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Winchester BMX course info.

whale

Monkey
Apr 23, 2004
750
0
Silver Spring, MD
i'm craving a little bmx course action. i hear the course down in winchester is quite nice. i haven't ridden a bmx course since i was about 9 years old and that was back around 1986 on a track in okinawa, japan on my old factory kuwahara... GOD, i wish i still had that bike!

anyways, has anyone ridden the course and/or have any info about it? i've done some web searching and forum searching and found some links about the course and bmx racing schedules to avoid riding conflicts: http://www.winchesterbmxracing.org and http://www.vabmx.org/home.htm

it looks like i might spend my day off this friday (weather permitting) to head down there and have a little fun riding it.

what i would like to know is:
can anyone just go down there and ride it anytime?
is there a fee to pay to ride the course?
is there a weather line to call to check if it's open?
do they have any rules/regulations regarding pads/protection and types of bikes?
how's the course?

i'm planning on bringing my foes zig zag (dual-slalom) and P3 (just converted to single speed!) to try them both out. i want to build up a little more confidence on jumping and gaining some speed on the track for a future (hopefully soon) trip up to snowshoe again... this time to hit the MTX course!

thanks in advance for your help.
 

Animal Mother

Monkey
Nov 26, 2003
207
0
Northern VA
whale said:
what i would like to know is:
can anyone just go down there and ride it anytime?
yes, the course is open to the public.

is there a fee to pay to ride the course?
nope, it's free.

is there a weather line to call to check if it's open?
it's always open, rain or shine.

do they have any rules/regulations regarding pads/protection and types of bikes?
Nope, run what you brung buck naked if you'd like...

how's the course?
course is nasty! they just recently dozed it down and rebuilt it. got some monster berms there now. it's definalty worth the trip. it's in a park, no one is really ever there during the week. at most, i've ran into 5-7 riders while there. no authorities ever... SO NICE!

QUOTE]


also, there are dirt jumps about a mile from there. i've only seen them on video but they are phat and plentyful. I don't have exact directions at this time so don't ask... I'll be going there within a couple weeks with a friend that rides them frequently to do some trail work. I'll let you know and you can join if you'd like.
 

whale

Monkey
Apr 23, 2004
750
0
Silver Spring, MD
Animal Mother said:
whale said:
what i would like to know is:
can anyone just go down there and ride it anytime?
yes, the course is open to the public.

is there a fee to pay to ride the course?
nope, it's free.

is there a weather line to call to check if it's open?
it's always open, rain or shine.

do they have any rules/regulations regarding pads/protection and types of bikes?
Nope, run what you brung buck naked if you'd like...

how's the course?
course is nasty! they just recently dozed it down and rebuilt it. got some monster berms there now. it's definalty worth the trip. it's in a park, no one is really ever there during the week. at most, i've ran into 5-7 riders while there. no authorities ever... SO NICE!

QUOTE]


also, there are dirt jumps about a mile from there. i've only seen them on video but they are phat and plentyful. I don't have exact directions at this time so don't ask... I'll be going there within a couple weeks with a friend that rides them frequently to do some trail work. I'll let you know and you can join if you'd like.
sweet and thanks! i had heard that the course was open to the public and had pretty much no rules (unlike the woodbridge track - regarding rules for pads and stuff). let me know about those dirt jumps, if i can make day out there for some DJing AND a bmx track... it would be well worth the drive! plus, i have a friend that lives in front royal on the way there that i can always stop by and visit.

PM me when you decide to do some trail work and DJing down there. is that video posted somewhere so i can check it out?

i don't even want to think about the hurting from crashing buck naked ;)
 

Animal Mother

Monkey
Nov 26, 2003
207
0
Northern VA
whale said:
sweet and thanks! i had heard that the course was open to the public and had pretty much no rules (unlike the woodbridge track - regarding rules for pads and stuff). let me know about those dirt jumps, if i can make day out there for some DJing AND a bmx track... it would be well worth the drive! plus, i have a friend that lives in front royal on the way there that i can always stop by and visit.

PM me when you decide to do some trail work and DJing down there. is that video posted somewhere so i can check it out?

i don't even want to think about the hurting from crashing buck naked ;)
the video is from two of my friends, they brought the camera over and after they rode and hooked it to my TV. they're computer retarted so I'm not even going to ask them to put into that format... the dj's have been there for years. very well packed an established. they just havn't been riden at all in a while so there is grass on them all. my friends went over about a month ago and hit them with a weedeater and then herbicides... so the grass is gone on a lot of the lines. still needs work on the lips and downsides. i'll let you know when we go.

ben

oh yeah, wrecking naked is not a wise thing to do! take it from a drunk guy at a back yard party on a moped ;)
 

Animal Mother

Monkey
Nov 26, 2003
207
0
Northern VA
whale said:
btw, anyone got any decent pictures of the course? the ones on the websites i've found don't show much of the track.[/QUOTE

can't help ya there... BMX is not my cup of tea. i just show up there to play around a bit before riding street in Winchester so i've never broke out the camera as i have nothing worthy of a picture. :p
 

whale

Monkey
Apr 23, 2004
750
0
Silver Spring, MD
Animal Mother said:
can't help ya there... BMX is not my cup of tea. i just show up there to play around a bit before riding street in Winchester so i've never broke out the camera as i have nothing worthy of a picture. :p
oh well, a coworker and i are planning on heading out there tomorrow to check it out and pretend to BMX on mountain bikes. maybe i'll take some pics then.
 

