Posts
5976
Joined
4/6/2007
Location
Las Vegas, NV
US
Edited Date/Time
6/7/2014 11:05pm
Watts shares his opinion: https://www.facebook.com/chad.watts.549?fref=ts
My PC is acting up.... I would print screen it (however my pc wont let me).
By the way, his work is master pieces.
My PC is acting up.... I would print screen it (however my pc wont let me).
By the way, his work is master pieces.
[quote=Chad Watts]I don't voice my personal opinion on social media. This will be the first, since four strokes have been the main produced Moto cross / super cross bikes manufactured..,. They have been more riders with injuries and even worse fatalites. Over my 16 years when I worked on the race circuit before I started my business, I've seen a lot of riders get hurt. It's sad, during that time a couple racers went to heaven. Look all the dnf's this year, riders hurt, even worse family's loosing their child. Racing is dangerous, but it's what we love. Bring back two strokes,four strokes are meant to drive to work.
— at Watts Perfections. [/quote]
The Shop
This is a very dangerous sport. Is the increase in big accidents four strokes, track, suspension - or is easy access to media? I do not have the answer.
No need to slam him personally, dispute it with facts. Our industry needs to think about this.... its healthy to talk about.
These machines out ride the rider as opposed to the riider out riding the machine, I have witnessed both and one has a drastically worse out come for sure!
Not a hater as I am actually considering buying a four stroke this summer!
As bikes have evolved so have tracks - I am in my mid-40s and jump larger jumps NOW, than I did when I was decent intermediate back in the late 80s. I ride slower but jump bigger, it is not right but that is what's happening.
You have to jump to keep time with most tracks - FACT. If you mellow out a track, people don't show up and they call it a VET track or call it too easy. Back in the day tracks might have had one 40-65-foot double to challenge fast riders or pros, Now tracks have 5-7 or more jumps that are 50-60 plus. Some doubles, some tables, some step up. Add more big jumps, increase the odds something might happen.
The bikes make it way too easy to ride fast and jump big gaps with ease. The 4-strokes are easy to ride, go REAL fast and the suspension is amazing. They are a blast but when things go wrong they go real wrong. If you keep your skills and your ability in CHECK, they are no more dangerous than a 2-stroke, maybe even safer. HOWEVER, try telling that to a teenager or a racer during a race. Yes I can ride at 80% and ride and have fun. Yet when the gate drops that 80% goes to 100 and often 110 - meaning racers ride over their head or ability. And when things can go wrong at 100-110% on a four-stroke, the result can be a bad crash.
For rec track riders, four-strokes can be great and fun, for racers and riders trying to become better and faster riders, there could be some truth in what Chad is speculating.
Even at over 200lb, I would buy a 250F if I knew they would last longer and not cost more than a 450 to keep tight for two seasons.
500cc Two-Strokes were a handful to ride and eventually died off. It took too much skill/balls to ride them and they were way too fast for most racers. Now the 450s pump out 60hp and are easier to ride. Meaning you are hauling butt. When 60hp hooks up at the wrong time going that fast, things can go wrong.
Mellow the tracks, people complain, mellow the bikes, people complain. Maybe the industry should do a study and maybe kill 60hp 450s and maybe go to maybe 225cc four-strokes and maybe 325cc four-strokes
Even if Roczen. Bracia, Dungey, Stewart, Canard were all on 200cc 35 hp bikes, the racing would be still good. Maybe not as fast or the tracks would be different but the racing would still be good.
Some of the best races ever were in the 70s with Hannah and Glover racing 30-35hp 125cc bikes
My rant is over - NEXT
If you tone down the bikes, you start making it to where riders can't compete the way they do.
This is purely on the pro level. The arguments change when you start talking about weekend warriors to amateur riders.
I say that in the past tense because that's what it is - the past. The argument is over, not because the two stroke side was wrong but because the other side of the argument - the Japanese factories - didn't care who was right and who was wrong. Nor do the highest strategists in those companies care specifically about the sport. They care about selling things, and they care about profitability, and they decided that four strokes were the best bikes to do that and that's what they're going to build. So lets stop the argument. It's done.
There should be guidelines set by the AMA like in sx ghat would limit huge gaps to say 2 per track,or a length limit.
We ask a lot of our young riders now days.
Pit Row
More likely just outright speed.
A 250eff is basically as quick around a track as a 250 two stroke was and is considered the little bike. It's also easier to go fast on. Jimmy random can buy a bike and learn on it and then nail it, get perfect traction, and get himself in trouble. No one would have ever recommended to start on a 250 two banger back in the day.
A) The only one on the planet
C) Haven't timed yourself
D) Don't know how to ride a four stroke
or E) All of the above, a two stroke taliban member and in massive denial.
I still like two strokes more as well dude!
Local tracks with gaps that seem more tailored to the 10% rather than 90% of who show up to ride. Simple fix, fill in the gaps so people can roll the jumps at a higher rate of speed and not be in so much danger of being landed on by the guy clearing the triple.
500's went away because they were too powerful and yet here we are today with 15 year old beginners on 60 hp bikes because it's the "in" thing.
Watts knows what's up, it's not like he is new to this. He's not the only one as I have also heard it from former pro racers myself. And besides, it's painfully obvious that the injury and more notably, the death rate has increased. Obits in MX used to be an occasional read, now it's a weekly occurrence.
People at the top of this sport should be addressing these issues but they won't touch what little bit of a cash cow they have left.
You see all the carnage even at the pro level. No kidding your going to see it at the amateur level. How many times have you watched a novice clear an obstacle he has no business doing, and even though he does it (somehow pulls it off) you have to turn your head every lap because it's so sketchy you think your going to see him wad up and snap his femur? I hate getting nervous watching OTHERS race.
BUT.
Out of control spinning and going nowhere on a 125 and hooking up on a 250f, are completely different SPEED wise... Not sure many have died getting jiggy in a corner. Hucking big jumps and outride speed, have DEFINITELY become easier on 4 strokes–more the point i'd imagine.
And this is not even talking about 250 two stroke v 450 comparisons for speed...
You're also making comparisons on Your personal riding style and comfort, and I agree. I feel my 350 is so easy to ride... But I also hammered myself last time I rode it because I felt comfortable... Regardless, that comfort doesn't relate to a lot of joes at the track or the incredible speed that is attainable for pro-am kids on 250 effs... an age group where there really has seemed to be an increase in fatalities.
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