Mike,

That's exactly what I mean but when there was no freestyle specific magazine they still got some sort of coverage.

I thought the Olympics were dope but I wish they'd modify the tracks a little. I would like to see one or more straights where the riders actually pedaled, to see who can spin the fastest or who's got the power, you know? I do like the huge jumps and rhythm sections, just not on every straight. Even still, I thought the Olympics were great.

Great thread! But Nintendo only killed the newcomers to the market and not the existing ones.

For me and many of my friends about the same age, BMX gave way to the sub culture of skateboarding, racing motocross, surfing and all the other things highschoolers do. Riding around on a 20" was no longer cool in the mid to late 80s.

I started the whole BMX thing in 1975 and stopped in 1984 as a freshman in highschool.

The freestyle guys got coverage BITD for two reasons.

1). Chiefly because the media masters and industry leaders knew that, in doing so, they were helping to create a new sport...and with it a new market...and with it a new chance at millions of dollars in new revenues for all in the game. Nothing bad about it, but that was the motivation. In 87/88, after the first freestyle wave started to taper, scooters were thought to be "the new freestyle" vis a vis next year's revenue numbers. So we were all running scooter content...which, today, makes all of us who wrote such content want to hide our heads in shame.

2). It was cool to show the "new" thing to the readers. This is largely a byproduct of (1), but not entirely. So a novelty such as the BMXA Trick Team at Chandler, and showing Fred Blood buns up on the Vans ramp evolved into skatepark shots, evolved into "How to build a quarterpipe" features, etc, etc. All of that stuff, to a kid in Chicago was magical. On our trips to the west coast, we'd drive past LAX out to Torrance, just to SEE the BUILDING where all this went down. Who cared if it is 10:30 at night. Good stuff!

But BMX Racing is neither an untapped pot of gold, nor the next new thing to those guys. They view racers as conformist zombies who do what they're told and wear their "pretty costumes (uniforms)." As told to me last summer by a kid I encountered at a graduation party.



I absolutely could not agree more!! I have asked track builders of both parties on more than one occasion "Why can't we have a 'sprint to the finish' or a straight that has one or two jumps spaced apart?" No real answer. I'd understand if someone said "it's a safety thing" (but before the finish line??).

I would love to have seen the Saturday Elite main at Desoto with 100ft of straightaway before the finish. Would it have been JRog or dR? Bring pedaling back to BICYCLE motocross, is what I say.


Best,

M

Honestly, with all due respect, I am a freestyle guy. I started racing in 2005, thirty years after I started jumping my bike. Whether I was on my Huffy with a board and cinderblock, flying down dirt tractor paths, hitting the jumps at the empty lot in the neighborhood or doing endos in my dad's garage, it was all BMX to me.

I never had the killer mentality for racing. I prefer to challenge myself against my own limitations. I never cared about beating anyone. Racing is fun but it is just another aspect of my BMX world.

Often I hear racers or ex-racers talk about racing being the true spirit of BMX. It was the first organized form of the sport but street riding and dirt jumping were first. Sometimes it seems like sour grapes when racers complain that John Q. Public knows Dave Mirra and not John Purse. We are all part of the same family and we shouldn't get jealous of any success in any form of BMX.

Racing is complicated, expensive and structured. It is also dependent upon a track and others. It's a hassle to a lot of kids. It's really easy to build your own jumps/ramps or street ride where ever you are. I think that is the basis of BMX. Everything beyond those humble roots is just an offshoot.

Yeah, I agree, I could care less who knows which celebrity of the sport. Freestyle is a lot like skateboarding in the way that you can do it anywhere as long as you have your bike/skateboard with you. I think that alone is good enough reason to be more attracted to those sports before BMX racing. I had a friend that quit racing saying that he didn't want to lift weights just to keep up with the competition. "I just want to ride." I understood. But I always liked the feeling of racing. I lost more than I won so it wasn't just about beating people that's for sure! I liked the whole thing (except sitting around for hours waiting on my next moto)- the gear, getting hyped on the gate, the first straight/sprint, how smoothly can I take the first jump, can I get to the first turn first, will so and so pass me in the turn or pull me on the straight, do I have time enough to crossup or tabletop without getting passed...Racing is just fun.

