BMX Basics

When dirty riding isn't.

When did the BMX parents and riders of America slip into their current obsession with so-called "dirty riding"? Whenever it happened, please, everyone - SNAP OUT OF IT! BMX has never been a more polite, non-contact, nice-guy, follow-the-leader activity than it is right now. Want proof? Let's compare three legitimate instances of rough-and-tumble racing from the past with three misunderstood incidents from the past year.



REAL "DIRTY" RIDING FROM THE OLD DAYS:

  • In 1986, I was talking to another rider in staging when I happened to mention my low opinion of a B Pro named Doni Hier. Little did I know that he had heard me doing so. I found out that he had heard me when the gate dropped for our next practice lap, because he cut across five other riders down the first straight to hit my front wheel and bail me forward over my bars. This seemed perfectly legitimate to me, even though I was a 14 Novice and he was a B Pro. That was how messages were sent back then. I got the message loud and clear.
  • I was racing Pro Open at an indoor track in 1992 when I had a brush with another Superclass racer. This tube steak tried to squeeze between me and a wall down the second straight. He pushed me a bit. I pushed back. When he attempted to elbow me in the chest, I cheerfully put him into one of the building's support pillars. It took him a very long time to get up. Once he did, he said a couple of rude (and mostly incorrect) things about me and my immediate family, but he did not file a protest. He had tried something stupid and failed. That was that. No protest was necessary.
  • Those of you old enough to remember Pete Loncarevich's Pro career know that Pete never shied away from a little rough stuff, whether it was putting John Purse in the wall at the 1989 ABA Grands or "ghost-riding" his bike into Ronnie Anderson to prevent Ronnie from winning a Pro main. Pete and Ronnie spent years trying to hand eachother career-ending injuries, but it was never suggested (except by BMX Action) that either of them had gone "too far". Pro racing meant taking, and giving hits, particularly in the days before Pro sections.

    Are we all clear on what dirty riding is? Now, for what it isn't, I present the "Jim Boswell Whiner Awards of 1999":

  • During the second moto of a 10 Novice race I watched earlier this year, two riders entered the third turn side-by-side. The inside rider rode "up" the turn a bit, causing the outside rider to slow down. There was no contact involved. The outside rider's parents began screaming like the girl who falls into Jabba's pit in Return of the Jedi. Ten seconds later, the inside rider bailed in the rhythm section and was temporarily knocked out. "Serves you right, you dirty @&$^%," one parent screamed, and the chorus of obscenity was quickly taken up by the outside (and now winning) rider's family and friends. For more than two minutes, a group of five or six adults screamed abuse and filth at an injured ten-year-old. Disgusting, huh?
  • I got some e-mail a while ago from a BMX dad whose son, after reading and practicing some of the turn strategy advice handed out in previous columns, passed another rider the same way, in the same turn, two motos in a row. Neat, huh? The other kid's parents didn't think so---they protested, even though there had been no contact. Their reason? Their little Bobby had been "cut off." Well, Mr. and Mrs. Doofus, we'll be sure to keep the track clear for your boy from now on. Maybe he'd like to race by himself? The saddest part is that little Bobby probably didn't care whether or not he was passed-he was just riding, and having fun.
  • This kind of idiocy isn't limited to parents. After causing horrible wrecks three weekends in a row due to his complete lack of ability to balance a bicycle, one of the Rhodes scholars in my local cruiser class suggested that "from now on, we all ride whatever lane we got down to the first turn-none of that dirty stuff". So it's okay for him to slip both pedals over a roller and bail five riders, but I'm not allowed to move over going into a turn? Give me a break. After that conversation, I more or less decided to bail this guy in our next moto, just for principle's sake. Unfortunately, he ran into someone else first, ending both their days and causing a six-rider pileup, in which I was peripherally included despite my best efforts. As Moon Unit used to say, "Gag me with a spoon". Well, at least there was no "dirty riding" involved - just plain idiocy.

    I'm kind of preaching to the choir in this column, because most of my readers understand the different between clean physical riding and illegal and/or dangerous riding, but let's review for a moment, just for my own peace of mind.

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with controlling the space around you. That includes things like moving over to block a rider, slowing down early before a turn to keep another rider from railing around you, moving up or down a turn to block or slow someone, making contact that is not designed to injure or hinder the other rider, and making bike-to-bike contact in a turn. Furthermore, it's perfectly fine to use your elbows to maintain your space and/or position.

    Beyond that, it is usually okay to intimidate another rider (of the same age and class) by "faking" a move, or by moving in such a way that contact would occur if the other rider were to continue in his present course. In other words, if you and I are going into a turn, and I put myself on an obvious "T-bone" course, that's okay, as long as I don't actually hit you. If you slow down, great. If you call my bluff, I have to back off.

    If all of the above is legit, what is "dirty"? Well, anything you do with the purpose of injuring another rider is not cool. If you impede another rider's progress not for the purpose of advancing your position but rather to ruin his chances, that's also wrong. An example of this would be a rider who, after bailing, purposely gets in the way of riders passing him.

    You shouldn't punch or kick other riders. You shouldn't deliberately bail another rider, and you shouldn't force contact when it isn't necessary.

    The rules don't specifically mention it, but I disapprove of the "hard block", that is, stopping or drastically slowing with the sole purpose of causing another rider to hit your back wheel with his front wheel. I won a couple of races doing that in my youth, but it is unsportsmanlike and should be discouraged. Faking a hard block to get a rider to slow down is another matter. In general, you should not contact a rider who has nowhere to go, i.e. top of the berm, edge of the track, near the wall at an indoor track.

    I teach physical riding to all the young riders I work with. We play games of "footdown". We bump-and-thump in the turns. We practice moving other riders up the berm and making hard cuts before jumps. We do all the legal stuff, and we practice fighting back against the illegal stuff. Any rider who has any hope of a Pro career should do the same, because the Pros still bump a bit, and many a promising Expert has been intimidated right out of the Pro class despite his speed or skill.

    It may be that contact will eventually be outlawed in BMX. Until then, riders have the right, if not the duty, to use all legitimate means at their disposal to win races. You see, physical riding isn't about the body-it's about the mind. Smart riders know how to take advantage of opportunities, and frequently doing so involves a bit of what the great unwashed call "dirty" riding. Let 'em. When they protest, show them the rule book. When they whine, tell them that whiners never win. And when they turn their head in the middle of the berm and see you sliding up towards them for a monster block pass, tell them, "Hey, whiner - This one's from Boswell!"



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