bottombracket

BMX Bandits

It gets even better. Further research last night has revealed to me that not only were Schwinn responsibe for Chopper bicycles, and had a hand in the creation of ‘Mountain Biking’, but they were also there for the birth of BMX. ‘Joe Kid on Sting-Ray’ is a film that charts the birth of BMX right up to the present day and guess where it started? With the Schwinn Stingray. Those kids chopping up bikes on the West Coast of America it seems were destined to take it a step further. Not only did they want to look like the older boys, they wanted to race like them too. The film looks as though it’s in much the same vein as ‘Dogtown and Z Boys’ with fast punk rock music and grown men talking about how macho they were as teenagers (midlife crisis ahoy!). But again, this innovation is hotly contested, not by Raleigh this time but by one of the most traditional biking nations in the world; Holland. On this site FatBMX, there is another version of history being told

“As a matter of fact, although not known as BMX (Bicycle Moto-X), in Holland BX (Bicycle Cross) got off the ground in the mid 1950’s and also because of youngsters imitating the, at the time, motorsport moto-cross stars from Holland and Belgium.”

It’s worth taking note that the above image was not taken in sunny California but Holland (courtesy of FatBMX) and according to the publisher, dates back to 1958. (That’s put a stick in the spokes!) Further reading on FatBMX will reveal that Bicycle Cross (as it was known in Holland) had something else going for it

“Just last year May 7 th in Holland a special Reunion took place of the moto-cross riding sons of the ‘Van HEUGTEN’ family. This famous moto-cross family had 15 children of which 5 daughters and 10 sons. All ten sons were at any time active in the moto-cross sport”

“Anyway, besides the famous van Heugten family, there was also the famous Karsmakers family . This family had 8 children, 2 daughters (of whom I married the oldest one, Mieke!) and 6 sons. Only 5 from these sons were active in the moto-cross sport and also they started out in the woods near their home in Waalre – Holland, imitating MX stars, riding adjusted normal road bicycles.”

A slightly bias account perhaps but why hasn’t there been a movie been made of this? It’s got everything going for it, dueling families!? In any case, the design innovations that lead to the actual BMX bike were to come from California and in any case, all of this arguing appears rather trivial in light of the fact that BMX, for the first time ever, has finally been recognised as an Olympic sport and will feature this year in Beijing’s Olympic games.