Author Archives: SUB22

Lockdown Log Day 26

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God has it really been 26 days in lockdown, yep it sure has and like I’ve said before, other than the recent couple of miserable days I cant help think how it has helped having a decent spell of weather, and long may it continue. Incidentally for those who are regular readers, typically Birmingham national weekend was another corker for weather that’s three in a row now!!!!!!

So to business first, got the creative hat on the other night and came up with a new T shirt design which is available to ORDER NOW by CLICKING HERE. Have to say I’m really happy with how this one has come out, I think it’s possibly one of my favourites to date actually. I’m going to tip a nod to DJ Flavs for helping me get my head into creativity mode when he was briefly hosting a FB live set before rudely being kicked off. Think I’m right in saying he’ll be broadcasting on “twitch” this Friday so tune in, he doesn’t disappoint. The longer evenings and the great weather we’ve been having were my inspiration for the ” KEY WEST” design, putting our iconic skull logo on a playful setting sun image, it’s got to be the go to T-shirt for when we are all back on the beach. Whilst having more free time to work on SUB22 I recently discovered that our hoodies have actually been our bestseller which really surprised me, so I think for a limited time I will run the new KEY WEST design on our hoodies just to help you stay warm when you are taking in the sunset wherever you are.

Last week I was approached by Decoy committee and asked if I would take up the challenge laid down by Exeter BMX club and produce our own version of ‘The Toilet Roll Challenge’. A great concept thought up by Exeter and we as a household certainly had some fun producing our own parts to include in the final edit. It was great getting everyones clips sent through and I hope you all were happy with what we finished with. I know I’m going to be biased but even with all the other clubs versions that have been produced since, I still think ours is the best, so well done to all who contributed, and for those of you who are reading and thinking “what the hell is he on about”, check the video out by CLICKING HERE

Zoom, House party and a huge increase in Tik Tok’s has to be part of everyones homes right now. Daughter is Tik Tokin’, Henry is always watching them whilst the wife caught up with her girlie friends the other night for a drink on Zoom, that is when they all managed to get logged in!!!! I played host to a game of Family Fortunes on Zoom last weekend which was fun. Again it helped pass time creating the quiz and was great to see family as together as we all can be in the current situation. One word of warning for anyone using zoom for the first time though, make sure when you exit the session that you have fully exited and not just turned your video feed off and left your microphone active (WHOOPSIE DAISY NANNY ANGIE)

On the whole I would say we are still coping well with the current situation, but think it’s fair to say we are all missing the BMX family, and Henry and myself are also missing sport in general. Since we got into BMX approximately six and a half years ago I can’t honestly remember going so many days without riding a track. I think the last time Henry rode a track was 11th of March, 39 days ago. A week today we should all have been rocking up at Exeter for round 3 of the SW regional series and the week after at Decoy for round 4, let’s see how the weather turns out for those. Really missed the Birmingham weekend, that’s one of my favourites, great track, sensible drive time, good camping and always look forward to Pizza from the takeaway over the road. If I think about it all for too long its even worse. We really enjoy the additional social aspect that BMX has added to our lives, it literally is like another family away from home, meeting all our friends at regional races and sharing drunken nights to remember and some to forget at nationals. Is this how it will be when our racing days are over??????

To finish this edition, walking has become the daily exercise of choice for Vicki and I, and boy have we been chalking up the miles, so much so that dependant on how much longer we are off work I’ll be going back looking like I’ve just had 2 weeks in Caribbean, dropped to a 28 waist and in desperate need of a new pair of trainers. Has anyone else had to resort to home lockdown haircut yet? Mine is getting close and I’m not sure who I trust to ‘HAVE A GO’. I tidied up Henry around back and sides and got a reputable 6/10 from a barber, which considering I only had a small set of clippers, no comb and no scissors I’ll take. Henry is not keen on me cutting the top mind, but it’s going to need it sooner rather than later so watch this space.

Hope everyone is staying fit and healthy, and look forward to seeing you all on the other side of this. Stay safe

Burnham-on-Sea, not to be!!!

