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Abstract
During the 1970s, young boys rode their bicycles more frequently and in greater numbers than at any other time in the United States’ past. Bicycle riding and racing became so popular in the 1970s that boys fashioned a culture of BMX, also known as bicycle motocross. The style of bicycles and riding that BMXers fashioned quickly grew from a niche within the industry into the most common form of bicycling in the United States. The 1970s has been dubbed the decade of the “bike boom” by industry publications and by historians who have written on the subject. Many factors likely contributed to the increased number of bicycle riders and sales. Most explanations of the increase tend to emphasize the political, economic, and environmental concerns of adults and neglect the role that younger people played in the boom.
Contributor Notes
Brian Frehner is a professor of history at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, where he teaches and researches on the topics of oil, environment, and the American West. He is currently at work on a monograph that explores the transition from coal to oil in the American West. His interest in BMX riding and racing in the 1970s and 1980s grew out of the personal experiences of his youth. He is the author of Finding Oil: The Nature of Petroleum Geology, 1859–1920 and coeditor of two volumes: Indians and Energy: Exploitation and Opportunity in the American Southwest and The Greater Plains: Rethinking a Region's Environmental Histories.