I woke up feeling rough but got up at 6 ish and got showered and dressed, put the Black Market in the car and headed to Temple Cloud pump track. I rode for about 30 minutes then noticed that the headset was really loose which was causing the bike do randomly go left 🙁 I went to the car and got my allen keys but one of the bolts was messed up so I wasn’t able to undo it to tighten the headset up. I rode for a bit longer but after almost going off the track a coule of times I decided to call it a day and head home before I got hurt!
I am really surprised how just riding Longwell Green for a few days has really made me loads more comfotable on the pump track as the last time I rode Temple Cloud I was grabbing my brake a lot and I was really uncomfortable where as today I hardly used the brake, which was lucky as its really not great on the Black Market as it only starts working when the lever is almost touching the grip which is far from ideal! I was also getting the manual out of the second berm as well which I couldn’t even work out last time 🙂
Today I will spend the rest of the morning messing with the Black Market setup! The new stem bolts arrived yesterday so I will get them replaced and I think I will try the RST Dirt forks that I found in the cupboard on there too to see if they work or not before spending on new Identity forks next week. I am also going to swap the brake out for an Avid BB cable disk brake that I have in the parts bin and a Shimano DXR lever off of my GT. I am also going to put a BMX stem and my Gusset Open Priso/ bars on the bike to try them out as well as the grips are stuck on the current bars so I will be unlikely to be able to get it off to put the new lever on so to not have to buy new grips I willtry the other bars and stem.
This afternoon I am going to my parents house so I will grab my 20″ BMX from their Garage to become my car bike as its not worth a lot so will not attract attention of anyone wanted to steal a bike. I am also going to put my roof bars and bike carriers on the car so that I can leave the car bike in the car all the time and use the roof bars for the race bike or the Black Market to go on the car not in it.
I have just won a set of Haro/AlienNation 20″ wheels on ebay so I am going to look for a cheap 20″ frame to build up to ride pump tracks with and probably sell the Park Bike as I prefer race bmx’s to park bikes on pump tracks as I am more used to them! Ther is not a lot about at areasonable price at the moment so it may take a while to find a 20″ frame si I will be using the park bike for a bit anyway!
The 170mm cranks for the Black Market have just arrived so I can put them on the bike today too 🙂
I have had a productive morning so far I sold my 175mm DXR’s so I invested the money and the money from the Chase into a Cult Vick Behm Race frame that came with forks and bars so I should have all the parts needed to build the bike in the parts bin once the wheels arrive next week and I buy a chain and a seat and maybe chain tensioners as well!
I have been watching a few training videos and they all suggest that bmx racers should be doing 3 gym sessions a week (2 lower body and one upper body session a week) 2 -3 sprints sessions and as many track sessions as you can do so I have jsut adjusted my May training plan to reflect that!
So the Black Market was a bit of a paint of a pain! The RST Dirt forks would not let the front wheel fit so I have had to put on the Manatou Circus forks for now as they are the only ones that I have left to put on there at the moment! They are definately have too much travel for now but they will most likely be better than the bent ones!
I will leave thses fork on for now as I will not be using the Black Market as much once I get the Cult Race Bike built up next week! it definately looks better with the black forks on anyway so its all good. I noticed just now that the gront tyre is getting flat too so the RideNow tubes have the same issues as the Tubolitos 🙁