Do you do BMX? I don't! I ride freestyle- BMXTRIX! I don't really know why people lump us all together. It is like grouping mountain bikes and road bikes and cruisers into one category. It just doesn't work and isn't accurate. Have you been to a BMX race? Have you been to a freestyle contest? Do the two forms of competition look remotely similar? A bunch of leather wearing BMXers wearing custom decorated helmets and kicking up a lot of dust is NOT the same as short and T-shirt wearing riding on the concrete and wood of freestyle.

Don't get me wrong- I don't HATE BMX. I just am not a BMXer. I don't want people to call me one. Freestyle has it's own roots and it's own identity. They go back to the BMX track, there is no question about that. Hence we are the descendants of many BMX racers. But it isn't as if the sports are even remotely similar anymore. It's not like the bikes are built the same. We all run 20 inch wheels. But that's about it. Freestyle street is about going big and getting huge air and trying crazy tricks. BMX is about going fast. Flatland is about pushing yourself and your concentration to new levels while riding in a parking lot by yourself for hours. BMX... one word... dirt. Vert is about putting your life and limb on the line. You against gravity and the coping in an attempt to just do the insane. BMX is about trying to beat out 7 guys that are elbow to elbow with you.

The bikes are built entirely differently as well. Sometimes you will find a BMX rider in the local park after throwing some pegs on their bike. But if it is a real BMX bike then it may be asking to break. Often BMX riders are looking to shave weight off of their bike. The forces on the frame, wheels, and fork are generally from one direction only. The bikes are increasingly being made of aluminum and you will often see aluminum 36 spoke wheels on the bikes, cantilever brakes, and knobby tires. Freestyle bikes pretty much have given up on worrying about weight. The bikes are designed with strength in mind. 100% 4130 chrome-moly tubing. Oversize this, heat-treated that. 48 holes, chrome-plated... 14mm... 5 inch steel... 990's... and FREESTYLE tires.

I guess I will never understand BMX. It doesn't really bug me though. I've never been fast. If I was then I probably would have been in track in high school. I have never thought that putting 8 people on a narrow track could determine who was fastest. It DOES determine who can get out of the gate first and keep people from passing. I would think that a REAL race would be the rider against the clock. Fastest time wins. But its not, and I don't get it- all I know for sure is that it's everything that freestyle isn't. Big sponsors, leathers, lots (more) money than freestyle, and a MUCH larger following and competition base.

Freestyle will be the bastard sport that will come into and out of style as different companies and different generations discover it. Every time a new wave of riders hits the scene the sport will be bigger and better than before because there are always riders that will not follow the trend and always just be better.

A freestyle competition is screaming at the top of your lungs for your best friend to do the best competition run in his life... even though that will mean he will beat you. It means screaming for someone you don't even know to do his best and pull something better... even though it will mean he will beat you. There is not really any competition at contests between riders. There is lots of competition between the rider and their mind. Staring at the ground and deciding that everything will be hit perfect this time. That the distance between two ramps CAN be cleared... while spinning the bars. That hitchhikers in tight circles can be cycloned backwards out of a bar-hop from pinky squeaks. This is what freestylers see. At least this is what I see and feel.

It could be that I am the only one.

I respect BMX as a sport. But it isn't my sport. Don't send me hate mail for not participating in what may be 'your' sport, because there is nowhere here that I am cutting down on it. It is just a different sport and should be treated as such. I get no enthusiasm from watching it.

I love Freestyle... Bicycle Stunts... bmxTRIX...

But I don't feel any BMX in me. I am not drawn to dirt. I am drawn to the street, parking lots, and plywood. I don't think they are the same sport... I don't think that grouping us together because of the size of our bikes is the way to do it. Twenty inches is not enough of a tie to make the sport the same. Because in every other way... the sports are different.

~P~