FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

We asked three leading motocross athletes how BMX has helped them when they made the transition to riding dirt bikes. See what they had to say:

Eli Tomac

FATBMX: Did you ever race BMX?
Eli Tomac: My racing started with bicycles and that was riding BMX tracks, it was the first thing I did. I got on a bicycle and raced BMX probably till I was 7 or 8 years old at the local tracks and then after that I went full motocross but yeah it was part of my life in the beginning.

FATBMX: Do you use something you learnt from BMX for your motocross riding?
Eli: I think the crossover is excellent, just for learning balance, balance is huge in the control of your bike.

FATBMX: Do you think BMX is a good school for motocross?
Eli: Oh yeah, totally! I mean, especially in the Supercross environment it's very similar, well, it's both, it's bike control right, knowing how to pinch the bike, I think there's a lot of similarity between BMX and Motocross.

Name: Steve Firestein
Hometown: Sepulveda Calif.
Started riding BMX in: 1969
Number of bikes in the collection: 12

What was the starting point of your BMX collecting madness?
Steve Firestein: 2008 or so. I came across a listing for a show at Peck park. That changed my focus on bikes.
 
Did you ever meet a pro and then rebuild his bike years later?

New season, new gear, new bike, new training programs, new countries, new tracks.... How does one prepare? We sat down with Niek Kimmann at TLD in Corona to find out more on his off season.

First of all, we know you and your brother as BMXers with a passion, trying to suck everything up in the BMX world and take everything in. How come you needed a BMX break after becoming the Olympic Gold Medalist?
Niek Kimmann: Yeah, I had a 3-month break from BMX. I simply had enough of it. When I became World Champion for the first time, I was in a similar situation. At one point you reach a new level which comes with new responsibilities. You train for races. When you win those races, it comes with responsibilities that you're not prepared for. You're young, you listen to advice from others, you must do this, you must do that....but you're inexperienced yourself so you take everyone's advice but at some point...pause... The reason I started riding BMX is because I liked doing it. At one point so many things get added to your life which are overpowering the sole reason why you started riding BMX. It's not that you forget why you ride, but expectations are up and that makes it hard riding your bike just because you love riding your bike. When I became World Champ back in 2015 I made that mistake and I think that after the Tokyo2020 Olympics I fell in the same trap and I simply had to stop and did not race for a little while. For myself I had to delete all results and titles and had to get back to the core of why I ride. I like to race because I love racing. Even if I would never win a race again, I would still like it.