The BMX Race thread.

[steelhardtail]

Anyone else had experience with lower back pain from BMX?

Raced the state round at Terrigal a few weeks ago. Beginning of the day I felt fresh. By the time I got home I had incredible lower back pain. The next morning took me 10 mins to climb out of bed. Never crashed. 12 laps all up. Riding my fastest yet.

Went to my physio, who's a cyclist so knows exactly which problems they have. Says its the sciatic nerve causing the pain. Gives me some stretches and exercises to do and the pain clears up in less than a week. After 2 weeks off the bike I go for a casual ride at Goulburn BMX track and after 30 mins of mucking around, jumping and manualing, (no sprints), the pain creeps back in then goes away after 2 days.

I never have this problem racing mountain bike or riding road. Is there something in the bike setup I should be looking at? I ride 'flats' if that's of any importance.

 

[converge11]

I get this mate. Stretch up before riding. Even muck around manualing in the street is enough to throw mine out. I learnt my lesson a few weeks ago on the sprint stand showing my son a demo. Did two explosive Starts and my back was in ruins for about a week. Funnily enough I can still ride when this happens and sometimes even a day at the track clears it up. But seriously man, stretch up, its well worth the extra few minutes

 

[converge11]

While we're talking injuries though, my wife got tangled up going over a jump at qld country Champs a few weeks ago and basicly landed on her head. She kept racing all weekend but had headaches. Now she says she has a bit of a click when turning her head and gets headaches. Should she a) see a doc b) physio or c) chiro?

 

[hach_bee]

Ouch, stretching is so critical I think most people underestimate it's importance. SW will stretch for 40min post training!

I'm in the injury bin also, despite not racing for a while now, wrist is flaring up again. Did a 4 hour bartending shift to help a mate out and over a week later it's still weak as shit and even painful to type. Back to the ortho this week, I have a feeling it's more than a torn ligament as he originally diagnosed, because it's been on and off pain for a couple of years- only more recently this bad.

Roll your wrists forward and don't drop them when casing kids! I was never fantastic at jumping anyway...

Anyone else experienced wrist pain who could provide advice?

 

[redbruce]

Anyone else had experience with lower back pain from BMX?

Raced the state round at Terrigal a few weeks ago. Beginning of the day I felt fresh. By the time I got home I had incredible lower back pain. The next morning took me 10 mins to climb out of bed. Never crashed. 12 laps all up. Riding my fastest yet.

Went to my physio, who's a cyclist so knows exactly which problems they have. Says its the sciatic nerve causing the pain. Gives me some stretches and exercises to do and the pain clears up in less than a week. After 2 weeks off the bike I go for a casual ride at Goulburn BMX track and after 30 mins of mucking around, jumping and manualing, (no sprints), the pain creeps back in then goes away after 2 days.

I never have this problem racing mountain bike or riding road. Is there something in the bike setup I should be looking at? I ride 'flats' if that's of any importance.

I'd go back to the physio for advice, both on bike setup, but more particularly it is obviously an ongoing issue and will need ongoing work (management) to correct.

Regarding the bike setup, question is have you recently changed anything (bike setup, gate start technique, fitness levels, enthusiastic approach to riding) and work back from there.

I had a lot more back issues in BMX racing than I did racing road or MTB at the time. For me it was the weak link once I got my gate start technique and body strength to capitalise on it sorted. Eventually I had to ease up on the launch (it was mainly the action of throwing my mid body forward as the gate dropped) to prevent it.

Sciatic issues once aggravated can take some time to settle so dont push it.

While we're talking injuries though, my wife got tangled up going over a jump at qld country Champs a few weeks ago and basicly landed on her head. She kept racing all weekend but had headaches. Now she says she has a bit of a click when turning her head and gets headaches. Should she a) see a doc b) physio or c) chiro?

Physio or Chiro depending on your preferences.

Given the nature of the crash and the fact she had headaches all weekend (warning signs) she really should have stopped racing and seen someone. With due respect, pretty foolish (risky) actually.


