BMX Track - South Oakleigh

BMX Track – South Oakleigh

The BMX Track located in South Oakleigh is home to the South Eastern BMX Club – one of Victoria’s earliest BMX Clubs, established in 1979.  The club is more popular than ever and the facilities here are great.

When:  The track can be used outside of competition events, club days and general maintenance working bees – which is most of the time.  Also training is available every Saturday from 11:30am to 2:00pm (unless an event is on, see above), contact southeasternbmx@hotmail.com for more details.  Otherwise the track is open to ride any time, there is a pedestrian/ bike gate at each end of the reserve.

Where:  Stan Riley Reserve, Centre Road SOUTH OAKLEIGH

Cost:  To use the track is FREE, to become a member click here for all the details.

Review

Thanks to BMX racing becoming an olympic sport governments have been more supportive of BMX Clubs recently; the South Eastern BMX Club in South Oakleigh is lucky to have a thriving membership who have put in a lot of man power to make this BMX track pretty awesome.

This track is for anyone who can ride a bike without training wheels, aged 3 and above.  If you’re a little unsure then perhaps a Saturday training session is the way to go (see above for details).  If you are thinking of attending a training session newcomers are welcome and there are helmets, gloves and race bikes to try if you would like, all you need to bring is long pants, long sleeves and covered shoes.

We turned up late on Saturday (about 4pm) for a bit of a look and a State racing day had just finished – so there were still a few people hanging around the club rooms, but essentially we had the track to ourselves and a few of the big kids (probably aged 10) did a couple of laps to show us how it’s done.  Charlie (5) spied their motocross inspired outfits and padding and his new favourite sport was born.

For about 45 minutes I sat under a shady tree reading the paper, (FYI there is no seating overlooking the track, luckily I had a beach towel in the car to use as a seat as it was rather rough ground) watching the kids do laps making lots of happy noises.  For some reason Immi (8) decided to take a bit of a shortcut and go across the track rather than forwards – short story, she slipped and grazed her elbow.  So I highly recommend wearing long sleeves and pants or at very least elbow pads and knee pads.

One of the Club’s committee members was packing up from the race day and heard the rather dramatic wailing taking place after the elbow was scraped – so he invited us into the club rooms and organised some water to clean the graze and a band-aid.  I got the distinct impression that this is a very friendly club mostly run by BMX parents who volunteer.

I wish it was a bit closer to where we live – still as a weekend or school holiday hangout this is a fun spot to head to with kids looking for something a little different to a regular bike track.