The History of BMX Biking

As a sport, BMX biking has come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. Professional riders are now paid good money through competitive performances and lucrative sponsorship deals. For both professional BMX circuit racers and extreme freestyle riders, a BMX bike is no longer just a child's plaything.

Origins

BMX biking began in the late 1960s in southern California, largely inspired by the increasingly popular sport of motocross. According to the Union Cycliste Internationale website, children and teens began to mirror the motorized sport by racing their bikes on self-built tracks. The participants also began to wear the same protective gear as used in motocross, further emphasizing the link between the two sports. This new form of bike racing was named bicycle motocross, or BMX.

Popularity Explosion

In July 1971, a motorcycle movie called "On Any Sunday" was released. The opening scenes featured a group of kids from California pretending to race their bicycles as if they were riding motorbikes. This scene helped to further popularize BMX biking. Brian D. Fiske, author of "BMX History," states that "races quickly grew from 10 to 20 riders to several hundred."

BMX Bikes

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, most riders were using a bike called the Schwinn Sting-Ray, a hugely popular design among young riders in the U.S. The BMX Bike Central website states that the Sting-Ray accounted for approximately 70 percent of all bicycle sales at the time. The Sting-Ray is now regarded as the original BMX bike. By the mid 1970s, the growing popularity of BMX biking saw a number of manufacturers developing new bikes aimed specifically at the BMX market.

Organization

In 1977, the American Bicycle Association was formed to oversee the growth of the sport. According to Union Cycliste Internationale, this is considered to be the official start of BMX racing. The sport was also becoming popular on a global scale, particularly in Europe. The International BMX Federation was founded in April 1981, further establishing BMX biking as an internationally recognized sport.

Global Competition

The first BMX world championship was held in 1982. An offshoot of BMX racing was also developing during the 1980s, with freestyle riders increasingly focusing on tricks and flips. With the rise of extreme sports, freestyle BMX biking quickly found its niche. As highlighted by BMX Bike Central, this style of biking was introduced to the mainstream when ESPN hosted the first X Games in 1995. The original racing style of BMX, meanwhile, was recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 2003. In 2008, BMX racing became a full Olympic sport when it appeared in the Summer Olympics in Beijing.