2017 Race Blog - The Trials & Tribulations of a New School Newbie (in Japan)!

[griff]

Very nice Mick 
Dangoose is a very good egg 

[Mikku]

Glad you like it! Took a while to get there, and along the way I very nearly pulled the trigger on that black PK, then the yellow Lachesis, but I think it was worth waiting for the Crupi to come along!

Yeah, Dangoose is a good 'un, sorting me out with some race gear as well, including Leatt chest and back armour, 661 Rage knee pads, some One Industries Battalion gloves & a No Fear lid, which is rated for motorcross, so should hopefully be good enough for my needs!

Although I gambled with the bike, I was able to try all the race gear on before parting with my hard-earned, which was invaluable, especially with the helmet which although being an S size, actually fitted me better than some M-sized ones I've tried!

[oldtired]

     loving the Crupi   ,        just from the pics is the top headset cup seated correctly?  looks like it could do with squashing in a bit more, may just be the photo angle? 


also ad some some shin pads to your kit, full wrap ones are best, especially if your going to wear shorts,  ,  you will slip the pedals at some point , now the front shinner will hurt like tooth ache, but a pedal pin ripping through the soft fleshy bit on the back ruins your day 

[Drawn]

Very tidy. Sounds like it suits you well and will be some fun to ride.

[Mikku]

Thanks for the comments gents! The top headset cup's in fine, so it must be the photo angle. However, some shin pads are definitely on my wish list!

Along with the bike and race kit, I've also received my club membership card, as shown below, so I celebrated my new status by putting on my race gear for a few snaps including a bit of gate practice!

There's a regional race at Midoriyama this weekend, so I'll go along for a butcher's then start practising for some race action of my own!!

[x600se]

Mick, pleasure to meet u the other week mate. Looks like ur all ready to get into it. Good luck with the racing, great crack and loads to learn once u get into it. Plus ur little local track looks sweet as well with that nice OS club feel to it. 

[Mikku]

Cheers Dan!

Went to the regional yesterday and spoke to a few more people, which was good. Yeah, it definitely has that OS club feel to it, probably due to the fact that the kids classes have full gates, so there's plenty of parental support. There were also 9 starters in the "Over 30s" class, aka my class, so they had to run two heats, which meant that I had double the chance to check out the competition. Not that I'm expecting anything great, of course, I just don't want to be left 20 metres behind the pack, so it was useful to be able to check out their level!

The two things that really struck me yesterday though were:-

1. There were quite a few wipe-outs! I'm therefore glad that I've invested in some protection because I'm pretty sure that I don't bounce as well as I did bitd!
2. I've had enough watching and now want to ride!

Right, I've the day off today, the weather's good, so I'm going to get off here and get out there!  

[Andyboy77]

Defo one of my all time favourite threads!  Always a great read, funny and your exitement is very catching indeed.

Have a brilliant day Mick! 

[Mikku]

Thanks Andy, glad you like the thread! I started it mainly as a personal record of my exploits but I must admit, it’s nice to have some words of advice and encouragement along the way!

So today I made the most of a sunny national holiday and took the Crupi to Midoriyama! I have to start off by saying that I already love this bike! I rode the 2-hour round trip on it, and it's a great rider. The only thing I’ve yet to find is the manualling sweet spot, so am going to have to spend some more time experimenting with that. Back to Midoriyama, I was there for about 3 hours, probably half of which was spent catching my breath, sipping energy drinks and fannying around with photos. However, I did have the place to myself so was able to go at my own pace, which was nice! The track is basically 4 straights and 4 berms, as can be seen in this satellite shot below (the start gate's on the bottom right).

After a knackering couple of attempts at full laps, I decided to break the track up into 4 parts, which I could practice one at a time. Having already been there twice and got a feel for the place, this time I really wanted to focus on the ol’ pumping technique and slowly but surely, I seemed to get better at it. Not sure what it looked like but I was more or less able to keep the momentum going to the end of each straight, with a few sneaky pedal strokes thrown in if not! However, I still have a real problem with the last straight, which is the rhythm section full of fairly evenly sized, closely packed rollers. I've posted a few pics below so you can see what I’m talking about. The section in question is in the foreground, on the right hand side in the 2nd pic, with the 3rd pic showing what it looks like from the tabletop at the beginning of the straight.

Manualling is currently not an option for this newbie, so at the moment I’m having to grab the bull by the horns and try to pump my way through the section, which I have to say is more difficult and scarier than the much larger rollers on the rest of the track. The feeling is much like I imagine riding a rodeo horse, namely I feel like I’m going to bucked off at any moment! Any suggestions on how to survive and/or deal with this section would be gratefully received!! The 4th pic shows the spacing between the rollers.

