What was BMX Bi-Weekly?

BMX Bi-Weekly was a British BMX magazine published every two weeks from 1983 to 1985. It was run by the Higginson family out of Morecambe, Lancashire, and it grew out of an earlier tabloid newspaper called BMX Weekly. It carried British race reports, bike tests, national race dates and a running list of official clubs and tracks.

Was BMX Bi-Weekly really published every two weeks?

Yes. The name is accurate. Surviving issue records carry explicit two-week cover date ranges, such as volume 4 issue 13 dated July 5 to July 18, 1984 and volume 4 issue 14 dated July 19 to August 2, 1984. The magazine ran roughly twenty-five issues per year, with a double issue at Christmas.

Who published BMX Bi-Weekly?

The Higginson family of Morecambe, Lancashire. Martin Higginson founded and edited it, his father Arnold financed it, his brother Nigel shot photographs and wrote, Marjorie Higginson kept the books, and Jonathan Higginson raced for the brand. The family was inducted into the British BMX Hall of Fame in 2023 as Pioneer Influencers.

When did BMX Bi-Weekly stop publishing?

Its last issue was the double Christmas number, volume 5 issues 24 and 25, at the end of 1985, with Carlo Griggs on the cover. The title was folded into Freestyle BMX, the sister magazine the same team had launched in April 1984.

What came before BMX Bi-Weekly?

BMX News, which ran fifteen issues and closed on July 31, 1981, and then BMX Weekly, which began as a twelve-page tabloid newspaper on Friday August 14, 1981. BMX Weekly switched to glossy magazine format with volume 3 issue 1 on January 7, 1983, and became BMX Bi-Weekly at volume 3 issue 8 later that year.

A BMX History Library chapter · the first entry in our United Kingdom section

BMX Bi-Weekly

A fortnightly magazine run out of a Lancashire seaside town, and for a few years the only way a British kid found out where the racing was

Legend Bike Co · BMX heritage series

American BMX had it easy in one specific way. If you raced in Southern California in 1983 you could walk into a liquor store and buy a magazine that told you who won, what broke, and what to buy next. Three of them, if you were fussy. Britain had none of that. British BMX arrived at the start of the eighties with no press, no national calendar anyone could look up, and two governing bodies pulling in different directions.

What it got instead was a family in Morecambe with a caravan on the driveway.

At a glance. Ran 1983 to the end of 1985 · Rhythm fortnightly, roughly 25 issues a year, double issue at Christmas · Base Morecambe, Lancashire · Run by the Higginson family, with Martin Higginson editing · Descended from BMX News (1981) and BMX Weekly (1981 to 1983) · Ended as a fold-in to Freestyle BMX · Cover price 55p by autumn 1985

A newspaper before it was a magazine

The line starts with BMX News, the first British publication the sport had. It was set up at a Lancashire printing house, Morecambe Press, on the urging of a young Martin Higginson, and edited by Bill Lawless. It lasted fifteen issues. The last of them is dated July 31, 1981, and it carried its own obituary in plain language: bad news, BMX News is shutting down; good news, there are moves for a new weekly.

By the account carried in The Albion, Lawless was called into the office and told the magazine was making no money and his job was gone. Higginson went home and asked his father for a loan. Arnold Higginson said yes.

Two weeks later, on Friday August 14, 1981, BMX Weekly appeared. Twelve pages, tabloid size, printed like a local newspaper, and genuinely weekly. Nigel Higginson took the pictures and wrote copy. Marjorie Higginson kept the books. Jonathan Higginson raced for the brand. The office was a caravan parked on the family driveway.

Read the surviving contents of those first issues and you can see exactly what a British rider needed and could not get anywhere else. Issue 2, August 21, 1981: Ipswich, Partington, what is on, and a lot of news. Issue 12: Redditch, Albury, Southport, Hattersley, and a profile of a young rider named Andy Ruffell. It was not analysis. It was a results service with photographs, arriving every seven days, and for a sport with no other clock it was the whole nervous system.

