Just booked my lad on for his first venture at the velodrome!!
BMX Starter session 1st week in January.

Then I made the mistake of asking the age limits.

5+ and everyone’s together you say???… better book me on as well then!

So on the 5th Jan my 5 year old boy will be lined up next to his 33 year old 6′ 2″ Dad to both throw our legs over a BMX for the first time in our lives!!!

Its gonna be carnage and I can see me losing teeth but I’m so giddy to be doing something like this with my lad 😀

Jealous!
Would love
Come back and update in Jan please? Pics would be cool too.

Rode park on my BMX for the first time in about a year with my 4yr old at the weekend, she just “gets* it so gonna make it a more regular thing.. My knees were pretty ropey the next day but it was great to be back using my 20 properly again. 🙂

You’ll be wearing a full face – I’m a little older and started some BMXing this year. I sit funny now, long story, but you’ll bloody love it!

Its an excuse to get another bike as well!!

Only 33? You’ll be fine. 😉

went to the NCC at manchester a few weeks ago, walked up to the nice lady at the counter to ask about BMX taster sessions, im 6 foot 3 and 15 stone and a lot older than anyone else in the place at the time,I was expecting her to laugh or say Not at your age, she just looked at me and said “youll be fine ,profesional coaches, and good training.”

Now where do i get some skinny jeans from

Excellent news Project.

So i’ve got until Jan 5th to get down to 15 stone 😐

Slightly gutted they were booked up until then though. His birthday’s 17th Dec and with xmas less than a week later it would have been prime time for new bikey gifts!

41, having my first go on a BMX tonight, at Unit 23 with the Glasgow MTB Meetup.
I’m taking my 11 year old son for “moral support”.

I thought the kids would be the worst thing about the track, but all of them have been really supportive to me and my other equally un-qualified and over aged friends. They still thrash the s*** out of us round the track though!

Wear your lycra and disco slippers project 😉

Glad to hear us oldies are still cracking in with it!
Have fun tonight Francis, let us know if your still in ine piece later.

you can book and check taster session online, 12 quid they cast, bike included

I did a 2 hr BMX session there this year, it was brilliant! As a 45-year old woman who’d never been on a BMX before, I was a bit worried beforehand in case I made a berk of myself! The group consisted of 20 middle-aged men, 2 teenage lads and me. I’d definitely go again!

Have fun tonight Francis, let us know if your still in ine piece later.

All still in one piece. A few spills, including me, but that was great fun!
Some amazing riders in there, and a great atmosphere, I’ll definitely do that again.

sure you’ll both enjoy it.

I started last year at 46. Loved it.

Bit of advice? Go for the 24″ cruiser if you’ve not done it before. They are a little less twitchy and closer to an MTB. I start a new job in December and one of my first planned purchases is a BMX cruiser. 🙂

It’s ace, but hurts big time! I returned to racing after a break of about 20 odd years, but the other guys had stuck at it and were bloody quick, still great fun. If you’re tall just make sure you have a bike with a long enough top tube or see some safety in a cruiser. Knee pads are a must.

Or, see if you can borrow a 20 and see how you get on. I hired one last night and after a nervous start, started to get the hang of it. One of the guys had brought his 24 inch DJ bike, which I had a shot of. I much preferred the 20 inch BMX.
It’s a steep learning curve, for sure, but the fun factor is huge.

Went tonight- fantastic! Worn out at begining but didnt stop once 😀

No cruisers anymore so I started on a bmx. It felt nervous for the first 10metres then…waaheyyy! Love the gate ramp but I sucked bigtime on the jumping the bars

No cruisers? A new challenge awaits next time I go. Think I’ll go another starter.

Nope- no more cruisers apparently. Maybe a good thing? Thursday (this) has 10 spaces free still. I’m having one more go on the starter session before I move up (I’m already progressed but with it being soo quiet- thought better to learn first before I run)..

my group have looked into this but it means 2 visits from brum before you can even ride….

2? They progressed me to ride in mixed ability groups mid-way through my session last night. It was 2hours of basically solid riding. I thought it’d be alot of talking but alot of the people in my group had been already.

I’m only doing a second taster as I want to be sure I wont get in anyones way etc.

yeah thats what they said on the phone, 1 visit to go through safety and induction, then we can go back and ride. but not right after induction….?

Someone asked about this last night and they said its normally booked a week in advance and you’d need to pass(?) your induction first before you could book. You might find you dont like it from your induction or you are knackered (its 2hours). I think a drive for a 2hour session is worth it. It gets you started after all.

Ah sounds great would love to give that a go!

Anyone who says BMX is for kids must think they are past it physically…or if they really do think its childish their pursuits are listed as pub lunches, walks and shopping centres 😀

passtherizla – have you thought about the birmingham bmx track?

http://birminghambmxclub.com/?page_id=1438

I’m quite tempted myself!

I went to the ‘accelerated induction’ 3 weeks ago on my 4x bike.The instructor watched us ride the 3rd and 4th straights for a few runs and then set us free.
Stayed on for open gates and ended up breaking a couple of ribs casing the big step up at the end of the 2nd straight 😕
Pretty awesome doing practice gates lining up next to Michael Prokop though 😀
I’ll be back as soon as I stop crying when I sneeze.

A couple of others fell off on my session, the dad said ‘you really don’t want to fall off- it hurts right through your knee pads’ 😆 😯

Love BMX. I considered doing a course at NCC but I arrogantly thought I’d take to it no problem so bought a race BMX and took myself to a local track. Huge culture shock and steep learning curve but I just stuck with it and after spending quiet weekends at the track for a couple of months I can confidently clear doubles and am currently working on doing the triple at my track. 😯

Still fancy doing a course though to learn a proper technique.

When you say ‘no cruisers’ do you mean they dont have any you can borrow, or they don’t let folk use their own?

yes thought about Birmingham but manchester is indoor.

Gone gone- no idea where. I panicked thinking ‘hey I like my bikes smaller than normal but this…’

The shock lasts a minute.