What 250 Supercross Used to Look Like

Listen at 3:10 closely....Matthes never told that story! LMFAO

Yeah, you're so right about this racing. I would want to buy Chad or James's bike immediately after seeing this. They look like jet powered razor blades!

In last weekend's supercross, James looked like the fastest rider in the world strapped aboard a motorized kegarator...

The Foopers just ain't got it like that there. No sir.

Imagine if today's field was on those bikes. The 250 premier class would be so exciting to watch it would blow everybody's mind! Not to mention the skill level has grown tremendously since then, so if everyone was on those bikes again, you would probably have half the field running them wide open like in this video, at that pace. I also believe the gap between 1st - 10th wouldn't be as huge by the end of the race... Kind of like restrictor plate racing, keeping the men from separating from the boys.

Oh yeah... Did anyone catch RC at A1 saying how you don't want to override a 450???

That was good to watch,

Few interesting things, Reed was as quick as James in SX on a two stroke, there was nothing between them

They didnt touch, lol if they had both just rode like that last year!

James crashed while not under pressure! Maybe everyone has been going about it all wrong, stay with him for half a race, go down lightly and wait for his bigger mistake when he relaxes lol.

The racing looked good sounded good, and most of all, they both had to strech out rytham sections to make them! add to that obstacle the two top riders could not do consistanly each lap.

More than one line through a corners, a rider could actuall come up the inside and come out the other side next to the guy railing.

Would be great to see a full gate of 250 two strokes with the current crop of riders going around.

Ah man, I hope that Chad Reed turns up at round 2!!!

Did chuckle at the Matthes story too.

God...I miss that Chad Reed so much.
2-stroke specialist.

Chad Reed and that yz250.

Now that was the ultimate dream team

good post...reminds me I need to re-watch some of the old "Bar to Bar" dvds...that was racing!

How did Reed get a hold of an '11 YZ250 back then?

Hmmmmm, I must not see it.

Definitely fun to watch though. But to imply that 4 stroke have made racing boring is compared to 2 strokes is crazy.

If you guys want to see riders stretching out rhythm sections then thats easy, make the jumpers bigger! But come on, is that necessary. Look at how often they were casing stuff. That isn't safe.

Maybe it is just because I look smooth flow type riding. but riders still do shred berms like 2 strokes did. Especially with the EFI bikes.

It's got nothing to do with the bikes and everything to do with the track designs.

Steve Matthes on A1..

I’ll just put it out there right now: I didn’t like the track, and many people I spoke to didn’t either. But here’s the thing: it was pretty much exactly what was needed for the first round. All the things I didn’t like about it (low speeds, too many 180 turns, no originality) were good for the first race. There’s no need to go out there and blow guys out of the water right off the bat. Let’s get everyone in and out healthy with a race under their belt before unleashing hell.

I disagree with Steve here. Anaheim wasn't too slow, it was too fast.

I must have said this about 10 times now but the track designs these days are geared (no pun intended) towards high speed. Anaheim 2006 is more how a Supercross track should be - technical but without reckless or poorly designed obstacles. I mean the Anaheim this year had ONE rhythm section! One.

so reed had beat stewart ....straight up ...in a heat race at least. they both at same pace ,they both went down. and one got under way faster than the other. one crashed trying to pass and one crashed while racing himself.

Man it is so much better racing when watching the 2T's.

They keep their momentum up so much more, and they are constantly seat-bouncing the shit out of it to get over so much stuff!

Great racing for sure. Now imaging the 2011 SX class, on 2T's!

the track is definately the biggest part of seeing exciting action like this. tons of 180 bowl turns, whoops immediately out of a corner, amazing dirt (i have been on the houston sx dirt in the dome when they used to do am day).

you get a track thats predominately 90 degree turns, there is and can only be 1 line. 1 line = no action, follow the leader.

That track had some great combinations and different options. Damn. Everything was better back then.

That was awesome-thanks everyone. I love how everyone is always searching for traction, on the edge of spinning out while trying for maximum drive out of the corners to jump and/or get through whoop sections. I definitely prefer that look and sound to our current one. One small miscue and you were fucked for two laps trying to make up that time-and now? Just seat bounce a triple with a crack of the throttle after that same mistake and no problem!

That was so great! I was there that night and it was awesome to see in person.

And riding style has changed so much too. From aggressive to lazy. Now the riders just hang on for dear life. Back then they charged.

that was one of the best heat races I've seen in a long time also very clean as neither James or Chad wanted to bump each other.

i loved the track designs back then.

It looks exactly the same.

track designs look the same as today's tracks?

from the first video its pretty close, if you go much earlier the tracks look way a different. I meant 4 strokes and 2 strokes racing look the same

oh OK my bad then.

seven 180 degree corners. what about that looks like todays tracks?

You see how James' bike wouldn't start? Stupid 2-stroke cost him the race.

The last "250 2 stroke" season was 2005, argueably one of the most exciting seasons.

2006 was the closest in points, but 2005 was awesome.

Does anybody agree that the racing would probably be more exciting if guys were back on those bikes, or am I just crazy?



A dirtbike can only go so fast determined by the laws of physics. It seems safe to say that both Chad and Bubba were running those bikes to the limit that heat race. Had they been on 450s, maybe that would have opened up the possibility for James to put another second per lap on Chad - however, he was limited by how fast he could go.



The more guys you can get to run a bike to its max potential, the closer the racing will be. That's why the 450 class is so spread out, because you have some guys running the bike 90% (just an example) as fast as it will go, and once you get down to 15th place you have guys running the bikes 80% of their potential. Which is also why you hardly see anyone get aggressive on a 450, because they are damn near impossible to run at max speed (like in the heat above) for a large number of laps without bucking the rider off.



I think with today's talent pool in the 450 class, Dungey, Reed, Stewart, Villopoto, Canard, Tedesco, and probably a slew of other riders , would be running 2-stroke 250cc bikes as fast as they could possibly go, and it would keep certain riders from pulling away, keeping the racing close! Seems like it to me anyways...