celia rides mini bikes (dot com) October 15, 2009

Mini bikes – it seems to be a theme from the last week or so!

Last Saturday, I hung out at the Womens Lifestyle Expo promoting Mountainbiking Otago and the weekly womens rides to women – every now and again, I headed out on a lap on a kids bike, much to the amusement of the kids and their slightly confused looking mothers..

(this bike was surprisingly easy to bunnyhop!)

This evening, I headed out to the Dunedin BMX Club’s first club night of the season. The track has been redone for the 2010 South Island BMX Champs early next year, and quite a large turnout came along to ride and race on the new track. Yesterday evening, I rode around the track a few times to get a feel for it (for reasons both in and out of my control, the BMX hadn’t actually been on the BMX track before yesterday..). After yesterday’s “pre-ride” I decided to swap the baggy jeans (which got caught on the cranks) for shorts + knee/shin guards, and the flat pedals (which my feet kept flying off) for my trusty Mallets. Add my fullface helmet, my $5 Rockstar Racing top I got from R&R Sport during their fire sale.. and I was all ready for some vrrrm vrrrrm BMX action this evening!

Wind the clock back 6 years or so, and I was sitting on the sidelines at club nights watching Scotty race BMX. I hadn’t really started riding (in any form) then, and it was quite inspiring watching everyone, both young and old, parents and kids alike, make their way around the course.

Fast forward to today and the tables were turned. Scotty was hanging out on the sidelines catching up with lots of people he knew, and I was out there riding. It’s quite interesting how things have changed over the years.

About racing itself, there are a number of things I need to learn – the key one being how to clip in and wait at the gates. Of the dozen or so laps (what is the right word in BMX terms?) I did, about 10 of them started with my left foot unclipped for the first few metres as I tried to clip before the first jump. Hmmmm. For the other two laps, I was kindly “assisted” at the gate by one of the organisers who held my back wheel for me – cheers dude! There was such a friendly vibe at the club night, I’m looking forward to getting some more BMX riding in this season.

In other bike/riding-related news, my knee cap is tracking slightly better and I’ve moved onto a new knee rehab exercise programme. I’m also allowed to go on slightly longer rides as long as I take it easy on the hills – wicked! I also took the Nomad out for a short ride on Tuesday night and managed to fall off a see-saw onto my left shoulder (yes, I’m an unco muppet) but that hasn’t put me off my Nomad! It’s such a different feeling riding a bike that’s got lots of squish front and rear. I can’t wait for Scotty to get his DH bike back in one piece (he’s getting his frame powdercoated too) so we can go shuttling together.

So all in all, things are looking pretty good