Lastly, while on the subject of injuries, I've been off my bikes for 6 weeks after separating my shoulder (full AC joint jobbie) on the MTB, with another 5 weeks (8 weeks post surgery - I finally got something made of Ti) to go before I'm allowed to ride.

Surgeon said stick to bike paths. However I've had more accidents on bike paths over the years than in BMX, MTB and road!

 

[steelhardtail]

There are some greats ideas here, thanks.

I've got my stretching down pat, pre and post riding.

Working backwards like redbruce said, my start technique has changed for the better recently, (straight back now, not concave). Getting out of the gate much quicker but the pain has since crept in, and I've dropped my bars 12mm. I'll play around with that too and maybe get a set of 8.5" bars to try.

I'll take some footage of my gate starts for the physio. They do bike fits for road & mtb, hopefully they can do the same for BMX.

converge11 - if your wife is still getting headaches she should see the doc first. Could be something as serious as a bleed or fluid on the brain.
Hachbee - have you tried strapping it up rigid so the wrist doesn't bend at all?

 

[redbruce]

There are some greats ideas here, thanks.

I've got my stretching down pat, pre and post riding.

Check out the Fitness thread on Rotorburn.

Research is showing there are pros and but few more cons for pre stretches.

Best "warm up" is gentle riding.

Post stretches are super important though.

 

[hach_bee]

It's gotten to the point that strapping would still hurt it- I don't bend my wrists when typing. Sadly can't afford another ortho bill at the moment though

 

[haydenw]

Anyone else had experience with lower back pain from BMX?

Raced the state round at Terrigal a few weeks ago. Beginning of the day I felt fresh. By the time I got home I had incredible lower back pain. The next morning took me 10 mins to climb out of bed. Never crashed. 12 laps all up. Riding my fastest yet.

Went to my physio, who's a cyclist so knows exactly which problems they have. Says its the sciatic nerve causing the pain. Gives me some stretches and exercises to do and the pain clears up in less than a week. After 2 weeks off the bike I go for a casual ride at Goulburn BMX track and after 30 mins of mucking around, jumping and manualing, (no sprints), the pain creeps back in then goes away after 2 days.

I never have this problem racing mountain bike or riding road. Is there something in the bike setup I should be looking at? I ride 'flats' if that's of any importance.

Too lazy to read the comments below.. but I have experienced back pain from riding myself. Best remedy for me was gym work. Deadlifts and back extensions are fantastic for lower back and overall core strength. Ever since I started doing this I have not experienced any back pain from riding. Always make sure to warm up and warm down before/after riding the little bmx bike too. Oh and in terms of bike setup, I find coming from MTB running a higher front end helps. Top mount stem and 8.75" rise bars were the hot ticket for me

 

[haydenw]

Ouch, stretching is so critical I think most people underestimate it's importance. SW will stretch for 40min post training!

I'm in the injury bin also, despite not racing for a while now, wrist is flaring up again. Did a 4 hour bartending shift to help a mate out and over a week later it's still weak as shit and even painful to type. Back to the ortho this week, I have a feeling it's more than a torn ligament as he originally diagnosed, because it's been on and off pain for a couple of years- only more recently this bad.

Roll your wrists forward and don't drop them when casing kids! I was never fantastic at jumping anyway...

Anyone else experienced wrist pain who could provide advice?

Broke both mine. Physical therapy x 10000000000000000. Both strength and flexability work. I still get a little pain in my right wrist that has a plate and half a dozen screws every now and again, but fractured 3 bones in my left wrist last year (the crash that got me out of bmx) and haven't had any issues after doing a heap of physio work. If you want some info on the physio exercises I did flick me a PM

 

[converge11]

Rode my mates bike with perfect 10 bars. They are massive but I was surprised at how nice it rode. Im wanting to get myself some 8.5s. Wanna get wider bars too as I'm only 27" wide.

 

[haydenw]

Rode my mates bike with perfect 10 bars. They are massive but I was surprised at how nice it rode. Im wanting to get myself some 8.5s. Wanna get wider bars too as I'm only 27" wide.

