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Family is the back bone of our sport. That is where it all starts. Unfortunately that is where it ends too.
2005/6 the economy went to crap, and has yet to really make much of a comeback. Especially in the trades which if you look around in the pits is also the back bone of the sport. Working hard and playing hard seem to go hand in hand. Those families from then until now were priced out of racing moto. I think we are just now really feeling the effects of it in our sport.
That's part of it.
Personally I think as much as it is great to be able to practice at your local track every weekend, it has hurt racing.
Think about it. I raced a lot of motocross from 1983 - 1992 before becoming mostly an cross country guy. The only time I could really be on a prepped and watered track in Norcal was racing. That was it. You HAD to race to get to be on a real motocross track. Not anymore.
Unfortunately we don't have all the places to ride outside the track anymore. There were places all over around Sacramento(I lived there from 1988-1994) that you could drive a very short distance and ride un bothered. Now all those places are gone. So without those practice tracks that imo, hurt racing numbers, it would hurt the sport even more because there would be no place to go at all.
Its a lot of things that add up!
Aside from costs associated with riding the tracks are set up for fast riders who like big air. In the old days there were tons of local riding areas and tracks that did just fine without extremely large jumps. So, newbs could go out and figure shit out and do it relatively safely. I'm not so sure that's the case anymore especially with 450cc heavyweights that can easily be overridden by newbs.
No easy answer to any of this. Has to start with having a place for people to ride safely, then less expensive machines to ride. Maybe China is the answer for the latter just as Japan was in the 70s. I don't know.
The Shop
There are good jobs, there just aren't the good paying entry level jobs for kids right out of high school like there used to be.
We have been on 250fs for two years. The cost of maintaining a 250f practice bike (the one we put tons of hours on) is no different from the cost of a good racer practicing on a 125 two stroke. The two stroke takes more pistons, rings, cylinders and cranks. Way more. Cost really isn't a factor if you maintain the bike. Also, there are lots of C, vets and some local B guys that buy a 450, race it for two seasons only changing the oil, air filter and occasionally checking valves.
Where that go kart track is now... There was so many people that field would be full by 7:00 PM then you would have to find parking out on the road and walk in...
It's literally a shell of itself.
Colton Faciotti use to come down and battle with Ryan Abrigo on 80's
Josh Hill would come and battle with RV and me on 60's.
Nick Schmidt battling with Brady Sheren in the 6-8 60cc class.
Darian Sanayei was still riding a Cobra 50 on the Pee-Wee track.
Brandon Layton would be beating the pros on a Factory built big wheel YZ 80.
And Jay Whipple and Lance Smail would be battling for Purse money.
Aw the good ol days with Kevin Urquharts Dad running around with his soccer referee shirt on bitching at us older kids for riding our Z50's on the pee wee track after dark.
relatives
2. AMA
3. 4 strokes have made it expensive
4. Fun, people have forgot this is what its all about.
5. A general change towards sitting at home behind an LCD screen than outside hitting power bands.
I couldn't believe my ears when I heard 42 total racers and 125 A,B,C same gate last weekend. Idk how tracks can even stay open with numbers like that. It's sad.
ive seen people from all over the country say the same thing.."we used to ride at such and such sandpit/tract of land/valley" and it got turned into houses or .gov stepped in
america isnt the country it used to be, that's for sure
least for me it is.
Quoted for truth. Obviously not in every situation, but for the most part. My dad got me into it at 4 and has ridden since he had to hide a bike from his mom at 17 or so. I just turned 30 and he's going to be 60 this year. We both still ride and race and plan on going to Red Bud next weekend with my brother also. Just think about all the families you've know for years and years from riding and racing. Sometimes they disappear, but almost always turn up again some day. Never really thought about the family aspect too much. Guess I am getting old.
Then that goes to pay student loan interest and debt. No more bikes. Bye bye dirtbikes. Hello to video games, movies and going out to chipotle only b
That used to race in the 90's
Its cost
The only fix i can see would be to have more classes
Where say you had to ride a bike of
Certain vintage
Like say 1990 to 2000
125 class all ages a class b class and c class
That would be fun
And bikes most could afford
Sure we can go buy those bikes and go race now
But it isnt much fun to
Pull up on your 1995 cr 125
And line up next to 2015 tricked out 250f's
And 450f's
Pit Row
Buying a used 250 two stroke is a good option to stay frugal. If you're concerned with being on a competitive bike most amateur races allow stock 250 smokers to race with 250 thumpers. I recently bought and went through a 2003 KX250 (my primary bike is a '14 KX250F) and wow is that bike fun to ride! I've got less than $2,400 into it all total.
Where theres a will theres a way.
for me the lack of track time on race day is the main reason I don't race but a few times a year.
I'm in my fifties and have been racing pretty much nonstop since 1976. I have raced lorettas as a vet and SX as a pro and in both situations I feel I got a fair share of track time , not so with local racing, 12 laps total if you race one class only. The race day is much too long to sit around waiting for 12 laps. promoters say ride more classes if you need more laps , that would be ok if they added the extra laps to one moto and it would be eight laps not four.
