When I raced back in the late 70's and early 80's we were not allowed on the track without a pad on our frame, the crossbar, and the gooseneck. I noticed that noone uses them anymore. when did this rule change and why? it always made sense to me that we had to have pads on our bikes.

maybe it's a "race at your own risk" kind of deal.

Fuuny you mention it. Me and a friend were talking about this last week while taking a look at the latest SE Bikes catalog.

It changed about 2 years ago.

I think so many of the pads were so thin, and so small, ie. not even wrapped around the frame, just stuck to the top of the frame tube with 2 small squares of velcro, that they said, "what's the difference between that, and none".

It was kinda like making a decal of the top half of a Cal Lite pad, and sticking it to the frame. Yep, here's my pad.

Stem pad for the knees at the very least. It was always the stem, or the pedals, or the bar ends, that got me. I don't recall the frame or bar pads ever sparing me any pain. Stem pad for sure.

I thought it was wierd killing that rule, but, when you saw the pads they were using anyway...

Clips killed the pad rule. Whenever I slipped a pedal on flats, my knee or leg would always find the stem. Honestly in the 12 years I have been racing with clips on my BMX I have never banged my knees or legs on the stem, bars or frames. It's always the "pop up/out" that happens with clips.

b.

i guess with the crazy tracks they have now compared to BITD the risk of whacking your knee on the stem is nothing compared to crashing over a set of huge triples, etc.

that reminds me. i had just noticed that everyone races with clips now. crazy. i loved my shimao DX. i've never used clips. is it difficult to pull your foot out if you need to?

NO PADS ANYMORE?

somebody's gonna get hurt.

For some reason I still use pads on my boys bikes. I guess just to add a little color bling. Heck, I bet the things don't weigh 3 oz. total together.

Dean

I thought you still had to have them, just nobody enforced the rule

my buddy wanted to race last week..and i looked at his bike and said"you better get a pad on your crossbar before you race"well, he raced without one and nobody even said anything.i'll still sport the cal lite pads all over my racer

I think the pads look TRICK.

And to think, I was upset when I realized that my Flite pads had faded.

Okay, I'm still upset about that. But still, no pads on BMX race bikes? There's just something wrong, with that.

A full face helmet is no guarantee you won't still knock your teeth out on the cross bar. I've seen a kids mouth get torn up by the number plate too, pretty gnarley, maybe the cross bar could have helped?

I've always been curious about this: can a ABA/NBL-sanctioned track add their own rules in-addition to the sanctionaing body's rules?

So, if a track wants to require pads or ban clips, they can do it?

A few years ago when I raced my local track required a full-face helmet, which I was bummed about because I always prefered open-face.

I haven't ran a frame pad on my bike in years (I lost it and never replaced it). Still use stem and cross bar pad though. I would recommend that newer riders and the "seasoned" riders making a return to the sport use pads on their bikes.

Is "seasoned riders" a euphemism for old, out of shape riders
who are losing their skills (not ME, mind you!)

I was trying to be polite.