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beginner/amatuer comps posted on 2006-03-21 07:25:47

It really just depends on the comp. A winning run at a local contest won't even get you to the finals at a national contest like Metro (sometimes). Other times there's been contests I've been to where I could've done well in pro, and there's some where I wouldn't have even qualified in expert/am. It just depends on who shows up that day, really.

Don't worry too much about placing, just concentrate on having fun and doing what you think represents your best, or even just your good riding. I've found that many times I've been just as happy placing 7th if I had a great run for me than if I made a lot of mistakes and got 1st or 2nd because there wasn't a lot of competition.

Riding moves so fast and tricks/styles change so much that it's hard to say what a good "beginner' run might consist of.. I would say just make sure that MOST of the tricks you are trying you can usually pull. You'll be nervous, but if you prepare you can deal with it and even use your nerves to your advantage. Practice a run routine a lot in the weeks leading up to the contest, I used to make sure I ran through my routine 10 times perfectly every day for two weeks leading up to the contest. Save your "hard tricks" for towards the end of your run. If you make a mistake trying something, shrug it off and try it maybe a time or two more, then move on to something else. Just pretend you're out riding with your friends and don't think about people watching. (if you're entering beginner, there probably won't be many people watching anyway)

I'm hesitant to mention specific tricks that I think of as beginner for fear of scaring you off riding if you're not on that level yet, but here are a few anyway:

hang 5
steamroller
basic scuffing tricks, like a funky chicken or a gerator
fire hydrant
tailwhip
boomerang
infinity roll
decade maybe
peg wheelie in circles

there's nothing wrong with rolling out tricks like these in the beginner class, too:

front/back wheel hopping tricks
surfer or framestand tricks
trackstand
lawnmower

This is just my opinion, but if you're already doing links with more than two tricks in them, any two footed rolling tricks (halfpacker, backpacker, fudgepacker, or hitchhiker), or any bike/body varial switches, you're an expert/am. I know it's 2006, but I can't get used to seeing riders trying time machines in the beginner class.

Good luck and remember this is supposed to be fun.

Back out of whack again posted on 2006-03-21 06:01:01

Okay...not more than a week after I was giving back rehab advice on this board after spending most of the last 3 months recovering from back injuries myself.....

I was out just pedalling around on Sunday, stopped in a parking lot to do a few tricks. Went to do a megaspin to peverted decade, an easy trick for me, one that I've known how to do for AT LEAST 11-12 years now, one that I could do pretty much dead drunk. I misjudged the jump and didn't make it all the way around, and felt a slight pull in my back. It didn't hurt much but I knew I'd done something bad. An hour or so later I knew I'd reinjured the same spot. A few hours later I can hardly make any move with my back (ANY twisting, bending, etc.) without wincing in pain. The next morning I could hardly get out of bed, spent the entire day at the doctor, getting x-rays, etc. Today I managed to drag my ass into work, even though I can't put a pair of pants on without screaming. I'm waiting to hear back from the doc to see whether or not I've ruptured discs in my back. I so frustrated - I just got over all this. The first thing the doctor told me when I told him how I got hurt was (of course) "well there's hardly any 29 year old men that could ride those types of bikes on weekends and not have back problems." This sucks! I'm only 29, I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet, but if this is going to happen nearly every time I ride flat, then I just don't know. There's no moral to this story....it just....sucks.

Best Street/Flat Frame? posted on 2006-03-17 11:02:53

Check out Joe Schiavi's company Endemic. They have a 19.5 model, I think. His bikes work great as a dual purpose flat/ramps and street bike.

Do skyway mags actually hold up? posted on 2006-03-17 10:50:12

Mag wheel advantages:

-low/no maintenance
-cool gyroscopic feel when riding vert with them
-the look kinda cool

disadvantages

-if they break or buckle you can't fix them
-your brakes won't work 1/2 as well - tailtaps and fufs and abubacas are going to get a LOT harder
-you can't pump up your tires very hard - maybe 60-70 psi max - rolling tricks like hang 5's are going to be tough.
-your wheels will flex and suck up your pump when you're doing airs or jumping
-they're much heavier than a modern pair of rims

Personally, I wouldn't run mags again. But to answer your question, they WILL hold up for your riding. But there so many disadvantages with mags that make them a less than great choice for modern riding.

