Proudly voted Promotional Merchandise Distributor of the Year, December 2024 (Sourcing City Awards).

Promotional Products For BMX And Retro Sports Loving Clients

With summer fast approaching, more people are hitting the road on bikes, never missing a chance to unwittingly show off any promotional products, including bicycle rear lights for safety and specialised bike bottles for staying hydrated. BMX bikes can be used for casual off-road riders or sports events.

These bikes however, were created for dirt tracks originally. The idea of BMX racing started in the 1970's when children were riding normal bicycles off-road on dirt tracks, in southern California. They were massive here in the 1980’s too as any 40 ‘something’ will tell you!

Children were choosing to use the 'Schwin String-Ray' bicycle, because of its frame that could be easily used for improving speed and ability. Children carried on riding the 'Schwin String-Ray' off-road, but created dirt roads and obstacles in which, made it more of a challenge to ride.

By the mid 1970's this was considered a normal activity and many documentaries filmed these children, riding their normal bikes out on the dirt tracks. This was the BMX revolution, manufacturers were then thinking of new ideas to create, bicycles just for off-road purposes.

It was said a founder of the 'National bike league' was a man called George E. Esser. George went on to set up the NBL, as a 'non-profit bicycle motocross sanctioning organization' in 1974. His two sons used to compete in the NBL and enjoyed riding the BMX earlier on with friends. Soon, there were many events in favour of this ever growing sport, including the start of the 'CI BMX championship' where the first show was held in 1982. These championships are still happening today and the most recent one planned, is to be held in Birmingham from the 24th to the 27th of May this year (so still time to get along!)

BMX frames nowadays, are made from different types of steel and aluminium. Interestingly, when the spread of the cassette hubs came into light, the gearing on BMX were much smaller, than on an average bicycle. The success of having a smaller gearing on a BMX, created a much lighter bicycle proving to be more efficient. Also, more new ideas were coming in for these bikes, spokes were particularly popular. The more spokes you had on the bike, the stronger and more aggressive you could be with it, for example off-road extremists would have bikes with at least 48 spokes.

Allegedly, the rise of the BMX bike began to increase radically, on the release of the film 'E.T.'. The American science-fiction film released in 1982 was a phenomenon. However, it’s said for children watching, the BMX in which the character is riding, started a new 'must-have' bicycle trend.

There were many types of the BMX to choose from, they were seen as very fashionable for youths riding in parks and to casual events and are still known to be, as fashionable nowadays. One of the most popular sold in 1982, was the 'Raleigh Burner'. The 'Raleigh Burner' was fashionable for being brightly coloured and today, represents the true meaning of the 'Retro style'.

However, some people may not be interested in pacific BMX biking sports, but may enjoy outdoor family activities, including fitness regimes and to keep in good health. Why not support sports events with promotional products for all, including for clients who may be interested in some of the more niche forms of some sports, like BMX-ing?

Great sources of additional info:

http://krankin_kk.tripod.com/bmx/id1.html

http://www.columbiabasinbmx.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=57

Written by

Total Merchandise | Editoral Team

Our editorial team is drawn from a pool of experienced promotional merchandise product team members, account managers, marketers and other contributors. With such a wide range of skills and experience, they write about many aspects of promotional merchandise, wider marketing and business matters, as well as company news updates.

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