robertv

When I stopped riding, my bars were "too wide"(I had them cut to where the brakes are almost on the bend, everyone else rode with their grips well on the bend). Now people run their bars wider than I ever did. I run mine just wider than I used to, the brake is just before the bend, and now everyone tells me that's narrow!
When I stopped riding not everyone had a 3 pc crank. A 3 piece was how you could tell the difference between a real bmx and a kids bike. Now there's hi-ten boat anchors with 3 piece cranks!
When I stopped riding, if you had a cassette hub and a compact gearing you were either sponsored, riding flow, or rich. Again, now there's hi-ten wonders with cassettes.
Spanish BB? Mid BB? I remember when people were experimenting with euro BBs.
Plastic pedals? Seriously?(Yeah I'm rocking the Hamilton's myself!)
And the colour coordination, wow, just wow. There hasn't been this much ano in bmx since the 80s.
Hell yeah. Glad to be back. Just got my TRL3 and I'm loving it. Despite the fact that I have a sweet bike and I can barely bunnyhop.

Greyryder

I know what you mean. I just got back into riding last year, after ten years off. I still like my bars cut down, but I never liked them super narrow.

I'm not sure what's surprised me the most. Euro bottom brackets on adult bikes, or that some racers are moving back to thread on freewheels. Seems the White Industries Eno freewheels on good sealed bearing hubs are as good or better than all but the most expensive cassette hubs. A lot cheaper, too.

I miss pad sets, though. Race bikes just don't look right, without them.

I_Suck_At_BMX

I pretty much left the BMX world roughly around 5yrs ago with a few half assed riding sessions here and there for the first few years, and then pretty much gave up after that. I got a new bike in december and I couldnt believe how much had changed in the time i was gone. When I stopped riding the wide handle bar fad had already started, but i still to this day cut mine down, not nearly as much as I used to, but I will never ride wide bars. I also went with a Fit complete (2010 Fit STR Edwin Sig), and could not be any happier with it. All in all I spent around $800 on it which isnt anything close to what my last bike cost and it is SOOOO much better than my last bike ever was. Its light, tight, and everything about it just feels right. I definatly wanna find hub guards that will fit my hubs so i dont have to run glands, but I dont know anything about hub guards so I dont even know what I need.