Kris Fox is my favorite BMX park rider
He’s a former racer. He’s in the book Pro BMX Skills (he was gracious about being shot at the Olympic Training Center track). He has an incredible mix of power, speed and creativity.
Remote coaching: BMX success story
I just got a cool note from Roger in Finland. I’ve been helping his daughter with her BMX skills for a few years, and she’s now on the Finnish National BMX Team!
Pro BMX SKills book and gearing for juniors
Hi Lee,
Thank for your fast reply … the download link to the Pro BMX Skills ebook works well! I went through the pages quickly and it is very interesting. It’s very difficult to find this kind of book in France.
I had a question/observation … I’m very surprise by the gearings recommended in the book. For example, the book recommended 40/16 for junior and in France it’s common to have 37 or 38/16. Why this difference?
Thx !
Sebastien
BMX skills clinic in Rotterdam, NY Oct. 21
Join Coach Kevin Stiffler, a former New Yorker and champion BMX racer, for two hours of essential BMX skills.
This is the best $75 you’ll ever spend on your riding!
BMX birthday party!
This might be even sweeter than Chuck E Cheese.
Yesterday we rocked a private BMX session at a local track.
Balance on the BMX track
Hi Lee,
I’m new to BMX racing and have been finding your book Pro BMX Skills very useful, however my coach keeps telling me to keep my elbows up and out. I’m riding a cruiser and am 170cm tall. I find this really difficult to do when I am hanging back behind the seat (weight still centered). My front wheel becomes very loose. Do you have any tips which will let me learn to keep my elbows up even whilst pumping but keep the front wheel planted. I seem more in control with my elbows in. Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Jess
BMX or MX for MTB?
Dear Lee,
I would like your opinion on what would help increase ability and eventually speed on a mountain bike. MX or BMX? I wish I had the time and money for both but I’m a poor college kid who spends the majority of the time racing MTB instead of doing homework. Moto would be more expensive but I’m more curious about which would make you a better rider in a quicker amount of time. Or which would make you learn better technique if done properly.
Thanks for your time, I love your books too.
Cheers!
Leif
BMX skills session at Valmont Bike Park
I’m excited to announce a special skills session focused on skills for BMX and gated racing. April 20. $100. Be there!
Hopping frontsides
Hey Lee — just read the post Are you pumping too hard?. Great post. It brought up a question for me too.
I just got BMX Skills and read the pump chapter and it got me thinking about trying to hop frontsides altogether since I hadn’t really thought about doing that before. Instead I’ve been trying to absorb them in most/all situations and stay in as much control as possible, which is tough at high speeds.
So I’ve given it a little practice on a couple different pump tracks and haven’t been very successful. On both of these tracks the rollers are fairly close together and it feels like there’s not enough space/time to hop the frontside and like my fork is already compressing into the next roller when I’m trying to hop. Am I just not going fast enough? Is it something where pulling the bike towards me on frontsides will eventually turn into hopping them naturally? Or is this technique better suited for tracks that are a little more wideopen or on the trail when there’s space to set up? Or do I just need to practice more, haha.
One last question: is it always faster to hop the frontside if you can (excluding the suspension issue)?
Sorry for all the questions. Any more detail on this technique in general would be awesome!!
Ps. Got the MTB book for my cousin for Xmas. He has recently got into riding and I know this will get him Riding and hooked…now i’ll have a partner in crime on holidays 🙂
Allen
Pump Up the Base for a BMXer?
Lee,
I was browsing your site and saw the book and training program Pump Up the Base. It looks like it is predominantly geared towards MTB but I was wondering if it might be something that I could use for my winter BMX training? From the outline that I’ve read and some of the example pages and the comments it may be useful for some basic skills work on just about any type of riding. I do not ride MTB and I’m a novice in BMX so I also wanted to make sure that it would be something that I could apply to my sport as well.
Thank you,
John V
Jumping straight
Lee,
When I am jumping my bmx bike I have a tendency to get off balance in the air if I try and push the face of the jump. If I do not push the face of the jump and just let my momentum carry me off the lip I fly straight as an arrow, but I would like to continue to build speed off the lip and also go a little further to clear some of the larger jumps. I am not not sure if I am to tight on take off, or if I am pushing to late on the jump face, etc. Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?
If I can get this together I may see you at Colorado Indoor BMX this year. Thanks.
Greg
Pushing through a BMX double
Dear Lee,
I bumped onto your site whilst desperately seeking info on a jumping technique that seems to be difficult to find on the web, at least if one doesn’t know the name of it. So in this video that is attached, Mike Day uses it as per text book example in the first jumps after the gate: he pumps the rear wheel mid-air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsR_TjG_brU
My question then is, what does this achieve: I think that it is to scrub speed so as to allow for taking the lip of the jump with more speed and then scrub off some mid-air so as to not land too far. Am I correct in my thinking?
Yours,
Rauli