Here's The Weekly Rant With Ryan

"The other day I did something totally kick ass. I did not perform a spectacular new trick that use to be an old trick. I did not buy titanium handlebars. I did not talk shit on pros in an online BMX message board discussion, and I did not get Jay Miron’s autograph, unfortunately. I did however watch the Hoffman Bikes’ BMX Trilogy. This one DVD contains 3 epic videos that were made in the late 80’s and early 90’s: AGGROMAN, HEAD FIRST, & RIDE ON. All three made back when BMX was considered, “Dead.”

I have a few friends that started BMX’ing around 2006, and I’ve attempted on several occasions to get them to watch some of my favorite bike videos from the mid 90’s. It never works though. They always seem to lose interests in the videos after five minutes, for whatever reason. Now I realize some people can’t stand watching super old videos, but if you haven’t, I encourage you to do so. In my opinion, I find them pretty kick ass, and there’s always something I find interesting about them. For one, we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for these riders. And two, classic videos also show how BMX functions as a whole that is constantly evolving. What I mean by that, is that BMX is a culture, or a lifestyle if you will, and inside that big BMX culture, there are different cultures so to speak from each BMX generation. Each values things differently, i.e. high seat posts, slammed seat posts, big bars, tiny bars, heavy bikes, light bikes, etc. Riders may dress different, ride different styles of bikes, do different types of tricks, and have shittier ramps than those of today, but essentially at its core, it is all the same: people having fun and challenging themselves on bikes. I think it is important to remember that while watching old videos. I also believe older videos can open your mind in a way to different styles, by exposing you to tricks that have for some reason or another vanished from contemporary riding. Watching only videos from the past few years would be like listening to only music made in the past decade, and listening to music made only made in the past ten years seems kind of self restricting to me.

So, I encourage everyone try and get your hands on some old videos. The Hoffman Trilogy video, or Joe Kid on a Stingray would be another great one. Or, simply just any video made before the day you were born into the world of BMX (when you first got into it). Shit, just go to YouTube or Google Video and do a search. Maybe you could be the next person to bring an old trick back from the dead? "