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So there we go, what should have been a day at Burnham for round 2 of the South West regional series has fallen to the now inforced effective lockdown situation that the Corona Virus has brought about. The best I can bring you is a small edit I made at last years Burnham round. CLICK HERE for a direct link to it on YOUTUBE. Olympics and Euros have both been postponed until next year ,the worlds have been ‘postponed’ BC have pushed back the date of suspended events to end of June at the earliest which regionally puts pay to Exeter, Decoy, Cornwall, Bideford and Bristol rounds and Birmingham, Scotland and Cyclopark on the national circuit. I think it’s safe to say there’s not going to be any racing any time soon. I would like to point out at this point the weather today was dry and sunny, I’ll admit it was cold in the wind, but that’s now the first two regional rounds that actually would have been DRY, typical. I wouldn’t even like to guess how racing is going to play out, and whilst given the health of the nation is hugely more important than racing, at some point in the future the people who sit in the appropriate places will have to make decisions about the knock on effect with respect to qualifications to events due to be taking place in 2021, strange times.

I will go on record now and say I am amazed that we have managed to pretty much get through this first week of isolation/social distancing. I honestly expected us all to be wanting to throttle each other but it’s been OK. I’ve begun getting on with all those jobs around the house that you just normally put off, probably because when you’re working your free time is more valuable and those sort of things are way down the list. Now however I’m looking for things to occupy the day, Vicki says to me ‘you can’t relax can you?’ Yes I can and actually doing these odd jobs is in a way relaxing, they serve as a purpose in the day, you don’t have the usual time restraints of rushing to get the job done by the end of the day because I can always finish it tomorrow. I’ve got a couple of runs in this week, got back on INSANITY workouts and gained an invaluable respect from Henry when we went out for a ride together in my domain, on the road. Oh how sweet it was to keep turning around to him and say ‘come on keep up’, he slept well that night believe me. Henry and I are managing to get out pretty much every day on a bike of some kind, my track stands are definitely improving, practice hasn’t made perfect yet but it’s made it a damn site better than this time last week I won’t be beaten. Henry is improving his flat manuals day by day and is also just managing to hold me off in our little sprint battles. We’re both also trying to master the unicycle, it’s been sat in the loft for I don’t know how long and what better time to learn new skills. All of these things have been made far easier though with the decent weather lately. Imagine if we were going through this isolation period back when we were getting the monsoons. Trying to socially isolate when you’re flooded out of your home, queing up outside your local supermarket when its lashing it down, really being stuck inside because its just too awful to go out, that would have been isolation on another level.

Thursday nights show of appreciation for NHS workers was brilliant, in fact when Vicki and I have been out for the odd walk this week people in general have been way more friendly than normal. Everyone has been of the 2 metre distance when passing and saying ‘hello’ and ‘thanks’, sad thing is that it takes a global crisis to get the best out of people, however if this can’t pull people together then there really wouldn’t be much hope right?? Anyone who is still playing any kind of working role now should be thanked really. Although the virus does appear on the whole to be more detrimental to the elderly and those with other existing medical conditions, it’s not limited to those alone and so anyone now who still has any dealing with the public in any way is putting themselves at a greater risk of becoming ill and thus should be respected for fulfilling whatever role the play. One small thing that has also caught my attention is new TV ads. Over the last week particularly in the morning there has been an alarming number of new adverts for things like life insurance, will writing, cremations, and funerals, jeeeeeeez, slightly concerning hey.

For those of you who do regularly read these and had a go at the riddle from last time the answer was “THE MOON”. For those who got it, congrats, for those that didn’t unlucky, for anyone reading this for the first time, go back to the previous post and see if you would have guessed it, for everyone else it’s the name given when someone flashes you their backside.

Many thanks to those who have ordered the new T-Shirt design CV-19 I hope you like it when it arrives. If you do find yourselves with time on your hands I have a new feature on the SUB22 website. You can now design your own T-shirt!!!!! Get your kids on it let them be inspired for a few hours and best of all you can get your design printed and shipped. Being based online, for now we are still able to fulfil orders, so what are you waiting for??? CLICK HERE to get directed straight to the design studio now. Keep safe everyone, we are stronger together, and together we will get through this and remember when things do get fraught at home ‘ you’re not stuck at home, you’re safe at home.’