Overall though, it was good session. The Crupi felt great, my pumping improved and I'm generally feeling more confident. Perhaps most importantly, I didn't injure myself, though my wrists and knees are now bloody sore! Onwards and upwards!

[Drawn]

Ill try to explain the technique as best as possible. It is hard to describe at times and much easier to show it, but lets give it a go.

So as you'de probably know, it is more then just using the arms, you need to use the whole body, especially the legs to get good backsides on the rollers.
As you approach the roller you lift up as such the front end so your arms are bent, depending on the size of the roller the bars can be super close to your chest.
As you go over the "peak" you need to push down the front end, so this is where you can be over the front of the bars quite a bit. At the same time, and this is the trickier part, you are "pulling up the rear of the bike so your legs are staring to "compress" for lack of better words.
Once the rear wheel is over you now also use your legs to push down the backside of the jump to get the full speed.

It is as you can see not the easiest to explain without a picture. But hopefully will give you a rough idea of how you use the whole body to almost unload the bike on the way up the face of the jump and then load it up on the backside. basically lightening and then making it heavier.

Once you do get the skills up you can kind of float over the rollers and will gain some very big speeds out of it.

[Mikku]

That's excellent mate - appreciate the help! I've just watched a few youtube clips to cement what you said, and will try to put it into practice when I head back to the track this weekend! Whilst I was on there, I had another look at the manualling vids and am going to have a crack at that again tomorrow!! This kind of takes me back 35 years to when I was first learning to bunny hop!

Just found this pic, which I think captures the "peak" you mentioned. I also like their choice of forks!

[Drawn]

Well on that front, this may help.
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/How-to-Manual-amp-Bunny-Hop-Your-Bike-2012.html

Next weekend I've been entered to update the coaching accreditation to what you would call an intermediate level (so wheels off the ground). If I pick up much that might be of help then i'll put them up. It will probably be more about conditioning and training methods but should involve teaching jumping an manualling.

Im at that stage with manualling aswell. Can get most jumps pretty sweet, but trying to find that balance point for the real long ones (either on track or on the street). Still have a goal for one day, maybe during peak hour to go through one of the city streets on the back wheel.

[Mikku]

Thanks mate! Reading and watching that, I definitely need to practise driving through more from the hips. That might also help to prevent the lower back pain I've got today after just 10 minutes trying to manual yesterday!

Good luck with the coaching course! I look forward to seeing your "How to" vids on Youtube in due course!  

[Drawn]

haha, my how to vids would look like,
"how to turn on dirt, but not manage to stay upright on bitumen" haha.

and yeah manualling is more about keeping the arms straight and using the hips to push out and balance.
give it while and over time you start to pick up on how much you need to move about for how deep or long the jump is.

Just saw the pic, and that's probably a bit extreme but could be because of the track set up.
its definitely how the kids can get it done, but you would have a bit more size behind you so it wont be quite so exaggerated. for example you wont be down quite as low down.

[oldtired]

just my opinion here and from experience,  there are a lot of us on here been down the same path your on,   

tbh i wouldn't worrie about manualling for the moment ,getting fit enough and the skill to get round the whole track as fast as you can without falling is probably more important at your stage,  manualling  will come on it's own as you get faster round the track, looking at the size of the rollers  pumping will get you over them pretty quickly , 

  you can practice as much  as you want but for the first couple of races it will all go out the window by the time you've got to the end of the first straight, it's a whole different game when you've got seven other nutters all hacking down the track aiming for the same point on the berm      as to finishing behind everyone else then thats a triumph on its own, it wont be like that , keep up with the guy in last place if thats where your are then try to pass him , you never know in a race, people fall, make mistakes so the opertunity to take a few places is never far away,   

 by far the best practice for racing is to race , i can pretty much guarentee by the end of the day your face will be hurting from the big smile you've got 

[Mikku]

Thanks for your advice guys - really appreciate it! I have a tendency to overthink things, so yeah, will put manualling on the backburner for the time being and concentrate on getting fit and ready for the my first race in mid-April, in 3 weeks time. To that end, I'm planning to get back out on the track again this coming week.

[Drawn]

Sounds like a good plan. Definitely good to focus just getting around for now.

The hardest thing to develop and teach is racecraft as oldtired has mentioned in a different way.
Basically the ability to do things that require a lot of thought without thinking.