January 1983, and the switch

Volume 3 issue 1, dated January 7, 1983, is the hinge. That issue came out in magazine format with a glossy color cover for the first time, a shot of Andy Ruffell riding the Rom skatepark in Romford. Six issues later the weekly rhythm broke. From volume 3 issue 8, in 1983, the title on the masthead was BMX Bi-Weekly.

The name is honest, which is worth saying because plenty of magazine names are not. The surviving issue records carry explicit two-week cover ranges: volume 4 issue 12 dated June 21 to July 4, 1984; issue 13, July 5 to July 18; issue 14, July 19 to August 2; issue 15, August 3 to August 16. Fortnightly, straight through, about twenty-five numbers a year with a double issue at Christmas to cover the break.

Mark Noble, writing a retrospective on the British BMX press in 1993, described what it turned into as a full 48 page fortnightly colour magazine that started to bring freestyle into its pages. Page counts moved around — one late 1984 issue runs thirty pages, another forty-eight — but the shape held.

What was actually in it

The furniture of the magazine barely changed across three years, and it tells you what the job was.

Race reports, from British tracks by name — Bournemouth, Hillingdon, Teesside, Wigan, Grimsby, Whitehaven, Ribby Hall, Folkestone, Morecambe, Lewisham, Chorley, Derby, Patchway, Buckmore, Cocks Moor.
Official Clubs and Tracks, a standing directory at the back of nearly every issue. This is the single most useful thing the magazine did and the reason back numbers are worth reading now.
Bike and part tests, week in and week out: the Yamaha 401, the Torker 280 and later the 280X and the Magnum 200, the SE Quadangle, the GT Pro, the Kuwahara Nova, the CW Phase One Mini, the Diamond Back Formula 1, the Mongoose Supergoose.
Rankings, official UK BMX points, printed where anyone could check them.
Kid Keen, the cartoon, and Dear Ed, the letters page, both of which ran for the magazine's entire life.
Rad Gallery photo spreads, centerfold pull-out posters, and a Partin' Shot on the back page.
How-tos — building a quarter pipe, the 540 ramp spin, the bunny hop, the one-hand one-foot kickturn, bending your own brake levers.

It covered both British governing bodies without picking a side, which mattered at the time. NBMXA nationals at Ribby Hall and Bingley Hall and Norton Canes sat in the same issues as UKBMX rounds at Teesside, Hillingdon and Wigan, and as the Schweppes Grand Prix rounds at Slough, Wigan and Exeter. When the first UKBMX National ran at Teesside in 1984 the magazine covered it and then ran quick interviews with eight riders off the back of it.

The American problem, and how the magazine solved it

Here is the honest version of the thing this chapter exists to say.

The American titles this library documents at length — BMX Action out of Wizard Publications in Torrance, BMX Plus!, and from the summer of 1984 Freestylin' — were American newsstand magazines. They set the visual language of the sport worldwide. What they did not do was tell a fifteen-year-old in Wigan when the next national was, or which of the two British sanctioning bodies was running it, or whether his club still existed.

BMX Bi-Weekly's answer was to be both things at once. It ran the British material nobody else would run, and it also ran the American riders, because those were the names on the posters. Stu Thomsen interviewed. Mike Miranda interviewed. Pete Loncarevich interviewed. R.L. Osborn on a double-page poster and again on a cover. Eddie Fiola on a back page. Tinker Juarez on the cover of the last BMX Weekly era. A write-up of the Bob Haro Master Freestyler. A parting shot of Greg Hill and Stu Thomsen crashing out at the IBMXF Worlds.

That combination is the reason it worked. A rider who could only afford one magazine got the American stars and the address of his nearest track in the same fifty pence.

What we are not claiming. It is often said that American BMX magazines were simply unavailable in Britain in this period. We have not found a source that establishes British newsstand distribution, import delay or price for BMX Action, BMX Plus! or Freestylin', and we are not going to assert it. What the record does show is that BMX Bi-Weekly carried American riders and American product in its own pages throughout, and that it was the only publication printing British race dates, British results and British club listings on a two-week cycle.

The British riders it made

If you want to know who mattered in British BMX between 1983 and 1985, count the covers.

