H2H Categories

Panhead

Well-Known Member
How long do I have to wait before I can downgrade to cat 3? I haven't touched a bike in 2 years, probably can find it anymore and it has 26" tires, no suspension and 1 gear. Is there an antique class, kind of like QQ plates?
Just like Jeff and Bill said, we didn't run away. We chose to go a different direction, right or wrong, succeed or fail is yet to be seen. Our members still believe in H2H, I personally fully support NICA and think it's a great thing to get kids involved. I coached my daughter's soccer and basket ball teams but I really enjoyed taking her out on training rides, bringiing her to races and seeing her race and knowing she really loved doing it. Life takes over and interest is lost however.
The money is a factor to some. We do spend a lot on our bikes, parts, and other race related things. I'd bring my family and know I'd be dropping cash for breakfast and lunch so on top of the fees I'd add in another $100 for the day by the time it was said and done. Shred a tire and it's another Franklin getting dropped. I hope H2H stays around because if I ever decide to race again I'd like to know there is a venue within 1.5 hours from me that I can show up to. I'm not interested in a series pass, when I was racing I had my favorite courses and the hated ones that were my drops.
With all that, NICA is definitely a good thing and so is H2H. Some kids will stick with it and go on to bigger and better things, others will drop out but they will still have the memories of the good and not so good times racing. On a bigger scale, racing shows the kids not everyone gets a trophy, losing really sucks and if you want to win in anything you have to work your ass off and work harder than anyone you want to beat. Good life skills are taught when it's you against everyone else.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
racing shows the kids not everyone gets a trophy, losing really sucks and if you want to win in anything you have to work your ass off and work harder than anyone you want to beat. Good life skills are taught when it's you against everyone else.

Right on
 

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
My son wants to race the H2H series. He'll be 14 in a week and wants to race in the 2 lap Cat2 race. Currently there's only 15 and up for the boys. Is it the same as CX where you're racing age is a year older? Seems slightly odd there aren't H2H Classes that sync up with NICA.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
How long do I have to wait before I can downgrade to cat 3? I haven't touched a bike in 2 years, probably can find it anymore and it has 26" tires, no suspension and 1 gear. Is there an antique class, kind of like QQ plates?
Just like Jeff and Bill said, we didn't run away. We chose to go a different direction, right or wrong, succeed or fail is yet to be seen. Our members still believe in H2H, I personally fully support NICA and think it's a great thing to get kids involved. I coached my daughter's soccer and basket ball teams but I really enjoyed taking her out on training rides, bringiing her to races and seeing her race and knowing she really loved doing it. Life takes over and interest is lost however.
The money is a factor to some. We do spend a lot on our bikes, parts, and other race related things. I'd bring my family and know I'd be dropping cash for breakfast and lunch so on top of the fees I'd add in another $100 for the day by the time it was said and done. Shred a tire and it's another Franklin getting dropped. I hope H2H stays around because if I ever decide to race again I'd like to know there is a venue within 1.5 hours from me that I can show up to. I'm not interested in a series pass, when I was racing I had my favorite courses and the hated ones that were my drops.
With all that, NICA is definitely a good thing and so is H2H. Some kids will stick with it and go on to bigger and better things, others will drop out but they will still have the memories of the good and not so good times racing. On a bigger scale, racing shows the kids not everyone gets a trophy, losing really sucks and if you want to win in anything you have to work your ass off and work harder than anyone you want to beat. Good life skills are taught when it's you against everyone else.

could lobby for a vintage class - just like fatbike sprung up. they would need to double the insurance tho :D
You'll be fine in cat 2. race within the race...hold off the person behind you, catch the one in front of you. it is still racing!
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Ah...

The H2H races are within the Mid atlantic region

Cross polination of racers motivated by points series

Shared resources and support

Consistency with race categories, race lengths, formats

More coordination of event dates to prevent conflicts


Thats just a few that come to mind... I’m sure there are plenty more
However, simply from a demographics perspective, you have the population and park density to easily support two series. I know people with drive far to races, but what is a reasonable geographic area? 2 hour drive one way?

