Netflix and sprints!!

Posted on March 18, 2020 by SUB22

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??

Posted on February 28, 2020 by SUB22

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.

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

2020 Season Preview, Transponders, Money and Kai

Posted on February 17, 2020 by SUB22

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

Bournemouth National

Posted on August 13, 2019 by SUB22

“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

Posted on August 4, 2019 by SUB22

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

Posted on July 25, 2019 by SUB22

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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