The 1990s well where do i start,some people like myself call the 90s the dark ages for mainly the lack of corporate backing,dropped of magazine sales and advertising in general i had just hit an all time low in the mainstream.(beer,cars women and work is the real reason) imo.

It was a time when the riders input was a massive factor in keeping the sport of bmx alive.riders like chris moeller,rick moliterno,matt hoffman ,dennis mccoy,dave mirra,vic murphy and so on.

Matt hoffman took the bull by the horns when the AFA comps dried up and put on his own stuff ,new heights were reached as the riders push the boundaries like never before.

As the big corporate's had lost interest because of the slump in bmx sales worldwide the money wasn't really about ,so it was time for the riders to step forward.Hoffman bikes ,Standardbykes, S&M and a very few others had there time to shine.alot of people think back flips ,flairs and big air 540 variations are kinda new school but o no these guys were doing this stuff 17 years ago on old school bikes that were just not up to it.The r&d had to get going to build rides that would stand up to the punishment the riders were putting them through.

With the new at the time longer, stronger, beefed up frames and components the riding pushed further on ,records broken ,bodies broken but the spirit never was.the bmx scene stayed very low on the radar for a while until the corporate's got wind of the new revival and jumped back on the band wagon to have there slice of the action.(fnar fnar).

For the sport as a whole this had its good and bad points but mainly bad (for the rider that is).the advertising started back up again with a bit of a push,new magazines like ride uk and ride us also started up which helped with coverage but it was still a long slow build up.cheap and nasty parts from the far east started hitting the streets again but lucky for some small building company's like S&M ,Standard byke co ,Hoffman bikes (but even the hoff would go partly corporate later on shame).Matt hoffman was one of the main men in the early days to inject himself into bmx full on, introducing the condor and the big daddy, at first these were built by se then moved in house to the ramp room .S&M built the holmes , dirtbike,to name but a few ,vic murphy had taken order of spare old stock skyway ta frames ,then added stronger more refined parts to make the dirtbros bike that was well invited.Standard bykeco had the fantastic shorty and the lengthy .

The 90s was also well known for the ramp work,flatland and street style of riding.the flatland to me was and still is an art form ,kevin jones ,chadd degroot and my all time favorite is paul osicka(a true master).The riders like gerry galley,zach shaw,alex leech ,andy shohara and many more hit the mini, midi ,and vert ramps big time and the opening of ramp parks all over the uk The older skateparks never really lost there touch like the 2 most famous southsea and rom skatepark in essex,radlands in nothampton and leigh-on-sea played a big roll in the uk as did so many others.Mons ramp in oxford was well known and a must for any pro riding over in the uk

A must for the 90s rider was a big pair of cahooners ,even before the pads were fitted to protect from the big slams ahead as the riding just kept getting better and just kept stepping up another level.baggy tees and shorts, pads was the standard dress code.With the newer type of brakes the riders were running new tyres like primo v monsters with high pressure side walls chrome wheels like peregrine super pros ,knee saver bars and bash guards made riding so much better .more to follow..