Andy Ruffell is on more of them than anyone — the January 1984 cover, the Morecambe photo shoot cover at the end of that year, and several between. He also wrote a column, Ruff's Spot, in the BMX Weekly days, and gave the magazine a twenty-tips feature in 1984. Tim March got a profile in 1983, won the first Superclass race at the first UKBMX National at Teesside in 1984, tested his own MRD frame in the magazine that year, and had a standing back-page column called Tim March Talks. Mike Pardon took at least four covers. Alan Woods of Alans in Wigan appeared on the cover of the August 1984 issue on his Robinson, and gave the magazine a two-page interview under the line that the B in BMX stands for business. Andy Preston, Craig Campbell, Paul Hudson, Carlo Griggs, Trevor Robinson, Andy Oldham, Gary Willats, Melanie Vauvelle, Sarah Jane Nichols, Craig Schofield, Martin Jose, Jason Maloney and Nathan Lunn all ran through its pages.

The British trade is in there too, and it is a roll call of things this library is still building out. The Raleigh Burner range got a launch feature in February 1984 and a three-bike test shot in the Canary Islands that summer. YES had the Aero Pro on test in 1983 and the 2400 cruiser after it, with a Tony Slater interview in 1985. Hot Wheels ran VDC advertising. A 1984 number-plate roundup weighed Mirage against Aero, Haro and Zeronine. Geth Shooter got fifteen minutes in 1985. Julian Parkinson got a centerfold poster doing an X-up one-foot kickturn. Those subjects have chapters of their own coming; the connections are recorded here in plain text until they do.

How it ended

In April 1984 the same team launched a second title, Freestyle BMX, the first British magazine given over entirely to freestyle. Martin J. Higginson edited it. It was published by BMX Publications Ltd. It ran thirty-two pages, put Andy Preston on the first cover, and covered Rom and Southsea and Romford skateparks the way the fortnightly covered race tracks.

Two titles out of one small operation is a hard load, and by the end of 1985 the racing magazine was the one that gave. The last BMX Bi-Weekly was the double Christmas number, volume 5 issues 24 and 25, with Carlo Griggs on the cover, a four-page Rad Gallery, a bike test, and a feature on how to train for racing. Then the title stopped and its readers were pointed at Freestyle BMX, which itself ran to July 1989 before becoming Invert.

The ownership tail is worth following, because it runs straight into the rest of British BMX publishing. By The Albion's account, Martin Higginson sold the titles to IPC, the magazine group; IPC could not make them work; the titles came back to him; and he then sold them on to Peter Noble, so that Noble's sons would have jobs in a sport they loved. Those sons were Mark and Chris Noble, and Mark Noble went on to edit Freestyle BMX, then Invert, then to found Ride BMX UK. When Mark Noble sat down in December 1993 to write the short, sharp history of the British BMX press that half this page rests on, he was writing about a magazine his own family had bought.

Where the record runs thin

Circulation. Two figures are in print and they do not agree. The British BMX Hall of Fame citation says the bi-weekly reached 46,000 copies at its peak. The Albion says circulation for the fortnightly was soon in excess of 100,000. We are recording both and picking neither. Both agree the first magazine-format print run was around 10,000.
The exact issue of the switch. Volume 3 issue 8, 1983, is where the archive's issue list changes titles. No cover date for that specific issue has been located, so the month the fortnightly began is not fixed.
The masthead imprint. BMX Publications Ltd is documented as the publisher of the sister title Freestyle BMX. Whether that same company name appeared on the BMX Bi-Weekly masthead, or whether an earlier imprint was used, has not been confirmed against a scan.
Staff beyond the family. Martin, Nigel, Arnold, Marjorie and Jonathan Higginson are documented. Who else wrote, subbed, designed or shot for the magazine over three years is not.
The final cover date. The Christmas double issue is confirmed as the last, and it belongs to volume 5, which runs through 1985. The precise on-sale date is not recorded.
Whether Freestyle BMX absorbed it or merely outlived it. The archive states plainly that BMX Bi-Weekly became Freestyle BMX. But Freestyle BMX had already been publishing separately since April 1984, so this reads as a title being closed and its readers moved across rather than a true merger. We are describing it that way and flagging the difference.
Rival British titles. BMX Bi-Weekly was not alone on the British shelf in this period. A full picture of what it was competing against is beyond what we have sourced here.

