Can A Mountain Biker Ride BMX | Blake's Practice Day

Bicycle, motocross, BMX, how hard can it be? Let's find out. Welcome back, you beautiful people, BMX racing or bicycle motocross. We've never ventured into this world of cycling on the channel before. Today, we're going to find out what it's all about. How does BMX racing work? At a race meeting, riders will take part in a series of races to decide the winner. Each race features eight riders competing in a battle to be first across the line. The format of a race meeting gets a bit complicated. Each rider will take part in three heat races, known as motos. Riders score points depending on where they finish. The 32 riders with the highest points after their heats make it through to the quarter finals, four races of eight riders. The top four riders of each quarter final goes through to the semi-finals, two races of eight riders. The top four riders of those semi-finals will make it through to the A-finals to get the ultimate winner, final race of eight riders. Riders steed, before we get into all the nitty-gritty going fast and stuff, this is the bike that I'm going to be riding. This is a GT ProSpeed. It's a XXL frame, so that's massive. It doesn't feel massive compared to my mountain bikes, but the race bikes are really long in these parts of the world. We've got 20-inch wheels. They're a 1.75, pumped up to the max, which is 75 PSI, which I'll be running. The gear ratio on this thing is 44 to 16. That sounds big, but we'll find out. It's got five gears. It hasn't, actually. It's only got one, but it has a gearbox ratio thing going, one, two, three, four, five, and reverse. I don't know what that's all about. There's no dropper. There is a hydraulic brake on here on the rear, which I don't think I'm going to be using that much, I hope. Maybe on the ends, when I cross the line, because I don't know how fast I'm going to be going. Bars are really high, super high rise, but it's a BMX bar and it's an alloy frame. That is it. Super basic. I thought I'd try clips, so I put my Disco slippers on, my Cinderella shoes, and we'll see how I get on with them. I might revert to flats, I don't know. Practice day today, full face, goggles, full sleeves, trousers, clips, potentially flats, we don't know. The bike is so twitchy. It's ridiculous. I thought I'd pedal, and I was doing that. I felt like, if you're in the UK, you get these little dogs, they're called Churchill dogs. They're on the back parcel shelf of a car, and his head is constantly doing this. That's what I felt like. I'm so tired. That's knackering. Hey. That is horrible. You're not going to jump in there, though? I did a jump. Left the ground? I left the ground. I don't know if that's fast enough. Fast, but I left the ground. We're pretending it's summer. Yes. Really? I've come to Gosport BMX Racing Club for a little bit of help. This is John, everyone. Thank you very much, John. Hello. Hi. Much appreciated for this, and thanks for bringing the bike. Yes, a nice bit of kit. It is, isn't it? Yes. Before we get kicked off, who is John? This is John Twitchen, presenter on BMX Race Hub on the YouTube. BMX coach, Bournemouth BMX Club representative, South Region BMX Talent Development Leader, former British BMX Champion in 1992, and Southern School Cyclocross Champion in 1990. That was done on a mountain bike, my ad. A man worthy to be called coach, and to give me a few pointers on how to race BMX today. Okay, riders. Random start. Riders ready. Watch the gate. Oh, that's disgusting. Oh, that's a nasty sound, isn't it? It's very loud. Yes. It's intimidating. It is. This is where it all starts, right? This is where it kicks off. Literally. Yes. This is the start, and that's your instruction to get going. I reckon this is where we should start. Okay, let's do that. Just a bit of gate practice. Let's do that. I'll put the gate up. I don't do much of it. Any tips? Well, let's get you on the gate. Nice and tall and strong, all those things. Okay. Yes, we'll start with that. All right, so get those pedals level, and try and stand up a bit more. That's it. Then we want you to heel up a little bit. Just tip your knee in slightly. That's it. Can you move your weight back a little bit? We're ready to go. That's a really good position. It's on the edge, right? It's on the edge. You'll get used to it. You will get used to it. You'll get used to that balance. Yes, we'll get into the sequence, and why don't we drop it, and see how you feel? All right. Here we go. Okay. Attention. Okay, riders. Random start. Riders ready. Watch the gate. Attention. Riders ready. Watch the gate. Well. How did he do? Not bad. Reaction time is that of a dirt jumper, but we can work on that. Good position. Yes. Main thing is going to be reaction time. I was split seconds too late. Yes. Yes, you were. A little bit late. Probably about half a second. Yes. Because it's all on timing leaps and that now. At the bottom of the hill, just off to the grill is the timer, and 0.03 at that point is about from your hub to the front wheel. By then, you're behind already, so you've got the ground to make up. That's less than a tenth of a second and you're already a half a wheel behind. I was knackered just holding myself up in the gate. Yes. Try and relax a little bit. I know it's really hard because you're tense and you're balancing on the pedals and you're clipped in and everything, but try and just relax. Be on the balls of your