what happened?

[TwoBobRob]

This is what I try and do.....

Stay true to the things that are important to me. Help out my fellow riders wherever I can. Don't get bent over things that ultimately aren't really that important - case in point would be fashion.  Anything fashion driven will ultimately fail. Anything heart and soul driven will ultimately succeed, as long as we remain true to it.

On a more practical level, we could all contribute to a co-operative society and open our own Woodward style camp. And then we teach.

And yeah, I'm bothered   

[Bob_Acid]

Edited due to soberness 



Joe, you're asking what can we do? fook knows mate. maybe just being here is enough. The fact that the sport now has a lot more adult support than it ever had has got to have some sort of effect. We're the first generation of adult BMXers i spoze mate. so it's got to be playing a part in the changing of peoples perspectives That said from a personal point of view i could give a fook what everybody else thinks , that's why i did it then and that's why i do it now.

[YGT]

Rider owned companies who use that term to sell bikes are purely doing so in a false form of propaganda.
there is nothing i disagree more with than a shody product (compared to other brands) which get a coating of "we are only small" or "we are just a new rider owned company".
Haro originally was rider owned and obviously as he got older it was a company owned by an ex rider (until the stock option split)
Hoffman is rider owned but i would say is more corporate than rider owned, same as eastern (jon byers)
what separates a good company from a bad company is not which rider owns it, but who designs for it along with a good business ethics etc.

[WizardWeb]

Didn't Hoffman sell up last year? One of his employees started a distribution company and then Matt sold him the rest of it. Or something like that....

A thought occured whilst watching an MTB programme on Extreme channel earlier. It was covering the Nissan Freestyle MTB championship.

There's a thing I hadn't paid much attention to - freestyle MTB. I've seen MTB riders in skateparks but didn't know they called it that. Anyhoo, these guys are doing Flip Whips, nose picks, front flips, kick turns, Superman seatgrabs and downside whips to name but a few. So if you're a kid, you can do the same tricks on both, are you going to want to ride a BMX or an MTB?

So far as I see, all kids want to be seen as older than they are and they can do the vast majority of tricks on something they won't be labelled a 'kids bike'.

Also most people are, to some degree, lazy which I think is why Flatland (takes too long to learn) and Vert (takes to long to ride to half-pipe) are minority stuff now and everyone does street because it's right outside their front door. So if that's all you can do on an MTB, then for many kids it's a no brainer. The adults will be happier doing it too. I can see it gaining more acceptance with a wider audience. Although it owes a lot to BMX, I think it will definitely affect our sport if it gets any bigger.

Bit of a worry isn't it? 

[Lazarou]

None of it worries me at all! When there was not a penny in BMX was by far the best time to be a rider.


I hope it dies tomorrow.

[TwoBobRob]

Laz, you old romantic   

[dialledbikes]

Insurance hassles were another major contributing factor to BMX facilities closing and the decline of the sport in the late 80s/early 90s.

[WizardWeb]

None of it worries me at all! When there was not a penny in BMX was by far the best time to be a rider.


I hope it dies tomorrow.

That reminds me of my old RE teacher at school, back in the 80's. She reckoned she would prefer to be in Soviet Union because then she would be persecuted for her faith and it'd make it seem that much better.

I guess if you've got belief in a certain ideal, an isolationist experience will make it seem better and more worthwhile.

[Philbert]

Insurance hassles were another major contributing factor to BMX facilities closing and the decline of the sport in the late 80s/early 90s.

definately a factor now too! thats why derby closed a few years ago! there insurance went through the roof. the figures were stupid. i think it doubled from 7k (if i remember rightly) for about 4 years on the trot. you do the math!

[Trev]

as far as i'm concerned, bmx died in the late 80's / early 90's due to everyone "growing up".
it's not like now where seeing riders in their 20's is the norm and as we have it riders in their 30's and even 40's.

when i competed, every age group was packed out with riders in all age groups till the year below me.  as each of these age groups reached the 17 year old mark, people started learning to drive, getting into pubs, working all day etc.  each year you'd get a big drop in numbers until the age group below me got to 17. then there was no-one left apart from the few dedicated souls.

nintendo also had a big part in this, with all kids wanting a games console for christmas instead of a bmx.

it's less likely to die now as it is commonly acceptable to be still riding a bike after you've left school and got yourself a job.

just my opinion....

[Timmeh]

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?

Bloke who owns BIG local bikeshop/ framebuilders told me just that...colours changing, all about fashion, kids couldn't keep up with the money for 'the next parts'

[teamsano]

have some respect.

bmx never 'died'.

so, you met a girl/bought a car/took drugs/went raving/started a job/grew up/started drinking/ etc, etc, etc. how self centered are you all to think bmx 'died' when you didnt feel like riding?

sure, no one should be tied to riding a bike every day for ever to be considered a 'bmxer', and yes you can come and go as you please, but don't insult the intelligence of the true riders who rode right throughout the 'lean times'.
if you think it all stopped when you took up other interests, then you're the loser.

