forecast for at least the next ten days. Maybe some of the trails will dry up and I`ll get to go RIDE!!! (got a brand new Specialized Epic to break in!)

Having been inspired by the UCI/ABA threads I figured I`d start a thread where we could talk about what Vet Pro is to different people.

I didn`t join the class for a lack of AM competition. There are some VERY fast riders in 28-35X. I was in my last year in the class, and many of the riders are 29/30 and former pros. 36X has some extremely fast guys as well, again...many former pro riders. It`s not like I was tearing up the national scene as an AM and had nothing left to shoot for.

The mere existence of Vet Pro is what ultimately brought me back to BMX racing. A few years ago I was looking into BMX as something to get my son into, and saw there was a pro class just for the over 30 crowd. I was like "WOW! That rules! I bet I could do that! I was a terror on wheels 15 years ago!" Of course I had NO idea the level of talent and speed I would find there. I suppose I was expecting it to be an entry to pro racing for 30 year old guys, not the next step for guys who were competitive in AA that got a life outside of BMX but couldn`t get it out of their blood. Either way, I knew I would at least try it.

It took me a year to realize I should have just come back to the sport as the expert I left it, and dealt with getting whooped from day one. Instead I was an Inter and learned how to be nervous and reserved, and never really felt motivated to put more into it. I turned expert in an effort to "sink or swim", so to speak. I knew I as nowhere near the level I needed to be for Vet Pro, but I had the pull to do OK in expert. I started getting faster, and was pretty happy with my progress when I had a health issue that could have dropped me dead. It didn`t, and I beat it. It took a long time to overcome some of the side effects, longer than I wanted it to, but the fact is I beat it. Steadily I got my cardio/pulmonary performance back and felt very motivated to ride my best. The more my endurance developed the more I thought about turning pro. I had made more progress than a lot of people thought I would (including my doctor who said I may never have the pulmonary ability to race competitively again). I realized that I really was reaching a goal I set for myself that seemed so out of reach when I started. Then the thought came to me; "If I can overcome this, I`ve got it in me to race vet pro. It may take me a while to measure up, but by the time I`m done I will earn the respect of the class, and more importantly, know that I took a chance and believed in myself again."

Since I turned up i`ve been pushing harder and trying to ride faster than I ever have. There is a motivation to live up to the pro card in my wallet, and a pride that I`m giving it what I have. What is Vet Pro to me? It`s a chance to put aside all the times I`ve let myself down in the past several years and chase a goal, even a dream of sorts. Whether I ever win isn`t in the equation. The only failure is if I give up before it`s over. Finding out my best isn`t enough to win a race isn`t a failure. Never giving myself the chance to find out what I`m capable of is the failure.

maybe it`s corny, maybe it`s a screenplay for an afterschool movie. Maybe it`s just something I`ve loved all my life, and gives me the chance to believe in myself again after putting myself aside to start a family, and buy a house, and work long hours for their sake. Maybe it`s my chance to be the kid again after losing my mom and realizing "wow, this is real. *I* am the adult now. *I* am the parent. *I* am the one who has to lead a family now". It`s not to be "cool", or for free practice.

maybe, just maybe it`s to prove that just because I am grown with a family and the life that comes with it, I don`t have to stop chasing dreams. There`s a 3 year old that calls me Daddy that needs to know how to always believe in himself, and who does he look to first for those lessons?

We all started in BMX for one reason or another. Whether it was to get the girls. or to get a bit farther from home after school. or to try and catch huge air like the pros we were lucky enough to see, it was SOMETHING that got us interested, and we might all have a different reason. However, we all have one reason why we stuck with it and kept doing it...the feeling we get from being on the bike.

For me, BMX was an escape. It was something I could call my own, and no matter where we moved I would have it, and I was GOOD at it. If I wanted to be the best in the neighborhood all I had to do was learn tricks other people couldn`t do. But more importantly, I could go out alone and completely lose myself in it. I could go to the trails and just flow for hours before I realized I was about to be late for dinner. It was like therapy for my young mind, but without the expense of some kook prescribing me some psychoactive chemicals. It always felt like "home" being on my bike.

As we get older we encouner different motivations and influences, and life gets a lot more complicated. The simple things get overlooked and sacrifices are made out of natural necessity. I didn`t ride a bicycle for 16 years before I came back to BMX, and looking back at that time, I wonder how I ever survived! (actually, it was music that took over but that`s another story). I have had my life revolve around responsibility and other people`s needs for a long time now/ I had become an "adult" *gasp*. Yet something was calling me from some very distant place, and it simply wouldn`t stop. I realized BMX needed to be back in my life. I was now an adult with a job and could afford all the cool crap I wanted as a kid. I got all wrapped up in having the latest and greatest in race technology amd the coolest, most inovative parts. I was so serious about riding that it started to feel like work. That wasn`t what I was in this for, and could have easily pushed me away from it. I had a decision to make. I could either quit racing again or I could find a way to make it fun again.

