BMX bikes are a particular kind of low bike, with smaller wheels than usual, that can be used for racing. They are specifically designed to be light weight, strong and streamlined for speed. Also, they are acknowledged as the ideal bike for riders who want to perform tricks.
BMX stands for bicycle motocross, which refers to the origin of the sport: Children saw motocross races on the TV in the ’70s and wanted to emulate them. Since they had no motorbikes of their own, they used their bikes to race around similar dirt tracks to the ones they had seen.
Although there are a few older specialized BMXers, most good ones move on to other cycling or motorcycling sports. Among children today, the BMX continues to be one of the most popular model of bike around, and is often requested as the ideal Christmas or birthday present. Even if they have no intention of competing in competitions, children just love the aura of the unique design which exudes fun and more fun. This on ongoing popularity is reflected in sales of BMX magazines.
This popularity has surprised many as the sport of Bicycle Motocross suffered a sharp decline in ’80s and early ’90s and was considered pretty much dead, only to experience an exciting revival in the mid -’90s which is continuing to this day. Today the sport has grown in popularity to the point, where it has gone from participation by mainly under 10s to inclusion as a new Olympic event in Beijing 2008. It’s certainly here stay!
BMX is nowadays one of the range of extreme sports like skateboarding and snowboarding, and comparable tricks can be performed with the bikes to the ones the boarders do. The sport of Freestyle BMX was invented to allow BMXers to focus on doing tricks in skate-parks instead of racing, and has since arguably surpassed the popularity of BMX racing altogether, as this is the style that the ultra famous BMX bikers, Mat Hoffman and Dave Mirra, take part in.
So, you can see that the BMX Bike has a wide range of fans, and hence its appeal for street riding, free styling and its original purpose bicycle motocross.