Parkfield Regional (or not)

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Feel a bit lost really, almost cheated in someway, this is about the time we would be back home from the first South West regional race, going over the days events, analysing Sqorz timings, comparing, contrasting, what went right what went wrong, who impressed and who’s dropped off. New bikes, new teams, new kit, new helmets, having to re educate yourself to recognise those you normally follow, who’s racing up? Why are they doing that? Why the delay? The first race nerves, the tension, excitement, novice first timers, parents screaming ‘PEDAL’, Sharon screaming ‘Louis, Zach, Max, (sorry Sharon) a warming cup of something resembling tea from a poly cup, the smell of GT85, the smell of portaloos, the smiles, the cheers, the tears, the tantrums, the cash I’ve spent to never win a raffle prize again, see you next week for round 2 at Burnham!!!!! Instead of all that there was no alarm wake up call, leisurely tea and breakfast in bed for Vic (mothers day and all that) re runs of ‘ Cant pay well take it away’. Walk to town for some food shopping and grab some milk for my elderly neighbour. Unpack the shopping, coffee, get my cruiser out and have a go at Cornwall BMX clubs Track stand challenge (Totally crap at it now but will prove to you that practice pays off as huge progress was made in just a few hours today) Roast, and then sitting down to blog. Now some would feel like the way today played out would be lovely, but its been odd, really odd and sadly a feeling I think for the short term foreseeable future, we will all have to get used to.

At this moment in time I’m still fortunate enough to be at work, however I have already been thinking of ways to keep myself entertained over the impending lockdown weeks to come, and let’s not be naive, they are going to come. I’m thinking that as we have a major shut down of some huge sporting events, maybe we should re-create our own and share them with you. Oxford, Cambridge boat race was due to be next weekend, The Masters golf, The Grand National and London Marathon to name a few. I’ve also thought maybe a should broaden my sporting horizon and look into new things, for example after a very quick internet search last night did you know that they have a championship event for HOBBY HORSEING!!!!!!!!!! No word of a lie, head to Youtube and search ‘hobby horse competition’. Check out the 2019 Finnish championship edit, the funniest thing ever, I’m considering doing a voiceover/ commentary to this, what do you think??? There was a whole host of other random sports I found but I will keep those to myself for now as potential upcoming projects/entertainment/boredom killers. My excitement over these findings however has unnerved the wife a little her words were something like ‘ GOD if this is what you’re like whilst you are still able to go to work I fear for us all when you have to be at home……….’ no need for that I thought, just rude!!!!!!

Ive seen a significant number of businesses on social media tonight announcing that they will be closing now for the foreseeable future and given the apparent lack of understanding from significant numbers of people who chose to go out like we’ve just come out of isolation today, I think we’ve got a week at best before Government pull the plug completely. Please remember to try and be mindful with what you do in your time, we love our bikes and we love to be out on them. Ride, but ride in a manner which will drastically reduce the risk of you needing a hospital visit, they just don’t need you in there right now and lets be honest would you really want to be there???

Lastly something new, its important to keep the brain as well as the body active so I have a little teaser for you. Nothing to win, no place on a plane, just bragging rights at getting it right, try not to spoil for others by commenting the answer just let us know if you think you know. Here goes. Always old, sometimes new, never sad, sometimes blue, never empty, sometimes full, never push, always pulls. What am I ?? Answer in the next edition. Cheers all, stay healthy.

Netflix and sprints!!

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Well as I’m sure you’re all aware it’s now official, as of Tuesday, BC finally announced a halt to all racing until the end of April at the earliest. Although a little behind a lot of other sporting organisations to pull the plug it was only going to be a matter of time, we are going through very strange times, uncharted territory if you like, the sort of thing that our future generations will be studying in their history lessons. I don’t think you’re human if you don’t have some concern over the situation. Those who know me best will know I’m very laid back but even I’ve had my concerns, mine isn’t health as I think we are all generally fit and healthy enough that we’d get through it but lack of work and money which it seems will be inevitable is a worry. I try to take comfort in the thought that when things get to that stage then the vast majority of the country will be the same and government interventions will be applied!!!

So schools are now to close, for how long who knows, probably not even those who may know, the challenge is going to be keeping them occupied. If yours are anything like Henry, its going to be a challenge for all concerned. Open tracks can be a lure but we shall stay away. I don’t think it’s right in the current situation to unnecessarily take up a seat in A+E. Yes he rides all the time, no he doesn’t have a habit of coming off, but you know what, he’s even less likely to if he’s not riding a track. Hospitals and NHS staff don’t need the extra burden of avoidable services and staff care, their skills are required for a greater good right now. I hate the thought of him not riding the track, and he will be climbing the walls but believe it or not there is a greater issue going on here and we all need to play our part in it, and that extends to all the buffoons who are clearing the shelves of our supermarkets, idiots. I will keep Henry active, sprints, turbo sessions, core work, I see various online offers for training programs around, which I’m sure are great but certainly for me I’m watching my cash right now because although I’m still fortunate to be working, I’m under no illusion, it will cease for a period of time and it will be money for necessities only until things start to return to normal.

