The AMA recently built a BMX race track here in town that exactly matches the Olympic BMX track in China for the next summer Olympic Games. I took Josh, Jonah, and Ethan to ride it yesterday. We rode the circuit five or six times and got a good feel for it. I was on my Mountain bike (c'mon, like I'm the only 42 year old guy who doesn't have a BMX bike) and I was catching some air off the jumps, but just a little. I didn't want to get too crazy with it. After an hour or so of riding, Josh asked if I wanted to race the entire track. Of course that is a great idea!! We went to the top of the gates, which is a steep incline to build speed heading into the first series of jumps (if you have ever watched real BMX racers, they keep both wheels on the ground... it is faster than catching air). But are we professional racers?? No, we are just a couple of hacks on mountain bikes. We took off and I let Josh beat me off the gates. He hit the first jump at full speed and caught some air. I hit it even faster than him because I was catching up to him. I hit the first upslope with waaaayyyy more speed than I intended. I shot off the top and went airborne at approx 20mph. I was coming down towards another jump, but I didn't make it to the down slope side. I landed on my front tire at the top of the up slope, just about a foot short of the peak. I proceeded to fly over the handle bars. The funny thing about momentum is that it seems unfazed by 'air friction.' I continued in the same direction, still at about 20 mph straight into the upslope side of the jump. I hit really, really hard, bounced and went airborne again, fell the six feet or so to land in the valley between the next two jump hills. I had enough time to tuck my head and roll/flip through that landing and come up on my feet. The first impact, though, was pretty much earth shattering. How do I know, you ask? Well, because I had earth embedded in my right hand, left knee, left forearm and elbow, and a little in my left cheek (face,not butt). Even though I no longer compete at anything, I still have that drive! I never even slowed down to see how bad I was hurt, or to pay attention to the fact that I had knocked the wind out of myself. I grabbed my bike and tried to take off to catch Josh, but my chain had fallen off. I put it back on quickly and tried to take off again, but couldn't. I noticed that my rear derailleur was bent into the spokes of my back tire. Bummer... I was done for the day. Since I was out of the race, I took a look at all the places I was bleeding. I counted 14 places. Woo Hoo! Look out for the crazy old guy who thinks he's still 25!! Anyway, this brings me back to the title of this blog entry: Scabs for free!! The BMX track is open to the public with no admission costs. In other words, you can go there and get scabs for free, just like me! Oh yeah, shiners are free too...
Here is a quick little shot of where I dug gravel out of my hand. Most of my left leg and shoulder look like that as well, along with a swollen knee, and very sore left shoulder. Oh yeah, and my left cheek bone feels a little bit re-arranged...
So, if you too would like some free scabs, give me a call and I'll take you to the BMX track. I'll have my bike fixed by then and I'll join you!
As for the kids, Jonah didn't feel like riding bikes. He spent the hole time jumping off the dirt hills, and throwing dirt clods at us as we rode by. He came away unscathed. Josh had a great time, but he is much more timid (or smarter) than me. He scared me the way he was catching air on the first jump out of the gates, but he never went down, and he was much more conservative through the rest of the track. He, too, came home unscathed. Ethan, who happens to be a carbon copy of me, is another story. He is only five, but has been riding a two wheeler without training wheels since he was three. He rode the entire BMX circuit over and over and over and over!!! HE was born to ride a bike!! He had such a great time, but he has absolutely no fear, just like me. That means he also got some free scabs. He would wipe out and crash/slide down a 10 foot long down slope. As soon as he got to the bottom, he would jump up and say "No problem, I'm a BMX Guy!" I also saw him take off from the top of a hill several times. He would stand next to his bike and push it off the hill, onto the steep down slope. He would jump in the air at the last second and throw his leg over the seat and land on the bike in mid air half way down the slope. WHAT FIVE YEAR OLD IN THE WORLD DOES THAT??? He also gets going really fast and then stands up on either his seat or his top tube and cruises like that. I keep waiting for him to go down hard, but he never does. Ethan is the most excited about BMX out of all of us. His self proclaimed nick-name is Tony Hawk, or sometimes Taylor Hawk (since his middle name is Taylor). I need to start getting video of him now so ESPN will have footage of him at five for the 2020 X Games.
Gotta run,
JD
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