BITD riders rode mag wheels b/c alloy 36's in the 70's and 80's were cheap and weak. Mags were pretty much the only choice for freestyle wheels. Later, high quality 48's came out and pretty much replaced mags. These days, most people seem to be going to 36's again, b/c the rim quality has gone wayyy up, even in the last 10 years.

Its true that Wilkerson, Hoffman, Jones, and lots others did crazy stuff on mag wheels back then, but how many of them still ride mags today?

Just learn to true your rims at least a little bit.
Don't pay someone else to do it. There are a bunch of tutorials online about wheel truing, I'm sure you can learn it at least well enough for the wheel to spin. Remember, wheels don't HAVE to be perfectly straight for BMX.

hoffman flatland trick posted on 2006-03-16 13:11:06

Its called a broken sternum if your front wheel drops while your holding onto your pegs. : )

High Speed Hikers! posted on 2006-03-16 08:02:57

I got lucky and just ran out of it. I thought I could hold the hiker, got down the bottom of the hill, the bars dabbed, and the next thing I know I'm a couple of feet above the ground flying 10 feet horizontal. Could have been bad, but it wasn't.

Jody Temple once did a halfpacker down a hill at probably twice the speed I'll do a hiker. It was burly.

Eastern Grim type frames should be in flatland posted on 2006-03-16 06:46:10

Lighter is usually better - I don't buy into the "you've got to have some weight for momentum" argument. People have been saying that since around 2000 but bikes weigh less every year.

then again, Kevin Jones and Chase were doing tricks that no one here can do on 7+ pound Big Daddy frames 12 years ago.

High Speed Hikers! posted on 2006-03-15 19:09:28

Jfos and used to do those down the hill at the AMC lot out in Kennesaw. You're right, if your bars hit going super fast you'll catapult over the bars. It's actually kind of fun.

Flatland Getting Respect In the USA posted on 2006-03-14 12:53:58

Its more about respect within our own industry. I was fine not getting as much airtime or coverage as a flatlander at big contests, but I never thought that the CFB and Metro contests would cut flatland forever.

Why do they even give a fuck? posted on 2006-03-13 13:38:17

Unfortunately there seems to be two types of job situations: places like where you work, where you are expected to be at a place at a certain time every day and leave at a certain time, and places that are more flexible, but you end up paying for that extra 5 minutes of leeway in the mornings by having to work all night and on the weekends. Sucks.

anybody use the new KHE Geisha freecoaster?? posted on 2006-03-13 11:28:24

I am waiting to see how the Geisha is received before I buy. I need a new freecoaster, getting the KHE would be a lot easier than building up a new Nankai AND having to spend the extra to get the Profile shell. But KHE has put out some bad freecoasters in the past (rollex, anyone?) so we'll see how it works out.

Already?! posted on 2006-03-13 07:20:07

It's true that the back is a tricky thing to rehab, but don't panic just yet. See a good doctor, take it easy for a while, take it slow when you do start riding again. Depending on what the doc says, you might want to work on strengthening your core muscles (abs, etc..)that can help with low back pain. Mine hurts some these days but it feels like its getting better. I hurt it some months back riding, then reinjured it lifting weights. The most important thing is to give yourself ample time to recover. When you are healthy again remember to stretch after you get warmed up before riding. Not sure what height you run your bars, but if they are super short you might want to consider raising them some, it will make a difference and will keep you back from becoming a fulcrum. Good luck.

Justin Inman Vs. Vic Murphy posted on 2006-03-10 13:15:27

I have to go with Vic's, b/c he can get TOTALLY flat off a curb.....

