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The craze for Bicycle Motorcross, or BMX, was at it’s highest during the early 1980’s. Popularised by films such as BMX Bandits and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial which featured kids riding around perform stunts and tricks, there was a period where every kid wanted a BMX bike, and it was not cool to be seen riding any other kind of bicycle.
Pictured is the Raleigh Super Burner, which I distinctly remember falling in love with as a boy. Mum and Dad got me a Raleigh Grifter instead, which was disappointing at the time but given that the Grifter had three gears whilst the Burner had none, it was probably a wise decision. It certainly made the bike ride to school and back each day a better experience, and it wasn’t that far off being a true BMX bike in looks. Besides, the chances of me ever becoming enough of a daredevil to jump over ramps and such were never going to be high, if I’m truthful.
Anyway, there are two main disciplines to BMX biking, which are BMX racing and Freestyle BMX. The former is where the BMX craze originated, as it most closely resembles real Motorcross on motorbikes. Races consisted of several riders completing laps around a circuit (usually made on bare earth) that comprised dips, ramps and banked turns which had to be negotiated.
Freestyle BMX on the other hand has more in common with skateboarding, and is based more around pulling off fancy tricks. This could be performed on flat ground or on half pipes and the like, and is not just a case of pulling wheelies. Tricks can be performed such as the Tailwhip, which involves breaking suddenly and balancing on the front wheel whilst the frame of the bike spins round in a full circle, or spinning the bike through 360 degrees (or more) after launching into the air off a half pipe.
BMX has never completely faded away, and this year its popularity has given it more mainstream exposure that it’s more usual Extreme Sports following, having made it into the Olympics. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games is set to feature BMX racing for the first time. Personally I would have loved to have seen Freestyle added too, as it’s amazing what a BMX expert can make a bike do.
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BMX Bikes…
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I had a “Huffy Pro 3 Special Edition” It was an American bike…..thus amazing….by association. My parents bought it from a catalogue…..it wasn’t Kays. It began with a G. It was considered pretty cool though….as it had a pedal back brake! YEAH!!! A PEDAL BACK BRAKE!!! It had regular spokes though, which were not cool. I know some Raleigh bikes had what they call Skyways! 4 or 5 spoke rims. The best of, according to rumour you could put in the freezer to un-buckle them!
I don’t know. The best I could ever manage was an endo….. a small bunny hop or a jump over a brook…..a small jump!
Sounds like a great bike Glenn. I really wanted a BMX to replace my Raleigh Grifter, but Mum and Dad insisted on me having a mountain bike instead (a Raleigh Maverick).
At the time I was the first at my school to have a mountain bike, and everybody poked fun and called it my “treader”. Of course seems I was ahead of my time as mountain bikes are far more prevalent now.
[…] bike was a wreck this might not be a bad option, but I certainly wasn’t going to paint my Grifter. Mind you, given it was silver I didn’t really need to paint my bike as it was bright enough […]
I always wanted the ultimate of BMX bikes the ‘Silver Fox’, a beautiful shiny all chrome frame. Instead what I got was a Halfords basic job in black that later I tried spraying with some silver paint in the hope it would look like a silver fox. Only to be disappointed that it just looked shiny grey with globs of paint where I didn’t know what I was doing and sprayed so much on that it ran.
You weren’t following the advice from the Get Yourself Seen advert were you?
Hi i had a R-Burner back in the 80s it was my first bike and loved it, it got me hooked on bmx racing when i was a kid and did really well : )
i had a limited edition burner with oval frame and custom purple paint job and multi colored brakes seat etc it was called a lickerish all sorts design and was based on a mid range burner THEY HAD OVAL FRAMES IN LATER YEARS
my brother had the standard red burner and are friend had the burner tuff or was it the mag burner the one with mag wheels
i became famous round my way for jumping 15 people in a row side by side not long ways, with a 2 brick ramp on the streets out side my house, i was great at slow speed freestyle and a unbeatable bmx racer easy destroying a champion racer whose dad ran a bmx shop we all got are up grades from
he was spoilt rotten and had a top of the line gt race bmx with skinny wheels etc i was fed up with everyone worshoping him with his trophy’s
i chalenged him and utterly destroyed him in like 20 races leaving him for dead every time we raced in fasct i was unbeatable at are local bmx track (western park leicester uk)
i was never ever beaten in a race but i was a poor kid on a coucil est with a dad in prison i had no chance to go pro BUT DESTROYED EVERY PRO RACER WHO DARE CHALLENGE ME
so long story short im 40 i still look 25 and im in perfect shape il be getting a claud butler trials/jump bike on tuesday brand new its like a big bmx with gears
IL BE BACK SOON TO OWN