No OS at the Brits??

[Rooonga]

Hi everyone,

I have just got off the phone with Roger Wilbraham at British Cycling.

I needed to sort out my license, but thought I'd ask him about the brits this year.

He told me that there would be no old school class at the Brits! I asked about it and he said he has never been approached, and that as other regions have already started their summer season it may be too late to arrange it.

The south region was the only one he was aware of that was running a proper OS series this year, and as it is only one region there wouldn't be a chance for other regions to qualify for brits.

He did say that he would be happy to run it like it was last year as an exhibition race - possibly for some charitable cause. But he added that someone had better get back to him ASAP to make the arrangements.

I am hoping this will be all sorted soon, possibly Ratty n co will reply here to let us know the full score.

No matter what I'll be having a bash on my OS bike, as well as me 24" with the 40+ bruisers, just be nice if the old schoolers get a good season finale at the brits 2008.

[RATTY]

Paul, can you tex me with rogers phone number please. PM with my number on its way

[bmx-796]

told you last week ratty

[RATTY]

I have spoken to Roger at BCF today, I have to write to the BCF to try and persuade them to allow an OS race at the Brits. If it goes ahead there wont be any qualification required through the regionals as some regions have alreay started the summer series

[THIRSTYKIRSTY]

hey tony

tried to arrange something up here ,,but was to late to get sorted

wat we will have to do is have a meetin at MK to discuss this for next yr

i know dave beard will give me a hand to get it sorted up here but do thiunk we should try get something in place before the winter regionals get going

lmk wat ya think

russ

[RATTY]

I agree Russ, we need to all get together to resolve this, we are not asking for the old school to be a class at nationals, just for us to be able to race the Brits and regionals. Its about time they realised just what the Old School brings to BMX.
I havent given up hope for this years Brits, just looks pretty bleak at the mo

[THIRSTYKIRSTY]

IF WE CAN TONY

TRY DO ANOTHER CHARITY RACE

BREAST CANCER OR SOMETHING AS WORTHY

DONT THINK ANYONE WOULD MIND US DOIN SOMETHING LIKE THAT

THERE IS QUITE AFEW UP HERE NOW ,,REGULAR FULL GATES BUT NOT AS MANY AS YOUR WAY ,,BUT TIS EARLY DAYS

BEEN HAVIN A CHAT TO WIFE ASWELL AND LOOKS LIKE I MIGHT BE CALMIN MESELF DOWN ABIT THIS YEAR NOW ,,,GONNA DO OLD SCHOOL INSTEAD OF FULL ON AGGRESION IN CRUISER BRUISER AND SO ON

I WANT THAT PRO CLASS OFF FUNMONSTER YA SEEN IT SPARKLE TONY ,,ONLY THING WOULD IT CARRY MY FAT BACKSIDE OK

RUSS

[beard1973]

I am more than happy to help Russ run the Northern Old School Series.... 

Apart from 'Preston'... all the regional meetings were more than happy to hold an Old School Gate, I am in the process of contacting ALL the people relevent for the Summer Series in the North to confirm that we can race Old School at EVERY round.

The Old School gate always gets a great reception from the younger riders.

Whatever we can do to get Old School at The Brits... let me & Russ know.

Beard

[Humps00]

TRY DO ANOTHER CHARITY RACE

I can imagine that Stephen Murray's family would welcome some more support from the BMX community and what better an event to do it at again.  IMO.  Humps

[Zippy]

I'm with you Alan. There are lots of worthwhile charities out there and they all get a resounding support from the general public. But the Stephen Murray Fund is only going to be supported by the likes of us. I assume the guy still has shed loads of medical bills to pay.

