Jamie Tomkins was racing bmx in Manchester last weekend, and so was his son. I’m assuming it was the same Jamie Tomkins, anyway!

Do it for fun and the experience, but not with any expectation or even hope of ‘making it’. Where he fits relative to his peers isn’t really important – someone has to be mid-table, or below, or races wouldn’t happen!

My son races BMX at a high level regionally and mid-pack nationally. We did the British championships this weekend. The winner of his age category rides up a year (so could ride as an 11 year old, but rides as a 12) was 4 seconds behind Kye Whyte’s time at the same meeting (36s v 32s). He was 2 seconds slower than Beth Shriever. My son, who wins some races in the SW, was 8 seconds behind Kye Whyte’s time. So the difference between my son (who didn’t have a great day, admittedly) and the winner of his category is about the same as between that kid and the olympic silver medalist.

Those are the kids that *may* make it riding bikes. There are some scarily talented kids out there.

But, my son gets to hang out with his BMX and bike friends, race in front of a couple of thousand people, and learns a lot about pressure, hard work, resilience, success, and failure (mostly failure!). He’s got bike skills that he’ll be able to enjoy for as long as he rides. As long as he wants to race I’ll support him, as I really think it is incredible for his development as a person.

So do it, but at this stage forget about success (in any terms other than his own development) or his ‘profile as a rider’, as you’re most likely on to a hiding to nothing. If he improves dramatically it may happen, but it seems unlikely given his opportunities to practice and the head start that many other kids have (seen any Harry Schofield vids recently?!)*

*Thankfully Harry races BMX the year below my son!

When racers change gears they normally go up or down a tooth on the front 44 to 45 or whatever, depending on the track. Going up or down a tooth on the back is a big difference.

These guys are at a monstrously high level – and the race is pretty much over at the first jump. So what you think of as a small difference is actually pretty big in bmx.

Going from a 16 to a 17 is big gear change in BMX – would make a massive difference at the level those guys are at.

If you like 35% sag on a shortish travel frame then I’m pretty sure that’s why the shockwiz is telling you to add air, add a low BB anyway and it’s going to be pedal strikes ahoy.

I think the Aether is designed around 30% sag and the shock curve is regressive up to that point and progressive beyond, so worth having running around there.

Rockshox seem far more linear and progressive.

That’s a new one on me…

I’ve got tan wall mezcals set up tubeless on my xc bike, don’t lose much pressure and no punctures yet. I’ve got a rimpact in the back though as it’s a fancy carbon wheel. I’d be happy using them for longer rides/bikepacking but I may run a rimpact up front too.

I did it in a (long) day in March, camped, then came back to my van over the mountain rd on a much shorter and easier day 2.

mountain view is great for kids that like jumps – take my 11 year old there a fair bit.

I’m in Bristol and about to sell an 18” Stanton slackline with nice fork and wheels for less than your budget…

I’ve done it both ways. The car more descent is fun but in the other direction the descent is way more technical and I enjoyed it more.

Hi Tom – nope, we’ve moved out to Backwell. Hope you have a good ride – bike looks great!

I just refurbed my Mk 1 solaris – new paint, new groupset, a set of Mavic XA elite carbon wheels that I got for < £300 (the advantage of a 135mm rear end). Looks great and still perfect for the riding you describe. If you like the bike, keep it. If you’re interested in newer style geometry, sell it (stealth ad: I have a medium scandal rolling chassis with hope wheels and a fox 34 if you’re interestde ;) ).

My solaris isn’t my only bike, and tbh if I only had one bike it would be a modern full sus, but it is still great.

A lot of suspension and gears there for the trail to destroy.

I was very glad to be on a suspension bike in 2017. Not sure I could face AXS anxiety though – although that is probably my luddite tendencies more than anything rational. I’m sure it must be waterproof :)

Agree re: steerer – I run 30mm spacers on my ml aether 7, I’m 5’10”.

Birds are pretty progressive- the v1 am9 was maybe too progressive for most riders- sure you need that spacer?

Mavic XM624s were going cheap a while ago – 24mm internal, eyelets, build nicely, not too heavy. I’d probably go DT if price were no object but mavic make decent rims IME even if they’ve been slow to go wide.

I’d space down the dual air fork to about 70mm and stick some lighter oil in the damper – both easy, cheap and reversible.

Don’t compare one drop to another – the size of the drop is pretty irrelevant compared to the run in and run out – that’s what determine whether I’m happy about doing a drop far more than the size (up to a point!)

Big trail looks good if you want 140mm travel. I’ve got a scandal which has very similar geo with a 120mm fork if you didn’t want to go that far. Personally 140 is as much travel as I’d ever want on a HT – I haven’t had a fork that long on a HT since I had 26” wheels.

If you’ve got easy access to pump and bmx tracks, and a child who is into it too, you won’t regret it. I went from
Race bmx, to cruiser, to old hard tail to proper 26” jump bike (a zircus, as mentioned above) and I get out on it 2-3 times a week. It’s brilliant and ultimately much easier to ride than a smaller wheeled bike, but much easy to jump and manual than an mtb.

