THE HISTORY OF BMX (Bicycle Motocross)
BMX racing was actually invented by regular kids in the late sixties and early seventies, who wanted to race dirtbikes (motor-bikes) but did not have one, or were just too young to ride them. These kids took their pedal bikes to the motocross tracks and started racing each other to imitate the motocross racers.
There is no actual proof of “who” invented BMX. I believe that kids racing their bikes on dirt trails/tracks happened all over the country. However, to organize these races there would need to be some type of organization. There are a few people that have been noted in BMX history for their early contributions, such as:
• Ron Mackler – A park attendant from Palms Park in Santa Monica , CA helped a group of kids organize their races on July 10 th , 1969. These kids raced Schwinn Stingrays and named their sport “pedal cross.”
• Scott Breithaupt – A 13 yr old motocross (motorbike) racer from Long Beach , CA set up a dirt track in a lot and charged a quarter admission in 1970 after he saw some kids trying to imitate his jumps. He grouped the kids into skill classes. He got 30 entries for his first race and 150 for the second. He later formed the first BMX race track called B.U.M.S. (The Bicycle United Motocross Society). Breithaupt is also the founder of SE Racing. He built several tracks around CA and had an average of 1000 riders at each Gold Cup Series event!
BMX racing also got a major boost thanks to a BMX movie called On Any Sunday, starring Steve McQueen in 1971. In addition, BMX bikes were used in the movie E.T.
In 1973, the National Bicycle Association (NBA) was founded by Ernie Alexander to organize and sanction the races. In 1974 they held the first national championship in the Los Angeles Coliseum. Yamaha sponsored this event with 100,000 for prizes and promotion of their first BMX bike called the “moto-bike”.
The NBL was founded in 1975 in Pompano Beach , FL by George Esser because the NBA focused mostly in California . The NBL soon began lining up tracks throughout the East. The first National Series was in 1976, sanctioned by the NBL.
The ABA (American Bicycle Association) was founded in 1977. The ABA is similar to the NBL today, however their tracks are out of our local area.
BMX racing continued to grow rapidly, eventually tracks sprung up all over the world in the late 1970's. In April 1981, George Esser of the NBL met with representatives from Canada, Columbia, Holland, Japan, Panama, and Venezuela to create the International BMX Federation (IBMXF) and the first world championship was held in 1982.
On January 1993, BMX(IBMXF) racing was fully integrated into the Union Cycliste Internationale(UCI). The UCI governs international bicycle racing, including Olympic competition.