[Mikku]

With today off work, I decided to head back to Midoriyama for some mid-week practice. However, things didn’t go quite to plan! I made it there ok and was putting my knee pads on when a security guard pulled up on a moped. 30 years ago I might have pegged it but the times they are a-changin’, and I had a chat to the guy instead. As suspected, my unofficial practice sessions were just that, and after trying to explain that to me in Japanese, he produced a note with “Private Property – No Trespassing” clearly written in English, so that I was left in no doubt as to my wrongdoing!

So my planned pumping practice didn’t pan out but on the plus side, I wasn’t arrested, and I also put another 2 hours of riding on the Crupi. Admittedly not on track but still productive, as I'm normally too knackered to do anything on the way home, so this time I did half a dozen or so sprints, and rode up the hills that I normally get off for! I also wore my new elbow pads throughout the whole time, just to get a feel for them, and after 5 minutes I forgot I was wearing them, so that was good.

The next official practice session at Midoriyama is on 9th April, so I will head back there then. In the meantime I do have a Plan B, namely another track to check out, which I shall be doing, albeit as a spectator, this coming weekend. Report and pics to follow!

[oldtired]

best not upset the locals       

     although it may be worth finding out if or where they practice, there must be an open track somewhere , see if you can tag along with them ,

[Mikku]

although it may be worth finding out if or where they practice, there must be an open track somewhere , see if you can tag along with them ,

I'm on the case!

[Mikku]

So I carried out Plan B on Sunday and visited another track:-

http://www.radbmx.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,190197.0.html

However, my mid-week misdemeanor at Midoriyama caught up with me because as soon as I arrived, I was called over and spoken to by the club officials, who had been contacted by the Midoriyama security staff. Given the embarrassment that this would have caused them (loss of face is a HUGE thing in Japan), a suitable (well actually, probably an insufficient) amount of apologising and bowing followed, but I’ve undoubtedly blotted my copybook. Oh well, this blog is all about trials and tribulations, so from that point of view I’m still on track, as it were.

Anyway, cultural faux pas and reprimands aside, the trip to Kawaguchi was well worth it. I met and chatted to a couple of the Japanese guys I’ll be racing with in the over 30s class, as well as a few other people who now recognise me. There's a full description and some photos of the track in the other thread but I liked the look of the place. The race meeting was a much smaller, lower-key event than those I've seen at Midoriyama, so would probably be a better place for my first race outing but unfortunately the next meeting there isn't until June, therefore Midoriyama it is. However, I definitely want to go there to practise though, as I don’t have a car, this is going to mean manhandling the Crupi on the 75-minute train journey to the nearest station and then riding there! I have some time off work this week, so watch this space!

[Mikku]

Have bag, will travel (and practice)!!

I've been meaning to get a bike bag for a while, as you can't take bikes on Japanese trains without one. Then when I saw that Tioga made a BMX-specific one, the deal was done! I should end up looking like the guy in the 3rd pic if I can work out how to follow the instructions!

[Mikku]

So I made it back to Kawaguchi today. It was a day of firsts and seconds – first time taking a BMX on a Japanese train (courtesy of the "BMX Cocoon"), first time on my second Japanese BMX track, and my first and second falls! I spent a couple of hours at the track, cutting out the first straight to create a loop, so that I could practice the two rhythm sections. The more time I spend on them, the better I’m getting, or least the more comfortable I’m feeling riding them! I’m not sure how that translates from a speed point of view but I feel I’m making progress. I've posted a pic of the rhythm section on the finish straight, with the start hill and doubles on the right.

I also practised those doubles and getting faster each time, ended up on the dirt! The first turn was quite damp after some overnight rain and on my third or fourth run through, my front end washed out and I got the chance to check out the integrity of my left knee pad, left elbow pad, the G-Force padding on my left shoulder and the left side of my helmet! Thankfully all came through with flying colours!!

Later on I tried jumping the tabletop at the beginning of the finish straight and after half a dozen goes, was nearly getting it right when I got it completely wrong, and hit the dirt for a second time, again falling on my left side. I’m so grateful for wearing the TLD guards as even with those on, I still scraped the skin off my elbow. As far as I’m concerned, the money I’ve spent on buying the race gear has already paid dividends as without it all, I’m sure I’d have more than a sore shoulder and bloodied elbow. & if you're not falling, you're not trying, right?! Anyway, despite the falls, I had a good day and learnt a lot.

This Sunday is an official practice day at Midoriyama, so I’m planning to head back there, though there’s currently a threat of rain, so we’ll see what pans out.

     

[oldtired]

it may sound silly but it's good to get a few falls out of the way, there will no doubt be more to follow ,   the thing is , the fear of falling affects your confidence to push yourself faster round the the track ,  now you know the padding works you can forget about falling, and concentrate on building up your speed 


 

[Mikku]

Yeah, definitely! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and all that!