Sunday was pretty much the perfect day for riding. A clear, slightly breezy day of about 22 degrees, three men slightly hungover and overtired, and a cruisy two-hour ride to be had. Ben, Mischa and I met up in Salamanca, and headed over the Tasman Bridge, following the bike paths to the Geilston Bay BMX track for a bit of fixed BMX riding, or FXMX, as we’ve come to call it.
The track at Geilston Bay is pretty rough, with some deep gravelly corners, old-style jumps and burms, and even some local skids complete with mullets, trackies, and wifebeaters burning around on BMXs. We put in a bit of training on the track before heading off home over the bridge again to Salamanca.
FXMX, for the uninitiated, is basically Fixed Bicycle Motocross. The idea is to race as fast as you can around a BMX track, but an added degree of difficulty is that you do it fixed on your street machine. Modifications to bikes are encouraged but not necessary. Pulling shapes, or ‘getting rad’, off the top of the kickers on the track is optional, but adds more style to your ride. Riding is often battled out as much with elbows and knees as it is with pedals and tyres, and competitors often wear armour, similar to keirin or BMX racers.
It’s looking like winter is going to be featuring some more FXMX riding as we try to get through riding the winter months in a town that likes to change its weather every five minutes.
Stay tuned for more updates on the FXMX trend. Remember, you saw it here first.
Stay tuned for GASH, the first ever FXMX movie, highlighting the people who’ve been doing it for weeks and pushing the envelope when it comes to style, technique, and gravel rash.
Get in before the sport gets appropriated by mainstream culture and hipsters worldwide start lobbying their local council to build special FXMX tracks. The revolution is now (until next Tuesday).
Yo.. The kids are on it already. I noticed all the BMX’ers at EC are riding park brake-less.. The cross-pollination of riding culture begins!
The revolution will not be televised!