BMX is a Disease!

[Mikku]

It's a disease, I tell you. I'm fifty bloody six and still look at BMX bikes and parts, watch BMX videos and (body and weather permitting) ride BMX every day!! Every single day!! 365 days a year!!!

It's a never-ending rabbit hole! Case in point, I started skate park riding this year and built up my first ever park bike. After various problems along the way, the bike is, as of last weekend, finally running well, which means that I can now focus more on riding than building it. So what do I start doing? Think about upgrading the forks and trying some bigger bars and tyres!! Then I see a couple of complete bikes for sale online. Both from 2011 and both decent spec and well-priced. Do I need them? Are they better than the bike I've spent just 5 months building up? No, on both counts. But do I keep looking at them and trying to justify buying them? Of course I flippin' do! But isn't a bird in the hand worth two in the bush? And what would I do with another park bike anyway? Perhaps the same thing I do with the five race bikes currently sitting in my shed!! Namely continue to spend more time and money chopping and changing parts in the vain hope that one day they might be "finished"!

Am I mad? Am I an idiot? Maybe! Or am I just afflicted with the same disease that first infected me some 45 years ago! BMX is for life, not just for Christmas. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Bah humbug!

[Avro]

I admire your dedication! I am 56 also, but all I can manage is four carpet queens in the front room, proudly displayed between a pair of aging speakers.
More power to you.

[HUTCHMAN]

And not forgetting your OAP over here in Blighty Mick

[Midschoolfool]

TBH I am glad I got out. Well, I say got out, but I still have four bikes. I'm just glad I am not drowning in the bloody things any more. I feel a lot more free. It has also freed up a lot of time for my other passions/hobbies etc. I will always have a bike I can ride if I ever don't feel in complete agony all day (couple of good days a summer now) but yeah, the 'thritis has basically screwed me pretty hard.

[76]

True Story isn't it, I'm 50.  I can't say I ride as much as I'd like but its still there following me round, lustfully looking at old pics of old skool bmx stuff, bits and pieces of NOS parts that in reality probably won't see the light of day and a couple of Nos frames which I keep promising to build but haven't got round to.

None of it is really a problem, but I kinda think I really don't have any/many bikes, or things that could be a bike if I put them together, but then realise that I have 5, not many compared to some, but in reality too many.

Saying that I haven't really bought anything for a while as the prices don't feel fun any more, but I'm still yearning after a Mongoose or Supergoose!!

I think it hails back to a happy childhood and the fun and freedom that seemed to land in my lap when BMX landed for the mainstream in the UK.

[Mikku]

Nostalgia definitely has a part to play in it, particularly for the old school bikes that I read about and coveted as a kid. In my case, starting to race again in 2017 and then riding park this year has opened up whole new branches of the BMX world that previously held no interest, namely new school race bikes and park/street bikes. On that note, I have tomorrow off work and plan to hit up the skate park!!

And not forgetting your OAP over here in Blighty Mick

Mate, I deliberately ignored that (and the old other school bikes in my shed) to try and keep the total bike count in single figures. What's that bike-owning equation again? N+1 where N is the number of bikes you own...