It’s a strange time, a worrying time and what will be will be. It made me chuckle to read the odd comment on social media concerning how the rest of the race season is going to play out, how we’ll qualify for this that or the other, dropping regionals to focus on nationals, you probably read them like I did. We’ve had one national weekend and dependant on where you are in the country possibly one regional, what you stressing for?? Once things start returning to normal it will all work itself out don’t stress. If you need a focus, work on your sprints and strength training, offer your services to the elderly and vulnerable in your area, they may be stuck at home and need some shopping, get on the bike, down the shops for them, two in one, helping out whilst getting some training in, booooom.

Lastly for this chapter is look out for each other. It’s often times like these when those you least expect need help actually really need it. If you haven’t heard from someone for a while on social media, phones, texts, whatsapps, snapchat and anything else, give them a call send them a message, it takes nothing now to stay in touch, no excuses. Whilst places are still open try and support your small local guy and that includes your bike shops, the BMX business is a niche market and I hope that everyone in the industry makes it out the other side and will be trackside when normal order resumes.

Stay safe and more appropriately STAYSTRONG

BTW, opinions please. Do you think it would be politically correct to add my masked logo to the catalogue, never know these days what will offend, and if I did add it would you buy. Cheers all.

Winter Racing, do you, don’t you??

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I took Henry last weekend to the last round of the South West Wild West series at Decoy which managed to pull in 71 riders, the lowest of that particular series, the highest 112 and averaging at 88. A couple of long standing regulars on the BMX circuit asked me why I thought numbers were relatively low??

First off, as personal preference, over the winter months I like to give Henry a rest from racing. He still rides at least 3 sessions a week and can easily be more, but I think it’s good to have a break from the mental and physical demands of racing, however I do like to pick and choose some winter races to make sure he doesn’t get what I refer to as race rusty. From memory I think he raced on 4 occasions this winter, it would have been a couple more but due to prior arrangements clashing with racing under the roof rounds we didn’t attend any.

I wonder if over the last couple of years it appears that there has been a sudden influx of other winter series races being introduced. It didn’t seem that long ago that you had your core of RUTR and Deep South and that was pretty much it wasn’t it?? This year off the top of my head we had 2 seperate series, totalling 9 races in the SW and Birmingham ran a four race series. Is it just a simple case that there is too much racing to go around and subsequently not enough riders? If people are being let’s say selective in their racing, what influences where you race, locality, weather, track standard, national host, standard of riding, habitual choice. The Birmingham series as example, centrally located, hosting a national attracted an average of 140 whilst the long standing Deep South had an average 202, with one round pulling in 244 which is about 30 riders higher than the average entry to a SW regional last year!!! RUTR never fails to fill its allocation within hours of going live, it’s a good 4 to 4.5 hour drive from anywhere south of M4 corridor, if you want a good practice session it requires a two day commitment plus expense of overnight stay, plus you pay for the practice session but you are in the comfort of being indoors, maybe we all just love stretching ourselves to the max!!!!

On reflection of the last race we attended at Decoy I paid £10 race entry, is this possibly a touch too much for a winter race pulling average 88 riders, does that put people off? More appealing at £7/8 maybe. Would you rather spend your race fees on a series where you are more likely to get more than 4/5 riders in an age group. Practice was still one hour of open track, one hour of gates, there seemed to be a lot of hanging around, with the numbers here relatively low this could easily have halved and racing under way at least an hour earlier, would it be more appealing if the whole event could be over and done by lunchtime? I guess its difficult to judge, a schedule needs to publicised before race day and if you are fortunate enough to be pulling greater numbers then you need the longer practice sessions, catch 22. For us as a family, the normal regional/national circuit takes up a good percentage of weekends in the year, committing to more through the winter is an easy starter for family meltdown. Time is becoming more and more of an invaluable commodity, that’s not to say that a day of racing in off season is a waste of time, but is it valuable time? Likewise back to entry fees, part of those fees go toward end of season trophies, cut the fees and risk lowering the quality of the trophies etc. What has become apparent certainly in our close proximity is that the winter races seem to serve as a good grass routes introduction to racing, giving new up starters a taste of what a regional race series entails, the format of race day, where to go what to do, make them feel more confident to hopefully enter the regional series. Equally as you become a more seasoned racer perhaps to get the adequate level of racing you require you have to gravitate away to where it naturally seems to be.