I love riding too much to race today .I want to ride until I am good and tired and can't hold on any longer, you won't find that at a local race these days. I'm not sure there is a fix for the low turnout problem that will satisfy everyone and until people have money burning a hole in their pockets like they did in the late 90's and early 2000's I don't look for it to change.
If you wanted to interact with another human outside of your own family, you had to leave the house. Everyone had a different version of something to do to be entertained- baseball, football, soccer, BMX, skateboards, MX.
Now kids just stay home and "entertainment" comes to them via the internet and social media. Different generation defined by different desires. Which usually don't involve anything outdoors.
On Tuesday night practices we can get more individual bikes than we can for our Saturday night races. I've studied, tried promotions etc. but the bottom line is people do not want to RACE motocross. It's literally the only explanation. They have multiple 8k + bikes, 60k trucks, 40k toy haulers, it's not $25 entry fees running them off.
I will admit the price of "Big races" kill local race turnouts as well. The money it costs to try and make it to lorettas is a killer. The people that DO race pretty much save up and only run the big events.
One of our local statewide series had a race rained out and they wanted to make it up on 4th of July weekend, everyone FREAKED OUT. Your local roundy round dirt car track most likely has it's biggest race of the year on holiday weekends, People get an extra day off and racers are going to race. I posted a similar thread to this on FB and got all kinds of responses like the races take too long etc., Whatever happened to motocross racers wanting to be at the races more than anyplace else? It's just a different market than it use to be, people just want to ride now and I guess that's OK. But 20 years ago if you wanted to ride on a prepped track you had to line up and wait for the gate to drop. I highly doubt the first guy that ever opened his track up for open practice thought this would be what happened.
The thing that pushed me out of moto was the closing down of tracks. I am 30 now but raced pretty much every weekend from the age of 12 - 17. I quit racing as dad had sold his business and was putting all of his time and money into his new business plus I got my licence and was driving cars and chasing girls.
10 years later I had a career, family and spare cash so I got another bike. When I bought that bike there was a track about 40 minutes drive from my place that opened tuesday nights for practice, every saturday and sunday for practice and saturday night races once a month. I would load the trailer tuesday morning and the wife would meet me at the track with the bike tuesday night after work and then I could ride saturday and sunday as well.
Then that track closed down. The next closest track was 1.5 hours away but was poorly run and the wife didn't like riding on that track.
The next venue to practice at was 2-2.5 hours away and $45 each just to get in the gate. If we wanted to race it was 2 hours the other direction so we would drive for 4 hours and ride for about half an hour and it would cost us around $100 for the weekend if we didn't crash and break anything.
This was starting to kill my love or bikes and then finally I had a small tip over in the first corner. On the way down the guy behind me caught my hand and ended up running over my hand and forearm wide open on the gas. It broke a couple of bones and did some ligament damage. I was driving to work with my hand in a cast thinking "why am I driving 4 hours to race for half an hour when I have 4 boat ramps within 15 minutes of my place
6 weeks later the bikes were gone and I had a ski boat sitting in my shed. The boat cost a little more than the bikes but the day to day running of it is so much cheaper than the bikes. For $60 worth of fuel I can spend a full day at the river where everyone rides until they cant go any longer and then I drive 10 minutes and I am home.
My brother also had a similar thing happen. A small tip over that led to a pretty bad injury and time off work. He bought a pole ski and hasn't looked back
We still talk about bikes, watch the races and both agree that the rush of riding and racing bikes have no equal but the cost in both time and money just isn't worth it
Meet an inmate websites for a dating pool ... hey they're not going anywhere soon.
I am retired now but I worked in the motorcycle industry for over 25 years before retiring. I can remember in the 80's and 90's working in dealerships and at Christmas time selling many dirt bikes from 50cc to 500cc for Christmas gifts. The days before Christmas was nuts with customers buying and picking up their new bikes, buying riding gear and accessories as gifts in the parts dept, and our service dept. was working overtime building new bikes and repairing used bikes for people that could not afford new ones as Christmas gifts. December was always our best month for the dealership back then. Those days are gone.
Now dealerships are closing, tracks are closing, riding areas areas are closing and the future generation could careless about riding dirt bikes. This all affects local MX tracks turnout and their ability to stay open and make a profit. I am 53 years old, I have been riding since I was 7 years old. I love motorcycles just like the rest of you on this forum. But what is going to happen to the sport of motocross when we are all gone?
2. Practice. Track owners have learned that people are happy to pay for a well-prepped practice, but open their book of excuses to not race. Many venues have stopped even trying to hold races altogether.
3. Four strokes. A kid and his dad cannot buy a $1500 used 125 and learn to be competitive. This sport was built on the back of this dynamic and it has basically evaporated.
4. Progression. The overall talent level across the sport generally improves each year. Four strokes certainly are a big factor here, making everything easier, but many C-class racers use advanced techniques that were common only in the Pros 15 years ago. It's not just the bikes. Jerry Robin rode his '85 Honda faster than Rick Johnson. Today, if you race even at the lowest level, you likely do every jump on the track. This is incredibly intimidating to potential newcomers.
MX Racers are broke and always will be broke
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