non-profit organization unlike the earlier National Bicycle Association (NBA) and the later American Bicycle Association (ABA). George Esser played a major part in establishing Bicycle Motocross racing in Florida and shortly after the East Coast of the United States as Ernie Alexander did in California and the West Coast. The organization that sanctions bicycle motocross races in the United States/Canada is now known as USA BMX.
GT Bicycles is an American company that designs and manufactures BMX, mountain, and road bicycles. GT is a division of the Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings, which also markets Cannondale, Schwinn, Mongoose, IronHorse, DYNO, and RoadMaster bicycle brands; all manufactured in Asia.
Anthony Sewell was a professional "Old School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1978 to 1984. He was nicknamed "The Panther". He got the moniker jumping curbs in his neighborhood and neighborhood kids likened his jumping to that of a cat. This was soon converted to Panther. He was also known as "The Professor" due to his glasses with their thick lenses.
Scot Alexander Breithaupt was an entrepreneur, "Old School" professional motorcycle MX and bicycle motocross (BMX) racer and a founding father of BMX in 1970 whose prime competitive years were from 1970 to 1984. Many consider him, in some ways, a founder of "Old School BMX"—an era from roughly 1969 to 1987 or 1988, from its very beginnings to just after its first major slump in popularity from 1985 to 1988. Racing started to rise in participation again around 1988–89 and is considered the start of Mid School BMX, roughly 1988–2000. He was born in Long Beach, California.
David "Tinker" Juarez is an American former professional BMX and cross-country mountain bike racer. His prime competitive years in BMX were from 1978 to 1984 and in mountain bike racing 1986 to 2005. Since late 2005, he has competed as a Marathon mountain bike racer. In all three disciplines, he has won numerous national and international competitions. Most recently, Juarez finished third in the 2006 Race Across America Endurance bicycle race.
Bobby Encinas is a former professional "Old School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1973 to 1980. He was one of the first superstars in BMX and one of its most savvy promoters. Raised in the barrio of Canoga Park, he had a juvenile criminal record for theft and was on probation for consuming alcohol and drugs before he was 12 years old. He credits BMX for saving him from a life of crime. As a result he devoted much of his BMX career and after to promoting the sport at the grass-roots level, training kids in his BMX clinics, of which he was a pioneer, and launching future BMX careers and winning the respect and love of the BMX world.
Luther William Grigs is an American "Old School/Mid School" former professional Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1985 to 1996.
Michael Allen King is an "Old School/Mid School" former professional Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1984 to 1998 and is also a former Mountain Bike (MTB) racer who prime competitive years in that discipline were 1993 to 2004.
Terry "Mr. T" Tenette is a professional Cyclist Road biking /Gravel road racing/mountain biking BMX|Bicycle Motocross racer whose prime competitive years were from 1987 to 2010. Tenette also competed and was a team member of the USA Olympic velodrome team 2002 to 2004 as an Olympic alternate for the Athens Olympics finishing second place at the Olympic trials which was not good enough to go to Athens. Tenette continued racing World Cup Velodrome until 2008 and then switch back to mountain biking. Tenette also competed on the Ritchey mountain bike team as an R&D specialist being sent to Taiwan/ Philippines testing products. 2009 to 2015 California downhill mountain bike champion Northstar resort tahoe N V. state finals. Tenette inducted into the cycling Hall of Fame June 2016. Tenette can be viewed on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram posting videos from Championship races. He also has an assortment of memorabilia collectibles for order in 2019. Tenette also works as a health consultant for Stanford university hospitals contractor. Tenette was briefly married in 2016.Tenette 2020 post covid-19 pandemic shut down. Transitioning business platform to online video health and wellness Consulting which seems to be the norm with social distancing with hundreds of gym closures online training is now the new #-Norm. Facebook/Instagram Health and Wellness all ages and lives matter.
Jeffery Bottema is an American former professional "Old School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1976 to 1981. He had the nickname of "Battling".
Kelvin Batey is a British born professional "Mid/Current School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer who competed for Great Britain from the start of his career until 2008 and then for Ireland.
Robert L. Morales is a former freestyle BMX rider turned promoter, designer, inventor and business executive. He is the founder of DYNO Bicycles, the American Freestyle Association (AFA), Auburn Cycles, KORE Bicycle Components, Morales Bicycle Co., Carlsbad Motocross Racing (CMXR) and ASV Inventions. He is currently president and CEO of ASV Inventions, Inc.
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