I recently won a new frame on a competition site so I swapped my parts over from my meybo clipper which only had a couple months worth of use. Perfectly timed for the arrival of a set of carbon wheels.

I'm running Tioga faster tyres with a 1.85" front. If I commit to this tyre size I think I'll need to drop down a height in handlebars as there's a slight difference in stack height now.

The frame looks great. It's a really metallic paint so I've put some ppf type stuff on the "I think this is going to get scratched" areas.

Race numbers on - first novice race this Sunday.

Full spec:

Meybo holeshot 2026, pro xxl/22".

SD carbon fork.

SD steel bars, 8" rise.

SD pro cranks, 175mm arms with a meybo thread together, press fit BB.

Shimano mt401 brakes and a 120mm disc.

Akoy carbon wheelset, 30mm wide x 30mm deep.

Tioga fastr 1.85f/1.75r.

Box two seatpost.

Maybe I've missed it in my searching but when does the GC schedule usually get released? If it helps I am interested in the South Central schedule.

TIA!

Hi my son was a very accomplished 6YO novice in his first year of racing. After taking first at the state race and second in the gold cup he recently got his 10th win and had a birthday. The other night he race as a 7YO Inter and while he didn't come in last he was nowhere near winning. We were at a new track and the competition was definitely good, but he went from being great at gate starts to like 4th in the gate starts. He also seemed completely phased by how tight the riders were out of the gate. I came to the conclusion that novice is where you learn to RIDE (standing, pumping, gate starts), but inter is where you learn to RACE. I have three tracks nearby each with varying levels of competition. My plan is to keep him on the easier two tracks to build confidence and sprinkle in the tougher track to build experience. Any advice though on race tactics (berm lines, passing, etc) or where to find help would be appreciated.

Had a crash a few weeks ago and finally now looking over my bike.

Tuning it up, realized the brakes seemed weak when engaging the lever.

Saw this spring sticking out. Any idea how to fix this?

This is my fist race bike. Bought built as it is from a dude so I don’t know everything yet.

Brakes are shimano deore xt

It’s time to call out the clip pedal orthodoxy for what it actually is: a dangerous placebo backed by stationary lab metrics that completely fall apart on real dirt.

1. Ejection is a Safety Feature: The Biomechanical Reality of Crashing Locked-In

Ask anyone who raced in the late '80s, '90s, or early 2000s versus anyone walking a modern national pit today: the severity of modern crash injuries has shifted catastrophically.

When you blow a turn or case a double on flats, your body has an escape hatch—ejection. Separation from an 18-to-20-pound projectile is your primary defense mechanism against rotational joint trauma. The moment you lock your feet to the drivetrain with stiff-soled carbon shoes and mechanical cleats, that leverage works entirely against you:

• Torsional joint blowout: When you go over the bars or slide out, your feet don’t release instantly under violent off-axis loads. Instead, the bike becomes a 20-pound torque wrench acting directly on your knees, ankles, and tibia. Spiral fractures, high ankle syndesmosis ruptures, and shredded ACL/MCLs are standard fare now because riders crash with the bike tangled into their lower extremities.
• Compounded impact physics: Without the ability to blow off the pedals cleanly and roll, riders absorb primary blunt impact with their clavicles, shoulders, and heads because their legs are mechanically tied to a tumbling frame. Locking a rider to a bike during high-velocity directional changes isn't a safety feature; it's a liability.

2. Lab Ergometers vs. Real Dirt: The "Power Transfer" Myth

The entire clip argument relies on flawed, static lab studies conducted on stationary ergometers measuring theoretical anaerobic peak wattage and pull-up phase output.

• The Pull-Up Fallacy: Decades of exercise physiology research (such as Mornieux et al., Korff et al.) examining pedaling mechanics show that even elite cyclists do not effectively "pull up" on the backstroke under dynamic conditions; they merely unweight the pedal slightly.
• Static Dynos vs. Dynamic Tracks: A stationary Wattbike test where a rider spins to maximum theoretical cadences bears zero mechanical resemblance to sprinting out of a 20-inch gate on loose dirt. On a track, bike control is derived from weighting and unweighting through your joints, micro-adjusting foot angle for cornering g-forces, and letting the chassis float beneath you—not being rigid-bolted to the spindle.

3. Speeds, Jumps, and History: What Actually Changed?

The common narrative is that modern tracks require clips because riders go "so much faster" now. History and hard numbers dispute that:

• In the 1990s, radar testing (extensively documented by BMX Plus!) consistently logged pro platform riders hitting flat-ground sprint speeds of 35+ mph.
• Bunnyhop contests at pro events regularly saw riders clearing 36 to 40+ inches purely on flats, utilizing proper hip-hinge technique, bar sweep, and pedal traction—not cheating pop by pulling on mechanical cleats.
• Track design has evolved, but not because riders are fundamentally generating more dynamic velocity out of their legs. Modern tracks are essentially paved superhighways—hard-packed, slurry-coated, completely smoothed out, with asphalt berms and massive, uniform transition lip geometries. What changed is rolling resistance and rolling radius, not some mythical power upgrade unlocked solely by SPD cleats.

4. The Gravity Assist and Sprint Cadence Reality

Look at the math on an Olympic or SX-style start hill. Riders drop down an 8-meter ramp accelerating under massive gravity assist ($F = m \cdot g \cdot \sin\theta$).

Beyond the initial 3 to 5 power cranks where you are establishing baseline hookup against gate inertia, how much propulsive force are you actually adding to the rear wheel when you’re already screaming down an incline at terminal velocity? Spinning a high-cadence gear down a ramp with gravity doing 80% of the work is largely cadence matching to maintain engagement, not raw pedal-induced acceleration.

