BMX for Grandma - Back to the future?

[D Mobile]

Allright, so I'm still thinking about switchbacks, after watching that most excellent video in the switchbacks thread.

Watching the crashes in that video got me thinking about the tradeoffs involved in learning some of these moves. And as a 43 year old woman, I have to admit my tolerance for repeated crashing is not real high. I don't expect to avoid all crashing, but, when I'm hurting afterward, I tend to give up on trying more scary stuff and the learning just doesn't happen.

The first (and last) time I tried practicing the the tail whip, I fell hard and got multiple bruises. I had tried to minimize risk by doing this on a flat spot on the grass, but what really tends to beat me up is the bike itself. (Also, just like in snow sports, it's been my experience that those falls on the flats that hurt the worst!) Once the fall reaches that point of no return, I tend to end up in a painful, bloody embrace with the bike. (Love hurts.)

So here's what I'm thinking: What about getting a bmx bike with which to practice some of this stuff? Isn't that how a lot of the dudes got so good anyway, cause that's how they spent their young dudehood? That's why I'm calling this thread "back to the future". Maybe if I can live now the young dudehood I never had (bmx!?), I'll be able to learn so basic balance and skill stuff I can get back on my big kid bike with.

In addition to being lower to the ground and easily escapable, the bmx bike seems to have the advantage of just being lighter and smaller - guess what, like most women are - and therefore even more appropriate for us than for the dudes in terms of a bike to body strength ratio thing?

One last thought on rear wheel hefting stuff, and that is the pedal thing. The "painful embrace" referred to above would probably not happen as readily if I was riding "regular" (not attached to yer shoes!) flat pedals. However, I totally rely on that link to the pedal to do any kind of rear wheel lifting. Now I know the bmx dudes don't need no stinkin' fancy pedals to get their bikes into the air. Is it crazy to think I (at my advanced age and womanly physique) could ever learn to lift the back wheel without being clipped in? Can any of you do it?

So, whaddya think? Should I mug one of my 10 year old neighbor kids today? Nah, but a trip to the newest LBS might very well be in order.

[Irulan]

I'm trying to visulaize crashing practicing a tail whip... wow, you must have put a ton of energy into it. We were messing around just with the idea at camp.

You start with a rear wheel lift before you attempt a tail whip.

Flats or clips, get out of the saddle in the attack position. If you using flat pedals, the motion to keep your feet from coming loose is almost a "clawing" motion, toes pointed down and feet pulling back and up. You almost want to preload and try for a little lift.

With clips, it's easier, almost cheating. Same thing, attack position, preload and pop the rear wheel up. Once you can get your rear wheel off the ground, then you try and move it around, little by little

If you were going to set up a bike for practicing this kind of thing, it would be more like a trials ( not trails) bike...think Hans Rey, the guys who jump up onto picnic tables and so on.

I often think that if I'd been bmx-ing as a kid, I'd be 100X the rider I am today.

Re, those videos. I have one that the guy made that's not on his site, it's a blooper reel of edits, mainly all the crashes that he doesn't put in the regular videos... my nickname for it is "how mere mortals ride"

~Irulan

[JanT]

I've thought about picking up a cheap bmx bike to play with. I can't do wheelies or any of those cool tricks, and I thought they might be easier to do on a smaller, lighter bmx bike. However, I don't feel like putting any money into such an adventure, when I have three bikes to maintain. But if there was one I could borrow, well, I might do that someday. I'm not a grandma, but my kids are grown, and I still think doing some urban bmx-ing would be a blast.

[D Mobile]

Irulan and JanT, thanks for your replies. Just for the record, I'm not a grandma (in fact, never had kids), only used that word cause I thought maybe that's how the typical bmx'er might see me.

The crash I referred to was really just a bad decision making, kind of refusal to bail out kind of thing. If I had bailed I would have been ok, but I "chose" to see if I could recover when ridiculously out of balance. And yeah, I was trying a bit too much of a "whip" - for my level of skill. Lessoned learned: less is more when trying a new move. Also, I had already done similarly stupid falls on a long trail ride and was already starting to resemble an apple that's been dropped on the floor multiple times! So falling on supposedly soft safe grass just added insult to preexisting injury.

So after "wasting" way too much time in two LBS's yesterday, I'm pretty sure I will buy this sweet little $200 bmx. Was lucky enough to get some simple trick demos from a 23 year old kid at the bike shop. I had so much fun, I was late for a "grownup" appointment - lost track of time! Does this ever happen to you when in the LBS?!

Probably most interesting thing was when I asked him about what muscles he uses most, to keep the feet in contact with the pedals. (We were doing bunny hops.) Instead of mentioning anything he does with his feet (like what Irulan said), he pointed to his chest and arms and explained a certain forward push move he does with his arms. I think that my upper body strength is definitely going to be explored here, which should be interesting. BTW, bmx bikes are not really all that light, which is fine. I can do an upper body workout just carrying it around.

When I asked him about feet, he said just keep your feet flat. I am taking that with a grain of salt, because when I was watching him, his feet were not flat, in fact, I think they were doing something like what Irulan described and maybe it's just so natural for this guy, he's not aware of it?

Anyway, thanks for reading/responding. I'll let you know how this silliness progresses. And hey, if the bmx doesn't rock my world, some kid's gonna get a pretty cool gift!!!

[Irulan]

have fun and keep us posted. Haha I think the real difference between BMX and trials is whether you are 12 or not. There are tons of good websites with how-to

here's one

http://www.trials-online.com/


~i.

[Adventure Girl]

How much does this $200 BMX bike weigh? I have a friend who races BMX. His bike is worth around $2000 and it weighs about 24 pounds. You know in biking, you have 3 factors -- Light, strong and cheap. You can only pick two. Light and cheap won't be strong. Strong and cheap won't be light. And light and strong sure won't be cheap!!

You said you wanted a BMX because they were small and light. I'll agree that they're small. But to get a light, strong one will be pretty expensive. And if you're jumping (and landing!!) the bike, it better be strong or you could be a disaster waiting to happen!

Good luck!

[D Mobile]

Adventure Girl, I'm just going to use this for low speed, low impact balancing type practice/play stuff. Certainly no racing or "big air". Am familiar with the two out of three maxim. Like I tried to say in my last post, I think the heaviness may not be a bad thing for my goals. Seems like a weight similar to a mountain bike would be a good thing since I hope I can transfer the stuff I learn from the bmx bike to the mountain bike. Really, it's the "escapability factor" that intrigues me the most with the little bikes.

Just wondering, how old is your bmx racer friend? This world is all so mysterious to me.

Irulan, I checked out some of the trials link. Amazing stuff - thanks!

[spazzdog]

D Mobile... take the new bmx to one of those bike parks where the kids learn their tricks.

Capture a 13 yr old and have her/him teach you... they'll get a kick out of "mentoring the grownup".

Good luck and definitely ENJOY!