Jumping Bikes

I’m 55 now and recently met a chap at Old Hill Bike Park who was 63. He was riding the red line, getting air over the table top jumps, and just doing his own thing. As we converged in the spot where most of us older children wait,  get their breath back and have a natter before another run, he said, “I’m too old for this shit”. My reply, ‘never grow up’. I was genuinely stoked for the guy, and it gave me a sense of hope that I'll be riding as long as possible. When people say, are you still riding bikes, my answer is always affirmative, and I’d like to think it always will be. I’ve ridden bikes since my days as a toddler. Haven’t we all? But I know some just stopped somewhere along the way, and now with the E-Bike (I don’t own one yet), there is now excuse to not be riding. 

I love jumping my bikes, and I have done since I was maybe five or six. Like most it was around, nine or ten years old that building makeshift jumps became a thing. Using milk crates, concrete blocks and scaffold boards, or bits of ply stolen from the building sites, that jumping was all we wanted to do. Inspired by Motocross, we would ride as fast as we could, everywhere. We’d jump off most things, look for grass banks, raised curbs, or the occasional water jump into our local river!. Back then our bikes, known then as ‘Trackers’, were makeshift beauties. We were lucky if we had two wheels the same size, and any wheel would regularly buckle. The crank axle would usually snap or bare minimum wobble like crazy, and never really tighten properly. Brakes were awful, chains would snap; but if you had a pair of ‘cowhorn’ bars, you were king! Those bikes were never meant for jumping and the frames would often snap, get welded and snap again. When BMX arrived on our shores in the early 80’s, things began to change. They were built to jump, old shopping bike frames were not! 

I’m not a terrible jumper, and I’ve definitely improved over the past 45 years. My confidence has grown, and my technique is better after some coaching. I don’t do anything in the air, apart from lean the bike a little, turn the bars a bit and try and add a little casualness, but I’m firmly heading in the same direction, no rotation involved and hands firmly on the bars at all times. Consistency has always been my downfall, that is, I tend to ‘case’ the landing, meaning I come up short and not get a smooth landing. I do this a fair bit as I’ve often fallen back into my worst enemy of not looking up. Over the past few years I’ve worked really hard on looking up, and spotting my landings, breaking an old habit that has stuck with me for years. When I get a jump truly dialled in, and I’m hitting my mark, I’m like a little kid as the frustration passes and a wave of youthful energy fills every part of me, our built in positivity chemicals get released from storage and begin to rush through my system.  

Like I say, I’m 55 now, my body aches and I’m tired more often than not, I do a physical job,and most nights I get in from work and I’m soon flat out on the sofa, but when the weekend comes and if we head to the bike park, I feel young again. I love seeing the young riders developing, throwing all manner of shapes and getting all stylish and a little reckless, compared to the older kids amongst us, where tipping a toe outside our comfort zone is getting radical, because we know we have work on monday morning and a wife that would castrate us if we got injured. It really is a youthful buzz and one that I will continue for as long as possible. It’s such a boring cliche but age is just a number,  it’s just how you use it. Could I ride all day, probably not, can I get my fix within three hours jumping bikes every now and then, absolutely. Does that give me a fix until next time, 100%. In summary, bikes are fun, go riding, learn to jump; how high is up to you, just get your wheels off the ground. I guarantee you’ll smile.  

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