Raytown BMX



Got out to Raytown BMX the other week. The new paved turns peaked my curiousity. I'm not sure what to think. I think BMX should be on dirt, but I guess I'm not everybody. The start is a paved, and all the turns are paved,

 

This is a look at the exit of the second turn. It's not smooth as I was expecting, the berm is rough, and why shouldn't it be? I mean this is BMX right?

 

The 3rd straight will be soon home to a "Pro" section to the left, right now it's in an experimental stage as I'm told.

I even broke out the old school toolbox. I suspect it's about 30+ years old...Yikes. Notice it's got a Bicycle Motocross Action sticker on it. Not long after they just became known as "BMXA". And you thought this whole acronym was a new this. I guess they were a little ahead of the curve, although back then they were not paved corners...just say'n.



Vans Man

Don't know who this Owens guy is, but his Owens 2 shoe by Vans rocks. I've been riding skate parks lately. Running shoes are OK....I guess, but Vans work a lot better. I haven't had a pair of Vans in a long time.These are different than the regular high tops in that they have padded ankles, nice heel cups in the shoe, triple stitched, plus they have that velcro strap to tighten it all up for some nice ankle support. These are a lot better than the regular hightops. I could give or take the orange camo sole.

Been Kick'n it Old School, well sorta

Been riding around the block on this of late. It's a Direct Link. It's a company out of Nebraska, owed by Tim Lillethorup. He was one of the Nebraska Boys. He was a Pro and could mix it up with any of the pros on the coast. He's a good guy and I always looked forward to talking to him.

The cruisers in my day had longer chainstays, seat tubes, and head tubes. They also were 26" and not 24" when I first started in the 70's. Actually if you want to get technical they were orginally beach cruisers. Now they look more like 24", 20" bikes, instead of cruisers...if that makes sense. Also this frame is aluminum and sports an Answer Carbon fork. Compared to plush ride of my old 4130 steel cruiser,  this one feel like a Carbon Tennis racket. It's really light and stiff.

I rode it around town the other day. It's slower than my road bikes, so when you cruise around town you are more likely to ride streets and go place you normally wouldn't. Plus you get a new respect for hills, this is even counting my fixed gear.

If you're into cruisers or 24" BMX bikes check out this guy's BLOG Cruiser Revolution .

This week's photos of interest

I got to see the some of the Mirraco Freestyle team do what they do. Photos can't capture what these guys can do, videos would have been better, but you can't beat being there in person. If you get a chance to go see freestyle contest, or exhibition I recommend going. It get the adrenaline going.

Nova BMX Chainstays

I got my Chainstay in from Nova to finish up on my 24" Cruiser. Why is it everytime I hear the word "Nova", I always think about that story where Chevy goes to sell the Nova to Mexicans and it doesn't do too well because the name "No va" in Spanish means "No Go".

Just in case your wondering here is the link to Snopes where they say the rumor is false.

I've been "No Va ing" my feet on my cruiser because now I want to change to geometry. Since I don't have the chainstays on I can still tweek it a little (Post to Come).

Where the supertherm were round these are oval. Oval works well for me because now I don't have to dimple or bend the stays.

32mm this a way

. . . and 18mm that away.

The next frame I'm going to build will be using the Nova BMX tubset . These tubes are very stiff and light . . . what more do you want?

. . . a Mutant Trumpet? Check this guy out Ben Neill and his Mutant Trumpet. If you think you might like a Ambient/Techno/Jazz search around a bit for this guy. He does some cool music.

Skate or Die pt.1

In order to prepare for the Redline Central Final in October I thought I'd better brush up on my skills. What better place than the skate park. I'm going downtown today. so I thought I'd visit PennVally Skate park. You know the routine. Wake up, make a cup of coffee, grab a few CDs to get the mind and body aligned for riding the skae park, head out the door, get in the car, and . . . . . .

YOU'VE BEEN RIPPED OFF.

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Not the first stereo someone has ripped off from me, and I suspect not the last. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm under the illusion that I actually own my car stereos, vs the reality that I'm just renting untill one day it's repo'd.

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Case and Point

About 12 year ago I got a new Alpine stereo with detachable face. I had it about a year, and never fail to take the face with me. Then one day I went to work downtown. I parked in a parking lot with a park attendent. I went into work at 8am and by 9am realized I forgot to remove the face. It was 22 degrees and snowing outside. I went back out to my car, only to find my window bashed out, and my stereo gone. . . . . aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand as you probably have already figured out, the attendent didn't see anything.