[QuadPaul]

I agree with Humps & Zippy, lets say we'll do it as an exhibition race again with proceeds to going to the Stephen Murray find, might also help win us some brownie points with the BCF

[kennyhunter6061]

So are we looking to MK08 for the Oldschool showdown of the year instead?  Sounds like we all need to get things sorted earlier for next year if we want to have a legitimate OS class at the Brits.  Technically I can run my club races up here as 'regionals' anyway so Scotland could also have riders who would qualify for the Brits, so it wouldn't just be the South region.  Each Region can 'elect' riders to take part in any class anyway, if they haven't qualified by the normal route (i.e. not entering enough Regionals or coming 9th, 10th etc and others who did qualify drop out)  I don't see why they can't do this for the OS class.  Maybe Ratty should 'remind' Roger of this 

Having an Oldschool class at the Brits would be cool, but I reckon MK is going to be much better anyway.  Oldschool heaven    Can't wait.

[RATTY]

I will try and contact Marco delisolla this week to enquire about Stephen Murray, if the stay strong fund still needs help then I will propose that we race again for this cause. Does anyone have any objections to this?

Kenny can you give me a call when you get a chance, I will PM my number

[se bikes]

It's all good to have a penultimate round at MK but the season finishes so early then, last year was a real drag from MK to the start of the OSWS

[QuadPaul]

Also, having the last round at MK means the Series riders being mixed in with everyone else, so it meant what should have been an explovise winner takes all final between a few riders faded out as we all ended up split up and only 1 rider made the A final meaning they could cruise.

Although it is great to race loads of new guys, when your chasing a series and throw it at the dirt trying to over take someone who's not in the series it is a little frustrating 

[RATTY]

Also, having the last round at MK means the Series riders being mixed in with everyone else, so it meant what should have been an explovise winner takes all final between a few riders faded out as we all ended up split up and only 1 rider made the A final meaning they could cruise.

Although it is great to race loads of new guys, when your chasing a series and throw it at the dirt trying to over take someone who's not in the series it is a little frustrating 

You shouldnt have been so hung over, then you might have stayed on your bike

[dialledbikes]

It's a shame that OS won't be a proper class at the Brits for you guys this year.  I don't see why it can't be (despite other regions not running an OS class) because loads of people don't race cruiser at the regionals sign up for the cruiser class at the Brits.

Good luck, but if it ends up being an exhibition race again like last year, that's better than nothing.

[Zippy]

It would be nice if the old school at the brits could be left to the old school riders that support the class week in week out. 

[Longun]

Before I say this, I've not done MK or a previous series (for many years) so I have no idea about no. of riders, timescales, etc etc, but could you not run 2 classes of OS at MK. One a championship class for those that have been doing the regionals and are going for the championship, and an open class as a 'one-off' event that everyone could enter?

[dialledbikes]

It would be nice if the old school at the brits could be left to the old school riders that support the class week in week out. 

I hear what you're saying, but the OS can't have it all their own way/get special treatment, unfortunately.  If the OS wants a class at the Brits, it has to be treated the same as all the other classes, so as long as people have qualified for the Brits through their regions, they are entitled to race 20", cruiser or OS.

[Zippy]

It would be nice if the old school at the brits could be left to the old school riders that support the class week in week out. 

I hear what you're saying, but the OS can't have it all their own way/get special treatment, unfortunately.  If the OS wants a class at the Brits, it has to be treated the same as all the other classes, so as long as people have qualified for the Brits through their regions, they are entitled to race 20", cruiser or OS.

I don't think we should get special treatment but what you'll get is people riding in the 30+ 20" class that know they don't stand much chance of getting in the top 3 will then race in old school so thay can call themselves a British Champ.

[dialledbikes]

But that applies to all the other classes, Si.

For example, if Kelvin Batey or Liam Phillips wanted to race 16-29 cruiser at the Brits having qualified through 20", then they can.  In fact, Liam Phillips won the 16-29 cruiser class at the Brits last year, but I doubt he did one regional on cruiser all season.  Dan Whyte did the same and got second on 16-29 cruiser. 

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but the OS can't try to exclude people from racing OS class at the Brits, because that's not how it works for the other classes.

You watch, around July/August this year, loads of people will be buying and selling cruisers because having race 20" all season, they will want a shot at an "easy title" at the Brits.