Animal Mother

Monkey
Nov 26, 2003
207
0
Northern VA
whale said:
oh well, a coworker and i are planning on heading out there tomorrow to check it out and pretend to BMX on mountain bikes. maybe i'll take some pics then.

cool... you'll enjoy! What time you guys going to be there?
 

whale

Monkey
Apr 23, 2004
750
0
Silver Spring, MD
Animal Mother said:
cool... you'll enjoy! What time you guys going to be there?
not 100% sure yet, i think we will head out after rush hour traffic has died down... around 9:30am or so. i'm shooting for getting there around 11am and hanging out for a couple of hours. might hit the 495 jumps for a bit on the way back if we have time.
 

kirstin

Monkey
Mar 24, 2004
197
0
DC
whale said:
i haven't ridden a bmx course since i was about 9 years old and that was back around 1986 on a track in okinawa, japan on my old factory kuwahara... GOD, i wish i still had that bike!
and this one time, on my kuwahara...

(ducks and runs)
 

whale

Monkey
Apr 23, 2004
750
0
Silver Spring, MD
kirstin said:
and this one time, on my kuwahara...

(ducks and runs)
lol. to make matters worse. i found a picture of the exact factory kuwahara bike that i brought back from okinawa. it got stolen in 1989 and was replaced by the 2nd (not even close to as cool) kuwahara bravo pro that i sold a while back.

oh yeah, there was this one time, on my kuwahara... :D
 

Animal Mother

Monkey
Nov 26, 2003
207
0
Northern VA
whale said:
not 100% sure yet, i think we will head out after rush hour traffic has died down... around 9:30am or so. i'm shooting for getting there around 11am and hanging out for a couple of hours. might hit the 495 jumps for a bit on the way back if we have time.

so... what'd you think of the joint?
 

whale

Monkey
Apr 23, 2004
750
0
Silver Spring, MD
Animal Mother said:
so... what'd you think of the joint?
well, the course was cool... the experience was quite humbling for me. taught me a good lesson in body meets dirt/gravel :nope: had a fun time riding out there before my big crash (possible action picture shot to be developed). a little battered, bruised, and sore now. i need to work some more before i can clean them jumps out there and REALLY RIDE the track.

here are some pics.

the course from the gate.


more of the course


first big step-up in front of the gate


pretty big stuff.


dirt/gravel, i'd like you to meet my back
 

JKnowledge

Chimp
Jun 22, 2004
5
0
I just joined today (6/22). Next time you are in town, we can do some street riding as well. The street riding is better after 6:30 or 7:00 when the county buildings empty out. I work in Fairfax, so I want to start doing some riding in NOVA after work.
 

whale

Monkey
Apr 23, 2004
750
0
Silver Spring, MD
JKnowledge said:
I just joined today (6/22). Next time you are in town, we can do some street riding as well. The street riding is better after 6:30 or 7:00 when the county buildings empty out. I work in Fairfax, so I want to start doing some riding in NOVA after work.
sure, i'll let you know. i don't plan on heading out there often... but i'd like to see someone work the track unlike me being a wannabe ;)
 

Animal Mother

Monkey
Nov 26, 2003
207
0
Northern VA
JKnowledge said:
I just joined today (6/22). Next time you are in town, we can do some street riding as well. The street riding is better after 6:30 or 7:00 when the county buildings empty out.QUOTE]


are you talking about Winchester or Fairfax?
 

whale

Monkey
Apr 23, 2004
750
0
Silver Spring, MD
llkoolkeg said:
Damn...that stuff looked small until the pic with the rider in the berm injected some scale. Cool!
yeah, that's why i included that pic to give a little perspective... here's a few more shots.

just riding on top of one of the tabletops:


one of the smaller, but looooong step-ups:
 

JKnowledge

Chimp
Jun 22, 2004
5
0
Animal Mother said:
JKnowledge said:
I just joined today (6/22). Next time you are in town, we can do some street riding as well. The street riding is better after 6:30 or 7:00 when the county buildings empty out.QUOTE]


are you talking about Winchester or Fairfax?
Winchester
 

drt_jumper

Monkey
May 20, 2003
590
0
Manassas Va
it will take 3 hours to get there....it takes almost 2 hours from D.C. to get there. I will be out there around 4:00 tomorrow if anyone wants to ride...later adam