feet like you're going to start a running race. The first movement, head and shoulders lead, is to move forwards. Forwards into it first. Forwards into it. All right. Your head was sort of up. You were looking at the gate. I was looking down there. Right. Try and just move your eyes up. When it says, riders ready, watch. Move your eyes up to the lights. Your head's in a good position then to go down the hill. Okay. After I learned how to do the start gates, I thought it'd be better if I looked at the rest of the track with Jon. All right. The first straight. Out of the gate. Yes. I think I've nailed it. Getting there. A bit more practice, I reckon. First straight. Now, all that speed, I reckon, jump, jump, and then manual, roller, roller. Manual. Okay. Pump, pump, maybe? Yes. What do you reckon? I reckon. Play it safe, race speed. You know, you will carry that speed. Yes, because I have actually tried jumping this and I cased it somewhere over here. Oh, was that you? All right. I think so. Sorry about that. Yes. It took all my energy, so I didn't want to do that. Yes. You've got to carry as much speed as you can. Okay. The manual through here really worked the backside of the jump. You've got one backside. The track's got 15, 20 backsides, so really used it. I like that saying. All right. Manual or roller? Manual, pump? Anyway. Manual this. Pump. No jumping. No? Well, the little one. Oh, yes. Talk about that. Let's go to the corner. Let's go there. First straight. First massive corner. Look at that. It's pretty big. For me, I've been pumping, pumping. Get a good pump in here, but I'm in the middle, and I go up quite high, and then drop in quite late. I feel like I'm going to get pushed out doing that. Yes. I think that's your body position on the bike, Blake. Again, it's that sort of hanging off the back, jumpy style. You've got to get really forwards on the bike, really attack the corner. We want that outside pedal down, inside pedal up, looking at the exit, and you'll get around the corner quicker, so you won't go up as high. Yes, because I tend to drift up. Yes. I chill in a big berm. Yes. It's like being at a skate park. It is, yes. Really attacking, assuming you've got the hole shot with that amazing gate, really tucking in towards that white line, cover that inside. In that white line down there? Yes. When you get to the hole shot line, you can start opening it up. You've got to look through that corner, and then start opening it up, get on the gas. Yes. That is the hole shot line? Yes, the white line. Ah. Yes. Hopefully, you'll be first there, then. This is a section. Look at this. Multiple lines. Ready for the pro? No. No, I didn't sign up for that. I think I'm going to go left. This one looks incredibly out of my pay grade. It's quite big. It's massive. Crankworx size. All right, last straight. Yes. Nearly there. The finish line is that white line there. That's right. How the hell? I know what I'm going to feel like. I'm going to feel absolutely buggered. Any tips here? Well, they're big mountains, really. It's a rhythm section, but they're pretty big, aren't they? They are very big. This is a manual. That's a nice manual. I'm going to pump this last one. This last double here? Yes. That one, and then pump through this. Then the lunge of life. Then pedal like you can through the line with a lunge. Whatever legs you've got left, use them. Cool. Two legs. All right. Let's get on the bike and practice these manuals. Let's try it. Bonk. That was a bonk. Manual bonk. Try again. Yes. We should pump that one. Sorry? We should pump that one. Yes. I'm scared of the wind pushing me. Yes. I think that's fair enough. Good call on the wind. The wind pushes you. Yes. It's here, isn't it? Yes. I reckon. Pump it. Pump, pump. Get a crank in here. That would be a manual because it's behind the berm, maybe? Manual up or even just manual into the berm, one or the other. All right. You said manual. I was like, oh, it's a bit windy. You said, okay, go for the pump. Then I just manualed it. You've nailed it. Then it felt all right. I mean, it depends. If you get blocked in the second corner, you might need to be pumping it. Yes. If you've got a clean run, you can do it. You've got to be looking over the front. Get that wheel over the top of the jump. I pedaled there. You did. Did that. Very good. Pumped that. Yes. Kind of messed up the manual there. You were celebrating, weren't you? I was celebrating. Was this good? Mate, it was incredible. Thank you so much. I can pump, and we've done videos on the channel about pumping, but this, it just, you need to pump. If you don't have that technique, you have no hell and chance of doing this. It's great. You see on other tracks, whether it's dirt jump or other stuff, there's pump bumps on the way into big doubles and big trick jumps. It just gives you that speed, doesn't it? It does. This, of course, is the school, isn't it? Yes. School of pump. It is. All your bits that you've taught me on the gate, don't do gates. What I had there was literally the craziest crash course ever. I'm kind of comfortable. I haven't got it, but I'm comfortable with it. Then all the bits, you're like, manual this, you'll get speed, manual that. Thank you very much. Welcome. Good luck. Good luck tomorrow. Tomorrow. Till tomorrow. We'll see you there. Now I've learned the basics, I think it's time to go racing, but you're going to have to wait until the next video for that one.