[kennyhunter6061]

I had forgotten about the idea of MK being a 'final' round for each Region.  I had imagined it as being our 'Brits' if you like.  I see where QuadPaul is coming from regarding 'new' riders taking part, but you can't really say to people they have to qualify for MK if you're treating it like a last round of a regional series.  I have to ask though - If we're thinking about treating MK as a 'last round' for each region, would you get your points allocated to you 'by region' or by overall placing?  For instance, what if all the riders from one region were out by the semis - Does their highest placed rider get 50pts, like he would if he won a 'regional' final, or does he get the number of points which would be awarded for his actual placing in the MK event?

I like the idea of MK being one massive Oldschool party.  The more the merrier as far as I'm concerned.  Lots of people are looking forward to MK08 and I would hate to think we'd turn anyone away who might want to get involved.  Thankfully I won't be organising it, but I'd have thought it would be easier all round to just run it as a big Open Race, rather than complicate it by trying to incorporate it into each region's OS series.

I've also just spoken with Roger at BCHQ.  I think he was concerned that BC would be seen as just allowing all us OS riders to turn up each year without having to do a set amount of Regionals like the 'regular' classes have to.  Having spoken with Roger, I would suggest that, if they haven't already done so, an oldschool representative from each Region approaches their Regional Committee and asks that an Oldschool gate be included at each regional, with the view to qualification for the Brits.  If any Regions have already started their summer series they can still allow an Oldschool gate - It would just mean the Oldschool class did fewer Regionals to qualify for the Brits.  This would, of course, be up to each Region to agree the qualifying criteria.

Roger seemed positive about Oldschool being accepted as a class with equal status as the regular age group classes, if we could all work something out with our Regions so that we do 'Qualify' by doing a set number of races at Regional level.  The alternative would be that we could do another 'Exhibition' race for a charitable cause.  Obviously it would be cool if we could have an Oldschool race which carried a recognised 'British Champion' title, so it's up to each Region to act quickly to sort out some qualifying Regional races.

Roger also hinted that an Oldschool class would benefit from having some rules regarding eligibility, be that for riders or, more importantly bikes.  Tony and I have decided that only people with the names 'Kenny' or 'Tony' are allowed to race    Just kidding.  We will be having a good think about what the basic qulifying criteria should be, who should be excluded (how long before some points-hungry region shoves Kelvin Batey on an OS bike just to get some extra points at the Brits??) and what makes an Oldschool bike?  Any parts which should be banned? (Shimano Saints on a Supergoose3, clip pedals, multi-gear systems etc).  Lot's of things to consider and I would welcome suggestions from everyone regarding some rules, just so we can try to ensure it's as fair as possible to everyone    One thing we had thought of was excluding the Top 8 riders from any regular age-group class, to avoid any potential 'sandbagging'.  Any thoughts?  Not that I'd expect to see Flem or Kelvin in the OS class anytime soon but at least it removes that possibility.

So, to summarise, Roger is happy for us to ride as a legitimate class at the Brits if we can all work something out with our Regions so that we 'Qualify' for the Brits.  If we can't do that, then BC will happily consider another charity OS race instead.

[QuadPaul]

Ratty, I wasn't pissed I'd just only got of a plane a few hours before arriving at MK Sun morning

Kenney I totally agree that MK should be 1 massive Old school gathering and the more the merrier on the gate , but was just saying that it was a pain to run with non series riders. Like the suggestion of a series championship class which us guys will have qualified for through the regionals & then an open class for all those who want to race an OS bike once a year. Because some of those once a year guys are full on racers @ there age groups.

I must admit personally I think we should try and stick on the exhibitien route rather than a valid class. Because as soon as we become BCF sanctioned we run into issue like there has to be set rules and structure. To me the good thing with the OS series has always been it's open & friendly atmosphere which as I said to Ratty at last years Brits I fear would be lost if we handed control to the BCF. Just my 2pence

Thing is I know I'm never going to be a world Champion or mix it in the super fast Masters classes but that doesn't stop me wanting to turn up week in week out and just ride my bike and have a laugh with the OS series.

[Zippy]

We could use the MK meet as our 'Old School Brits' that way we avoid all the bullshit of the sanctioning body and we get to control things our way.

Which don't have our interests at heart anyway.