Why did BMX die ????????????????????????????????????????

[superbikedan]

I got a car and got married , I loved that car.

so not the wife then

andy what was your story,  how did you stop bmx?

don't know if you read mine,    mad,  if only i had a dad

that could have guided me

[stidds]

For me the reasons were simple:


1) Drugs
2) Drink
3) Birds
4) Car
5) Work
6) Drugs
7) Drink

[MartyC]

mad,  if only i had a dad that could have guided me

Dan, I know what you mean my step dad just wanted us to go to work and leave home.  I worked at a bike shop for nine months after leaving school, did a lot of freestyle stuff - small comps and the like and generally rode a lot but not really thinking I could earn a living out of it so I got an office job to earn some better money and build a career, got a Road Bike (racer), bought an Escort Mexico, discovered girls and dropped out of riding BMX bikes for a while 

[MartyC]

Marty You had a mexico  I loved them bitd , I had a mk 2 escort 1600 sport with big wheels and capri seats lol.

I did this did to it five up in Burnham Beeches park at 4am racing a Tickford Capri!



Thankfully it had a full roll cage and harnesses in the front seats, the guys in the back just got thrown about a bit but we were all OK!

[Flaz]

after getting mugged at 13 on my bmx  i stopped riding and going out for about a year or so (school included missed the 3rd year, didnt go once   ) but what i did do was learn how to break dance and bodypop in me bedroom
spent  the insurance money from my bike  on a vic 20,  a sergi tachinni  and a lacoste track suit  and a pair of nike wimbldon supreme trainers  

[superbikedan]

andy your story is so true,  like i said in mine,  my team manager wanted me to

go pro but couldn't see it myself,  just jacked it all in and carried on with life.

around 2002 and my ten year old boy started to ride his bmx,  took him over to

rom he loved it, in 2004 he won rom jam and this was the turning point,

knew bmx was back in my life,   

[MartyC]

after getting mugged at 13 on my bmx  i stopped riding and going out for about a year or so (school included missed the 3rd year, didnt go once   ) but what i did do was learn how to break dance and bodypop in me bedroom
spent  the insurance money from my bike  on a vic 20,  a sergi tachinni  and a lacoste track suit  and a pair of nike wimbldon supreme trainers  

Good choice of clothes, you were lucky not have them taxed too 

We used to go to a sports shop in Shepherds Bush called Mancini's (I think), the locals used to follow you up the road (or chase you if you spotted them) and tax you before you got to wear any of it 

[Bob_Acid]

I wasted a lot of years listening to people telling me it was for kids and just going with the flow.

Well I dont care now and I dont give a toss what anybody thinks I am just enjoying myself and it keeps me fit. I still go to the gym every day and I think that has helped a lot with my bmx. I intend to keep bmxing for as long as I can now and reclaim a few of those lost years. I might even try and learn a new trick this year lol.

I can't agree with the bit about the woman as mine has always been cool with BMX, she was with me in the 80's when i rode then again in the early 90's and is still behind me now. The rest though is spot on 

[zed4130]

i was ok till about 24 as i raced road bikes and mtb's and still rode bmx  then i got involved with a sex maniac byatch from hell  and i got into drinking and fights and drugs ,not good and i had a child ive never seen  i left her in the end ,as she was sh#ging my so called mate  i went ballistic and off the rails for about 3 years ,and i nearly done 10 years in in prison  but that sorted me out and i was ok but then another byatch from hell but thats another story you wouldnt believe that one  now im well on track and back on my bmx and got a great lady and nearly 3 kids  so all well that ends well 

[priv]

sounds like a lot of us had mad birds/wives that turned us against the things we loved to do,luckily for me ailsa's a good 'un and has no probs with me riding at weekends.


ps andy good luck with the wedding & let me know how mauritius is i think we're going for the honeymoon.


priv

[jT Racing]

wasn't it that we started looking for 2 legged bikes that would give you a ride. Life moves on and trends are what they are.

[Trev]

Cheers Priv , wait till you see the pics , White Miami vice styleeee suit , No shirt but a pastel pink T shirt., Old school checked slip on vans. Cool as fook.

Sounds cool.  Don't forget the shades...  

[zed4130]

Cheers Priv , wait till you see the pics , White Miami vice styleeee suit , No shirt but a pastel pink T shirt., Old school checked slip on vans. Cool as fook.

