05/12/2008

Cameron Zink flipping at Crankworx - photo David Ferguson

New School: Has street really progressed? Robin Coope

It's been four days since the September 5 pro finals at MetroJam, and I've only just begun to calm down. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but it really was the most amazing bike event I've seen. Metrojam is a BMX contest, held in an arena in Kerrisdale - an odd location, since it's the bourgeois heart of Vancouver. While MetroJam has a state of the art street course with billboards and elevated jersey barriers, it's the field of riders that's truly amazing. Without dropping names (ok three: Ryan Nyquist, Brian Foster and Van Homan) 80% of the global cream of the street BMX crop was there. Canadian legends like Jay Miron and company have made the Vancouver and Toronto Jams two of the must-attend freestyle events of the year.

Now, if you're knowledgeable enough to be impressed by trick descriptions and you're reading this, you were probably there. Suffice to say, the top 16 riders were all doing inverted combinations, tailwhips off everything, and easy eight footers above the quarters. Furthermore, crashes were mostly limited to attempts on individuals' hardest tricks, the numerous flares, backflip variations, and 720's were landed with ease. The event was won by Gary Young, with Ryan Nyquist as runner up. Check out the photos and videos at metrobmxjam.com and you will see what I mean.

Vancouver happens to be the world capital of freeride and freestyle mountain biking, so holding a Metrojam here is educational. Freestyle mountain biking, as an addition to freeriding has become a popular marketing tool. There are a couple of formats right now; the "gravity street course" concept with big mountain stunts on a hill, such as Whistler's Slopestyle, and conventional street comps, notably the RedBull Bike Battle, which started out as freestyle trials and has evolved into some weird combination of street and dirt jumping. Now these events are quite successful, but MetroJam really puts things in perspective.

To be blunt, if you took the sixteen finalists from MetroJam and gave them each a 26" bike and an hour to get used to it, I guarantee they would all finish ahead of all of the 26" guys at Slopestyle or Bike Battle. Mountain bike freestylers are years and years behind the 20" guys. 26" freestyle is actually dominated by ex-BMX guys, but they're not even top 20 competitors.

For example, a fellow named Paul Basagoitia won the 2004 Slopestyle. Mr Basagoitia has a 20" background, but Google does not show him placing highly in any recent 20" contests. Apparently he had been riding 26" this year and had won the Sea Otter jump event, but had had to borrow a 26" bike for the Slopestyle, as his had gone missing. That guys like Paul could causally borrow a bike and beat all these alleged 26" pros is embarrassing, and serious mountain bikers should be shocked.

The safety situation is equally dire. At Metrojam, the pros made numerous attempts at ludicrously hard tricks, took numerous falls, and walked away each time. The last two Slopestyles have resulted in people being evacuated off the course to an ambulance during the finals! It just doesn't look like a professional sport if season ending injuries are common in the actual contest. I know Slopestyle has big stunts and that dirt is unpredictable, but it's rider inexperience and lack of training that's the source of a lot of the problems.

Needless to say, the BMX guys have been laughing at 26" freestyle for some time now. BMX and mountain biking are socio-economically like chalk and cheese. BMX is blue collar, young, and alienated. Globally, mountain biking is more SUV-driving-establishment, yuppie eurotrash and/or their kids. Broadly speaking, young and not-so-rich kids get stuck in the city, so BMX and skating are, so-to-speak, attempts to bring the pleasure of the trails and ski slopes downtown. BMX guys will not ride 26" as a matter of pride, sponsorship notwithstanding.

I f they did, it would make several good things happen. First, it would raise the standard of 26" freestyle so that Crankworx and Bike Battle would be able to present a more credible package for fans and sponsors. Second, there would be fewer injuries, at least, in the big finals. Third, it would make the 26" kids realize that a 20" bike is the only way to learn serious skills on two wheels, so it would eventually raise the overall level of skill and safety in all of mountain biking.

So if never the twain shall meet, how can they meet? The answer lies right here in British Columbia, in Nelson in fact. Here in BC, the mountains run right into town and are accessible to all. So 20" and 26" bikes attract many of the same people and the cultural walls are breaking down. The kids can now learn to ride in an atmosphere where any kind of bike is acceptable, and having fun is the only goal. I foresee a glorious day when the revolution of two-wheel cultural harmony takes wing and rolls across the continent, sweeping everyone, 20" and 26" before it. That day is coming friends, and it will be a glorious one.

Robin Coope is an emeritus member of the Norco Factory Trials Team, and continues to organize and MC numerous bike events. He considers himself the eminence grise of the Vancouver mountain bike scene.