# Park Bike/Dirt Jumper



## Sachem6 (Apr 30, 2008)

Does anybody ride a Park/Dirt Jumper? I'm a 50 year old ex-BMX rider and still love jumping on my mountain bike. I have a full squish 29er that I love to ride on downhills and in some Enduro races. 

Lately my son has been getting into skateboarding and wants to ride at skate parks more. We recently went to one to check it out and I noticed that there were some guys riding their park bikes there and they didn't look young. That got me thinking of maybe getting a bike that I can take to a park whenever my son wants to go over. I'm not talking about doing big jumps, but just enough to have fun.

Am I crazy or are there more older guys doing this than I think?


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## slapheadmofo (Jun 9, 2006)

Sachem6 said:


> Does anybody ride a Park/Dirt Jumper? I'm a 50 year old ex-BMX rider and still love jumping on my mountain bike. I have a full squish 29er that I love to ride on downhills and in some Enduro races.
> 
> Lately my son has been getting into skateboarding and wants to ride at skate parks more. We recently went to one to check it out and I noticed that there were some guys riding their park bikes there and they didn't look young. That got me thinking of maybe getting a bike that I can take to a park whenever my son wants to go over. I'm not talking about doing big jumps, but just enough to have fun.
> 
> Am I crazy or are there more older guys doing this than I think?


I rode parks quite a bit with my kid up until a few years ago (I'm 51 next week). Still ride a good bit of pumptrack/small DJ stuff. I ride and build with a number of other guys who ended up picking up bikes to ride that sort of stuff with their kids. Do it!

FWIW, I was never a BMXer so at first I figured I'd be better off on bigger wheels, but after a number of 26 and 24 inch wheeled park/DJ bikes, I finally stopped screwing around and got the right tool for the job, aka a 20" BMX. IME, the secret to making them old-man friendly is to put the biggest-ass bars you can on, 9+ inch rise. SOOO much easier on the back.


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## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

When my son started skating, I had the same idea: then I had some really hard falls on concrete and decided the pain wasn't worth the gain.

Wear a lot of padding on the butt and hips 

For a truly excellent father-son learning experience, try mountain unicycling, so much fun and so good for you.



Sachem6 said:


> Does anybody ride a Park/Dirt Jumper? I'm a 50 year old ex-BMX rider and still love jumping on my mountain bike. I have a full squish 29er that I love to ride on downhills and in some Enduro races.
> 
> Lately my son has been getting into skateboarding and wants to ride at skate parks more. We recently went to one to check it out and I noticed that there were some guys riding their park bikes there and they didn't look young. That got me thinking of maybe getting a bike that I can take to a park whenever my son wants to go over. I'm not talking about doing big jumps, but just enough to have fun.
> 
> Am I crazy or are there more older guys doing this than I think?


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## Sachem6 (Apr 30, 2008)

slapheadmofo said:


> I rode parks quite a bit with my kid up until a few years ago (I'm 51 next week). Still ride a good bit of pumptrack/small DJ stuff. I ride and build with a number of other guys who ended up picking up bikes to ride that sort of stuff with their kids. Do it!
> 
> FWIW, I was never a BMXer so at first I figured I'd be better off on bigger wheels, but after a number of 26 and 24 inch wheeled park/DJ bikes, I finally stopped screwing around and got the right tool for the job, aka a 20" BMX. IME, the secret to making them old-man friendly is to put the biggest-ass bars you can on, 9+ inch rise. SOOO much easier on the back.


Thanks man! I think I am gunna pull the plug. I just need to sell my 29er SS. I do like wider bars, and don't plan on doing bar spins.


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