Transition posted on 2006-03-10 07:52:03

All the new tech stuff that is coming out of parks and street these days is just a lot easier with a shorter back end. Unless you are hitting a box jump at 45 mph, you don't really need the stability of a 14.50" back end

Btw, I'm totally convinced that the tailwhip explosion of the last few years (tailwhips off rails, off of ledges out of grinds, etc. is directly related to street riders riding shorter and lighter bikes.

Combined contests? I would really like to see it but I don't see the people in charge of running them (HSA and Metro) being into it right now, or the mainstream US media covering the flatland parts. In the meantime, we can all just enter the Metro ramps contest and just do hang 5's across the box jumps and wedges. Seriously, ramp guys see that trick as being as hard a some kind of huge tailwhip transfer....

Interesting. posted on 2006-03-08 11:21:37

The bikes in the 80's/early 90's all had 1" headsets with threaded forks, like you see on some low end department store bikes these days. The stem had a shaft piece welded underneath the stem, extending into the forks, kind of like a seatpost, that you tightened once the headset was together. The setup basically came loose all the time. Literally you had to bring a headset wrench with you everywhere you went, because after a few good stair gaps, your forks would be rocking back and forth in the headset. The shafted stems would sometimes "wedge" and move sideways in the forks too, especially after a hard landing or a flatland trick that put a lot of pressure on it (elbow glides, any karl krusier trick) It was also easy to snap the stem shaft bolt from overtightening or landing too hard. Hardcore street and ramp riders went through stem shaft bolts by the dozens. I heard from a guy at Albe's once that Taj broke three in one day... As if this wasn't enough, you could also strip or cross thread your fork threads, making a pair or forks totally useless.

Hoffman came out with the Super Fork around 1993 to fix this. You still threaded the headset onto the forks, but the stem was more like the stems we use today, with a compression bolt to hold the stem in place. S&M had their own version called the Stupid Fork.

Dia Compe had come out with the A-headset at around this time (?) It was what we use today, totally threadless and worked with an oversized 1 1/8" headtube. Some BMX race bikes had adopted it early on, I think Standard or S&M were some of the first to have it on their freestyle bikes. (1994 or so?) Using 1 1/8 meant your headset would rarely or never come loose, it was lighter than the old setup, and you could use higher quality mountain bike headsets instead of GT Epoch and Tioga Beartrap headsets that were made from cheap metal and outdated design.

The only barrier at the time was a 1 1/8" headset was too big to use a Gyro. Some people modified the setup to get it to work, but in '96 or so Odyssey and SST both came out with oversized versions of the Gyro and that basically killed the 1" headset forever. Hoffman was the last high end manufacturer to switch over, finally retiring the Super Fork setup in 1997.

The three best changes in bike technology in the last twenty years are:
1.) 990 brakes
2.) oversized threadless pegs
3.) 1 1/8" headsets

Name the move and win! posted on 2006-03-07 12:41:12

The Marionette.

Do we just suggest things here, or do we have to send an email, too?

Zero Sweep , painful? posted on 2006-03-06 10:14:27

[quote="leeroy002"]i would prefer a bar with zero sweep cos i spend 50% of my time with the bars reversed doin a lot of walk arounds but someone offered me some sarvets cheap so i took um and really like um -i never new this could damage my wrists, stop scaring me!![/quote]

Well it MIGHT damage your wrists, but I wouldn't let that stop you running the parts you need/want. If your wrists start to hurt, think about switching to different bars. Easy.

Zero Sweep , painful? posted on 2006-03-06 08:24:55

If you spend hours and hours every day hunched over a flatland bike, parts of you are bound to start hurting eventually. DMC had to basically quit riding flat due to bad wrists. Chase has had all kinds of wrist problems. It seems like most flatlanders mainly run into back and wrist problems after a certain number of years riding.

Me at my folks house on x-mas vacation, after a flatland session:

Me: "My back hurts."

My dad: "Of course you back hurts! You're 29 years old and you spend your time hunched over that little bicycle!"

: )

I just watched RAD posted on 2006-03-02 06:16:44

Rad gets cheesier every time I watch it, but I can't look away, either.

how long have u rode flat? posted on 2006-02-28 14:25:28

17 (?!) years as of last October.

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