Timeline

Early 1981 — Martin Higginson starts work on BMX News, Britain's first BMX publication, printed at Morecambe Press and edited by Bill Lawless.
July 31, 1981 — BMX News issue 15, the last. The closing note flags moves toward a new weekly.
Friday August 14, 1981 — BMX Weekly begins as a twelve-page tabloid newspaper, financed by Arnold Higginson.
January 7, 1983 — volume 3 issue 1, the first glossy magazine-format issue, Andy Ruffell at Rom on the cover.
1983, volume 3 issue 8 — the title becomes BMX Bi-Weekly and the rhythm goes fortnightly.
April 1984 — the same team launches Freestyle BMX, Britain's first dedicated freestyle magazine, with Martin J. Higginson editing.
1984 — the magazine covers the first UKBMX National at Teesside, where Tim March wins the first Superclass race.
End of 1985 — volume 5 issues 24 and 25, the double Christmas number with Carlo Griggs on the cover, is the last BMX Bi-Weekly.
July 1989 — Freestyle BMX, the surviving sister title, runs its last issue and becomes Invert.
December 1993 — Mark Noble writes the British BMX press retrospective in Ride BMX UK issue 8 that remains a core source on the fortnightly.
November 2023 — the Higginson family is inducted into the British BMX Hall of Fame as Pioneer Influencers.

Why it counts

Magazines get remembered for their covers. This one should be remembered for its back pages — the standing directory of official clubs and tracks, the race dates, the rankings table. In a country with no BMX television, no national governing body everyone agreed on, and no way to find your nearest track except by asking someone, a list printed every fortnight and posted to your house was infrastructure.

British BMX built a lot on top of that. Two decades later the country would produce a world champion who won Olympic track gold in Jamie Staff, and after him an Olympic BMX medalist in Kye Whyte. None of that runs directly from a Lancashire fortnightly. But the clubs those riders came through are on a list in the back of a 1984 magazine, and somebody had to print the list first.

Sources

23mag.com — issue-by-issue archive listings for BMX News, BMX Weekly, BMX Bi-Weekly and Freestyle BMX, the source for the August 14, 1981 first issue of the weekly as a twelve-page newspaper, for volume 3 issue 1 dated January 7, 1983 as the first glossy magazine-format issue, for the change of title at volume 3 issue 8 in 1983, for the fortnightly cover date ranges across volumes 4 and 5, for the contents and cover subjects cited throughout, for the 55p cover price in autumn 1985, for volume 5 issues 24/25 being the last BMX Bi-Weekly, and for BMX Publications Ltd and Martin J. Higginson on Freestyle BMX. Mark Noble, Ride BMX UK issue 8, December 1993, quoted in that archive — the description of BMX Weekly as a tabloid weekly and of BMX Bi-Weekly as a full 48 page fortnightly colour magazine bringing in freestyle. The Albion issue 6, 2012, quoted in that archive — Bill Lawless and Martin Higginson at Morecambe Press, the loan from Higginson's father, the caravan office, the 10,000 first print run, the 100,000-plus circulation claim, the sale to IPC, the return of the titles, and the sale on to Peter Noble. British BMX Hall of Fame, "The Higginson Family, Class of 2023, Pioneer Influencer," britishbmxhalloffame.com, November 28, 2023 — Arnold Higginson's financing, Nigel Higginson on photographs and copy, Marjorie Higginson on the books, Jonathan Higginson racing for the brand, and the 46,000 peak circulation figure.

Checked and unreachable at the time of research: bmxsociety.com and bmxmuseum.com, neither of which returned usable content.

If you have a complete run, a masthead scan, a subscription card, an advertising rate card or a dated photograph from BMX Bi-Weekly, that is exactly what this chapter is missing. It can be sent through the contact page.

Last reviewed: August 2026. This chapter will be updated as additional source material becomes available.

Country/region