As ever let us know your thoughts and opinions, smash a like, share, and make sure you subscribe to the blog.

NEW DESIGN OUT NOW!!!!

Freepost offer on now up until Midnight Sunday March 1st, remember Mothers day is coming!!

2020 Season Preview, Transponders, Money and Kai

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The new official race season is fast approaching.  In traditional fashion things kick off under the roof and lights in Manchester at the home of British Cycling for rounds 1&2 of the HSBC National Series, can Birmingham retain their club title, can Crucial fight off Pure again and keep the Elite team trophy and can anyone stop Alan Hill winning another series!!!!!!

As far as venues go there are a few changes from last year but no complete newbies to hosting a national weekend.  The Scotland round in May has been switched back over to Cumbernauld, and Peckham and Bournemouth have been replaced with Gosport and Telford.  The Brits will be hosted by Leicester.  One thing that will be new to the National Series this year however is the introduction of transponders.  Being based in SW we’re pretty used to this system now and I’m sure a few other regions have adopted the technology.  For me it’s fast, efficient, accurate and informative, a big step forward in the sport and I praise the people who were involved in the decision to introduce it this year.  I’m sure as with any change, there will be folk who will disagree and completely hate it.  The one thing I would like to point out to people is that running transponders needs a change in software, out goes the old eBoard etc and in comes the new Sqorz system.  This works very similarly, HOWEVER has one significant difference, which I have now found has been published by BC in the latest series regulations but in my personal opinion needs to be highlighted more.  When racing gets into the knockout stages the previous system allocated gate pick order based on finishing position, whereas the new system allocates on lap times. So what this means in theory is that you could finish a 1/4 final in first place (normally giving you first or second gate pick) but if all top four finishers in the other 1/4 finals, finish with a faster lap time than you, you could send up with 7th pick!!!!! Likewise finish 4th in a fast 1/4, all other qualifiers post a slower lap time and you could suddenly find yourself with second pick for the semi. When you really take time (many minutes in my case) to think about the implications this could have you’ll perhaps understand me thinking this hasn’t been addressed with enough importance by the powers that be. Consider the scenario, you/ your child are unaware of this new change, in your quarter there’s a crash and 4 riders are out, dependant on how deep into the race the crash occurs it would be very easy for all 4 qualifying riders to take their feet off the gas and finish 1,2,3,4, but ease off too much taking a comfortable win and find yourself with 7th pick in the semi, you’d be raging, you know you would, obviously you won’t now though because you know and when this new found info plays into your hands you can thank me by buying a T-shirt 😜

The other significant change that has just come to light is the prize money for elite has taken a whack. First place finish is still holding a £300 prize but all other positions have a real drop, so much so, that if you podium in third your prize money is £10 less than finishing 8th last year, what the hell is that all about. I’ve thought for a few years that considering the physicality of elite racing the prize money wasn’t enough, and now they’ve cut it. I’ve tried to have a quick look around at what some of the other cycling disciplines offer up as prize money to compare but struggled. I managed to find a cyclo-cross document which showed the following……………….Elite men’s prize list (all rounds): Prizes to first 20 riders – £305, £160, £105, £80, £75, £70, £65, £60, £55, £50, £50, £45, £40, £35, £30, 5 x £20. Elite women’s prize list (all rounds): Prizes to first 20 riders – £305, £160, £105, £80, £75, £70, £65, £60, £55, £50, £50, £45, £40, £35, £30, 5 x £20. Prize funds appear to be greater and they also extend prize money down to 14 year olds. I guess fundamentally it has to come down to individual disciplines and their financing, entry fees, sponsorship monies and event costs, monies in Vs monies out. Until these sort of things are readily available to the likes of you and I then really we can only theorize. That doesn’t mean to say that the current situation is right or wrong, as I said earlier I personally think it’s shocking to hit the elite purse with such a cut. Maybe you have to look at other sports in comparison, the likes of football and rugby. There are distinct wage/ prize money differences, but monies in to football say will be considerably higher than that of rugby. It’s ready to go on and on with this one, I just hope a happy medium is reached soon and who knows if one day the SUB22 sales take off, I’d certainly consider sponsorship!!!

