No Easy Riders Here : But Bicycle Motocross Takes All Other Kinds

ORANGE —  Nicholaas Faas readies himself at the starting gate, a trickle of sweat rolling down his forehead. He glances nervously through his helmet visor at his competition on their racing bikes, then eyes the racetrack.

The bikers adjust their suits, the starting gate releases, and Nicholaas bursts onto the track in a flurry of Day-Glo and dust.

“Pedal, Nick, pedal!” screams his father, Jerry Faas, his voice thick with pride.

Little Nicholaas Faas is no professional bike racer. After all, he’s only 5.

But that’s old enough to compete in the growing sport of bicycle motocross racing--better known as BMX. Thousands of children just like Nicholaas participate in the sport throughout the nation. So do thousands of adults.

That, say BMX racers, is the beauty of the sport. Anyone can do it. It has become a racing sport for the whole family--a way for everyone from kindergartners to homemakers to act out their daredevil fantasies--pretty much without danger.

“It feels like you’re riding the Viper at Magic Mountain--in the front car,” said Mike Long, a computer software consultant from Fullerton and a former BMX World Cup champion.

“You get the adrenaline rush of the turns and the loops when you go over the obstacles at 30 miles an hour, at the same time you’re looking out for the other riders,” Long said. “You have to push your body mentally and physically. And if someone crashes in front of you there’s not a whole lot you can do.”

According to the American Bicycle Assn., about 250,000 men, women and children ranging in age from 4 to 70 compete in BMX racing, an organized sport that requires speed, agility and a keen sense of competition. This year, membership in the ABA increased by 13%; last year it was up 9%.

About 3,500 ABA members from Orange County participate in the activity at 13 BMX racetracks in Southern California, including tracks in Orange and Coal Canyon.

“It allows you the opportunity to start with people who have no more developed skills that you do,” said ABA President Clayton John, whose organization helps govern the sport. “All you need is a bike.”

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All BMX racers--from ages 5 to 60--use the kind of street bicycle that they learned to ride on as a child.

“The wheels are the same basic size that you see every kid in the world riding on, 20-inch wheels,” said Don Wood, a 49-year-old BMX racer from Huntington Beach. “But the frame style can be built to fit someone of an adult size, so they can ride it.”

Wood started racing bikes eight years ago. He said he became involved in the sport just to see what it was like for his son, Elliott, who was 8 at the time and a BMX racer.

“I realized, who am I to judge him if I’m not out there doing it too,” Wood said. “So I went out and bought an old Mongoose cruiser. It was so small I kept hitting my knees against the handlebars.”

Today, Wood is ranked third nationally in his age group in the World Cup of BMX. He became so enamored of the sport that he quit his job with Southern California Edison to become a BMX consultant, helping adults and children enter the sport.

He even built a small BMX track in his back yard, so his entire family--including his wife, Carol, and his 11-year-old sons Matt and Dan--could practice maneuvering the dirt hills and corners of a racetrack.

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Legend has it that the sport began in the early 1970s, when a group of Southern California youths started hot-dogging it with their street bikes in dusty fields and vacant lots, trying to copy the high-flying jumps, turns and spins of motorcycle motocross.

That activity later evolved into an organized sport for both children and adults--complete with sponsors, as well as high-tech bikes, racing suits and helmets that make BMXers look like versions of the Power Rangers.

Up to eight bikers race each other along a short, curved dirt track, over a series of sharp turns and steep moguls, all the while pedaling furiously to get across the finish line first, all within 60 seconds.

“I’d equate it to running a 440 in track,” said 34-year-old Mike Long, the former 1990 and 1991 World Cup BMX champion. “It’s a lot tougher than people think. You have to go from zero to 30 [m.p.h.] in a few seconds and then keep that pace up until the finish. And not only do you have to think where you’re going, you have to control the speed so you won’t wipe out.”

Races are organized according to age groups. Within these age groups there are three skill levels--novice, intermediate and expert--all of whom can compete at a national level. All riders start as novices.

But according to Ray Rohn, who has been involved in BMX for 17 years, many end up as professional racers, including race car driver Robby Gordon of Orange, who started racing at the BMX track in Orange as a youth. This year, Gordon finished fifth in the Indianapolis 500, Rohn said.

“This is a great training ground for any kind of racing,” said Rohn, 46. “You learn early how to start off at the gate, you learn how to take care of your bike, you learn how to handle the competition. You get all that out of your system.”

Rohn said that many BMXers turn professional, winning cash prizes at national and world BMX races and garnering spots on national television and magazine ads.

But most people, Rohn said, do it for the love of the sport.

“There’s no money in it,” Rohn said. “You got to want to do it.”

Melissa Wolfe, 17, a resident of Anaheim, would agree.

“It’s rad,” said Wolfe, a BMX racer since the age of 10. “My friends think I’m cool because they say they couldn’t do what I do. It’s pretty competitive.”

Little Nicholaas Faas is getting a sharp taste of that competition. On a sweltering day at the BMX race track in Orange, he entered what was only his fourth race, against two 6-year-old veteran racers. He ended up third but left with a trophy.

“No one sits on the bench in BMX,” noted Don Wood. “That’s the beauty of this sport. Everyone gets to compete.”