Blog #2 Alicia - It all Began With a Kid and His Bike; BMX History: The start of it all

For this blog I will be telling you about the BMX racing history and will be sharing some of the sources I found helpful while doing research for this topic.

It all began with a kid and his bike

Doing research for this particular part of my blog I found it difficult and not very helpful when looking at my academic sources given through the J Paul Leonard Library database and analysis and wanted to go straight to the source that I knew would have the full story. But unfortunately this assignment does not allow me to do that haha. So as I grit my teeth here is what I found looking through a couple of my academic sources.

• From ProQuest Newsstand I found an article by USAToday in September of 2008 called "BMX racing gets bum from Beijing". In this article by Sal Ruibal he first starts to talk about the 2008 Beijing Olympics and how BMX Supercross Racing was going to make its first ever national television debut, but then follows with the sport of bmx. Ruibal claimed that BMX started in the 1960's in California as a kids variation of motocross racing. He then follows with that bmx racing was the start to bmx freestyle in the X Games in the 1990's, and helped create "the next big cycling boom" of that decade as big time riders started heading towards other cycling sports such as mountain biking and then later to road biking as well. In the article Ruibal finishes off with BMX in the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics and the many summer Olympics to come. 

• From Google Scholar there wasn't much for this academic source so I did my best with what I could. On google scholar I found a book called BMX Racing (Torque Books: Action Sports) and from the basis of this book it explains the fundamentals of the sport and what it takes to be essentially "the best". I did not like this source because it did not give me the results I was hoping for. 

• And as my third and final source I chose usabmx.com because I knew that it would be the source I could most rely on. On this website it has the full history of bmx. From the time it was rumored to start, to how it was started, and to the starting and usage of the ABA (American Bicycle Association). Its arguable that the sport was born in 1969 or 1970, but it is confirmed that it was started in Southern California with a couple of kids, their modified Schwin Stingray bicycles, and a dirt track as they pretend they were racing motocross. Hence where the name bicycle motocross came from, bmx for short. In July 1971 the first 4 minutes and 7 seconds of kids flyin' on their bikes down the street in Bruce Brown's motorcycle film, On Any Sunday, would "spread the BMX word like wildfire." A new sport created for kids by kids was born. In one short summer bmx grabbed the attention of thousands of kids all over the US. Boys and girls on their modified bikes were seen going fast through the berms and jumps of any dirt lot they could find. By 1977, "pockets of loosely organized bmx races dotted the nation from coast to coast" and by then it was time for a "national sanctioning body" and thus the American Bicycle Association (ABA) was created. The ABA for the next 35 years from that point on completely changed and formed the future of the sport. The first steps were to create a system of qualifying participants that was not only fair but add to the competitive nature of the sport itself and still gave every rider the chance to become a winner. This led to the transfer system where the winner of each moto advanced to the next round - be it quarter, semi, or main event. The ABA was the first of many things in the sport; some include the first national tour, the first cruiser class competition, the first sanction to call fouls as they were occurring  it was also the first to have a starting light system, automatic gate system, voice command, and duel announcing in the sport. It was also the first to use a computerized system for its members and to be used as an interactive website where the members could check on races and their points. In 2008 American racers who raced on both ABA and NBL (National Bicycle League) tracks went to the Beijing Olympics to go and win 3 Olympic medals and racked 9 BMX World Cup (Supercross) events; more than any other country. In 2011 the ABA and NBL joined together and are now united and have become the USA BMX Association.

Now here are just 3 sources of what I found on the History of Bmx racing and its History. 

Here is a picture of what a bmx  race bike might look like. This is my friends 20" Supercross race bike

In the top right hand corner of this photo is the USA BMX logo