BMX bike

A BMX bike or BMX is the name of a popular bicycle used for both casual use and sport, and designed mainly for dirt and motocross cycling. "BMX" is the usual abbreviation for bicycle motocross.

History

BMX started in the early 1970s when children began racing their bicycles on dirt tracks in southern California, drawing inspiration from the motocross superstars of the time. The size and availability of the Schwinn Sting-Ray made it the natural bike of choice, since they were easily customized for better handling and performance. BMX racing was a phenomenon by the mid-1970s. Children were racing standard road bikes off-road, around purpose-built tracks in California. The 1972 motorcycle racing documentary On Any Sunday is generally credited with inspiring the movement nationally in the US; its opening scene shows kids riding their Schwinn Stingrays off-road. By the middle of that decade the sport achieved critical mass, and manufacturers began creating bicycles designed especially for the sport.
George E. Esser founded the National Bicycle League as a non-profit bicycle motocross sanctioning organization in 1974. before they set up the NBL, George and his wife, Mary, promoted motorcycle races with the AMA (American Motocross Association), and through their "National Motorcycle League," or NML. Their two sons, Greg and Bryan, raced motorcycles, but also enjoyed riding and racing BMX with their friends. It was their sons’ interest, and the absence of an Eastern presence by the National Bicycle Association (NBA, at the time the only sanctioning body of BMX Racing), that prompted George to start the NBL in Florida.
By 1977, the American Bicycle Association (ABA) was organized as a national sanctioning body for the growing sport. In April 1981, the International BMX Federation was founded, and their first world championships were held in 1982. Since January 1993 BMX has been integrated into the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).
BMX Freestyle (which, today, encompasses the Dirt, Vert, Park, Street and Flatland disciplines) was created by racers who enjoyed pushing the stylistic limits of what they could do on their bikes. Haro Bikes founder Bob Haro is popularly known as "The Father of Freestyle."
BMX Freestyle is now one of the staple events at the annual Summer X Games Extreme Sports competition and the ETNIES backyard jam, held largely on both coasts of the United States. The popularity of the sport has increased due to its relative ease and availability of riding locations. At the games, Latvian Māris Štrombergs and Anne-Caroline Chausson of France were crowned the first Olympic champions in Mens and Women's BMX Racing, respectively.
Many great BMX riders go on to other cycling sports like downhill such as Australian Olympian Jared Graves, former "golden child" Eric Carter, and youth BMX racer Aaron Gwin. Conversely, Mountain Bike racers sometimes cross over to BMX Racing, such as 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist conor of the USA.


Source: Wikipedia.org