BMX riding explained
Bicycle Motorcross, BMX, which began in the 1970’s, has gone through numerous changes. Now there are five main disciplines of this sport. They split into two sections: racing (one discipline) and freestyle (four).
While BMX racing is quite obvious, the freestyle needs a bit of explanation.
1) Street riding - is about finding everyday obstacles and doing tricks on or over them. At the beginning, the street bikes were very heavy. Later, they were built like tanks. Although they didn’t break, it was almost impossible to do anything on them.
Now those bikes are ultra light but strong enough, in order not to break. They usually come with pegs and a gyro. However, many street riders choose to ride with four pegs and no brakes.
2) Flatland - involves doing things on your bike on a flat piece of ground. Flatlanders often spend time in car parks and tennis courts while practicing.
Flatland bikes are very short and light, making them spin easier. To stand on, they have four big, fat pegs and a gyro with front and back brakes.
3) Dirt jumping - is split into two forms: ‘trail riding’ and ‘dirt jumping’.
Trail riders often spend time in the woods where they build more and more jumps that link all over the place for them to flow through.
In dirt jumping there are two or three big jumps and riders try and do as many tricks over them as possible.
Dirt bikes are heavier than race bikes but lighter than street ones. Often 36 spoke swheels are used for those bikes.
4) Ramp and park - is about riding and doing tricks around a specailly-designed ramp park. The parks can be made of wood, concrete or aluminium (dangerous!).
For ramp riding the same bikes as for street riding are used.
