"Time flies when you're having fun", it is said, and I would be so bold as to state that, in general, "time flies", whether you are having fun or not. The speed of time's flight is probably a direct function of increasing age. When I was fourteen, a week on vacation without my bike seemed eternal; a friend of mine in his sixties speaks of spending two years abroad as if it were a run down to the corner store, something to be "knocked off" without too much thought or worry; my ninety-eight-year-old great-grandmother appears entirely uninvolved with time's passage, refusing to believe that her next birthday has arrived so soon - why, the last one was just the other day! Perhaps it is nature's way of keeping people from panicking as they age, which as we all know can lead to the acquisition of second marriages, Porsche Boxsters, and hairpieces. Better just to accept it as it comes.
Nature's defense, such as it might be, certainly failed me this past weekend at the new skatepark in Lancaster, Ohio, when I ran into a old (so to speak) friend of mine from my days running Squidco and writing "One Racer's Perspective". In those long-ago times, this young man was an up-and-coming 16 Novice who sported a "mullet" well past his shoulders and looked absolutely lost inside a size-Large racing jersey. He spent most of his time at the track ignoring the fundamentals of BMX, preferring instead to make time with the track operator's daughter.
It took me a solid five minutes to realize who he was when he walked up to me. According to him, I hadn't changed a bit, but he was now a solid-looking adult, absolutely interchangeable with the other parents walking around the park. The track operator's daughter he spent so much time chasing is now his wife of five years and the mother of his son. All of this was shocking enough, but what really made me feel old was the appearance of a teenaged rider who said to me, "We call this guy the Professor because he's been around so long, and he knows everything." I replied,
"To me, he's just a kid with a raggedy Powerlite and no drivers' license," something that made everyone laugh because it was so obviously false - who could imagine "The Professor" as a kid? Only I could, apparently.
I hadn't seen this young man in a decade, and our meeting was a rude reminder to me that time has flown for me, as well. Furthermore, it was a reminder to me that BMX is never static. Riders come, go, and come back again. Jumps shrink, grow, and change. The P.K. Ripper you bought in 1980 was neat-o then, worthless in 1990, and priceless today. Every year, a new generation of factory riders learns how to sneak into six practice classes a day at Nationals, garage companies die for lack of interest, parents drag children off trails to attend races half a continent away - and yet old Jim Boswell keeps plugging along, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, always an amused observer of this wonderful (and stupid) sport.
Even I cannot ignore change forever, though - and that means it's time for me to hit the books again. "The books", in this case, really means re-examining and re-learning BMX from the ground up. I did this once in 1985 at the dawn of my racing career, again in 1990 when I began writing "One Racer's Perspective", yet again for "BMX Basics", and now it's time for one more shot.
To "hit the books" means to see the sport with no preconceptions, building my ideas and arguments from first principles, examining everything from frame design to trackside meals while always asking the same old boring, annoying question: "Does this work?" It means going out to Nationals, visiting bike shops, seeking training from riders whom I admire and respect, observing errors and taking notes, reading everything from industry newsletters to metallurgy books... really, I can't wait. The payoff, for both me and you, is obtaining an up-to-date understanding of how everything works, to help us make the right decisions for the next few years.
Luckily for me, I have some very talented guinea pigs hanging around - A Pro riders Raul Ruiz Astorga and Andres Barrios, and top 21-24 X rider Martin Larrea. We'll spend the next few months looking at gearing, gate starts, tire tread, training, you name it. I will also continue my foray into the worlds of street, trails, and skatepark riding, most recently and painfully, "hanging up" my back wheel on a nine-foot quarterpipe...
Will I come back from this "journey" singing the praises of
aluminum, SPD, and neon uniforms? Probably not - but I will take a
hard, objective look at each of the "holy wars" the 20" community
faces today. My goal is simply to be a smarter, better rider than I am
now, and to pass that knowledge on to you. As they would say in the
retail industry, we're changing to serve you better. Combine that with
my "new content pledge", and it's probably safe to say that we'll be
shaking this place up a bit. Watch this space.