Tag 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

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.

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

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.

Please please help to spread the word if you like what you read. Smash the follow button below to get updated to new posts, give this a like and leave us a comment, (on this site as well as FB please) good, bad or indifferent, it all helps to guide traffic to the site. Remember sharing is caring, anyone you know in the BMX community that would have an opinion or would enjoy the read, direct them here. Anything in particular you would like to see covered in future posts????? Oh and finally I nearly forgot, there was one question that has been left unresolved from the Bournemouth Weekend, ” Who is Neil Forsyth???”

South West Brits

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Honoured to be asked and able to supply the design for the South West regions Brits T shirts this year.

Going with the day of the dead theme, our logo was a great starting point. We decided to make it a little more theme appropriate by adding features like diamond’s, dots swirls and curls.

It’s going to be great to see a good spread of these in Derby later this month.

Like the look of this, check out our webstore SUB22 and see our full design range

Worlds support

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Honoured to see our designs on display at the pinnacle event of the sport, #worldsbmxzolder
Thank you all for giving your support to the ‘little guy’ means a lot.
Please keep sharing your stuff and help spread the word.
New designs coming soon
SUB22.teemill.com
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