RAD 1987 - 1993 Frequency - Monthly. (BMX only appeared within the first six months) BMX as a viable pay as you go business hit a wall in the late eighties, 85’ was the year they were playing the death march, 86’ and it was all but buried. Freestyle was finally ditching the Craig Campbell race clothing era of full face helmets and goggles on visors and stupid hopping tricks and a new unfamiliar wind was blowing, however BMX hadn’t reached a point where it was fully fledged as an art form. Skateboarding however, was in its assurgency and when BMX Action Bike became RAD in 1987, its editor Nick Phillips and partisan skate/reluctant BMX photographer Tim Leighton-Boyce, were keen to ditch BMX as it slipped into the doldrums. After six months BMX was out, but RAD continued until 1993, where it eventually merged and became Sidewalk Surfer magazine.
PAPER TRAILS 1985 BMX Bi Weekly merges with Freestyle.
1983 BMX Weekly becomes BMX Bi Weekly.
April 1981 BMX News launches.
BMX Bi Weekly sales peak at 100k.
1985 IPC Media buy Higginson’s BMX Freestyle and BMX Bi Weekly for around £800k.
1988 UKBFA buy BMX Freestyle and employ Mark Noble as editor.
1992 Mark and Chris 2005 Noble relaunch 4130 purchase 50% of DIG. Invert as Ride UK and start 4130 publishing.
a. August 1981 Martin Higginson launches BMX Weekly.
1984 Martin Higginson launches BMX Freestyle.
April 1982 BMX Action Bike Magazine launches.
Under IPC Media BMX Freestyle and BMX Bi Weekly fail. Higginson buys back titles for cheap.
1989 Freestyle relaunches as Invert.
4130 grows, publishing seven titles in total.
2006 Factory Media purchase 4130, and continue to publish Ride UK and Dig.
1993 Rad Magazines folds.
b. February 1981 BMX Official Magazine launches.
1987 BMX Action Bike Magazine relaunches as Rad Magazine, featuring BMX and skateboarding.
1995 Sidewalk Surfer Magazine launches to become the UK’s only skateboard title, employing former Rad staff.
(a) A time line representing the sequence of events leading to the creation of Ride UK magazine. (b) How the UK’s first BMX magazine evolved into Sidewalk Surfer Skateboard magazine.
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