Things you might hear in BMX:

BIKES

Class: Rolling on 20-inch wheel bikes (the rim is actually 16" but with tire it is 20")

Cruiser: Cruising on 24-inch wheel bikes (the rim is actually 20" but with tire it is 24")

Clips: Anything that mechanically secures your foot to the pedal. Clips 99.99% of the time refers to clipless shoes with a locking cleat.

Flats: A pedal with a flat surface usually with spiky studs to help keep your feet on them.

Gearing: This means how many teeth on the front and rear gears. If the front is 44 teeth and the rear is 16. It is said as 44/16.

Gear Ratio: Divide the two numbers above and get a ratio. This ratio is good for a quick starting point for tuning your gearing. For most teen and adult riders the starting point is 2.75 (44/16=2.75) and about 2.6 for kids.

Gear inches, gain ratio, rollout: These are calculated numbers based on gearing, crank length, and tire diameter. They are more accurate for fine tuning.

TECHNIQUES

Spin: Fast cadence.

Mash: Slow cadence.

Think of spinning as a Ferrari V-12 at 8,000 RPM. Think of mashing as a Caterpillar diesel at 2000 RPM. Both create power and acceleration and each rider is different. Kids and pros usually spin while older adults usually mash.

Manual: Everyone has names and definitions for what is and isn't a manual. Basically, as a rider is going down a backside they are pushing the rear wheel down while holding the front wheel up. It is most often done in rhythm sections.

Pumping: Pumping is used to maintain or gain speed over bumps and humps. It makes an up-down-up-down rhythm where you are pushing your bike down and up across rollers.

Case: Coming up short on a jump. Most of the time casing ends in crashing.

Snap: A way to launch off the gate to give a rider a little more oommpphh and shaving a little time off the start. It is a learned skill that may take a while to pick up.

AT THE TRACK

Moto: The racing part. Typically, there are three motos to race per rider group. In UCI races motos are also called ‘heats.’

Obstacle: Anything not flat on the track.

Backside: The downward side of an obstacle.

Face: The upward side of an obstacle.

Turn: A turn is a banked corner, sometimes called a berm. They are typically made of dirt or asphalt. Most BMX tracks have 3 turns.

Double: Two bumps on one obstacle.

Triple: Three bumps on one obstacle.

Gate: Literally a hinged gate. It’s at the starting hill. The gate is where the race starts. There are a few styles of gates, but they all fall forward.

Starting Hill,The Hill: The place where you start. Can’t miss it.

Staging: The area on or near the hill where riders are organized into their motos before loading in the gate.

Holeshot, taking the holeshot: The rider that leads the others down the first straight "took the holeshot." In pro level racing taking the holeshot often means winning the race. In amateur racing taking the holeshot doesn't always mean winning the race.

Pro-section: A big jump. Pro-sections are basically two ramps; jump off one, land on the other. In between there is rough grass, alligators, snakes, mud, and lava.

Rhythm Section: A rhythm section is several rolling bumps (rollers) placed together in a tight grouping. The rhythm part comes from the up-down-up-down rhythm of pumping.

Roller: A single low rounded bump.

Step-down: A step down is where the bumps get lower than the first. Like going downstairs.

Step-up: A step up is where the bumps get higher than the first. Like going upstairs.

Tabletop: A tabletop is like a butte in geography. They are great to learn jumping skills on. Everyone loves tables.

Pits: The area around the track where you can find food vendors, talk to your friends, sit down, and have your canopy. Also, it is where hordes of semi-feral kids are found.