Calling all Old School Racer's

[hazzajoe]

Calling all old school racers. This is the story so far, as I see it. O/S racing has had a high point throughout the UK and I guess ( I can only guess,  as I had no part in the sport at the time), since its removal from the Brits has seen its demise in all regions other than the North Region.
 Racer numbers  in O/S racing in the north region since I started 3 years ago have been rapidly depreciating. I guess on the plus side of this depreciation, some of the people whom are not now racing O/S are racing other expert classes. I have also started racing cruiser class this year, I am not much cop on a bmx , but out of my two BMX's I feel much safer and more comfortable clipped into a cruiser. I have been doubling up on classes, in part to get twice as much race practice at each regional round and also to try to keep the o/s racing alive, other people have done this in the past and I believe that someone did it at Manchester on sunday.
I believe that one of the bug bears of getting a decent number of people on the O/S gate was due to the British Cycling License fee. In the lead up to this season, someone from Bradford, I believe, fought the corner of North Region O/S racing, and cleared it with the powers that be, so that we could racing for a fee the same as novices pay and without a license.  I personally appreciated this hard work by said person(S), as I'm sure other O/S riders did. I assumed that with the change in the rules, that everyone would rejoice, dust off the bikes and the O/S numbers would rise once again. I was wrong.

I realise that I'm relatively new in this sport so there will be many underlying issues that I have no clue about. Also I realise that O/S racers, including myself, are getting no younger, have kids to look after, wives to answer to, are prone to injury, are busy with work etc etc.

I guess the point of this post is to ask if anyone would be bothered if the North Region knocked O/S racing at regionals on the head?

For myself the answer is Yes I would be bothered, however, if it goes under I will still race cruiser for as long as I am able and find it enjoyable. I would much prefer to race both, even though I would guess that racing an O/S moto  probably has a detrimental effect on my cruiser moto, 10 races later. This is not about me, its about O/S racing in the North Region. Also I think that if we did have a strong O/S following in the North, the love could be spread  to other regions?

For anyone reading whom has not raced, in summary of my personal experience. Briefly. I was never into BMX, I took  my kids to our local track 4-5 years ago, I pushed them up the jumps, held them down the jumps and around the berms for a couple of years and then thought I may as well ride rather than stand about,  I got an old school ride, found the crack in the general bmx community very good especially in the o/s pens. I was super nervous at my first o/s race and still am now. The good thing about O/S racing is that although it is competitive, its not too serious. for me its about personal progression, bike tweaking, being with my kids, learning/developing my own skills so that I can better support my boys etc. I suppose I could go on.......

Whats the crack??? How does everyone feel?

[James Nada]

James Nada here (despite what my username says)

A good post Anthony.

A lot of people did use the licence requirement as a reason to stay away and, now the licence requirement has gone it doesn't seem to have made a difference.  It's a real shame and the individual who fought for the licence removal has every right to pissed of to have ever  bothered.

To answer one of you specific questions - "will I be bothered if is gets kicked on the head?".  No, I won't. It makes it a very easy choice for me to race Cruiser.  I think most of the more regular (Daz, Gish, Diggler, me if I'm not injured, etc) OSers will be happy to race Masters/expert/cruiser.

Yes it'll be a shame for OS racing to die out but I think it's been coming for a while.

See you all trackside - with clips on!

james

[Gish]

I'm going 18+ novice on my cruiser next season 

[Dark Diggler]

Me too 

[Betty]

If i hadn't hurt my back last week i'd have been there on sunday   

Bloody kids bikes 

[OrgasmDonor]

old school rocks,, but the numbers make it so n track side banter. i'm old school through n through but even i am leaning towards the dark side. I will keep racing but would love a good couple of years of full o/s gates to look forward to.

i do think tho, that the lack of points across the season doesnt help people turning up. having to race 6 to get a trophy n making the effort to try n better your overall points by racing as many of the races in a season as possible helps keep race numbers up, racing in an open class, unfortunately has affected the drive to turn up.

[JT Smooth]

Im just busy getting fat and being lazy 

[richie4]

I'm with Daz on this one.i think not having to do the six races and being classed as novice hasn't done the old Skool any good.if it ends would MK be the only OS race of the year?it was a computer error that landed me in the dark side at Manchester.

[MADD DOGG]

years ago,,,i got back into racing again ,,,cruiser bruiser class,,,was brill and i thought i did ok,,,,,
then got into old bmx,s again and the rest is history
the thing i love about racin old school is your not judged how good or shite you are ,,its all about gettin together and just lovin the whole atmosphere of racin like minded guys like you
it would be a real shame if old school stopped as its brill,,,im in the throws of losing weight and getting fit after being told im ok off the consultant,,,so should be back on the gate soon,,,,would love some guys in north east to chip in and sort lifts out as my youngster is footy madd now and just seems a lot to fork out for ,,,for myself

if i could get a lift sorted ,,,i would be in shed tommoz buildin bike for sunday to race

LETS TRY KEEP IT ALIVE

[Gish]

Old schools completely dead guys

Buy s new school bike and hit a different class

[hazzajoe]

If old school is dead, get yer bikes stripped and someone sell me a nice top load stem

[Gish]

If old school is dead, get yer bikes stripped and someone sell me a nice top load stem

Then the Kidd wouldn't have a bike to play on in the streets