Fly Montanna, what me and all my buddies ran. 8.75 x 29

 

[converge11]

Sounds like the go. At least with tall bars you can always space the stem back down. But my stem is maxed out as tall as it can go

 

[Frayed]

Hey guys and gals, it's been a while since i've been on rotorburn but thought i'd jump on and say hi. I'm a Melba (Canberra BMX Club) rider. Any one on that is going to Penrith this weekend?

 

[NC1183]

Anything happening here anymore.

Getting back into racing now that we've re-formed my local club. Currently chasing a new bike for myself, pretty sure it will be a Rival frame built by SpeedFX in Coffs

 

[converge11]

I haven't checked this in ages. I'm slack with racing so far this year. Our mtb trails are too good not to ride at the moment so I've barely been to the track. Decided to sell my staats 20inch and just going to ride cruiser this year. Too slack to ride both haha

 

[hach_bee]

Still riding my bmx everyday at the moment... mind you it's around a work site for transport while I'm down south in Radelaide!

I hear SV was killing it at Gawler on the weekend, anyone else here go?

 

[Norco Maniac]

Anything happening here anymore.

Getting back into racing now that we've re-formed my local club. Currently chasing a new bike for myself, pretty sure it will be a Rival frame built by SpeedFX in Coffs

SpeedFX are good people. I'm originally from Sawtell club.


i don't remember if i said anything but i went down hard at last year's SA States here in the 30+ Women's Cruiser. another rider, 15 years younger than myself was determined to take me out, tried t-boning me in the first corner of the final, and instead took herself out - unfortunately right in front of me when i was airborne over a set of doubles. i had to twist in mid-air and try to land avoiding her face...needless to say, it was horriffic.

i broke the 4th and 5th metacarpals on my left hand and dislocated the fifth knuckle closest to my palm. i lacerated my liver in two places, my right adrenal, and completely spasmed my diaphram with bruising. not to mention smacking up both arms and legs. four days in hospital pinned to the bed with a catheter as they were waiting for my liver to hemorrage, followed by K-wire surgery to pin the broken bones.

four and a half weeks in a cast, three cast changes, golden staph infection when they pulled the pins. six months of arguing with the flinders orthapedic department, followed by corrective surgery to fix the damage they did to my tendons the first time. plus heaps of physio.

12 months later i still can't form a proper fist and the smallest knuckle doesn't move more than 10 degrees.

however, i did roll out the gate at Nationals last April as the only woman to nom for the inagural Retro class. my hubs won it, of course :dance:

this year at States i managed to get a Ladies Retro class going, the woman who won it was on a loaner bike from us, she did amazingly well, having ridden cruiser the day before and 20" that day.

second place runner is the same age as my youngest child :tape2:

i came in third, not bad considering i had been off the race track since the second hand surgery in October. I also turned 50 last year :heh: we had horrendous conditions for the meet and warmup events with two weeks of 40+ weather so everyone who rode is in my estimation, a champion :love:

 

[NUMBER5]

Jesus Norco... you're doing well to come back after that.. should've used her face as an air bag :thumb:

Our 4 & 5 yr olds just started racing sprockets and after 2 races the Mrs is already sick of them getting smashed by all the 6 & 7 yr olds on race bikes.... So I've been ordered by the high command to get them race bikes ASAP!!!! hahaha

I also got myself a cruiser recently so I had something to do when I drive the little ones all over town to various tracks... OMG what was I thinking. This thing is death on wheels esp when I haven't been on a BMX for nearly 30yrs and coming off 10 inches of travel... haha. After getting over the initial shock it's beginning to really grow on me although I definitely feel like I need the full face everytime I take it out. Interesting times ahead

 

[DJR]

Norco, that's a very big off. I've just started but can't you have your results relegated and other disciplinary action for deliberate tboning?

I bought a race cruiser at the end of last year as a play bike for riding with the kids etc, and decided I'd go give the race thing a go, just doing club races at the moment. I'm having fun but coming last, I'll get better I hope !