BMX is awesome!

Last night me and kiddo went down to the Salem, Oregon BMX track (Capitol City BMX). It was his second race. He wants to keep racing so we got him all signed up with a yearly ABA membership. The $45 memership fee includes a monthly magazine plus his first race was free (actually his last race was free, too, under the ABA one-day trial). Every race is $5. Just five stinking bucks!! (Take that STXC.) Plus the track is open for gate practice for the hour during registration, open for practice during the intermission between races 2 and 3 (the last race or "main") and then open again after the races for another 45 mins or so (no gate). So you get a bunch of track time, plus the three (very short) races for a measley $5. What a deal! :)

Well, after watching my son have all the fun last week, I thought I'd give it a try too. I raced for free under the one-day ABA deal and only had to pay $5 to rent a bike and helmet.

Dudes-- BMX is awesome. Those little bikes on the jumps and whoop-de-doos just don't want to stay attached to the ground. It's like they've got helium in the tires and just want to take off! It's been a long time since I've had that kind of fun on a bike where I kept thinking "Let's go again!!" Sure, I love bikes and riding and cyclocross in general, but this is just pure, simple goofy fun. Pointing a little bike and a big jump and hanging on! The berms are cool too-- zooooom!

Now I just need to get a bike of my own!

The vibe is pretty cool-- very family friendly. Everybody that I interacted with was very nice and friendly and super helpful. Kinda like cyclocross, but a little less crazy and without out the beer. :)

One thing that really surprised me was the bikes themselves. Over the years I've been aware of BMX bikes as those teensy things that I see hipster teeny-boppers tooling around on. Horrible looking things with gigantic pegs on the front and rear axle nuts that had all the grace of a blunt instrument.

Well...

Actual BMX race bikes are little packages of tech sweetness that are on par with everything that I'm familiar with in my world of cyclocross and mountain bikes. This is the discovery of a whole other world for me!