"I'm Not Leaving BMX" - Andy Buckworth Talks Mountain Bikes

2014 may very well be the best year of Andy Buckworth’s BMX career thus far. In addition to traveling the globe with the Nitro Circus crew, he also took home the biggest win of his career at the Ocean City Dew Tour. This made it that much more surprising when I caught wind that he was beginning to spend time on bigger bikes.


Andy Buckworth… a mountain biker? Is he drifting away from BMX? What’s the deal?

Get the details from Andy himself -




Is getting into mountain biking something you’ve wanted to do for a while?
Yeah, actually. I love anything with two wheels and, after watching some of the MTB events, I always told myself one day I would try it out.

When is the first time you hopped on a mountain bike?
Well, obviously as a kid you ride all sorts of different bikes, but as far as riding a legit dirt jump MTB, my first time was twelve days before my first event.

How does it compare to riding your BMX bike?
Being that it’s on two wheels and it’s a bike, everything is relative. But, with that being said, it’s very different when it comes to doing tricks.

What influenced you to do this?
The turning point was a few weeks ago. I watched Brandon Semenuk and Brett Rheeder absolutely killing it at the Joyride contest. I watched it online and that motivated me to get a bike and have a go.

Are there any tricks you can do on your BMX bike you haven’t been able to do on your mountain bike yet?
I’ve only had the MTB for a few weeks and have been riding BMX for fourteen years, so there is a whole list of tricks I can do on my BMX that I haven’t brought over to the MTB. Hopefully, in time, I will be able to do a bit more on the big bike.

Over the years, a few BMX riders have left the sport to compete in MTB events. You’re not moving away from BMX to focus on MTB, are you?
No. I’m not leaving BMX. My love and passion is for BMX. I just like exploring new things and having as much fun in life as possible. MTB is a challenge and a great time. So, in my downtime from BMX, I have something fun to do that, at the same time, is still relative to BMX.

I see you’re already winning contests. What’s up with that?
Yeah, that was crazy and a crazy fun time. I had never been to Mammoth Mountain, so my Monster Energy team manager said “Hey, come up, ride the event, and have some fun.” I must say fun was an understatement. I got to borrow a GT downhill bike for the weekend and rode a bunch of downhill. Then, I rode the best trick contest on my dirt jump MTB and somehow ended up sharing the win with fellow BMX rider Josh Hult.

What do your BMX sponsors think about you competing in MTB events?
Monster is really supportive about it. As the others, I didn’t really address it to them. I guess as long as I continue to ride my BMX and compete in the events I’m supposed to, they should be happy - especially with the extra web and TV exposure.

In all honestly, how seriously are you taking this?
I’m honestly looking for a good time and a new challenge. But, that being said, I would love to one day compete in some of the bigger contests with the riders I look up to like Brett Rheeder, Brandon Semenuk, Kyle Strait, Cam McCall, etcetera.

Any plans for the rest of the year on the BMX or MTB?
As for the rest of 2014, I have a lot of BMX events coming up - two Recon Tour contests and the Monster Energy Cup Speed and Style event. But, I plan on going home to Australia over Christmas and New Year’s and building some really big ramp to dirt jumps. I want to try to bridge the gap between my BMX and MTB skills. Hopefully that will put me one step closer to fulfilling my dream of competing with my idols in MTB as well as my idols of BMX. Also, I have two Nitro Circus shows coming up in Dubai.

Anything else?
Thanks, Kyle. And, thanks for reading this! To keep up with my MTB and BMX progress, you can follow me on Instagram at @andybuckworth or on Facebook at facebook.com/andybuckworth1.

Double backflip? No sweat.






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