One final note for this edit goes out to the Sakakibara family. I can’t image what you are all going through right now, I’m sure you are surrounded by people to help and support and we send our thoughts and best wishes for a healthy recovery for Kai. #kaifight77. As ever please feel free to comment with your thoughts about the subjects raised, give us a like, a share and make sure you follow to ensure you never miss an edit.

SEE YOU ALL IN MANCHESTER

SW Champs 2019 Bideford BMX Club

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Has to be said it was probably the best day weather wise for a race at Bideford that I have ever attended!!!! Yes the wind was blowing a bit but it was dry and the sun made an appearance at times. It was a shame that original plans to hold presentation and camping on site had to be changed but I believe this was completely out of the clubs hands and I think they did amazingly well to re organise given the circumstances. Unfortunately due to Henry picking up a knock in his second moto, our evening resulted in us ordering a pizza delivery to Barnstable A&E instead of attending the presentation, and I will take this opportunity to apologise to the all in the hospital that evening who then had to endure the mini wave of food deliveries which we seemed to instigate!!! I’ve seen a few videos and pictures on the social media rounds and it looks like everyone had a good time. I will throw out huge credit to whoever came up with this years regional trophies, they are MINT and the Champs trophies again were great, those laser cut designs are brilliant. Congratulations to all those who took home the SW1 titles.

As has been the case for pretty much the whole regional series racing ran super smoothly which has to be attributed to the transponder system and all its associated race software. The new gate is a massive improvement, the revised first straight looked to ride well, another huge plus for the region with tracks evolving to meet the needs of our riders. The legend that is Scott Dick made the journey along the M4 to help Neil out and give the day a national vibe. Cal, Eddie, Josh, Haydon, Emily, Leo and Harrison battled it out for the very nice elite purse that was put up by Burrington Estates and Connected Electricals, along with 4 Holeshot prizes donated by Clarity Copiers. It was just a shame that it didn’t attract a few more riders so it wasn’t grand prix but still it didn’t stop the show piece race being just that, and if you’ve ever watched Eddie Moore at any race meet you know that like The Artful Dodger he’ll always be there to pick a pocket or two!!!.

SW Champs always throws up the issue of race categories, where often you find that riders who have raced up age groups all year in the regional series come back into their age appropriate race category for the Champs. Personally I have always said I don’t agree with it. We have always been fortunate enough that Henry’s age group has always been a good competitive group, but, I do understand why it makes sense for certain riders to race up age groups for the competition. When anyone comes back into their age group though for the Champs I always think its a case of “my class doesn’t provide enough competition for me all year but I’ll race it just this once to win the SW title” Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying it’s right or its wrong and I don’t think it’s something that will ever please everyone, but what I will say is I don’t like hearing when parents/ riders kick off about it with each other. These are the rules and those that do drop back are perfectly entitled to, if you have a problem with the rules then please take it up with those who put the rules in place and not those who are simply playing by them. Interestingly enough though I noted that at The Brits, those who rode the National series out of their natural class had to race The Brits out of their natural class and were not able to drop back into their natural class!!!!!!!!! It would be interesting to know how other regions approach this.

So that is officially it for another year, although as we all know there’s always a race going on somewhere. True to form the first round of racing under the roof booked up in next to no time and caused many a heart attack moment for parents desperate to get booked in. If you haven’t already done so the vast majority of SW riders transponder chips will need their subscriptions renewing here’s a guide as to how you can do this

So that’s about it for another episode. I have also produced a small edit from the Champs which is available to view on our YouTube channel now if you’ve not seen it already, CLICK HERE to view now. For those of you who voted on our last post regarding next years Brits rumour mill it was a landslide victory for Leicester to host next year. Our best wishes go out to DT who is having a short spell in hospital at the moment, I think I can comfortably speak for the BMX community in wishing you a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing that cheeky little smile back at a track very soon. Lastly I forgot to add on my last blog post how camp life at times can be educational. In Derby I learnt the Welsh word for 100. I was also then taught that if you recite said word three times in quick succession it comes out as something quite different, Google it and you’ll see what I mean!!!!!!!! Answers on a postcard as to which child was the teacher that day……………………. Cheers all

The Brits, Derby 2019

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So this was my fifth outing to ‘The Brits’ and I can safely say without any doubt ‘The Best’ I have been to yet, it wasn’t perfect, but it was a good way towards it, so a huge thank you from myself and my family, to Derby BMX club for all their efforts in making it so. As with most events they are always better when the weather is on your side and my personal classic flip flop tan lines provide confirmation that it was a belter, the only downside I experienced with the warmer weather was the delicate odour it generated in the gents track side portable urinal, and that was on Friday!!!!!!!

