Carley Young: I love riding bikes. I started racing BMX when I was six years old and I have been on a continual path of shredding for the past 34 years. No longer a full-time racer, I have switched into my full-time coaching hat and community event builder. I love introducing Bikes to new friends, especially women and opening their eyes to the amazing community. We have built together.
As many of you may have heard, our community lost our local bike park The Wheel Mill in March. The loss of our beloved indoor park is hitting our community hard and everyone is working hard to plan what is next for an indoor facility for us to ride soon. So I set a goal to have monthly events to keep the community riding together.
Event Recap
Ride Like A Girl Session in Cleveland Ohio
Saturday April 6, 2024
We kicked off April with a Ride Like A Girl Session in Cleveland Ohio. April 6th we started our riding indoors at Ray’s indoor MTB Park located at 9801 Walford Ave, Cleveland, OH 44102. We had about 20 girls join us for the indoor riding session. It was so great to see friendships that have been made at our Ride Like A Girl Women’s Weekend reconnect at another event. Friends quickly sat together and we had some heavy lady trains at the park that day. After lunch we headed outside to the pump track that is located right outside of the bike park. This free community pump track is amazing. Kids tested each line and encouraged each other to try the jumps and transfers. Then we loaded up the cars and headed 15 minutes away to a free local bike park called Cliffs. It is located at 4525 E 49th Street, Cleveland OH 44125 – Google Maps has it labeled Cleveland Metroparks Cliffs Bike Park. This park has two pump tracks and two jump lines. When we arrived I could see the excitement on the girls’ faces to ride the jump line. After practicing their jumping skills inside they were pumped to take their skills outdoors. It was amazing to see every girl show up mentally and try the line first go! The excitement made everyone around the park stop in all at the girls cheering each other on and so happy to see everyone getting some air on each of the jumps. It didn’t take long before the girls were looking at the bigger jump line and excited to give that a go. I am thankful for places like The Wheel Mill and Ray’s for giving these girls insane courage to show up to a bike park and completely believe in themselves to try something new and encourage others to be brave and try it too. Wasn’t long before we had trains going on both the big and small lines at the same time. Thanks to everyone who came out we had a blast getting together and keeping the good vibes going. Here is a video recap of the event.
Up in the Clouds Jam at Joyride – Toronto Canada
Saturday & Sunday April 19,20,21, 2024
The Bloom BMX invited some ladies to the Up in the Clouds Jam at Joyride in Markham Canada. Bethany Hedrick and I drove up late Thursday night to meet up with Jess Ausec. Friday morning we toured around the Burlington area and hit up a few of their local free parks. It is amazing to see how many parks they have in Canada. Jess introduced us to a sweet app called Time BMX that tells you about local spots using your phone’s location. Jess mapped out 3 parks for us to try on our way to Toronto. The first spot we hit up was called Gellert Skatepark and was located within a community center with a playground and park right next door. We rode for a few hours with some local skateboarders and had many laughs.Â
Before leaving we met the cutest girls who came to ride their skateboards and were using umbrellas to help push them along the park. It was awesome to watch a kid’s brain in full effect. We captured a few clips and another spot under the bridges in Toronto. This park was called Underpass Park, it had beautiful artwork painted everywhere. Unfortunately the photos that were listed were for another park so we thought we were going to ride a bowl and it had a bunch of jib features. So we partied for a bit then went to the bowl in the photos. The park we thought we were going to was called Vanderhoof Skatepark. When we arrived this amazing girls skateboarder was absolutely ripping. We got to chat with her after the session and it turns out she is Fey de Fazio, a 14 year old Pan Am Gold Medalist from Canada. Was rad to connect with her and follow her on Instagram to continue to watch her progress. After a day of touring around the city we headed inside for a session at Joyride. We were only able to ride for about an hour but we had fun checking out the lines and were excited to ride the next day. Joyride was so very kind to put us up in this beautiful hotel in downtown Markham. If you head to joyride make sure to check out the Toronto Marriott Markham. Their hotel is top notch with a bar lounge in the lobby and a Ruth Chris steak house also connected to the hotel. Walking distance to fun shops and places to eat and free parking in their parking garage. They have a beautiful infinity pool and a killer breakfast.Â
Saturday we got up early and headed straight to the park to ride. It was cool to see how their park functioned outside of the contest they were throwing. We got to ride with some of the riders who were going to be entering the jump contest later that day. I enjoyed rolling around the park handing out Ride Like A Girl stickers and seeing the pure joy when the girls ripped off the paper and immediately put it on their helmets and bikes. We cheered on the younger girls class during their contest runs and were there to give out high fives and be supportive of the next generation of lady shredders. Next up we did our contest runs. I have not done a contest in over 10 years so I was dusting off some serious cobwebs to get the courage to do tricks on the jump line. I took a hand off, laid a table, did a baby no footer, little seat grab and a UFO. Bethany of course killed it with her dipped t bogs, bar spins, 360 and x ups. Jess was the real MVP of the day. This girl went way out of her comfort zone to ride this line and clear two of the boxes in the line. This girl can murder some street so seeing her grow in a new way of flying that beautiful blonde hair through the air was so great to see. Then we met some pretty incredible Canadian riders. Slopestyle rider Isla O’Connor threw a sick tuck no hander, sick whips and X-ups. Lauren Butler threw a solid run together with a seat grab, whip and a bar spin on the flyout it was sick!!! Alexandra LaForest has the best no footers, they are so good I said she should throw them on every jump and she did!!! High fives all around the girls were so stoked to ride together.
