BMX Basics
Low-budget BMX.
No, I'm not angry. Yes, "SNAP" did apparently steal my entire April turns column for their July issue, but, if I may be permitted to coin a phrase, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I never mind a bit of flattery now and then. Having said that, if "SNAP" is going to copy me, I would prefer that they not add a bunch of grammatical errors, and I would prefer that they not replace my ugly diagrams with pretty pictures, especially if those pretty pictures don't make as much sense as the ugly diagrams did.
It would be tempting for me to write this column in the hope that "SNAP" will, again, copy something in it... so, I'm going to do just that. Let's talk about something the color mags usually ignore - money. "SNAP" and Plus! don't pay too much attention to the idea of racing on the cheap because a) most of their writers have almost no track time to their credit, and b) the guys who do ride have been on the gravy train so long they've forgotten what it was like to buy their own stuff, or to pay their own way into a race.
When I was a struggling 14 Novice, I really envied the older riders who had full-time jobs and plenty of cash for nice bikes and plane trips to Nationals. Of course, those guys didn't have any time to ride during the week, but I figured that having anything you wanted beat having all the time you wanted. To make a long story short, I was wrong. It's better to have time than money. Twenty hours a week on a two-hundred-dollar bike is better than two hours a week on a thousand-dollar one. Now that I know that, of course, it's too late for me to do anything about it, but it may not be too late for you.
Judging by the e-mail I get, most of you are in the same boat I was in back then - you have enough time to ride, but maybe not enough cash to race as much as you'd like to. BMX isn't cheap, but it can be made cheaper by looking at the whole situation intelligently. Without further ado, then, let's check out some ways to get a little more for your (and my) money:
Make your equipment choices for the long haul. One of the easiest ways to make racing affordable is to make smart choices about your bike and gear. Anything you buy should be both fairly cheap and fairly durable. As an example, an MCS Magnum Pro is about two hundred bucks cheaper than a GT Power Series, less than a pound heavier, and likely to last longer because it's Cr-Mo to the GT's 7000-series aluminum. If you work at a Wendy's, like I did when I was younger, two hundred bucks represents about fifty hours of work time. You could spend that fifty hours riding.
The BMX world is full of equivalent products that are priced in a decidedly non-equivalent fashion. Redline MX pedals, Diamondback cages, DK Speed Racers, and Cyclepro "BMX" pedals are all made in the same factory, but there's a twenty-dollar price difference at most shops between the Speed Racers, which tend to be the most expensive, and the Cyclepros, which tend to be the cheapest. Your buddies might laugh, but isn't it worth being laughed at a bit to get the same pedals for twenty dollars less?
I've written at length about some common racing products that are both decent and inexpensive, but here's the short list: Suzue unsealed wheels, Tektro V-brakes, A'ME grips, S&M Rednecks, MCS and Fabweld frames, standard Araya 7X rims, most of what Redline makes, and the old-style (Assassin and PK Ripper) SE Racing stuff. As always, you can email me for more specific recommendations.
If you've having trouble affording a complete racing outfit, try going with a long-sleeved T-shirt, a set of entry-level racing pants from a motorcycle shop (which are likely to be much cheaper than BMX-specific pants) and a set of "wet-weather" gloves. That should run you about fifty bucks total. One place you should not skimp is your helmet. If you don't have a good helmet, try to borrow one until you can convince your parents or spouse to give you one for Christmas. Sometimes you can find a good used Bell motocross helmet in your local paper's classifieds section - that's a good choice, as most motocross helmets will do a lot more to protect your head than a BMX helmet will.
I hate to say it, but very often the value of a BMX product is in direct opposition to the amount of color-mag coverage it receives. Given that most of the Plus! and "SNAP" coverage amounts to little more than paid advertising, it's not worth your time to check out most of their so-called "no-hold-barred extreme product testing". If a manufacturer has enough cash to grease "SNAP"'s palm, they're charging too much for their product, and you should think twice before you buy. Check out the alternatives - you won't be sorry.
Saving money on equipment is all well and good, but if you take a look at the average racer's season, you'll see that he or she is spending more money on racing than on equipment. What can we do to save on that?
