Future of BMX

[rarman1]

the future?
loads of manning up i reckon 

lmao..... your not wrong though mate

[jedi]

heh heh heh

[TwoBobRob]

Deaths.

[JT71]

Deaths.

very dark Robert.

as in the tricks will get bigger and more dangerous and riders will die?

[TwoBobRob]

Yeah, kind of.

I can just see it coming.  Lots of concrete, street riding bigger than ever, no brakes, no pads, stupid so-called helmets.  And thats before I get started on unsupervised concrete bowls in quiet unsupervised parks.  It writes itself.

It bothers me.

[jedi]

big bowl at saffy,kid falls in at night in the winter........................................happend at bowes lyon

[TwoBobRob]

Yip.

Then along comes some pushy parent, followed very very closely by an ugly lawsuit, followed even more closely by the bulldozers.

[jedi]

synicalbob 

[Timmeh]

There are some 'loose' plans/ suggestions abounding about an indoor park in the York/ Harrogate/ Northallerton tiriangle.  But, as usual, councils are all panicky about 'undesireables' spoiling the area...I'd LOVE an indoor park less than an hour away.  I'm a 34 year old civil servant ffs...what am I going to do that is undesireable?!?!?

My mate is 25 and does triathalons and that kind of stuff...he always ribs me about 'when will I do some proper riding'...my work colleagues look at me strangely too.  We need to change perceptions out there.

We need some fresh ideas in certain councils; my local park is quite wee and awkward to ride TBH as it's so compact, and it's outdoor...

I think the future is long-lived for BMX, but we need to make sure we support it's future and not let bereaucrats (sp?) hamper it.

[TwoBobRob]

Well said   

Properly managed, supervised indoor facilities. With council support, they can be good community projects. The councils, as you say, need to get their heads around it.

[Bushwacked]

I think timmeh is onto something there - There is a perception that once you reach 20, you give up BMX and that is that... maybe the future lies with opening peoples minds to show that its not about "kids bikes" - a term that really annoys me as my kid certainly doesn't fit on my bike!!!

There seems to be a barrier that exists in BMX which is not present in any other sport stopping people over 25 getting into it - take skiing or downhill mountain biking - no barrier there and just as much fun / risk involved.

I certainly wouldn't have done it if I'd not had a push and now I think everyone should have the opportunity to give it a try. But I think part of it is that people just don't have the balls to get down a skate park and try it out - perhaps its because they don't know what to do, after all it is a skill dropping in and out of a quarter or getting over a volcano that you need to be shown. Maybe they don;t try it as it is the perception that they are having a midlife crisis and don't want to be ridiculed. 

Maybe we should make it our aim to get at least one person who doesn't ride riding a bmx this year!

[jedi]

i did that to you last year bushwacke

[Bushwacked]

Mate - If there was a league table of who brought the most people into BMX - you'd be at the top!!! In fact you'd be in a league of your own!!!


FACT!

[Philbert]

laser (light amplified by stimulated emissions of radiaton. i'm brainy!) gun for disturbing the piece!

That would be 'peace', brainy......

Oh the irony   

fook me! one slip and someones on it.

i was steaming when i wrote everything that night. personally i thought i did rather well to compose a thought

[TwoBobRob]

That would be 'someone's', not 'someones'.     

Just teasing you big fella!   

[JT71]

before they (the parish council) cut up the miniramp at chacombe and threw it on their bonfire i spoke to someone at the council about saving it, the feeling in the parish was it had to go becuas eit kept getting vandalised, and word from the little local darlings that hung out there was that the vandalism was by bmxers who drove from out of the village, these older people, apparently were getting in their cars are driving there with their bikes just to trash the ramp. lol.

anyway, they burnt the ramp as a solution instead of tackling the crime that was the vanadalism, a lot of these councils just take the easiest action without any thought for the fact that  a leisure facility is being lost.

that's the future for a lot of out door parks i think, especially these free local setups, that and a few high profile law suits could be the death of public parks i fear. or we'll just get more concrete, which is better than nowt i guess.

[Timmeh]

Last Friday, I went mountain biking in a nearby forest.  The Forestry Commision had built this wee down hill bit with jumps, berms, bridges etc.  So my point is this, if local councils are worried about law-suits then so is the Forestry Commission.  We can't let that be an exucse/ 'reason' to let parks and ramps be taken away.  As long as the authority in question takes reasonable care to mitigate their risk, thne the risk is slamming is incumbant on the rider.

MK 09- how about getting local TV or even one of the cable channels there?  Yeah, there is a risk it could balloon bigger than we want it to, but if we want more people to take our sport (dare I say hobby?) more seriously, we need to spread the good word of BMX.

How come it's OK for every other sport/ hobby that people did at school, to continue to be done into their adulthood?  Plastic modelling, train spotting, football, rugby, athletics...so far they are all 'accepted'. 

Ours isn't.  Harrumph.

[condor96]

although bmx is still very much alive i cant help but feel that the best bit is dead.
i cant dig the paper weight bikes and plastic pedals. when i was riding regular if your bike landed on you it didnt bounce of
i loved slams and the sound of 10stone bikes making dents in coping.
dont get me wrong i know that the riding is awesome now but it just dont seem the same. and im only 26
keep your plastic pedals and mini seat posts. give me a tank! if im going to crash i want to spit a tooth out

but hey thats mid school baby

thank you! totally different feeling than what it is today. im only 25 myself but ive seen it from every angle,from old school to mid to new........aint i suppost to be on the new school bandwagon? ill pass.....    im sick of the fads in bmx today
i ssooooo tired of people bitchin about my "heavy condor" when i can do 10x the stuff these kids can do........and my bikes dont look like a mint chocolate cookie while wearing my sisters pants. and i can sit on my seat.......and do a nosepick (because i value my life and run brakes,plus there is a whole other door of tricks that can only be done with brakes)..........and grind with.....what are those things???pegs?? oh and my bikes dont............snap in half!
im not saying all new school stuff is gay,just alot of it. lot of whiners about weight and video game tricks and wierd lookin and akward color bikes that looks like a 2 year old picked the colors and did some finger painting. and most of the lot of people just look so damn fruity
here is an example. this pic i took at 9th street trails in austin tx in october during the holloween jam,just look at some of these fruits. when has it been cool to try an look/dress like a chick? my girlfriend was out there with me in red heels and capri pants and all the guys seemed to be wearing the same thing  . i even saw some guy wearing a chrome/silver skintight jumpsuit thing from head to toe...... there were maybe maybe 5-10 "normal" people there out of the 150 or so.

compare to lets say....... a contest in 95.......look it dont look like a crossdressers bar. shorts and tees

ill be gald when all the "glam" bmxers are gone and leave the people that truely love the sport again.