We here at the Mystic Negro High Command and Linguistics Center realize that many younger riders may not be fully familiar with all of the complicated BMX jargon.  In an attempt to rectify this we present the Mystic Negro BMX Term(s) of the Day(ish) where in the murky and sometimes contradictory world of BMX language is decoded for you in bite sized chunks every day(ish).  Todays term(s):

Corporate Company: A bicycle company owned by a corporation

Cruiser: Cruisers are a class of BMX bikes with wheel sizes of 24 or 26 inches.  Their history goes back to the first generation of BMX racing where they managed to outlast sidehacks as the class won by people who were not quite good enough to win the 20″ class. Cruisers come in three types:

1. Racing - Who cares
2. 24″ Freestyle - Almost always a lower spec’d version of a 20″ freestyle bike with the exact same geometry, just placed on 24″ wheels making it ungainly to look at and possibly as awkward to ride.  Generally pitched to older and or bigger (probably fatter) riders who find 20″ bikes cramped and are too stupid to read a spec chart and realize that outside of seat height, it’s exactly as cramped as a 20″ bike.
3. 26″ - 26″ cruisers where euthanized 30 years ago but are seeing a resurgence as more and more BMXers become drunkards who, rightfully, would prefer not to drive from bar to bar and enjoy “curb hopping.” Basically hard tail mountain bikes, but without the annoying hill climbing aid of gears or ride smoothing effects of a front suspension.

Rider Owned Company: A bicycle company owned by a corporation.

Roadtrip: In the 1980s and early 1990s BMX teams did a thing called “tour,” in which a bunch of sweaty guys would get in a van with their bicycles and a portable ramp setup and visit parking lots of bike shops, fairs and sporting events all around the country, allowing kids in small and large towns alike to meet pro BMXers.  In the late 90s  companies realized that their riders did not like going on tour as it kept them away from their families for weeks or months at a time in cheap hotels and crammed into a van surviving off a small per diem.  Today tours are, mostly, a thing of the past replaced by roadtrips, where a bunch of sweaty guys get into a van with their bicyles, sleep in cheap hotels and survive off of a small per diem for days or weeks at a time to travel from skatepark to skatepark.  (Let’s be honest if your municipality doesn’t have a skatepark you don’t deserve to meet a pro BMXer anyway.)