Ohh I was excited. The kind of excitement you only get on the way to a new spot for the first time. Once we secured an invite from a local, we hit the ground running; coordinated the flights, navigated the Ubers, settled into the Air BnB and re-assembled the bikes. Finally, it was time to go.
The boys and I pushed our bikes up the winding single track, through the undergrowth and into the thick green jungle. The sound of our hubs clicking and my mates voices seemed to play background to what I was seeing. Huge lips and landings pushed their way through the ferns. Massive berms cut sheer from the hillside, like dirt waves poised to sweep down the slope. Most of the features were perfectly wrapped in black plastic, unopened Christmas presents waiting to be discovered. As we approached the trail head, the one unwrapped line caught the late afternoon sun; a perfect ribbon of bright yellow clay standing out amongst the green undergrowth. We took it all in, watching as the locals effortlessly floated from one feature to another down the hillside.
“Fuck off, no MTB”
The angry voice rang through the woods. Cutting through my dream state. I recognised this was not the wheel-size banter we were used to at City Dirt. Our local contact was welcoming but the hostility of some was hard to miss and it was pretty clear they weren’t all on the same page. Some were just too fragile to cope with anything bigger than 20 inch rims. The captivating trails paradise had lost its shine.
At first, I was bitter about the narrow mindedness. Whinging about wheel sizes had always seemed like a worn out joke and finding people that didn’t seem to get it was pretty lame. Still, I wanted to know for myself: was BMX better for trails? and if I was riding a BMX, would it change the way I built trails?
The questions nagged until it finally pushed me from the familiar comfort of MTB that i’d built up over the last 12 years. I set myself the challenge to hit all of the lines (30+ jumps) at City Dirt, in one year, on a BMX.
At the age of 38, I sat on the start hill behind the unfamiliar bars of a BMX for the first time. I was looking at rolling into the smallest line of the trails and I had to push down my fear. Despite having ridden it a million times before without a thought, this felt different. Eventually, my curiosity gave me the push I needed and I spent the next year learning from scary moments, a couple of hard knocks and some rad sessions. By the end, I could confidently ride every line at City Dirt and I felt as natural on the BMX as the MTB.
The answer to my original question was not what I expected; both bikes rode equally well on the trails, it was just depended what I felt like riding. On the BMX, the shorter wheelbase meant I could get a satisfying snap of speed from rollers without much effort. What the MTB lost on rollers, it gained on berms as the bigger wheels let me effortlessly rail in one smooth carve. Slaying a 90 degree hip on a BMX has a satisfying precision but letting it all hang out on an MTB left me with an ear-to-ear grin. I loved switching back and forth. Like mixing different flavours, the combination of the two made the trails that much sicker.
Riding BMX hasn’t changed the way I build, but it’s opened up new terrain like skateparks and street, which has fired my inspiration for new features. The two bikes are like brothers from another mother; more in common than not. The wheel size doesn’t make much difference, but being able to change perspective whenever I like does.
Creativity in building creates a love for the spot that’s infectious and that fuels a constantly evolving community focused on what’s important; riding cool shit on your bike.
