Jaydee

Hey everybody,

I'm new to this forum but have been a regular on a couple other forums for the past year. I signed up to bikeforums.net because I like the diversity of the board for all types of cyclists. That being said, here's my bike story.

I grew up on BMX bikes, freestylin' in the late 80s-early 90s from the ages of 11-14. I always wanted to race BMX since I was 8 because there were a couple of older kids in the neighborhood that raced and had some jumps in the woods near my house. My parents didn't like that whole idea since the race track was kind of far and my whole family was involved in tennis instead. But they did buy me a freestyle bike so whenever I wasn't playing tennis I was trying moves in front of the house. By the time I turned 14, there weren't too many kids my age that were into bikes anymore and most kids I knew were skateboarding. I ended up getting my own skateboard and that soon took over biking. It wasn't until a few years of skateboarding and skateparks started to open up did I start to see more BMXers. By then it seemed liked the tricks were so much more advanced that I just decided to stick to skating, but man do I wish I got back into it!

Fast forward to last summer, 2002, 26 and married with a couple years without any kind of adventurous outdoor activity. My wife wanted to get bikes to exercise so we get a couple of Gary Fishers. I had a Tassajara w/ discs and I started riding the trails nearby. Soon I met other riders that were into freeridng and dirtjumping and they got me hooked. I tred to make the Fisher more freeride worthy part by part and 6 months later I had built up a completely new bike(well with alot of used parts), a DMR Sidekick. So I sold off the Fisher and by January of this year I was riding as much street as I could due to the snow and building bridges in the woods. When spring came around, there were some nice dirtjumps around, skateparks were allowing MTBs, street was getting funner and I was able to race my first MtnX. Mtn. Creek here in NJ was also just about to open up and I was all set to do some hardtail DH when the worst happened, I broke my elbow riding street! That was 2 months ago and even though I had a blast with MTBs, I decided to give them up. I felt like it just wouldn't be as fun if I wasn't gonna go as hard as I did before. And with the risks involved I knew I shouldn't, not at this point in my life.

So I decided to go back to my first love of bikes, BMX. Flatland riding, not any park, street or racing. Basically having the kind of fun I remember when I was 13 years old in front of the house, just me and my bike. Sure it will still be risky and the tricks are so advanced but I think I know my limits(I better!) and have a better head on my shoulders then way back when I thought it got too hard. But whether I'll be doing the same tricks as I was when I was 13 or learning new ones, I know it will be fun and I'm really looking forward to it and it will be my outlet and my personal time. My arm is now good enough to ride around and I'm going to strengthen it up a good 2-3 weeks more before I start flatlanding. I managed to find a nice deal on a bike that will be arriving on Tuesday. I can't wait until it arrives but moreso I can't wait til I can start riding flat again! Yahoo!

a2psyklnut

Hey Jaydee, welcome to the forums. I too started in the BMX thing, I raced until I was 16 and allowed to drive, and got into freestyle in the mid 80's, I too got into skateboarding, but never so much that I gave up the bike, it was more to complement my riding. I never really gave up riding, just slacked way off. In college, I got a road bike and got hooked on riding again. Eventually got a mountain bike and I'm into it again.

L8R