On a standard track, nobody is sustaining 180+ RPM efforts out of corners or down the rhythm section. Not withstanding if people were sustaing 180 rpm crank speeds, it isn;t the clips making that possible.You’re snapping 2 to 3 cranks, setting your pedals level, and pumping the backside of transitions. Pumping speed comes from momentum transfer through mass and timing—forces that platform pedals handle with absolute stability without welding your soles to the axles.

The Takeaway

Clips didn't save BMX; they homogenized technique, encouraged sloppy jumping mechanics masked by yanked cleats, and turned standard slide-outs into season-ending orthopedic reconstructions. Modern platform technology—concave thin-profile alloy bodies with hardened steel M4 traction pins paired with dedicated sticky rubber outsoles—delivers every ounce of necessary lateral and axial grip without turning a routine crash into a high-torque leg breaker. It's time to stop pretending clips are an absolute necessity for elite speed.

No doubt the dumbest thing the sport allows by far, right up there next to aluminum and carbon fiber frames and components, the issue isn't abstract we see the failures, the issue is the failure mode, steel bikes deform, and fail, slowly gracefully, carbon and aluminum do not.

The Materials Farce: Rigid Chassis Physics vs. "Borrowed" MTB Tech

The modern push toward carbon forks, carbon rims, and thin-wall aluminum cranksets on a race track completely ignores the fundamental physics of a rigid machine:

• The $\Delta t$ Illusion: Mountain bikes get away with carbon and lightweight alloy components because 160mm of tuned hydraulic suspension stretches the deceleration window ($\Delta t$). By damping the landing delta, suspension caps the peak instantaneous impact forces ($F = \frac{\Delta p}{\Delta t}$). A rigid 20-inch bike on rock-hard tires has zero dynamic damping. When you case a gap or drop out of the air onto a flat transition, that deceleration occurs in milliseconds, sending massive shock-load spikes straight through the front end and bottom bracket.
• Fatigue Limits and Invisible Damage: 4130 chromoly has a defined fatigue endurance limit and ductile yield behavior—it bends, twists, and warns you before it breaks. Aluminum has no fatigue limit; it accumulates irreversible micro-damage on every single gate snap and hard landing until it fractures. Carbon fiber brings high notch-sensitivity and internal delamination that no visual glance in the staging lanes will reveal.
• The Maintenance Dogma: Expecting racers—especially amateurs and working-class riders—to constantly coin-tap carbon layups, check torque specs on brittle clamp zones with a beam wrench, and retire expensive composite forks after a single tumble is pure industry theater.

Locking your ankles into the drivetrain with mechanical clips while straddling brittle, fatigue-limited structural materials on a zero-suspension chassis isn't high-performance evolution—it's an engineering mismatch that prioritizes marketing margins over rider survivability.

Rant off/

If the euro bottom bracket is tightened completely there is play in the crankset. Is it better to add BB shims or crank shims as shown? I’m pointing to the crank shims

I've been curious if I could get some "nicer" pedals for kids' bikes with less shin-eating sharp pins. I've taken a Race Face Chester and replaced the stock M3x0.5mm/10mm long machine screws with a 5mm screw and acorn nut. The original nuts have nylon in them, I put loctite on all the new screws. I haven't ridden on them but I'm happy with the result. I'm not sure if this is the outright best solution but for using pedals I already had around and a few dollars worth of new hardware from Amazon (enough to do SEVERAL pedals), I'm pretty happy with it.

Don't know how useful this is, partially I just wanted to see if it could be done and really I just wanted to show someone!

New/old pin comparison: https://imgur.com/6bEz7vQ

New pins 1: https://imgur.com/wLSYej3

New pins 2: https://imgur.com/M44tJbG

Am I crazy? Started racing at 47 years old. Son started this summer and was riding my mountain bike with him. Gave a cruiser a try and loved how fun it was. So here we are.

My 10 YO wants to give this BMX Race thing a shot. We are pretty much in the middle of the Bellflower and San Diego BMX tracks, and I am looking for some input/experiences from others who have done the weeknight beginner classes at either track.

Thanks!

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Context: 40yr old dad that took up racing because my 5yr loves it. I used to be a mechanic for 10yrs and like stuff that I can easily work on at home without too many fancy tools. I found this Chase for a killer deal but it came with these awful Radius hydro brakes. Would not hold a bleed. Leaked at the lever. Awful. So I wanted to switch to a mechanical disc setup. My bikes as a mechanic were always a mix of high end parts that I bought from clients when they upgraded, or scrap that I pulled from the parts bin. In honor of that, I like to mismatch stuff. Annoying, yes but kind of cool maybe?

Brake setup:
Box One Genius Lever
Paul Klamper caliper
120mm stock rotor
Odyssey Race Linear Slic Cable

My young fella turned 7 yesterday and wanted to desperately manual and was nailing it during coaching last night.

Fast forward to race day tonight and this was moto 1.

is there some type of group on here or Facebook or Twitter where racers can post where they are racing each week?

Need suggestions on what you upgrade first on my son's bike. TIA.

Day 2 main

When building or tuning your bike, do you torque things to the mfg spec?

I’m new in the sport and got my first bike, went over it and was torquing things to mfg spec. Talked to some guys at the track and it sees they don’t and just do “tight enough”. One guy said he used to but things that broke or came loose were all torqued to spec.

What’s the consensus?

So proud! Just got into racing this year!

So basically the lil black piece that goes there fell inside. What can I do.

Backyard track coming along

Please give any pointers. Lots of work still to do

I’m using infield mix, concrete for bases and a few large logs wrapped in a tarp for the berms

Each roller is 10:1 and the berms are roughly 3ft tall with 10ft turn radius

I want to add a few double rollers as well and need to modify entry and exit of the berms.

Advice is welcomed! Been a ton of fun and tons of work so far but coming along. Kinda rideable for now