I cut loose of my aluminum race only frame and picked up a good, american made chromoly frame and forks from S&M. I built a bike I could ride at the track friday night and take to the trails saturday morning without worrying about snapping a dropout or cracking the frame. It`s only about 1/2 a pound heavier than my aluminum bike, and I found my groove again.

I spent about an hour and a half at the trails saturday all by myself. There were some other cats there in case I crashed, but I didn`t go with anyone and I fully intended on riding in silence. I just zoned out and hit a modest three hit line over and over, floating in a world of my own. For just over an hour I was free again. I was riding for no reason other than I wanted to. I had nothing to prove, just having fun. I walked away with a clear head and more inspiration than I have felt in a long time. I forward to riding my bike again, and I smile really big just thinking about it again.

With the previously mentioned return to roots, I have also gone back to some fundamental skill training for a while: PUMP LAPS. If you`ve never used them as a training tool you`re missing out. The amount of energy required to do multiple consecutive pump laps is intense. They also help with flow and track speed. They also help you pinpoint bad habits like leaning too far forward or back or riding too stiff, and then eliminate the issue. Well, only if you`re going to get better! Pump laps are great because the better you get at them the less you have to work doing them.  It`s all about flow, and all the power in the world means diddly squat if you can`t put it to use.

Out for now.JB

Wow. That`s all I have to say about today. I spent the whole day at the skatepark and had a BLAST! SOO much fun. I actually got my 360`s dialed again and whipped a couple over a sweet little box jump. Nutted up and got an old trick out that garnered some "oohs" and "ahhs" from some of the younger guys...a well delivered, tweaked out tire grabber never fails to impress.  A few more trips out and I`ll have my turndowns clicked, too.



I love bmx.

When I was a kid, the only time you actually "practiced" at the track was a race day, or the occasional gate practice day. Most of our riding was done around the neighborhood streets and dirt jump trails. that`s where you learned to bunnyhop higher, and farther. It`s where you learned to ride a wheelie just a little farther than your friends. It`s where you learned to get more and more air from whatever jump or makeshift lip you could find.



It`s where you grew your nuts.





I just got a new street/park/trails bike. It took a long time to find one because I wanted something fairly long, like my race bike. most dirt jump bikes are barely 20" top tube, maybe the occasional 20.5". My race bike is 21.75, and I wanted something closer to 21". Enter the Eastern Jane. A GREAT complete bike for the money, and the perfect size for me. I hopped on it once I had it built and it felt SO much more comfortable than the bike it is replacing. I spend 5 days a week on my race bike to have it feel so sweet. This bike felt like home from the very first pedal.





I`m going to be spending a great deal of time just riding urban street and trails for a while now that I`m not on a 2600 dollar purebred race bike. I`m on an all chromoly bike I won`t feel guilty about taking some chances on, and pushing my limits again. Growing my nuts again. And I can`t WAIT. I love BMX so much, and I really missed just getting on my bike and riding wherever my feet took me. Racing is demanding, and requires a great deal of energy. Free riding is exactly that; free. You get to go out and just ride.



And that, my friends, is what made me love BMX to begin with.

SO if you take a look at the pic of my new number plate you`ll notice something. It`s black with white numbers. In the ABA that means one of two things. It`s either a national number, or it`s a pro number. Well, I missed a substantial portion of last year so it`s sure not a national number.



That`s right!! JeffB joined the Vet Pro class! For no reason other than to grab a lifelong dream I turned pro. It`s not like the competition in the amateur class wasn`t there. Hell, I`m sure some of the top guys in my am class could easily hang in Vet Pro. I just didn`t want to leave the sport wondering how well I *could* have done. I raced my first pro race this past weekend, and it opened my eyes to several things. Mainly it showed me it was time to shift my training focus back to my weaknesses instead of elevating my strengths even more. I had a good first moto, and went into the second feeling like I had something to prove. Well, I proved something all right. I proved I could flip the starting gate and get dead last. Actually, I was just trying too hard, plain and simple. I got a SMOKING holeshot in moto 1 and actually had the lead for a bit. I was trying to do even better and it bit me.



Not sure when my next pro race will be, hopefully Florida. If not, it will be the ABA grands.

custom powdercoating facility. Need anything coated?

just some quick updates, figured I`d do a blog instead of sending out some dumb broadcast.

First off, some BIG news at the JeffB headquarters....but I`m not letting the cat out of the bag just yet. Gotta wait about another month.

Second, I`ve got a cool video that i`ve been working on.I expected it to be done by now but you know how projects can get side tracked! It`s gonna be cool, hang tight.

In my quest to train and prepare for joining the Vet Pro class, I raced a local pro-am last night. It was the first time in a long time I was in the gate with 7 other really fast guys, and it was a total blast! WAY fun! All sense of thinking went right out the window and I was riding on instinct alone, which felt good. Since I was working as a track official I had to cut my lap short and get right back out on the track for the first moto, but I was pretty happy with how well I hung in with a pack of (much younger) pro riders. It was cool, and I`m looking forward to the challenge of racing as a pro.