Skip to main content

BMX Lessons for Mountain Bikers


Over the course of one winter I went from a 45 pound Downhill rig known as Red Frankenstein to a 25 pound Clayborn 20" BMX bike. You would think that the many lessons I learned racing Mountain Bikes would carry over onto the BMX track but they didn't. In fact, it turned out to work the other way around.

Mountain Biking, with its 26 inch wheels, full suspension set-ups, hydraulic disc brakes and so forth can act collectively as a cheaters combination of tools. Sitting on thousands of dollars of advanced technology allows the rider to forego many of the basic lessons which are needed to become a skilled rider. This is why I had to start all over again when I moved down to the small bikes. Luckily I have survived the initiation and can tell the tales of what I have discovered.


Balance: Bikers of all types pride themselves on their ability to balance on a bike. It's the first thing you learn as a little kid, it's the act you extend when you ride your first wheelie. On the Mountain Bikes it is necessary for any rock garden or skinny bridge.

I assumed that I had good balance until I first tried the gate at a BMX track. This is where the art of the track stand was created. Your front tire barely touches the metal gate as you rise in perfect balance waiting for the timed snap that starts the race. You spend so much time in this position that your ability stay upright without hardly moving becomes almost magical, like a circus act performing for the crowd.

After mastering the stand up gate I have returned to a Mountain Bike and brought this amazing balance with me. It brings with a confidence infusion when navigating awkward obstacles at slow speeds.


Jumping: From your first makeshift wooden jump in the driveway to the four foot drop ramp at the Highland Mountain Bike Park skills center, we as riders love to go airborne. In Mountain biking you leave the ground off every log ride, rock launch or designed drop on the trail. When practicing and racing downhill I hit jumps and drops that measure as high as four feet off the ground but did I know what I was doing?

The BMX track is crafted with the intention that you will be lifted in the air whether you like it or not. There is no maybe when it comes to jumping. With this being an imperative skill, you start to learn how to lift, control your bike in the air and most importantly you learn how not to jump. These skills carry over especially well in downhill racing where a rider often needs to stay closer to the ground in order to maximize speed.

After spending 18 months hitting lips on a bike with no suspension, suddenly the more forgiving shocks and tires of a Mountain bike become an easy and fun platform for flying off or over just about anything.


The Swiss Army Knife: I could go through each individual skill - manualing, pumping, cornering, sprinting, pedaling within a tight group and thrusting the bike across the finish line. The point should be pretty apparent. In Mountain Biking we tend to depend on our machines to do a chunk of the work for us thus allowing us to be a little lazier when it comes to handling. 

Having moved from XC to DH to BMX, I feel like I have gone backwards through biking the process to return to the roots I never had. As I wrote in an Editorial for the Bog Dogs Race Report, BMX skills are the starting point for many amazing athletes. It is the gateway sport that builds better bike riders.

I would recommend to anyone who loves Mountain Biking that they should try BMX Racing. I will warn you that it is not an easy transition but the benefits of developing those missing basics will transform you into a far more confident cyclist.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

CST Patrol MTB Tire Review

I've always been a sucker for cheap tires. In part because I'm a starving artist but also because riders tend to pay too much when it comes to upgrading their bikes. For example: How often have you seen a recreational rider purchase top of the line tires because they save him a few grams in weight? In most cases, if you really want to cut a few grams put down the cheeseburger. When it comes to mountain bike tires my measurement of quality sits at the apex between cost and consistency. For this reason I'm a huge fan of Schwalbe's Rapid Rob tires ( Read that review here ). While I'm still running a Rapid Rob on the front of my bike, I decided to try something new on the rear. Something even cheaper. Introducing the CST Patrol. For about $26. the 26" by 2.25" version of the CST Patrol is uber cheap. You get a wire bead, a weight of 780 grams with a single rubber compound but no EPS (Exceptional Puncture Safety) which can be found on other ve

Schwalbe Rapid Rob MTB Tire Review

Schwalbe has an excellent reputation for putting out stellar, high quality MTB tires. The up side has been their grip and superior compounds, the down side has been their prices, that is until now. The New Rapid Rob follows a long tradition of tires named with the alliterative double R, like Racing Ralph and Rocket Ron. Not a bad tradition to be a part of. So, what is different with the Rapid Rob that we haven't seen before? I bought a pair of 26 by 2.10 and put them on my bike to find out.

Bike Review: 2014 Raleigh Talus 29er

I have only ever tested a handful of 29ers. I generally found them to be more stable, aggressive on technical downhills with laid out geometry that felt race focused. While that sense of balance and control left a positive impression, I have never been able to afford such a beast. However, I will get to race one. Bicycles International of Venice and Luksha Reconstruction noticed my recent boost in name recognition, mostly due to the popularity of my book Twisted Trails . Then I told them about my ambitious racing schedule so they decided to sponsor me for the 2015 season. What I needed most was a bike good enough for cross country racing and gravel grinders. It didn't have to be a world beater but it had to stand a step above my now beat up Trek Four Series. Admittedly, that would be an easy task. "What kind of bikes do you see at the races?" asked Jason Luksha, owner of Luksha Reconstruction. While the trends have been fluctuating over the years between 26, 27