Become a BMX Bandit
If you have lost a bit of your ‘zest’ for mountain biking, then try out its little wheeled cousin, BMX for a refreshing change.
BMX is a great complement to mountain biking. The lessons learned on a BMX track fill in some of the skill and fitness gaps that mountain bikers often have – your acceleration and power over short distances improves, you become smoother on the bike, you learn to pump the undulations on a track to gain ‘free speed’, and you gain confidence overall. After riding with no suspension on a BMX you feel like your mountain bike can handle almost anything put in front of you!
As a university student I started out racing BMX club nights in Hamilton. I didn’t have a proper BMX bike but there were enough of us on mountain bikes for the club to run a special class for us. The bike handling skills I developed back then helped make me a successful downhill racer in later years – and it was just pure fun! On the finish line we were usually laughing and buzzing at the results of our friendly rivalry compacted into 40 seconds of furious pedalling. Like mountain biking, BMX is a very social sport, but the track and spectators are condensed in a small space, so it’s easy to chat to your mates between races and cheer on your friends. Another advantage is that the bikes are much simpler than mountain bikes. With no suspension, one gear and only one brake, there’s not too much which can go wrong, and little maintenance to carry out.
Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s not hard work because a lap takes less than a minute. When you give an all-out effort you will be slumped over your handlebars puffing and gasping at the finish line, but these short sharp efforts are extremely beneficial to your fitness. They train your body to tap into a different power source than it uses on long, mountain bike rides, and being able to draw on this when needed gives you a more well-rounded fitness.
I try to encourage mountain bikers to give BMX a go, and my friend Celia Lie decided to give it a crack this summer. After spending last summer training hard and racing cross country mountain bikes quite seriously, Celia decided the emphasis this year was going to be on fun instead so BMX fitted the bill perfectly. She joined up with the Dunedin BMX Club in October, and after a couple of club nights I heard her describe the racing as “strangely addictive”. When she turned up with a new bike and matching outfit I knew she had been bitten by the bug!
Celia was eager to learn all she could so she attended a BMX coaching clinic run by Ted Lucas, one of the BMX NZ coaches. “Up until that point I had been making it around the track with some basic fitness, but very little actual skill,” she said. “Ted taught us the basics of pumping, manualing, and gate starts which really helped develop my skills.”
The Dunedin BMX Club was hosting the South Island Titles in February 2010, so Celia took the plunge – she bought a BMX NZ race licence and signed herself up. Then it was practise, practise, practise! She was nervous to find herself shifted into the Elite Women’s class because there were not many female entrants overall, but she showed the results of her hard work by riding smoothly and confidently into third place for a fantastic result in her first major race. The winner of the Elite Women’s South Island Title was experienced Dunedin rider, Tamryn Hurren, showing how it’s done on her home track.
Another fast Dunedin female, Jordan Donaldson also glided into first place. She won the South Island Title in the girls aged 10 and 11 class, giving onlookers a glimpse of the talent that netted her a medal at the 2009 World BMX Championships in Adelaide. At that race Jordan had to battle through tough heats against 25 other nine year old girls from around the globe. In a nail biting final she powered into third place on the final corner to win the bronze medal. Jordan took to the sport ‘like a duck to water’ when she was just seven years old, and progressed rapidly through the ranks. Her ambitions are to win and defend the NZ age group titles, and in a couple of years she will travel to the 2012 World BMX Championships in Britain for another battle on the world stage.
While most of us have missed our chance to start riding at the tender age of seven like Jordan did, it’s never too late. All age groups are welcome, and some families have three generations competing together. People often feel a bit intimidated about trying BMX, but as Celia says, “It’s not as dangerous as it's made out to be! Give it a go and you'll probably be quite surprised at how much fun it can be.” But she adds, “People who try to ride BMX tracks on their mountain bikes should really put their seats down though – there is nothing like having your seat push you over the handlebars to really give you a scare!”
The Dunedin BMX Club offers interested people three race sessions for free to see if they like the sport before joining the club. They provide coaching, regular club nights and loads of support and advice. There is always a friendly vibe with lots of kids and parents getting involved, and at the end of the final heats on club nights everyone gets a chocolate treat when they reach the finish line. What better reason to sign up?! There are clubs all over the country and you can find contact information at www.bikenz.org.nz.
Next season Celia plans to keep riding BMX, and is thinking about getting a ‘cruiser’ which is a bigger version of the traditional BMX bike. Cruisers have 24 inch diameter wheels and feel more like mountain bikes to ride, so can be a more user-friendly option for those wanting to ease into the sport. There are separate classes for cruisers and 20 inch BMXs, so if you are feeling super energetic and want to double your race time at events you can race both classes like our New Zealand Olympian, Sarah Walker does.
Celia has found she is taking her new skills onto the cross country trails. “My riding style has changed,” she said. “I've noticed I'm more aggressive on the downhills and use my arms and legs more to ‘attack’ the terrain, instead of simply letting the bike ride over things.”
An unexpected bonus of Celia’s switch to small wheels is that having a decent break from mountain biking this summer has reignited her enthusiasm for it.
So consider what becoming a ‘BMX Bandit’ could do for your own riding enjoyment. It’s a fast, fun and social sport which is enjoying a revival all over the world since becoming an Olympic sport at Beijing. Don’t just leave it to the kids, it’s way too much fun to miss out on!
Image by Scotty Lane