domenic Posted August 27, 2008 Share Here is a letter written to cyclingnews.com. I tend to agree with the sentiments."As a track cyclist, I was steamed that the Kilo was dropped in favour of BMX. Track cycling got zero coverage on primetime USA TV (there were a few highlights on early morning minor channels). But when 'BMX men's final next' came on the screen, I decided to watch.First let me say, there were adults on kid's bikes. The gears looked like kiddie gears as well. The 'acceleration' came from a steep downhill start ramp, not from rider power. One rider bragged that he has more power than Cavendish or Hoy. Has he even seen these men blur by?When the riders got to the end of the first tiny lap (maybe 1/4 kilo) that was the finish line. Victory in 35 seconds? I thought they were going to do 50 laps or so, like the men's Madison. This looked more like an X Games commercial to sell kids BMX bikes. (I do realize that not many people run out and buy a track bike. I will grant you BMX guys that). I cannot believe they built that entire course for basically two 30 second races. What a waste. Winning was more about not getting knocked over by people who were out of control on the tight turns than anything to do with being an athlete.So I will leave BMX 'racing' in the category of badminton, gymnastics with a long piece of tissue paper, and perhaps the canoe race on one-bended knee finals.Timothy ShameUSA" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckstopper Posted August 27, 2008 Share The top track event lasted only 9.69 seconds and there's less skill in what lightning man did..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tumbleweed Posted August 27, 2008 Share both are exciting - maybe for different reasons. wish they could accomodate both. and what of all the track riders/road sprinters who have come from bmx themselves. cavendish, evans, hoy, etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawieO Posted August 27, 2008 Share Short sighted. BMX does a great deal to attract youngsters to sport in general, and cycling specifically, in fact, myself and almost all my mates have very happy memories of cruising the streets on our Redlines, Mongooses (...geese?), Pacifics etc, and then getting together at the track on a weekend to thrash each other. Have no such memories of the Velodrome...Also, questioning the validity of the sport due to the duration of the event would also disqaulify the 100m, 200m etc.Lastly, the athletes truly are just that, Sifiso generates 2200W in his takeoff, match that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted August 27, 2008 Share Fair enough, but has he ever tried BMX? I remember when I made the seniors for the first time on my trusty Kawahara (only you old school guys out there will remember the name). I looked truly out of place, 6'4" on a 20 incher! Anyway, it was our home track, I got the hole shot from the ramp and managed to hold everyone up over the first table top so the top guy took air over the table top instead of holding low and jumped right over me. Could this bad mouther do that? BMX takes track sprinter power, down hill balls, trials level control etc. You don't just race once and go home either, maybe he just doesn't know how it works?Kiwi2008-08-27 23:58:02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawieO Posted August 27, 2008 Share MAN!!  Kuwahara! I had a beautiful chrome one with blue trimmings, and those odd wheels you could straighten in the oven!!! Can you believe they still exist !? http://www.kuwaharabmx.com/ DawieO2008-08-27 23:59:02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtbreath Posted August 27, 2008 Share Thoroughly enjoyed the BMX. I however had a good laugh at this article. Those toilet paper gymanstics! LOL. Hey Dawie, what ever happened to Redline? Did they ever move into Mtb? Never seen one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawieO Posted August 28, 2008 Share They are still around too, still making top BMX's http://www.redlinebicycles.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawieO Posted August 28, 2008 Share and road and MTB! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tumbleweed Posted August 28, 2008 Share kuwahara! haha! remember the "et" ones! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABUBI Posted August 28, 2008 Share Fair enough, but has he ever tried BMX? I remember when I made the seniors for the first time on my trusty Kawahara (only you old school guys out there will remember the name). I looked truly out of place, 6'4" on a 20 incher! Anyway, it was our home track, I got the hole shot from the ramp and managed to hold everyone up over the first table top so the top guy took air over the table top instead of holding low and jumped right over me. Could this bad mouther do that? BMX takes track sprinter power, down hill balls, trials level control etc. You don't just race once and go home either, maybe he just doesn't know how it works?[/quote']  I had a Kuwahara mountain bike with 7spd Shimano STX, hell was a nice bike. Eventualy gave it to a black guy I accidently ran over on his bike 2 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted August 28, 2008 Share MAN!!  Kuwahara! I had a beautiful chrome one with blue trimmings' date=' and those odd wheels you could straighten in the oven!!! Can you believe they still exist !? http://www.kuwaharabmx.com/ [/quote']  Oh Man, I got all misty eyed there for a moment! I still remember getting my new sticker set and bling gold anodized sealed bearing race wheels for that baby!<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreZA Posted August 28, 2008 Share I had a Western Flyer Scorpion that I put Kuwahara stickers on. I saved half a life time for a red Suntour alu 3 piece crank set just to find that my pedals did not fit and had to save another month for new pedals.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Badenhorst Posted August 28, 2008 Share From Wikipedia:Before track cycling, Chris Hoy raced BMX between the ages of 7 and 14 and was ranked 2nd in Britain, 5th in Europe and 9th in the world.  From Wikipedia:Born in Ashford, Kent, Jamie Staff first got started in BMX when he was 9 years old, after seeing friends riding.[2]A BMX rider who has won just about everything from the WorldChampionships downwards, he decided at the end of 2001 that he wantedto win an Olympic medal. As BMX was not an Olympic sport at the time, he turned his attention to track cycling.  From Velonews:It was on the track, following his BMX days, that Cavendish reallycut his teeth, becoming world Madison champion in 2005, Commonwealthscratch champion in 2006 and winning another Madison gold at the worldsearlier this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supavan Posted August 28, 2008 Share I had a red raleigh BMX. It was bullet proof. If I consider the amount of abuse I put it through it's amzing that it never needed any new parts excpet tyres. My dad replaced the tubes with perma tubes, so I didn't even get punctures Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted August 28, 2008 Share http://www.bmxmania.com/MensFinal0161-wide.jpgKiwi2008-08-28 00:49:29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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