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It's a lot like a year ago when I left my I-Pod in the bathroom at work, then I return to find it 10 minutes later, and the I-Pod was gone, and I asked the security person at the enterance if they found anybody turned one in, and her response was, "I don't even know what one is". right it's 2009 and you don't know what an I-Pod is. We have Burger King selling french fries in a box called the "Fry-Pod", every big corp has some product ending with "-Pod", and this is over your head . . . "Whats this I-pod thing"?

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To Quote Don Henley.
"It's an inside job
Favors collected
Your trusted servants
Have left you unprotected

It was an inside job
Like it always is
Just chalk it up
To business as usual"

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Well I can say this. I thought I would be bummed out once the I-Pod was gone, but I realized most the time I was to my own thoughts and didn't really pay attention to the music as much as I had imagined. I'm pretty sure It's going to be case with the car stereo for the most part. However as most you know, who know me, there are a lot of times I like my jams.

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Yea I can try to candy coat it, but I'm still "Burning inside"!

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Speak'n of Ministry. Ministry was Playing at "The Shadow" on my 21st Birthday. I met Bill Rieflin at Street Side records in Westport that day and he put me on the guest list . . . So I got to see "The Mind is a terrible thing to taste" show. That was a sweet deal.
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So here is the Skate park. 7:30am and all to myself.

I rode there for about 1-1/2 hours. Not hard to do, I had a good time. Some people think the park is geared toward skate boards, rather than bicycles, and that may be the case, but I'm just here learning to ride a BMX bike. It's quite a transition from Road, or MTB.

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How about a local treat. An IPA from Weston Brewery. In Weston, Missouri.

I think it's better than a lot of beer out there. I hear from some people that they don't like IPA beers, because of the overly Hoppy taste. This would be a good IPA for them, because it does not have that an overly hoppy taste. I have drank some other manufactured's IPA beers that I did not won't to finish. I say give it a shot.

He said, She said; What really happened?

I'm the guy closest to you in the Young Guns Jersey (Blue and white), on the gate Lane 1. A lot of times sometime during all the excitment you loose some of the details. This is why we have video.

I look pretty good going down the first straight, but it's evident I lost a lot of momentum someplace going over the 3rd jump, going into the first turn. . I was even with the guys going into the first turn, then the guy in the red is a bike length ahead coming out of the turn. I don't even want to talk about the second straight away. The way I handled it was a nightmare, and I'm lucky to not have ended up 4th.

Well the video evidence is there. Some skill work is needed.

A BMX Kinda Weekend

Well . . . First things first, or First thing's second. I placed 2nd at the Redline Cup Central Qualifier at Raytown BMX.

I was in First place going into the first corner, but I wasn't able to hold off a more skilled rider from St. Louis. The tracks today are not what they used to be, they require more finess than they used to.

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The name of the game is preservation of momentum. You have to know how to use the backsides of the jumps to maintain speed. You have to compress your bike and body weight.

Oh heck . . . . let Barry here show you, He make it look easy, Its smooth relaxed bike control. You can see how he compresses the bike on the backside of the jumps to propel him over the next set of jumps.

Sunset at OTC from BarryNobles on Vimeo

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Out of all the tracks in the central United States, Raytown BMX was also chosen for the Finals in October. We had people from all over the Midwest today. It was good to see, and got to see some old friends come out of the woodwork.
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Also one of the guys bought this PK Ripper Fixie a couple days ago.

Some people don't like it because its trendy, but I kind of like it, maybe it has something to do with being born at the time these things came out. I don't know, I'll let you decide.

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Fluted seatpost is an interesting add on. but the original seats had a red and yellow lighting bolt, If I remember right they did fade a bit in the sun, but never to a point that they were white. -

I didn't get a good picture of it, but the spider has a cheap appearance, it's polished, it's anodized, but it has a pitted surface, it looks like something that comes on a department store bicycle. I think they should have something different.

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But I have to say . . . These are way cool. I think it's a pretty cool bike.

NOT SO young guns bmx

Made it out to Raytown BMX for the first time this year to race Cruiser Class (A BMX bike with 24" wheels instead of 20") last night. My class had 5 of us "Old Folks" show up. Now when you place in the top 3, you have the choice of a trophy or Stamps.

Looks like 1st place pays out 5 stamps.
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Also it looks like I'm on a team this year. The Young Guns.
Since I don't pursue racing so much I'm on the Central Support Team

Oh wait . . . For The "Old Folks" they decided to add "not so" above "Young Guns" . . . Well isn't that special. Also I want to mention all the sponsors.

Cyber Sportswear
http://www.chsportswear.com/
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Answer BMX
http://www.answerbmx.com/
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SuperCross BMX
http://www.supercrossbmx.com/
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Dragon Wheels
http://dragonwheels.weebly.com/
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Gutter Techs
(816) 678-6947

Ohhhhhhhh Boy!

