Riding “up”
Basic principle (always refer to this): you can’t ride “down” – some people can ride up, but you can “never” ride “down” (downhill in the below diagram).
Note that this document is meant as an easy quick reference. If you want to read the rulebook go to: Rulebook for Australian Events (Rule 006).
Basic principles:
- “riding up” means moving “uphill” in this diagram
- You can only ride "up" 1 age class
- You can never ride “down”, so you can’t move down the line in this diagram
- You can ride in the opposite gender of same age or 1 age higher - a 15-year girl can nominate in 16 boys if she's game. A 16 boy can enter in the 16 girls if he's game
- 8-year-olds are restricted to 8 year class. Boys can enter in girls class, and girls can enter in boys class, but they can't "ride up" at all.
- Sprockets ... you can't ride out of sprockets - yes a 5-year can enter the 6 sprockets (only riding up 1 year), but a 7 year sprocket can't ride up into the 8s. Sprockets are stuck in sprockets until they are not sprockets.
Example 1: a 16-year old rider wants to ride against his mates in 17-24 – no worries, he can “ride up”
Example 2: a 37-year old rider thinks he’s superman and wants to race against his younger mates. He can ride “up” (uphill on the diagram) to the 30-34 class, but can’t go to a younger class than that
Example 3: A 33-year old rider wants to ride with his mate in 17-24. He cannot ride that class because he would be riding “down” (going downhill on the above diagram). Note that his mate can only ride "up" into the 25-29 class (ride up 1 class only).
Entering an event. Make sure you clearly nominate the class you want to enter. We have plenty of people who make mistakes when entering online (problem between keyboard and chair), so make sure you (a) nominate for the class you want and (b) check the entries online prior to the event. If they are wrong then contact bmxnswentries@gmail.com before the event, not on the day of the event.
Note: a rider is able to ride up as per these rules at any event except State Titles and Aussies Titles. However in NSW, in State Series events, if you nominate to ride out of your natural age/gender class you won’t receive “series points” for that event.