Sounds cool.  Don't forget the shades...  

yeah and a cut down pump action  and a white ferrari testarossa  or black daytona 

[zed4130]

andy you never know ,a shotgun is a handy thing      

[db-oldskool]

From a US point of view,mainly what I experienced BITD.

Around the time freestyle started to grow,major bike co's drove the mom & pop style mini mfg's out of the picture.They were small time indeed compared to DB,SE,Red Line ETC.They did however make some really good bikes that were cheaper but just as well built if not better in some cases,they never had mass market adverts like the big boys but did still manage to scrape up enough respect by them to keep big boy quality up to par.
Freestyle started growing in leaps & bounds so many big boys focused on their new market & bmx got the second fiddle role,some freestylers drove their own value thru the roof & took earnings away from racers.Harry Leary & Mike Dominguez are a classic example,Harry really didn't like Mike & attempted to get him fired from DB.Mike was taking earnings away from Harry in his eyes cuz he managed to score a huge contract from DB & Harry got squat,DB started focusing more on FS than BMX & that took the piss out of Harry even more.BMX bikes suffered in quality cuz the focus was now on FS bikes & the kids riding BMX's grew up & mostly left BMX behind due to driving,women,alcohol ETC.
Once that happened with both FS & BMX the bike co's took it as a sign that it was more of a fad & the next generation was less interested,some bike co's downsized or closed up & others just managed to get by.
The good news is that our little community is bringing both FS & BMX back into the spotlight,that & the new era of extreme sports like the x games which tour the US bringing out the old schoolers with their kids.It has come full circle & right now we're on the upside of the completion of that circle,with us taking our time with our interests & getting our kids into the sport we are at the beginning of a new wave 20" madness.

[priv]

But not for this wedding Zed. Them days are over mate lol.

what a quote

priv

[jimwise68]

Girls.

MTB seemed like the next natural progression with regards to riding bikes.

Have you seen that someone has asked for a MTB section to be added on here.

See it only takes a bit of time before they try to muscle in. History is gonna repeat itself as it always does.


Funny thing is I have been riding OS BMX again for nearly as long as I did BITD, so why ain't I as good as i was? 

[Stodgy]

For me it was Cars and Uni...

[jimmyp]

Im putting it down to fooking mountain bikes

[hunterdubber]

there was probably many factors, but i think the main one was the marketing of bmx.  a lot of smaller manufacturers got swallowed up by the huge multi-nationals in the name of marketing. no-one wanted to be seen on a bmx you could buy from kmart no matter how good their pro rider was.

oh, and also, every generation after mine are just a bunch of lounge room lazy bastards 

OH SO SO TRUE !!!

I've sold a FLY Diablo new school bmx I used to ride to my nephew,
I really think only he wanted it ,coz he likes to hear what fun I used get out of BMX as a kid
but he wont be like us lot.
He and so many of his mates cant be arsed either getting a big spade out in the woods nearby or to get on the train for a 20 minute trip to the indoor park at Burnley.
Fook me  BITD my bike took me everywhere and it's doin the same again today ,
WHOOOOOPPPEEEEE

[winnit93]

there was a massive skateboard boom after bmx.

[dirtyvans]

I raced till 1991, each week there would be less riders and tracks closing down, it was depressing. My parents told me they wouldnt take me any more as it was dieing, i was gutted

i wasnt taken with mtb's and i didnt like computer games, i kept riding my racebmx but never met any other riders for years

[jimmyp]

there was a massive skateboard boom after bmx.

Somthing that you had as well as a bmx though 

[slurp]

i always felt the in house fighting between the UKBMX and NBMXA didnt help.Maybe if they had got there sh!t together more televised big events would have been organised like another kellogs track wars etc then more big sponsers would have got involved and possibly BMX would have been in the spot light longer. 

my own story was i was the only kid who raced bmx in my school so had no one to ride with,then the local bmx shop (american connection) closed around 85(they made the hustler f+f set) with the owner,who also ran a saturday ramp session at the local indoor center took his qtr pipes with him,there was no one else to ride with there either so graffiti,girls etc took over.My looptail ripper was then the most expensive paper bike i ever owned.

 

[hunterdubber]

MTB's you'll notice have lasted lots longer than the first initial boom period of BMX

This is probably due to the age of the people interested in the sport

In the 80's BMX was marketed primarily at under 18's, and therefore treated by many ( TV media and advertising companies ) as a fad

It could have been different