I just watched a clip of the Olympic BMX Biking competition. I was struck my the grown adults riding such undersized little bikes. They pumped the pedals furiously like bike riding clowns I’ve seen at the circus.
I don’t get it. As a lifelong road bike rider, I know that there is an ideal frame size and geometry that will give each rider maximum efficiency (speed) – and those dinky bikes ain’t it!
What gives here?
Ever tried to do any sort of tricks on a mountain bike? Besides maybe bunny hop, a BMX has a low center of gravity, making it ideal for spinning on one wheel, or doing flips (turns faster through the air), and all other stuffs. I’m not sure if you are talking freestyle events or what, but if you want to do tricks at all, you need a tiny bike.
Try imagining balancing on top of a ladder that only has one foot touching the ground. Now imagine doing that with a very low to the ground, squatty step stool. Still hard, but less menacing.
From what I heard China wanted to add Wu Shu to the card but the WTO nixed that due to their human rights record. This is from a friend of mine who was going to train to be on the Wu Shu team from America.
It seems to me that BMX being added is a big FU to China, but maybe I’m wrong.
The smaller frames are more agile for jumping and what they call technical riding and accelerate better. The bike doesn’t seem to make all that much difference because the riders are hardly ever “riding” just flying through the air, and a lighter bike must help there too.
Those dinky bikes aren’t trying to go fast.
What does the WTO have to do with the Olympics?
I guess they can influence people at the IOC.
They’re probably about optimal for the type of course they’re racing on. Steep jumps and the spacing of the doubles / triples makes such a small, light bike the order of the day. A lightening start is also required, and the race is over in ca. 40 secs.
I guess it looks a bit like a kid’s sport if you’ve not seen it on the TV before - but take your comment about ‘pumping the pedals furiously’ - that’s basically what any type of sprint cycling is all about. The British rider Shanaze Reade is getting a lot of coverage here as she’s the BMX world champion. She crashed this morning but qualified on her second ride. She won the gold medal in the womens team sprint in the world championship track cycling in Manchester earlier this year, with Victoria Pendleton. Her competitor in the Olympics, Anne-Caro Chaussen, is the greatest female downhill mountain biker ever, world champion something like 13 times.
Jamie Staff won a gold medal this Olympics in the team sprint as the lead off man in the British track team - set the fastest opening lap in the history of the event, flat out ruined the competition. He was a multiple world BMX champion in his 20s.
So the BMXers are the real McCoy - fantastic sprint cyclists.
Really? Maybe in some events they’re not – the jumpy, flippy freestylish ones – but the clip I saw showed a race. Sure, it was filled with turns and jumps and bumps, but it was a race nonetheless. The fastest rider was the winner.
Perhaps it would have been better stated that BMX bikes aren’t only concerned with straightline speed.
Sure didn’t influence them enough not to give the Olympics to China in the first place.
Thanks, I worded that very poorly last night.
Can someone explain this post to me?
I’m assuming it’s some sort of conspiracy theory.
It may well be very difficult to ride at that level, but I have to say, seeing people that size on those bikes makes me think of a bunch of teenagers who can’t convince their parents to or didn’t have the money to buy bikes that actually fit them, rather like a lot of my schoolmates back in the late 1980s.
“I can’t have a cool bike? I’m going to try desperately to make this bike seem cool, then! No, really, look at this trick! My kid’s bike is actually awesome! Yeah, this one that I’ve had since I was eight!”
I just can’t take it seriously, and I think it’s silly to have in the Olympics.
My personal belief is that they started learning the tricks when they were 8 or so (and the bikes fit them), and found as they got older that they couldn’t do them on ‘real’ bikes - so they kept using the small bikes. Like I said - just my opinion.
Asking “why don’t they use proper bikes?” is like asking “why don’t they use guns in archery since they’re much more accurate?”. If they didn’t use those bikes it wouldn’t be BMX. If you want to see similar racing on bigger bikes watch the 4-X (four cross) event at a World Cup mountain bike event.