Standard operating procedures resumed in the trades area with all the usual suspects, Green Machine, Crucial, Pure, B73, DC Cycles with their pump track, Staystrong, and Sorted, all displaying their latest gear and end of season bargains. The massage chair gizmo guy was on point, he knew all about his product and how it compared to all others, and he had the gift. I sat there and 100% enjoyed my lower back being gently warmed and massaged but whilst feeling more and more relaxed that little bit of Yorkshire in me knew that he was cleverly never mentioning price, so exited whilst I was still feeling relaxed. Interestingly if anyone did hang on to find out the price please comment below.

Just short of 1300 riders were registered across the two days of racing which I heard was one of the best turn outs in recent years. Part of this has to be location. It makes sense to me to have The Brits somewhere in the middle third of the country making it more accessible from the farthest ends of motorway networks. I’m not sure I’d subscribe into having it at the same venue year on year, one I don’t think that’s its fair to pressure a club into that responsibility, and two, it to a lesser extent creates a bias towards members of that track. On that subject, the rumour mill was in full flow as to where next years event will be. The three venues that were brought to my attention were Leicester, Bournemouth and Peckham. Now I like all three of these but you can’t have The Brits without camping right???

Camping, like at Bournemouth was perfectly located, but as has already been highlighted on social media had it’s issues, the number of toilets did seem a little on the lean side, and not most ideal locating them at one end of probably the biggest camp site of the year, especially for people like me who have set up at the other end and then have to trudge down there to empty my waste, always a special journey!!! Security have also been questioned which I understand, but at least there was some, I’m sure a couple this year have had nothing and honestly when did you, ever, get asked to show your wrist band on a campsite, mine I know for a fact was ‘The Brits’ 2015 at Plattfields!! Not sure I remember seeing any fire extinguishers around the camp this weekend though…………..As mentioned before, part of the whole Brits weekend is camping. People in tents at night really do need to remember when using a light it projects your silhouette out to the camp!!!! A certain lady was seen to be sporting a new fashion by utilising the SW buff as, well, not sure what it turned into really ( those who know who this was, ask her to see the photos!!!) but it was soon being copied by a few adults and good few more of the kids. Night times involved the nippy little mozzies taking up Scott Dicks advice of “ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK”. Saturday night some South West skulduggery took place, commando styling it into The North gazebo and giving their skeleton the SW treatment (images and videos are on FB). Disappointing that my lad was woken at 1:55 am Sunday before racing and I had to have a word with the perpetrators. That sort of partying is for Sunday night, where a few of us from SW and a certain photographer (who has a wicked drink mix, music taste I can now tell you) gathered, drank , chatted, built a human pyramid, whittled down the numbers and followed the sounds over to the Midlands party. We strolled in took over the control of the music, eventually got it all jumping once phones re charged then played it out until the generator ran out. Layton thank you for your hospitality, red is the new blue!!!

Sunday as you all know is parade day, yes I’m going to be biased but we in the SW smashed that out of the park, best we’ve shown. The North win best supported region!?!? You what??? You’ve got to be mugging us off, how did that happen??? Later speculation suggested that the winners are picked from a hat!! Honestly……….. is that what happens, surely not. Great to hear a couple of new voices on the commentary, both doing an amazing job ( just who is this Neil Forsyth?), although I bet it was a little odd to be at a national race meeting and not call out Alan Hills name, hope you’re back racing soon Alan. Great to see Stephen Murray and Ed Pole, and then for a £2K cheque to be handed over, BMX family you are the best, just a shame to then hear of a few bikes being stolen. I hope these turned out to be just misplaced and not stolen. The two SW shop teams Green Machine who go out on a high and Crucial both took their respective Brits team competition titles which I think you all will agree is bloody brilliant and the trophies were to match unlike the national series ones which at first glance look good, get closer and the edges are rough finished and the two stickers that were applied weren’t straight, a little disappointing to be given that in recognition of a years worth of racing.

