Brian Foster

Brian Foster is an American BMX rider from Wilmington, Delaware, who raced as a professional in the 1990s and then became one of the leading dirt jumping and trails riders of his era. He won a gold medal in BMX Dirt at the 1998 X Games and medalled in that event four years in a row. He is known by the nicknames BF, Dirt and The Blue Falcon, and later rode for Fit Bike Co for many years.

Early life and background

Foster was born in 1972 in Wilmington, Delaware. He started racing BMX around 1981, at about eight years old, and was soon picking up local sponsors. His brother Alan Foster also raced, and the two became one of the best-known sibling pairings in American BMX.

The East Coast in the 1980s had a strong racing scene and a growing culture of building jumps in the woods. Foster grew up with both. He has described trails as the form of riding that makes the most sense to him, and his comfort on dirt fed directly into his racing and contest careers.

Career

Racing

As an amateur, Foster won national titles with both of the major American sanctioning bodies of the time, the ABA and the NBL, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He turned pro around 1991, at about 19, and quickly became one of the top pros in the country.

His best racing season is usually given as 1995. He came close to winning the ABA pro national number one title that year but lost it after a crash at the Grandnationals, the final event of the season. Wikipedia also credits him with a second place in UCI World Cup competition in 1995, though contemporary results for this are hard to find. Over his racing years he rode for brands including Hyper (briefly, around 1993) and Schwinn, and his partnership with Schwinn and Airwalk in the mid to late 1990s was his most commercially successful period.

Foster has said he drifted away from racing partly because he did not want to commit to the training needed to be the best racer in the world. Dirt jumping was where his interest lay. Some references give 2001 as the year he retired from racing, but by his own account in DIG his last gate start was the downhill event at the 2003 X Games.

Dirt contests and the X Games

Foster arrived on the dirt contest circuit just as it was becoming a television event. At the early X Games, BMX Dirt was one of the headline bike events, and Foster was a consistent medallist:

Year	Event	Result
1996	X Games BMX Dirt	Bronze
1997	X Games BMX Dirt	Silver
1998	X Games BMX Dirt	Gold
1999	X Games BMX Dirt	Silver
2001	X Games Downhill BMX	Silver

ESPN's archived X Games almanac confirms the 1996 to 1998 results. The 1999 and 2001 medals are taken from Wikipedia's record of his career, which also lists him in the downhill event until 2003. He also won dirt titles at racing organisations' own jumping contests in the mid 1990s, including the ABA's King of Dirt series in 1996 and 1997. He continued to enter X Games dirt and park events until 2005 without medalling again.

His racing background showed in his dirt riding. He jumped with speed and power, and he was known for the height and smoothness of his airs rather than for packing in technical tricks.

Schwinn produced signature products for him, including a Blue Falcon frameset in the late 1990s, a nod to his nickname.

Fit Bike Co and trails

Around 2000 Foster joined Fit Bike Co, the street and trails brand started under the S&M Bikes umbrella, and by his own account he rode for Fit from its first days. He stayed with Fit for much of the following two decades, and Fit released signature frames and complete bikes under his name in the early 2000s.

During this period his focus moved away from contests and towards trails, street and park riding filmed for videos. He appeared in Fit videos including Fit Life (2007), had a mini part in Stew Johnson's Anthem II (2010), and his trails sections are often cited for how much speed and height he carried over big dirt jumps. He also rode concrete parks and entered occasional street contests.

Riding style

Foster's style combines a racer's speed with a trails rider's flow. Key features include:

• Speed and height. He hits jumps faster and goes higher than most riders, using the pumping and pedalling skills he learned on race tracks.
• Smooth, extended airs. His tabletops, one-handers and other classic airs are held for a long time and landed smoothly.
• Versatility. Although best known for dirt, he has ridden racing, park, street and concrete at a high level.

He has been openly critical of modern dirt contests moving towards skatepark-style tricks, preferring dirt jumping that rewards style, flow and height.

Legacy

Foster is often named alongside his brother as one of the riders who turned dirt jumping from a sideshow at race events into a discipline of its own. DIG BMX chose him as one of four riders for its 2012 Legends issue, alongside Van Homan and others who changed how people ride.

In 2015 Fit Bike Co released BF-IT, a documentary about his life and career, filmed by Stew Johnson. He was inducted into the USA BMX Hall of Fame in 2018 for his racing career.

Outside riding, Foster has spoken about studying for a career in physical therapy after years of injuries, including knee surgery.

Sponsors

Notable sponsors across his career (not a list of current sponsors):

Sponsor	Period
S&M Bikes (amateur)	Around 1988 to 1989
Hyper	Around 1993
Airwalk	Around 1993 to 2003
Schwinn	Around 1995 to 2000
Fit Bike Co	Around 2000 onwards