Mass has races on the other side of Harrisburg and in State College. You are really pushing the boundaries to have one series that’s goes from state college to the coast/southern NY.

I think being in central NJ or philly skewes the perception as it is relatively central to each series besides the outliers. But think you live in those outlieing areas and wanted to chase the series. You would have some serious drivin to commit to, which equals time, which equals less participation when life gets hectic.

By the numbers.
9M for NJ
Bergen county alone has 940k.

Philly just over 1.5M. That is city of Philadelphia alone, Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, Delaware Counties another 2.5M

This doesn’t include Delaware or Northern Maryland.
So yeah, the number are there to have two.
 

MadisonDan

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I believe H2H is calendar year age. As in whatever age you are on December 31, 2018, that is your racing age. CX was one year ahead when Nationals were in Jan (following calendar year). As for NICA, it's based on grade, because the long term goal is to have the schools adopt the program, as they have in other states. So if he's a freshman, and wants to race JV or Varsity, he better bust his ass and ride fast. You can petition him up, like last year, but there are time cutoffs for all that jazz, like last year. If he wants to race, let us (me or @KenS know) ASAFP. As for H2H, just sign him up for the 15+ Cat 2. Pretty sure you can "cat up" but not down.
I really hope to see the kid out there this year, at NICA or H2H. Doesn't matter to me. Yay bikes!!!
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
My son wants to race the H2H series. He'll be 14 in a week and wants to race in the 2 lap Cat2 race. Currently there's only 15 and up for the boys. Is it the same as CX where you're racing age is a year older? Seems slightly odd there aren't H2H Classes that sync up with NICA.

Not like they can check his ID. sign him up.
 

MixMastaMM

Team Bulldog Rider
My son wants to race the H2H series. He'll be 14 in a week and wants to race in the 2 lap Cat2 race. Currently there's only 15 and up for the boys. Is it the same as CX where you're racing age is a year older? Seems slightly odd there aren't H2H Classes that sync up with NICA.

Email the promoter for the upcoming race. They make the final call.
 

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
I believe H2H is calendar year age. As in whatever age you are on December 31, 2018, that is your racing age. CX was one year ahead when Nationals were in Jan (following calendar year). As for NICA, it's based on grade, because the long term goal is to have the schools adopt the program, as they have in other states. So if he's a freshman, and wants to race JV or Varsity, he better bust his ass and ride fast. You can petition him up, like last year, but there are time cutoffs for all that jazz, like last year. If he wants to race, let us (me or @KenS know) ASAFP. As for H2H, just sign him up for the 15+ Cat 2. Pretty sure you can "cat up" but not down.
I really hope to see the kid out there this year, at NICA or H2H. Doesn't matter to me. Yay bikes!!!

He's not intersted in racing NICA this season, he wants to do "actual" mountain bike races instead. His words. And I get where he's coming from. He wants to be out in the woods riding bikes, not looping around in the grass. I'm down with whatever keeps him riding.
 

KenS

JORBA: Director
JORBA.ORG
4 of the 5 NJ NICA venues are held on "actual" race courses that host H2H, MASS or other promoter's races. The other is on arguably the most popular trail system in the state. Circling around in the grass is not accurate, except for Gloucester where there was an actual grass circle.

I'm not surprised to read you once again publicly criticizing yet another positive initiative that people pour their heart and soul into Jim, but it's honestly getting old. Before you come back with "stop being so sensitive", no. How about start respecting your community, or at the very least stop disrespecting it from behind a screen?
 

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
4 of the 5 NJ NICA venues are held on "actual" race courses that host H2H, MASS or other promoter's races. The other is on arguably the most popular trail system in the state. Circling around in the grass is not accurate, except for Gloucester where there was an actual grass circle.