Cheaper racing is usually better. It's virtually impossible to get through a National weekend for less than a couple hundred bucks, unless it's happening at your local track. Given that you can race locally for an eight-buck entry fee and ten bucks worth of gas and food, why would you spend ten times as much to have less time on the track and more time on the sidelines waiting for motos?
I can hear what you're thinking. "Local racing isn't cool. You have to race a lot of Nationals to have a decent BMX career". Well, try for a moment to clear your head of the NBL/ABA/color rag propaganda and take a serious look at what you want to accomplish. If you want maximum track time, locals are the way to go. If you want to try a variety of tracks, it's still cheaper to travel to locals than to Nationals. If you want to face tough competition, try finding a track with a Pro Open class. Over the past few years, I've been beaten by most of the Midwest's top pros at various tracks for less than ten bucks a moto, which saves me the trouble of renewing my Superclass license and paying fifty dollars a day to get whipped...
I'm not saying you shouldn't race Nationals. I am saying that racing five Nationals and thirty locals a year is both cheaper and better for your skills than racing ten Nationals and five locals. If you don't believe me, then believe some of the modern superstars who earned their spurs racing locals - Matt Pohlkamp, Mac Plummer, Jeff Dein, and Josh Fiegley being just a sample of committed local racers who can, and do, win a National any time they decide to show up and put the effort in. You can qualify for the Grands in two and a half weekends, which leaves you ninety-six weekend race days a year to perfect your craft for eight bucks a day. However, it might not be a great idea to push that hard...
I'm a firm believer in picking a racing "season" and sticking to it. Too many young riders are burned out by the never-ending National circus. There's a reason that most sports have an "off-season" - it prevents stress injuries and gives you a chance to get excited again about what you're doing. Once upon a time, our sport did have an off-season, but the sanctioning bodies couldn't keep their hands off the extra bucks they could pick up by having year-round Nationals, and the circus as we know it today came into being. That's a shame, but there's no reason that you have to race twelve months a year. Pick a personal off-season and stick to it. Your checkbook, your family, and your knees will all thank you.
So you've decided to race locals more than Nationals, and you've decided to take some time off every year. Great, but how can you save some cash at the Nationals you do visit? The cheapest way to qualify for the NBL Grands is to race one Regional weekend and two National weekends, skipping the Saturday race on the third weekend. If you can't afford to race both days at a National, show up on Friday, race the eight-dollar pre-race, and race the Sunday event. That way, you will be comfortable on the track but less tired than everyone who has raced the Saturday motos.
It's both possible and useful to camp out at most Nationals, although it certainly isn't as restful as a Hyatt Regency. It's also possible to pack inexpensive, non-spoiling foods and a small traveling water filter with you, thus cutting down on your meal expenses. Most grocery stores will sell you a two-dollar deli sandwich during lunch hours, so if you pack a lot of cereals and eat one sandwich per day you can do a three-day National for ten or twelve dollars total.
If you can't get a ride to a National, you can always break your bike down into a large duffel bag and take a bus. With a good set of tools and a decent map, you should be able to reassemble your bike at the station and ride out to the track site. Don't expect to comfortably cover more than about twenty miles at a stretch on a BMX bike with a packed duffel; usually, however, the track isn't more than twenty miles away from the closest Greyhound station.
If you're willing to do everything I've listed above, you should be able to do a National season for well under a thousand dollars. That's twenty bucks a week, which most of us are capable of saving if there's a worthwhile goal involved. Add ten bucks a week for your local races, and ten bucks a week for five hundred dollars' worth of bikes and equipment, and it's forty per week. In other words, you'll have to work ten hours a week at Wendy's to make your season happen on a budget, without any help. It's not easy to work hard and ride "on the cheap" when your buddies are getting a free ride from their parents or spouses, (thanks, Mrs. Boswell) but it's awfully satisfying to do it yourself. In doing so, you will have accomplished something genuinely worthwhile, whether or not you get a Top Ten number, and whether or not "SNAP" decides to take notice of your achievements. There's a lot more to our sport than factory rides and color photos... and don't forget, as always, you read it here first!