what happened?

[darkersomeday]

can anyone who rode bmx bitd tell me what happened after bmx in the late eighties went all light weights and fluro colours?

just out of interest?

[Lazarou]

Chris Moeller happened!

[harris]

what laz said the new breed was hatched on the world.

[darkersomeday]

am i right in thinking it did definitely fall out of "commercial favour"

i always had a feeling alot of it being down to the lightweight parts breaking all the time and kids just not being able to keep up financially?

and like you said moeller/moliterno/hoff etc seemed to keep its pulse alive but there whole approach was "stronger bikes" which further backs up the idea,
i've never heard it talked about and i could be wrong so tell me if i am like!!

why did bmx seem to die for a while?  any views on it?

[SaMAlex]

why did bmx seem to die for a while?  any views on it?

Cos all you lot stopped riding!!! 

[darkersomeday]

why did bmx seem to die for a while?  any views on it?

Cos all you lot stopped riding!!! 

dont be including me in that!

why did bmx die though? was it the parts problems or did it just go out of fashion?

[harris]

birds, booze ,cars  and work  .it just had its day ,then some carried on in the background
and it stayed on simmer for a while until the touch paper got lit .much rnd was done in this time thou.hooorar

[Philbert]

because all the kids from the original boom started to grow hair in funny places and interests swayed towards the flange!

and unfortunately for this country the big name raleigh, in the early nineties made a commercial push to get kids riding the raleigh activator mtb with its radical front suspension and if you could afford it the m trax range so they stopped making the burner and it all became about the mountain bike until good old channel 5 started showing espn at 2 a.m. in 96, you know the rest....

dunno about stateside. i grew up in engerland

[SaMAlex]

why did bmx die though? was it the parts problems or did it just go out of fashion?

The parts just kept getting better, it was pure fashion. "oh, you STILL ride a BMX?"

Part got heavy and over engineered cos everyone was jumping off roofs for much of the 90s (go watch an early backyard video for proof), but they were still better parts, being made for the riding at the time.

[YGT]

skateboarding crossed over

[billstup]

Poilitics, thats why riders started to go anti establishment and burn their freestyle licences, and it was politics that ruined racing too, and will do again if it gets popular again  

[darkersomeday]

all spot on like, what i'm getting at is,

whats the chances of it happening again?
is bmx too "established" for it to happen a second time?

[WizardWeb]

Also for the kids that should have been the new wave, Nintendo happened. All the kids wanted consoles and so the xmas lists didn't have BMX in them anymore.

All the money went and a lot of the pro's stopped riding because they couldn't make a living at it. Contests went from giving away a truck and a cheque to t-shirts and shoes. Companies went bust as they were giving so much product away to riders (to replace the broken stuff and keep their bikes shiny for the photo's) that they ended up not being able to promote themselves anymore.

Mat Hoffman says in his book he almost gave up riding because he played so much Mario when he was injured one time. Added to that a lot of the kids that had been into it for a while were at the car buying, drinking and jobs stage. So it's no surprise that all the less dedicated people (I'd probably include myself in that) took the easier option.

And now we're all fat !  

It could happen again, in many ways it's more established now. But if no one watches stuff like the x-games anymore and the mainstream media interest goes, then it'll go underground again. The olympics will be good promotion but only for racing, I wonder if kids don't see the link between racing and what they think of as BMX (street, dirt, etc).

[SaMAlex]

whats the chances of it happening again?
is bmx too "established" for it to happen a second time?

Probably, everything comes and goes. Its bound not to drop as hard next time, but it will come and go from the main streem like everything does.

[billstup]

It already has got too establishished imho, give it another two years and all it will need is the x games to become less popular and all the sponsors will go, and it`ll go under ground again, then there will be a few years in the wilderness and it`ll be back  

Recession and stuff will also have an effect imho, but it`ll go in cycles of every 7 years or so of boom and bust, it`s just the way it is I`m afraid  

[stuntmaster]

for me i rode through the dark days which were cool as you knew everyone as lack of riders left and got the chance to ride without loads of peeps so learnt more and you wore what you wanted as no trend statement  ,what killed bmx around me was  skateboard as everyone got a board in 87 and i was the only bmxer  and then mountain bikes appeared and most kids that were my ages got it to music ,drugs and beer and rave arrived and so on

[Philbert]

