Collegiate BMX Round #2

This is how Saturday starts...
Load up the BMX bikes in the ETSU van and head to SC with Derek. 2nd round of the USAC SECCC Collegiate BMX season is to be hosted by us, ETSU, and Greeneville, SC BMX track in Simpsonville, SC. Marc White, the track director, worked very hard to get the track in shape for this event. We arrived ready to tear it up but the only thing that tore up was the solenoid on the ram for the gate. Luckily Marc made a quick safety decision to call a nearby track in Spartanburg and asked if we could borrow their ram. About an hour later we are rockin' and rollin'. Thanks Spartanburg BMX!

Above Catherine and her Mars Hill team mates pose for a snowy picture before a snowball fight ensues. Big thanks to Mars Hill for bringing 6 riders down to compete.

Pre-season form and I can tell I'm rusty. I did manage three holeshots though.

The pictures are all backwards here for some reason but the snow began just as we were starting the 3rd moto and boy did it snow. From the reports we received later it was stated that 3" of snow fell in an hour. I can believe it because it took us what seemed an hour to travel 20 miles on I-85 from Greeneville to Spartanburg to I-26. The peeps of SC don't see much snow and everyone was being very cautious and driving 5mph in the slush covered interstate.

ETSU managed a 3rd place in Men's A by Derek Maiden and I was able to get the top spot on the podium in Men's B. The winner of A's was Mars Hill rider Allen who is a AA Pro rider in USA BMX. Them boys never had a chance.

A big ole thank you goes to all the schools that attended; USC (University of SC), Georgia Southern, Mars Hill University, Marc White and the Greeneville SC track, David Gresham for the pictures posted, Mr. Fitzgerald for his warm welcome and fine announcing. I'm really glad I can be a part of getting BMX into the collegiate racing realm of things. Hopefully USA BMX will add 3 classes to all the regular classes; Collegiate Mens A, B & Womens. That's one of my goals I'm working on to achieve.

If you want to check out more photos from the race go here

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On the 650b scene:

 

There's alot of buzz around here about the smaller hoops. If the tire manufacturers and wholesalers would get with the program. After riding the 650 or 6Fiddy, to which I will from now on refer to it as, I felt the sterring was a tad on the slow side. I'm pretty sure I know the culprit... 120mm of travel. So, I download the manual and get busy. Driving a roll pin out of a plastic bushing isn't as easy as it looks on a PDF. After fiddle farting with this for about 30 minutes and not having the factory specific tool required I did manage to get the travel changed from 120 to 100. This should correct the sluggish steering on the 6fiddy. ( I really need to get some stickers made that say that to put on the chinarello downtube).

 



Here's what makes most 26" forks a 650b fork.This little 10mm rubber stop. All it does is prevent the tire from rubbing and or hitting the fork crown. I plan a test ride tomorrow night to see how dropping the travel helps.