Not sure you’ll do it for 200 quid though, unless you have a good garage full of 26” kit.

I’ve still got a mk1 Solaris – currently in the loft waiting for new paint and a rebuild. I’ve had a few really nice hard tails since chameleon 29, scout 290, and yet could never quite bring myself to sell the Solaris, as for some things it is better than them – xc and bike packing in particular. Looking forward to building it up again with slack set, carbon xa elite wheels that I got super cheap on eBay and a new 11 sp group set.

In recent years 502 is my one minute best, 365 my peak 5 min. 68-73kg depending on beer. Not that close to those numbers this year…349w peak 5 min and about 450w peak 1 min

I had an am9 and now have an aether 7 (first non 29er since 2013, not counting jump bikes!). I’d take the aether anywhere I’d take the am9 – you just have to back off when things get really rough. It’s not nervous at all – headangle, reach the same. It doesn’t have quite the stability that the am9 has with the big wheels and longer chainstays, but for me it is a better all round bike in terms of fun. Jumps better, manuals better, is much better on flatter trails and I prefer it on steep slow stuff too, although I’m not sure quite why.

My wife is getting a dryrobe for standing around watching my daughter play football and my son race bmx. Bloody freezing being a spectator.

Does anyone know about using solar PV to bring the running costs of an electric boiler down? We need a new boiler in a house we’re renovating. It will have decent insulation and be about 50% under floor heating. We currently have oil, no gas, but there is gas in the street. I’d like to have a system that runs on renewables but wife and architect not keen on air source and ground source too tricky. Can a combo of solar PV and night rates reduce annual running costs to around that of gas?

The economy of gas makes going green really hard.

eh? It’s a competition prize?

chap in my office told me yesterday, that one of the ingredients in this new vaccine is…..

a small amount of lung sample, from a 14 week foetus.

Which firstly is a horrible thought, but secondly, who knew these pharmaceutical company’s stocked such thing. Does a foetus even have lungs at 14 weeks?! I have no clue!

Needless to say I ripped the urine for a while, thankfully he realised what the internet told him might not be accurate.

Thing is with this one, like many such arguments, is that there is a warped grain of truth in it. Lots of vaccines are developed using foetal DNA – the fact that they’ve been using the same DNA since the 60s (from two elective abortions) kind of waters down the argument against it though.

I’ve got the AMs in large and fox flex airs in 34″. To be honest I prefer the decathlons – less flappy fit, spray resistant panels on shins and arse. Bit euro looking, but they’re generally covered in mud. DWR has survived a few washes so far.

yep – not sure I’d put a longer fork on the mantle, although you could do that as a stepping stone to the inevitable new bike. I still think a carbon chameleon would tick all your boxes though…

I’m glad you’ve gone to the docs – time is of the essence with these things, but hopefully it isn’t as serious as you fear. I had stage 3/4 bladder cancer when I was 43 and we just told the kids that I wasn’t well and would be in hospital for a while, and luckily I survived. Ours were a fair bit younger than 11. My son is now 11, and one of his friend’s mum has terminal cancer – they’re all being open about it and preparing the kids for the inevitable end fairly soon. Feel free to pm.

IXS trigger is really really comfy. I’ve had dainese, 661 evo compression and some crappy brand x stuff and the IXS is way less intrusive, cooler, and more low profile. Expensive but I got a good deal from the ebay wiggle returns shop…

If you’re putting the rim on to the same hub, just match the ERD as closely as possible. TBH I’d use the spokes again too and just do a rim swap if you can find one (Roger Musson says it’s ok, and that’s good enough for me)

yes, you’ll want chaintugs. Bit of a pain on the zircus as the sliding drops are so short but I managed to find one in the end. I think I’m only running one on the drive side, can’t quite remember!

I’ve not got an ileostomy, but do have a urostomy, so also happy to discuss biking with bags. Life goes on, I’ve managed the highland trail 550, the Torino-Nice Rally and lots of other things with a bag so it’s all possible. Good luck!

I might be tempted to go for the silver over the gold for the steel stanchions in that application. I use an old 32mm stanchion recon with a 20mm bolt through on my zircus and it is fine for bmx tracks, pumptracks etc.

I’ve got a lamina 32. It’s ok – but massive! Not sure if I got an large one in error – I’m 5’10 and has too much volume for me. I’ve also got a cumulus 300 quilt which is warmer, more comfortable, is about half the weight and less than half the volume of the lamina, so I hardly use it.

oops – just saw price guide. Sorry. Speccy laughter and butcher can normally be picked up at that sort of price. Control front/grid rear if you can find them. V similar to maxxis combo above.

2.3 minion ss on the back and 2.3 dhf maxterra on the front is a good trail centre combo in exo flavour. Roll fast, never really muddy enough to trouble a ss but you still have the shoulder if you’ve got used to cornering on your proper tyres.

TJ – your set up looks super comfortable for a relaxed long tour on reasonable surfaces and I understand your choices (last time I went touring with a couple of not really cycling friends we took board games!) , but I wouldn’t fancy it much for anything that resembled technical mountain biking!