So this weekend I raced SW Region Round 9 in Decoy and although my Gates and speed were shocking I did manage to not come last and get my fastest gate and lap time in my B final so it was not so bad. I was about 3-5 seconds off of where I should be and More upsettingly 0.1 second off of a decentish gate time so room for improvements there!
I got 6th, 7th and 6th in my motos which was good enough for 4th pick on the final and for some reason no-one wanted gate 1 or 2 so I took gate one and after a pretty decent gate and first jump I where I was in first or second I let the guy who was in lane 3 to get too far over and push me off of my line which meant that I had to slow up and let the guy in 3rd pass me! I did manage to keep the 3rd place for the rest of the lap to finish 3rd in the final and finish 11th over all out of 14.
On a positive note I wasn’t super out of breath after any of the races which I thought that I would be and I loved the way the Curtis rode with the new StayStrong Flat bars on it so I will be sticking with them for now!
As today went so well I have decided to race next weekend at Tiverton for round 10 as well then start my winter training as that is me done for the year!
I have also decided to go back to 37×16 on the Cruiser and 42×15 on the 20″ as my legs are not spinny enough to run the 36×16 for now. Tivi is a long peddaly track so the higher gearing should be benificial too so it should be a win win.
I have also decided that from now until I go to Brazil in 18 days I am going to swap my walking with riding the mountain bike to try and get as much weight off as possible and also build some fitness for racing at the weekend. I am hoping that I can get a bit faster and do better than I did today but we will see. I am also going to work on full lap pump laps on the track at lunch times again to build my track speed and also increase my BMX specific conditioning before the weekend.
I’m pretty sure that my 20″ will arrive tomorrow as it was loaded on the van this weekend ready for delivery so I have bought a new 42T chain ring, some new chain ring bolts, new 52mm Crupi i-Beam stem in black and some chrome headset spacers so that when it arrives I can de-red the bike as much as possible and replace all the red parts with Black parts instead apart from the wheels which will have to have red hubs still.
I already have Black Chain Tensioners and a black Seat clamp and a new chain and tyres for the bike so once it arrives I can build it up with a 42×15 gearing and all black parts then it will be more to my taste. I also have a Shimano DXR brake to replace the weird Answer one that is currently on the bike!
I have sold my Supercross 24″ frame a 15″ Onyx rear wheel and Some tapered Yess forks so once I get the cash for that I will buy the new Profile elite disk rear hub and a Profile elite front hub both in Black and a universal disk adapter and then get them built up on the OS20 rims that arrived this past week and then I convert the bike to OS20 to see what all the fuss is!
I figure by converting the frame to disk with the universal disk adapter it will mean that I don’t need any brake extenders as the disk brake just work where as caliper brakes will have issues due to the larger rim size. It also means that when the Standard OS20 frame arrives I can move the parts over and build it up without any issues. The Chase is the same top tube as the Standard will be so I will be able to use the same disk once its done too.
Once the Standard is built up I can then find some cranks and then build the Chase back up with the red parts and sell it again to recoup some of the money being spent on the Standard Build or I may keep it as my winter/ Container bike and maybe get the Profile mini hubs built up on OS20 rims so that I will have 2 OS20 bikes and the Curtis Cruiser as well! I used to have a Chase RS2 Cruiser frame before and I kind of regret selling it so I may well keep the Chase as it is already pretty beaten up so it will not make any difference if it gets scratched up any more in the container!
My other option is to build the Chase back up with the red bits and sell it again which I am kind of leaning towards as it will get back about 3/4 of the price of the Standard frame cost which would help a lot 🙂