2 things

skateboarding crossed over

personally i think that skateboarding was quiet for even longer, it was never as quiet, but again didn't get big again until the espn/channel 5 coverage and then, and i can pin point this for the midlands, fred fookin durst with his 'skateboard, spray can for my tagging' line saw a massive influx in skateboard and red stussy hat sales and from that council/bendcrete skateparks were popping up all over the country. (about 98/99)

i think i see where your coming from joe, that fact that things are going full circle with super light frames and parts that are strong, and the bright colours, is the industry heading down the same path as it did nearly 20 years ago?

in some ways i hope it will, just to get rid of the fashion riders, but the do keep the skateparks earning money! the biggest help that we have now is a better worldwide t.v. network that keeps the coverage on screen, computer games, the olympics are on their way, and in my own opinion i think, if anything we're heading for another boom. my mates bike shop is currently selling about six bmx's a day on the build up to christmas, and they're not just cheap things either

[TwoBobRob]

I don't like the way its going. Not one bit.

 I was mad for it 94-00, I subscribed to Ride and Ride US, bought every Props as soon as it was out. I was completely engrossed in the whole thing. I worked as a rampbuilder through those years and in 99 opened my own shop.  I went a bit sour in 00 and decided to have another break. But since I've been back riding (late 04), I've not bought a magazine, or a Props.  Nor do I want to.

I can't really explain it, but I just don't like what i'm seeing.  I'm concerned that we're about to see a death in freestyle riding, i'm concerned that kids are starting to ride just because they can make money from it. I'm concerned that all these concrete council parks that are popping up will be shut down just as quick.

Don't know what I'm trying to say really.   Ride for yourselves, no one else.  Maybe its as simple as that  

[Philbert]

totally agree with you rob.

i stopped buying ride because it just got to repetitive and i remember buying an issue around the 40-50 mark that i think had 60 pages of adverts before i got to the contents page!

i don't like where the sports heading, it's not fun when to get noticed you've got to nearly kill yourself (stepen murray case in point blank range) can't beat the days of meeting up with your mates on a sunday afternoon, pulling a few manuals on some walls and doing a few feeble grinds. sharing some laughs then going home for tea

all this thats happening in the industry now is exactly why i ride on my own so i don't get salted with the sport that governs my life and makes me who i am

[darkersomeday]

all these great posts and spot on for sure,

i like the idea of bmx standing on its own two feet regardless of current fashions, like a self supporting industry,

 i'm almost 100% positive that skateboarding would,they have there own shoes,clothes,boards, media, etc

so which companies are in it for the long run? be totally honest too, its all theoretical anyway eh?

[SaMAlex]

meet up with your mates on a sunday afternoon, pull a few manuals on some walls and do a few feeble grinds. share some laughs then go home for tea

F-ing brill! BMX in a nutshell!

[Philbert]

i think clothing and shoe companies are too intertwined with other sports such as skateboarding, surfing, motocross, mtb, that they'll always be around feeding off extreme sports in some shape or form, the smaller ones come and go year by year!

as for bike companies i think the big ones will survive. the more modern brands will fade away. basically because there's so many rider owned companies that at the moment are probably turning a pretty profit but when then dip in the industry happens they won't be able to survive,

america will and always will have a huge following in the sport purely due to the amount of people in its country,
europe though is dictated too much by fashion, when they start dropping, all these european companies will disapear with them

[TwoBobRob]

The companies that are in it for the long run are the ones that HAVE already been in it for the long run.....  Some good, some not so good.  The ones that just had a bundle of money chucked at em have/will disappear.

There is no doubt in my mind that those original rider owned companies will survive in some shape or form for a very long time to come.  After all, what else could they go and do?  They live and breathe it.

Just to clarify something from my earlier post;   when I mentioned an impending death in freestyle riding, I didn't mean anyone specific or currently hurt, I meant that I feel like we're going to see it in our local park, or at a small jam....

Hope I'm wrong....

[WizardWeb]

Rider owned companies usually have the flexibility to cope with a downturn, mainly cos they don't report to shareholders and can downsize a lot easier. If the market can't support them though, they be the first to go the way of the dodo, unless they group together somehow and share the cost.

Bigger companies can weather it for a different reason, they diversify which is what they did in the 80's, they all got into mountainbikes - some more successfully than others. (e.g. GT, Haro vs Skyway, Redline).

[darkersomeday]

so if we wanted to seriously support the future of bmx what would be a good way for us "oldies" to contribute ?

how could we help guarantee or at least try to help the way bmx progresses?

would it be possible in any way?

ok we cant go out and pull triple flip whips and make amazing video's but what can we do?

are we bothered?