I'm not surprised to read you once again publicly criticizing yet another positive initiative that people pour their heart and soul into Jim, but it's honestly getting old. Before you come back with "stop being so sensitive", no. How about start respecting your community, or at the very least stop disrespecting it from behind a screen?

Disrespect? How on earth is this disrespetful? There's no way you can compare NICA Courses to races like Ringwood, Allamuchy, Stewart, etc. Are you serious? We ride Stephen's, Chimney Rock, Allamuchy, and you honestly can't see why the kid would be bored riding the NICA courses? I thought the whole purpose of NICA was to give the kids a platform to grow. We did it. He grew. Moving on. I think it's exactly the scenario NICA stands for no? A success story. One of the kids wants to transfer into the main racing league. Race longer, in rocks and such. Join USAC. Tons of kids will have tons of fun riding around on NICA courses at NICA venues and will appreciate all of your hard work. We appreciated your hard work last season. This season he wants to try something different. Maybe he gets his ass kicked and changes his mind. I'm going with whatever he wants to do.
 

KenS

JORBA: Director
JORBA.ORG
And I get where he's coming from. He wants to be out in the woods riding bikes, not looping around in the grass.

To be clear, this is what I found to be disrespectful. I'm super stoked that your son is moving on and wants additional challenges, and have no issues at all with that.

I'm not saying NICA courses are like the more tech H2H courses, of course not. In that statement though, you insinuate that NICA is something that it is not.

When I reached out to you (privately) to ask if you planned to register, you had every opportunity to provide this feedback. You didn't. So I was a bit surprised to read it here in a way that could be misconstrued by someone new to the program.
 

thegock

Well-Known Member
4 of the 5 NJ NICA venues are held on "actual" race courses that host H2H, MASS or other promoter's races. The other is on arguably the most popular trail system in the state. Circling around in the grass is not accurate, except for Gloucester where there was an actual grass circle.

I'm not surprised to read you once again publicly criticizing yet another positive initiative that people pour their heart and soul into Jim, but it's honestly getting old. Before you come back with "stop being so sensitive", no. How about start respecting your community, or at the very least stop disrespecting it from behind a screen?

Chester had a lot of green, stringy stuff in the start area/first 3/4 mile. I just think Jim was posting what his son thought.
 

Magic

Formerly 1sh0t1b33r
Team MTBNJ Halter's
@jimvreeland - Ask Eric if he wants to race for T2....

Actually, I doubt that will be allowed... but if we can swing it, I’d think he’d represent our bad ass jersey really well
Are you turning into one of those soccer dad's that needs to win or he starts knocking out the soccer dads on the opposite team?:D

Speaking of which, I went to a few soccer games for my gf's little brother. He's 11. These parents all think their kid is the next Ronaldo. I saw some dads get pulled off the field by tournament security for screaming and cursing at these little kids on the opposing team and threatening the coaches and refs. I almost don't want my future kids to do sports because of people like that. Maybe I'll have them play chess professionally.
 

Mountain Bike Mike

Well-Known Member
Are you turning into one of those soccer dad's that needs to win or he starts knocking out the soccer dads on the opposite team?:D

Speaking of which, I went to a few soccer games for my gf's little brother. He's 11. These parents all think their kid is the next Ronaldo. I saw some dads get pulled off the field by tournament security for screaming and cursing at these little kids on the opposing team and threatening the coaches and refs. I almost don't want my future kids to do sports because of people like that. Maybe I'll have them play chess professionally.

Lol’d
 

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Are you turning into one of those soccer dad's that needs to win or he starts knocking out the soccer dads on the opposite team?:D

Speaking of which, I went to a few soccer games for my gf's little brother. He's 11. These parents all think their kid is the next Ronaldo. I saw some dads get pulled off the field by tournament security for screaming and cursing at these little kids on the opposing team and threatening the coaches and refs. I almost don't want my future kids to do sports because of people like that. Maybe I'll have them play chess professionally.

The NICA vibe is nothing like that surprisingly. Everyone is super chill.
 
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