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Freestyle BMX Riding
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Published: August 24, 2006
It involves the highlight reel-inspired acrobatics that make Michael Jordan's free-throw line slam dunk look rudimentary. It is gymnastics, skiing and ballet with a specialized bike all rolled into one. It is an underground phenomenon that only peeks its head out during ESPN's X Games. This anti-popular culture sport is freestyle BMX riding.
Freestyle BMX is pure athletic expression, driven by instincts and risks.
The sport, which derives from the genealogy of bike racing, has become much more popular than normal off-road or alternative bike racing. Within the genre of freestyle BMX, there are several kinds: street, vert, park, trails and flatland.
Street riding uses the public and private natural course, such as jumping off flights of stairs or improvising off typical city elements. The vert discipline is arguably the most extreme and, as a result, the most risky and entertaining. This kind of freestyle biking involves two quarter pipes arranged in front of the other, creating a semicircle freestyle riders can use as a ramp.
BMX riders utilize skate parks. This designated area has become a safe haven for many of the publicly frowned-upon riders. Riders jump their bikes off man-made ramps and pipes.
Trail and flatland riding is fairly self-explanatory; trails are composed of dirt and mud, while the flatland riders, who may require the most work and creativity, perform tricks done on only smooth, flat surfaces.
Within the best freestyle BMX rider's arsenal, there is a common thread of basic, fundamental tricks. Basic tricks include the bunny hop, where the rider simply jumps the bike off the ground by pulling up on the handlebars. Ironically, faking is not pretending; rather it is riding the bike backward.
The freestyle BMX biker's worst enemy is gravity. Some of the most popular and basic tricks are performed in the air, including the X-Up and the seatgrab. In the X-Up, a rider turns the bike's handlebars at least 180 degrees while he holds on to them simultaneously. The seatgrab is exactly what it sounds like; the rider grabs the seat as he soars through the air.
Enthralled by temporarily defying Isaac Newton's laws of gravity, freestyle BMX bikers may be the most creative and entertaining athletes America has seen in the last 25 years.
Freestyle BMX is pure athletic expression, driven by instincts and risks.
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Street riding uses the public and private natural course, such as jumping off flights of stairs or improvising off typical city elements. The vert discipline is arguably the most extreme and, as a result, the most risky and entertaining. This kind of freestyle biking involves two quarter pipes arranged in front of the other, creating a semicircle freestyle riders can use as a ramp.
BMX riders utilize skate parks. This designated area has become a safe haven for many of the publicly frowned-upon riders. Riders jump their bikes off man-made ramps and pipes.
Trail and flatland riding is fairly self-explanatory; trails are composed of dirt and mud, while the flatland riders, who may require the most work and creativity, perform tricks done on only smooth, flat surfaces.
Within the best freestyle BMX rider's arsenal, there is a common thread of basic, fundamental tricks. Basic tricks include the bunny hop, where the rider simply jumps the bike off the ground by pulling up on the handlebars. Ironically, faking is not pretending; rather it is riding the bike backward.
The freestyle BMX biker's worst enemy is gravity. Some of the most popular and basic tricks are performed in the air, including the X-Up and the seatgrab. In the X-Up, a rider turns the bike's handlebars at least 180 degrees while he holds on to them simultaneously. The seatgrab is exactly what it sounds like; the rider grabs the seat as he soars through the air.
Enthralled by temporarily defying Isaac Newton's laws of gravity, freestyle BMX bikers may be the most creative and entertaining athletes America has seen in the last 25 years.
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