This is the BMX track in Blue Springs. First off you will notice the first straight is pave. Kinda takes the "D"(Dirt) out of B.M.X. . . . but I guess Dirt (D.) isn't in B.M.X. so maybe they can pave it. Some tracks also pave the turns now. Just call me Old School I guess.

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This is the first turn. Like I've said before. I think it would be fun to make a dirt velodrome. This turn we give you the sensation of speed.

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Am I learning, or relearning skills? . . . This is the first jump coming out of the first turn. I think they are 28 feet apart. They are too tall to speed jump, so you just gotta sail as far as you can. If you can land on the backside of them and get a crank or two in this will set up up nice for the next set. But nevermind that, you have to get the first set down first. A couple of times I about cleared the backside . . . Can you say ouch!. I mean you would think the problem would be going far enough.

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2nd Straight


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2nd turn

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3rd and 4th Straight.

It certainly has been a challenge relearning some of my old skill and learning some new ones. Hopefully this week I'll get to order my tube set for the BMX frame I'm going to build. I'll have to dust the cobwebs off with a few practice pieces first. Well if anything will test the integrity of your frame building skill, it will be the BMX track test. Especially someone like me who is not smooth at all right now.

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See Ya Next week.

The Great Power Outage of 2009

So I made it out to Raytown BMX . Here are some picture of the first straight. There are more on the Raytown BMX site.


The gate. Nice hydraulic lift. Back in my day we had to have some guy lift the gate back up. I mean we thought it was cool when we had an electronic latch.

Here's a good view of the first straight away. Here we go . . . "Back in my day" . . . Well it's true back in my day a first straight away usually had jumps you could not pedal over. The trick is now to be flexable enough to perform this act. Now I know why eveybody hase their seats down really low. I took mine in the chest a couple times on some of the jumps.

This is the first turn. It's almost exactly like the other two. I've ask people what they thought about making a dirt velodrome. I either get no answer or the "What! . . . I didn't order a pizza." look.

Here is proof it would not be that hard to build an oval with banked turns.


AND! it was coming out of that turn I suffer a power outage.

This happened before I could get any pictures of myself riding on the track. Well My better luck later this week.

Blue Hills Bike & Hike

If I get enough information together, I'm hoping to start a Vintage Kansas City BMX web site. I know the information is out there, I just have to find it.
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I'm going to start things off with Team Blue Hills Bike and Hike.

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Above from left to right are, Curt Bales, Drew Jameson, Mark Denton, Brian Duff, and Todd Dean. If you were from Kansas city and you were fast on a BMX bike, odds are you raced for Blue Hills Bike and Hike. I believe the picture above was taken at the St. Joe. BMX track the summer of 1979. I didn't start racing untill the fall of 1979, so that picture is before my time.

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I still have my Blue Hills Bike and Hike Shirt . . . No Really . . . I still tote around a t-shirt from 1979.

I still wear it sometime, and people ask me how old it is, and I tell them I wore it to go see "Jaws". OK 3 years off, but I have a 30 year old T-Shirt, You gotta give it to me, OK who else still has and wears . . . Wears Mind you . . . a 30 year old T-Shirt? . . . None of you, thought so. By the way it's a Hanes Beefy-T, made in the good ol U.S. of A.

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While I'm tooting this T-Shirt's horn, I'm going to say, try that with T-Shirts of today. You will be lucky to get 30 days, much less 30 Years. I got a whole closet full of today's POS T-shirts, that after the first wash they start curling up at the bottom.
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Quite a transition for tracks today. Hey check that out real dirt. Most tracks today are paved until the first jump, and all the national tracks have the corners paved. This was when BMX was Bicycle Motocross). Also notice that guy standing to the side of it all. He the race starter, He tell the guys to get ready, then he pulls that rope, realing the latch that drops the gate, then has to pull it back up by hand. . . . allllll freaking day . . . No electronics, or hydraulics, Just a lot of hard work for pat on the back if he was lucky. I beleive the riders are starting left to right are Curt Bales, Tim Edwards, Tim Applegate, Drew Jameson, Doug Prather, and Mark Denton.

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Not quite the perfectly manicured tracks of today. That's one thing you don't see, Car tires lining the course. I'm not sure why they don't do that these days. It's not like there is a shortage of used car tires.

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This is the race Flyer for the series.

I Knew St. Joe was small, I guess small enough to reguard the Bike shop as "The Bike Shop" if you need race information. Special thanks also has to go to Dick Gibson for his efforts in promoting BMX at that time. His Son Steve Gibson was also reguarded as being one of the faster kids on the USA at the time. He was on Torker's Factory Team.