Sunday Bethany and I headed back to the park for the morning to catch some laps on the big line and check off some other areas of the park we missed the day before. It was fun to check out the space again and ride with some of the friends who were still there from the day before. We had a long trek home but we had to stop by Niagara Falls and get some tourist shots before heading back to the states. Thanks again to The Bloom BMX, Joyride 150 and Toronto Marriott for having us out!
Westmoreland BMX – Apollo, PA
Sunday April 28, 2024
Westmoreland BMX track open house was a huge success. We got so much rain on Saturday that we had to move the event to Sunday. Nothing but beautiful sunshine for an opening day of racing. Riders in Pittsburgh are itching to ride since the weather has been so warm this year but we had a lot of rain so the outdoor track was never dry enough to ride. Some riders are also ramping up to race the UCI BMX World Champions in a few weeks so we are excited for this track time. I started the morning off with a free beginner clinic for anyone who is new to BMX to give them some helpful tips on how to safely get around the track. We had 12 new riders join us for an hour of instruction. It was so awesome to see some of our Wheel Mill friends come out to the track and give BMX racing a try. We had 31 motos for the day with 128 riders! I was so excited about opening day that I threw a number plate on my park bike and raced the boys and had so much fun. I love how much fun we have racing at Westmoreland, racing doesn’t have to be serious all the time. Everyone was full of smiles and high fives at the line with good times and good battles. We had 3 move ups that day from novice to intermediate. Was awesome to see so many girls out on the track. Between volunteering and racing I was only able to snag a few photos of the girls from friends. I scored a 2nd for the day, Emerson new to racing got a 3rd, Claire bear got 3rd. Westmoreland races on Tuesday nights if you ever wanna come out and join us. If you have never raced before your first time is Free to try. If you are thinking of coming out let me know so I can show you around. I will be hosting a new rider clinic if you know anyone interested in getting started. Westmoreland BMX Beginner Academy.
South Park BMX – Pittsburg, PA
Monday April 29, 2024
South Park BMX gets a new starting hill and first jump. The dedicated volunteers at South Park BMX have been working hard to bring a huge improvement to the track. Giving the starting hill a new design and adding a new Pro Start barrel gate the hill is giving the locals at the track so much happiness. They kicked off their opening day with a practice before their big PA State race this weekend. Riders came together 15 minutes before practice to discuss the new changes and talk about safety. With the bigger hill and the first jumps lip being paved the volunteers wanted to put out a warning to riders to take it easy their first few laps. It was cool to see riders progress at such a rapid rate going from rolling the new starting hill to by the end of the night jumping it with ease. Having to jump first jumps has always been a favorite of mine growing up as an amateur to separate the moto with one jump. The jump is easy but its a mind game so it will be interesting to see who shows up with their wings and who’s breaks are gonna get a little extra wear. I also feel the new hill is going to give the young kids who learned how to jump second straight last year the speed they need to now do it in a race. This was a massive project for the track and it’s so rad to see it all come together and to watch the riders fall in love with the new track. I was busy riding so I didn’t get many photos other than a sniper shot of me coaching. But I did score this video of 4-year-old Elliana Zimmerman full send down the big hill to a big jump and making it over clean each time!
This project was a huge expense to the track and they plan on doing some really cool fundraising to help pay for it. This month they are raffling off a $2,000 Louis Vuitton hand bag. Tickets are $10 and they are limiting the tickets to 1000. You can help support the track and maybe win you a designer bag by donating to this link: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/57dd66fc-7f74-4d8e-8403-566462a6d4b6
Upcoming Events
- Saturday May 4th South Park BMX State Race
- Saturday May 4th Richmond BMX Gold Cup Race
- Saturday May 4th Ohio Pile Biking Club Women’s Group ride.
- Sunday May 5th Johnstown BMX State Race
- Tuesday May 7th PGH Unpaved a talk about off road cycling in Pittsburgh
- PGH Babes on bikes does so many cool events check out there website and this is what they have on the books for May.
- May 11: Yellow Creek MTB #3
- May 11: Parker Dam Gravel Grinder
- May 18: Kate’s Mountain Challenge Gravel Grinder
- May 19: Mighty Moraine Sprint Triathlon
- May 25: Roughneck Gravel Roubaix
- May 31 – June 2: Camp Roar Women’s MTB Weekend
Rider spotlight
I wanted to give a shoutout to an amazing girl mom of two who just picked up a sweet new MTB sponsor. Amy Shenton was a Colorado shredder who now has blessed the Pittsburgh scene with her moto whips and good times. You will see her rocking the newest Revel bikes on the trails. Congratulations girl this new ride is well deserved. Happy shredding.
Reminders
The weather is getting nicer so get out there and find something to ride every day! Thanks for reading about all the cool adventures happening in my area. See you next month!
Would you like to report on your region? The Bloom BMX is looking for women to provide a monthly BMX recap of all the happenings in their area. Contact us at [email protected]