Again, I may be in the minority, I like to see the racing, half pipe riding, and I've always been a big fan of skateboarding as well.
I guess for some people racers are too much like conventional athletes due to the seriousness they display when doing their thing? Seems to me that it takes just as much time, work and concentration to do any of the sports we've mentioned.

Is Oz still being a baby about this site and most recent past?

I began riding shortly after buying a "Super BMX" magazine at a local yacht club newstand on the Halifax River in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1979. My 1st Bike was a used Schwinn Stingray, then a Mongoose, then the first Haro Freestyler... and finally the PK Ripper. I raced a few times at the local YMCA in Gainesville Florida but found it a little boring. Mostly the waiting between motos, but is was fun and I enjoyed the track atmosphere and people involved. I was also a terrible racer and could not hyper pedal like a lot of racers. I simply could not keep up with the pack... I was always coming in last place. Around 1980, 2 buddies called to ask me to go to a local skatepark called Sensation Basin, and there I would ride for the next 2 or 3 years until the park was bulldozed for the new Anheuser busch beer lid factory. I rode almost every night at Sensation Basin along with Addson Burns and Ricky Coolidge and Rodney Mullen (now famous & legendary skateboarder) on the flat areas.

I loved both BMX and Freestyle, and both were cool, and it didn't matter to me. But I rode mainly freestyle or trick riding, just because I could do it anywhere at anytime.

Fast forward to 1992... I was a high and dry Actor wanna-be sharing a 3 BR Flat in Los Angeles (Sherman Oaks)... (another poster mentioned about being an old guy on a 20 inch bike)... Well, I'll never forgot the comments of one LAPD on Sunset in Hollywood one Saturday night in July 1992... I was an all but 28 year old SF Valley Curb Painter on my tricked out "million dollar" PK Ripper. After taking a side street to hot, a black and white stopped me... The officer let me go without a ticket, but he did manage to say "son, aren't you a little old to be riding that?"

Carry on.... :-)

The 'Mighty BMXA' could never come back to it's hold on the sport once they decided to include partial nudity in the late 90's.
They got in over their heads; whereas Hi-Torque has more than one discipline to contrast WIZARD PUBLICATIONS ended up w/ alot of empty promise. Good Riddance.

That was most definetly NOT the same BMXA. That BMXA had no relation to the BMX Action we all remember from BITD.
In fact, it's been said that Oz sent them a cease & desist, hence the late 90's BMXA changing it's name to Faction BMX.
-Bill

John Kerr has recently joined this site - maybe he can chime in here.

Oz posted regularly here around 2005(?) with some very insightful info - it was cool to have him on the site.
Do some searching of the archives.

I got BMXA and BMX Plus! BITD - I read both of them cover-to-cover many times over.

I remember when Daisy Hi-Torque bought BMX PLus! - there was a small proliferation of Motocross ads in BMXPlus! from then on (for sister publications) and mags like 'Crash and Burn' started to feature BMX crashes from BMX Plus! photos.

Personally I didn't like MX crossing over into BMX mags but it probably kept BMX Plus! going in the end.

My collection of Plus! and BMXAs

That so called BMX Action 2000 had NOTHING to do with the BMX Action of the 1970s and 1980s. John Paul Rodgers took the venerable name to create a totally different magazine aimed at the elder teen and young adult reader. It was a profanity laced publication to say the least. Bob Osborn sued them and they changed the name to FACTION BMX.

Oldtimer1980s

X-MEN ITSÁRI.

That track was awesome! I'd give my left bean bag to ride that sucka. Toned down my as_!

I'd also like to add that Oz gave his reason why the mags folded up - everything else, while we all may think we know everything about it, is total conjecture.

I was at the Olympic Trials in Chula Vista, California. (exact replica of the Olympic track) I watched the races and walked the track afterword. Those racers are so smooth and talented that they make the obstacles seem tame. Let me tell you, that track is FAR from tame.

This first picture is the step-up jump out of the first turn. Look at the gap!!!
The second picture is Stu laying on the face of the step-up. I asked him to do that for perspective.

And we all thought Stu just wanted to make dirt angels....some kids never grow up!