My friend suggested we started going to the local(ish) BMX / Pumptrack as an activity to get his son riding his bike more over the summer holidays… excellent I thought and started trawling the internet for a cheap and reliable steel beast… a few weeks later and “Shango” a fully ridged 26″ jump bike appears for the princely sum of £30 from a fellow STWer.

I turn up at the track and Shango goes down a storm – but in my impatience and age decided the bike was obviously holding me back… another 2 weeks pass and I’ve built up a 23lb aluminium jump bike with 100mm of suspension.

Feeling sorry for Shango we set off after much persuasion on Saturday rather than “pumptrack tuesdays” – it’s an hours drive and we rolled up to the start ramp. I cranked into the first jump on the track and on the last stroke of power I feel my foot shooting to the ground followed by my knee and shoulder being used as an effective brake on the gravel surface.

Sure enough I put a massive hole in my knee pads and I’m now covered in sudacreme covering a multitude of grazes and a nice deep slash out of my elbow… worst thing is I turned to my mate before I set off on the track saying “I bet something goes wrong”

Feeling very nostalgic with a body covered in grazes and pin scrapes down my legs!

I carried on riding for the night… just no pedalling! I still can’t see what happened as the chain has a good tension and it didn’t snap and the dropouts didnt move… puzzling but I think I need to go to a field and pedal the hell out of it to see what happens to restore confidence!

Elbow pads have also been ordered!

Doh

saving your post from the second page of doom.
Pumptracks and BMX tracks are fun, but falling on them hurts more than on an MTB trail where there’s some chance of a bush (even a thorny one) to land in.
I go to Preston BMX track a couple of times a month during the week at lunchtime and have the place to myself to play on. It’s ace. If anyone wants to join me then send me an email.

Haha yeah it was a fairly abrupt stop! I’d be keen for the Preston track – it’ll take me about an hour to get there too. Depending on times / days I could probably do a lunchtime – I’m away for a few weeks now though so wont get a chance before October!

A couple of pics of the scabs for the weirdos! (the white crap is sudacrem!)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/08smlztmlhnag6d/Screenshot%202016-09-12%2013.01.38.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fx420ifx4hmfbc2/Screenshot%202016-09-12%2013.01.31.png?dl=0

I’d be keen for the Preston track – it’ll take me about an hour to get there too. Depending on times / days I could probably do a lunchtime – I’m away for a few weeks now though so wont get a chance before October!

No worries, drop me a mail if you fancy it. I’ve also got some homegrown dirt jumps to play on as well.