[TwoBobRob]

Fair comment   

[billstup]

At the time, pub, clubs, fights, cars and girls were a better buzz than bikes, so the bike got put down for a short 20 year break 

When I see guys that kept riding right though like Geth and Alex I do wish that I could have stayed on a bmx, but I had a fooking riot with the other things too 

[Rombloke]

I had a fooking riot with the other things too 

WORD

Dave

[oberonspacefruit]

you know it.

[darkersomeday]

have some respect.

bmx never 'died'.

so, you met a girl/bought a car/took drugs/went raving/started a job/grew up/started drinking/ etc, etc, etc. how self centered are you all to think bmx 'died' when you didnt feel like riding?

sure, no one should be tied to riding a bike every day for ever to be considered a 'bmxer', and yes you can come and go as you please, but don't insult the intelligence of the true riders who rode right throughout the 'lean times'.
if you think it all stopped when you took up other interests, then you're the loser.

"put the buckfast on the floor and take two steps back"



when i said "bmx died" i meant commercially,

i rode through the dark years too so i do know just how small bmx got in those years,
yes i did all the birds/cars/drugs stuff but alway found time to ride aswell, in the mid 90's when i was at uni in edinburgh my bmx was even my main form of transport,

if you actually bothered to see what i was trying to say from this thread, you see i was "subtley" trying to get folk to support the genuine bmx companies instead of the big "corporates"

"real riders" eh?

whats that "batty riders"?

[TwoBobRob]

  .................... buckfast.............


I didn't stop riding for any of those reasons  birds/cars/drugs/whatever. I was already driving for a year, I had been through a couple of girls.  I gave up in 84. The very height of bmx in this country. I gave up as a sponsored rider who got paid to do shows.  (not very often, I have to admit...)

I gave up because it was corrupt. It was bullshit and I didnt like the way it was going.  That and the fact I was going to A&E after every ride to have my knee drained....

I'm a bit older that most on here so I was able to make that decision rationally at 18 years old in 84.

I think it might have been a bit different to have been 15-16 in like 87-88 or something when I can see that you'd have had to be really passionate about it to keep going when it was all about to turn.

I dunno. I wasn't there.

Like I said in another post - I was lucky, I only had 10 years off. Back riding in 94 when things where really fcuking cool.  But it was early enough for me to understand who was really supporting the sport and where I should spend my money.


And Gogo was a legend   

[teamsano]

"put the buckfast on the floor and take two steps back"



when i said "bmx died" i meant commercially,

i rode through the dark years too so i do know just how small bmx got in those years,
yes i did all the birds/cars/drugs stuff but alway found time to ride aswell, in the mid 90's when i was at uni in edinburgh my bmx was even my main form of transport,

if you actually bothered to see what i was trying to say from this thread, you see i was "subtley" trying to get folk to support the genuine bmx companies instead of the big "corporates"

"real riders" eh?

whats that "batty riders"?

hoho, i wasnt referring to your post in particular, dude. more like this ones like this-

as far as i'm concerned, bmx died in the late 80's / early 90's due to everyone "growing up".

however, he slightly redeemed himself here-

just my opinion....

it only died if it died in your heart.

[darkersomeday]

my and my big mouth again,

apologies dude.

[kennyhunter6061]

Gogo is spot on, BMX never died.  Sure the big parent companies pulled a lot of their support to go chasing money in MTBs and other 'next big things', and many of the first generation of UK riders left the scene to do 'grown up' things.  I take my hat off to guys like Gogo who kept riding hard all through the 90's.  I still rode, after taking a break from 88-91, but my riding was never as frequent as it was in the '80's (i.e. every day for hours on end).  I think many people got the idea that bmx died because the media stopped covering it in the same manic way it did in the 80's.  Then Ride magazine became the only way some people had of finding out what was happening in the BMX world.  Nowadays we have the luxury of the internet so it's a lot easier to find out what's happening, where your nearest park/track is etc.  This can only be good for getting people involved.  I personally don't see BMX 'dying' anytime soon.  People will come and go but in general things seem a lot more stable now and, if anything, the sport is only going to get bigger.

[WizardWeb]

I was reading on the bike biz site yesterday that for the bike shops, the BMX boom bust in 85 and MTB took over in 87. There's a whole load of things on this page.

http://www.bikebiz.co.uk/statistics.php

I find stats are interesting when you can relate to them otherwise they're the worst thing in the world. I sat through a finance meeting at work today.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... 

[Trev]

"put the buckfast on the floor and take two steps back"



when i said "bmx died" i meant commercially,

i rode through the dark years too so i do know just how small bmx got in those years,
yes i did all the birds/cars/drugs stuff but alway found time to ride aswell, in the mid 90's when i was at uni in edinburgh my bmx was even my main form of transport,

if you actually bothered to see what i was trying to say from this thread, you see i was "subtley" trying to get folk to support the genuine bmx companies instead of the big "corporates"

"real riders" eh?

whats that "batty riders"?

hoho, i wasnt referring to your post in particular, dude. more like this ones like this-

as far as i'm concerned, bmx died in the late 80's / early 90's due to everyone "growing up".

however, he slightly redeemed himself here-

just my opinion....

it only died if it died in your heart.

probably a bad choice of words on my behalf.  bmx itself didn't die, but the big scene it was did, which is what i was implying.