Hugh Copping posted an in depth FB post regarding the future of the sport, I won’t go into it all, read it for yourselves. It’s about moving with the times and utilising current tech specifically transponders on the national circuit. Many analogies were made, one particular was an old Nokia Vs a modern day smart phone. Last week there was a program I caught on TV, ‘ The Rise and Fall of Nokia’ they were leading the mobile market for years, approximately 2 years before the iPhone came out a smaller telecoms company approached Nokia several times with a new touch screen, augmented phone technology, but they were never interested and believed they were still top of the game. The day the iPhone was released and the Nokia bosses got their hands on it they instantly knew they were in trouble.

Let’s keep pushing the sport forward as a family that it always shows it is and let’s see what changes the next few years will bring.

Bournemouth National

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“Didn’t we have a lovely time the day we raced in Bournemouth” It certainly wasn’t your average race weekend was it? I will be the first to hold my hands up and say I honestly didn’t think Bournemouth hosting a national weekend was going to work………….BUT despite the curveball of the great British summer putting pay to Saturdays racing I thought it was probably one of the best this year. The track looked to ride well, spectator viewing was really good, having team/club gazebos set back from the immediate trackside was a real plus,(more of that next year please) parking was close by, camping was perfectly located and, added additional entertainment of watching the occasional unsuspecting adult or child catching their foot in the odd animal burrowing, and going arse over tit!!! Beer tent proved to be a hit despite possibly fueling a little Friday night fight club session, putting on the band was good however it does divide opinion with regard to trying to get younger riders off to sleep on the nearby campsite. They knocked it on the head at just after 10 which I think is just about acceptable, certainly more acceptable than the vocalist who at the end was literally killing ‘The Killers’. The two pump tracks that were put up were getting good use and the eliminator competition on Saturday looked to have drawn good numbers especially considering significant numbers would have left due to the days racing being cancelled.

Saturday ended up feeling really odd, national weekend and no racing. I think a lot of people had a real head scratching moment, either eventually went off exploring or just took the day off and relaxed. Cancelling the days racing was exactly the right call, riders health and safety has to be paramount, and no we’re not mollycoddling here, it was dangerous. The moment a rider or spectator for that matter was involved in any wind related incident be that on track or off, organisers wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, other major events had been cancelled and a weather warning was in place. I did hear of some people voicing their annoyance to organisers, come on, really people!!!! The only thing that possibly could have been done any better was to call it earlier and by that I’m saying to my knowledge the ” Head Honcho” who makes the call didn’t arrive on site until shortly before first practice was due to start. C’mon, you know there’s a situation potential, get there, call it earlier and save yourselves from the hassle of people having wasted journeys, communication people!!!!!! Double points on the Sunday though……………….not sure that was the right call but also understand you’re never going to come up with a solution that would please all, personally it worked out for Henry, he rode well placed 12th and bagged himself good points but others may have had a bad day, been caught up in a crash, and end up with a double helping of duff and no chance of changing things. Like I say not really sure what could have been done that would have pleased all, win some lose some I guess.

Race day Sunday all seemed to run smoothly, and I was hugely impressed by the amount of people that were still around trackside when finals were running, appeared to be way more than normaI and was great to see. Heard the stories regarding the dog that was not taking too kindly to other dogs, then when back home later learn that this was also the dog that was locked up in the car and announced over the MC!!!!!!!! That will explain this posting from Derby regarding the upcoming Brits .

I was a little surprised that there was no celebration of all the Worlds finalists from Zolder. Whether one was planned for Saturday or not I don’t know. Hopefully there will be something done in a couple of weeks in Derby. It may also interest you to know that for whatever reason BC gave no recognition, in fact not even a mention of any of our worlds finalists via their Twitter feed. The junior and elite men and women get the odd tweet but that was all. I guess when considering some of the younger ones there may be some legalities over naming names and all that BUT, to not even come out and say huge congrats to our Challenge class riders who have achieved X,Y, Z……………….shocking!!!!!! Anyone reading this please go check it out and comment if I missed it but don’t think I have. Anyone with good direct contact with BC want to question this???? I keep hearing the sport is in decline, numbers keep dropping, What better way to draw attention than to celebrate WORLD SUCCESS, go through the twitter feed BC are not she about celebrating success, its all over so why shun BMX!!!!!

Anyhow, another national series done, personal best result for Henry finishing 16th, super proud of him, things are really starting to come together for him. Hopefully we can have a good winter season and hit the ground running when we start back next year.

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