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