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In all of that time we have had very few serious injuries. In fact sometimes 6 months can go by without even seeing an ambulance. This is with thousands of riders every year. I would like to see the stats on other sports football, hockey, even baseball has it's share of serious injury. When it comes to kids what I see is mostly cluless parents, they come out to a public track and just send little Johny out there on a 65 without even asking about rules or safety! It's always the parents who don't ride and never rode. I am a very proactive track owner and if I see something that I think is unsafe I will have a talk with the parent. This sport can be as safe or as dangerous as you want it to be. I see plenty of kids that come out to the track and couldn't care less about MX. Then there are those kids who's eyes light up and this is all they want to do. It's either in their blood or it's not! What most people don't see is these kids eating right, working out, doing there best in school and so on just so they can be a little better on the track or so dad wont take away the bike.
I remember a few years ago one of our regular riders broke his femur. He was 13 at the time. His dad told me that they had to wait 2 days for the childrens hospital to do the surgery because they were so full at the time. Reason? School had just got out for the summer and kids were coming in with all kinds of injuries, falling out of trees, watersport related, you name it! This kid was the only one there from MX at the time. He was back riding in 3 months and is now 16. My parents wouldn't let me have a bike when I was a kid so I would go with friends without their permission and with no supervision. I got into all kinds of stuff looking for an outlet. It wasn't until I got serious with MX that I calmed down having found what I was looking for! We are all wired differently and maybe it's more important as a parent to know your kid and what makes them tick.
Flarider had it 100% right about the parents that push their kids the wrong way. Guess what? If your kid is gonna be the next AC then you'll know because companys will start giving you money, parts, bikes and so on. If you are buying all of your own parts and bikes then maybe just keep it fun and safe for Johnny. If you've never jumped a dirtbike over a 100ft jump, maybe don't push your kid so hard before he's not ready. When you go to a public track for the first time maybe chill out for awhile and watch, ask questions and talk to the owner about rules and safety. I wouldn't take my kid to a paintball facility and tell him go play son, much less an MX track wihout much detail! I have seen many kids grow up at the track and develop into awesome riders with very few minor injuries. A lot of it comes down to common sense like so much else in life. This sport has so much more to offer then just being a top pro. For the true core MXer it is a way of life that can be a gift they pass down to their children. I personaly would not trade the last 20 plus years of riding and racing for anything else in this world...
They are just kids,and I think it's wrong to let them destroy their health before their brain has matured enough forthem to make careerplans based on more maturity and experience.I know that might be what it takes to be the new RC4. But out of 500 trying only 1 might have what it takes. The other will just get beaten up in a best case scenario for no good in the end.
Minidads is just as dangerous as huge jumps. When nobody gets hurt we enjoy huge leaps and wonderkids, but when an accident occurs this two ingridients makes it really tragic,
As it stands now I will keep his riding at a really low level, I will not let him start racing when the roules allows him. To let him is such a dangerous decision in my opinion that Iwant him to takeit as an adult. When people aged 20 and above gets hurt it's not their parents fault. Theycan legally make their own decision by then. I would be just as sad, but not as guilty.
If I hand a drunken driver the keys, fill the car with gas and starts it for him I'm a partner in crime. It doesn't matter that I didn't push him to go fast I'm still guilty...drunk people shall not drive, and kids shall not die racing motocross.
Maybe we should have roules that said maximum 10 riders behind the gate until you are 16. Force them to ridetracks that bore them,but doesn't kill them. I would feel different about the racing aspect then.
I
and before my injury, well im getting to the age where i was ready to move to the next step in life. all i thought about was having a boy, prepping a pw50 for 4 years 9 months, and chasing the racing. but now, after my injury, it will be pretty hard to have a kid growing up riding. even tho i know how easy it is to get hurt doing anything else. itll always be in the back of my mind. so i think i might be with Cam on this one...
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Is living your life based on "what if's" acceptable?
This is my responce,,,
I have two sons that I love more then anything in the world. One races motorcycles and the other cant. The reason one cant ride a motorcycle is because he has avascular necrosis in his knees and ankles he has Osteoporosis in his hips and his spine, his lungs only work at about 70%, and his eye site has been cut in half,
All this is because one day my perfectly healthy son that loved to ride his dirtbike was diagnosed with Lukemia. Now after alot of chemotherapy,Radiation , every cancer fighting drug you can think of and a bone marrow transplant my son is now cancer free.
Yes I worry about my son every time his gets on a bike. But there is alot of other things in life that I also worry about now. If a kid loves to ride a dirt bike, let him ride his dirt bike because ANYBODY can get that phone call from the doctor that can devastate your life.
I rode myself for 15 years, and raced from85cc to 250 twostroke before switching to mxjournalism after an injury,
I've seen riders getting paralyzed, get braininjuries for life(among those closefriends) etc etc both in Sweden and internationally. The most frightening thing is though that i've seen hundreds of crasches just like them where the rider walked away. The only difference is luck or bad luck. So like Clint Eastwood said...do you feel lucky?
most of us here has been lucky multiple times during riding. That's why we are alive and up an walking. If you are sincere and have ridden a dirtbikeas fast as you can you know I am right. That's what scares me when it comes to our kids riding.
Only Trail riding with my family since I was 5 and it was my own decision to start going to the tracks when I was 14 when my older brother/friends got a license.
Sure this way I not going be a pro like mike alessi and supporting a mini dad lol but still get to enjoy MX when I am old enough to understand the circumstances.
I hope all the best for him and your family and thanks for the input.
i was expecting to get a lot of comments that I'm a sissy and should engage in golf instead, I'm not sure #800 is happier today than you are and my experience with most pro riders is that they have shitty lifes and no careerplans and only debts when their bodies is junk at age 20-30yo
I was there with my oldest kid, he's close to 3 so he didnt think much or anything about what happened, luckily..
Johan was a fast dude, he won the EMX 150 cc championship last year and if not for a injury he would prolly have won the 85-150cc class too (3'rd)
Things where looking good for him, he just got in to the "MX-highschool" only a selected few get that opertunity in sweden since we only have but one.
IMO he died cous of the neckbrace, cut his throat. i felt sick the whole day yesterday and i didnt go to work today cous i culdent sleep all night with images flashing... Sure, he got ran over. Still i think if it wherent for the "brandless" neckbrace i think he atleast wuldent have cut his neck.
He will be greatly missed. R.I.P
I'we allways said "OFC MY KID IS GONNA RACE!"
He's still gonna get the chance to try, ride or not we'll take it for what it is. If he wants to do ballet we'll do ballet.
On the other hand, he has been playing baseball since he was 4. He's a really good athlete, so he has also played on All-Star teams every year he has been playing. In those 4 years, the most serious injury I have seen for any kid was a knocked out tooth from a ground ball. There is no way I could go 4 years at the races and not witness a severe injury.
I was just a few metres away when Nicklas Hermansson crasched into André Nilsson at the same track. That wasn't pretty either. Thanks for your input, and may our kids be the ones blessed with luck if we are to stubborn and stupid to choose another path for their hobbies.
Pit Row
we live in a non communist countries ,yet you'd never know it because every tie you turn around someone is trying to take something from us
But like WhKnuckle said, motocross takes up my whole life with training, running and fixing the bike, it's a lifestyle that I belive makes me to a better person and i rather live happy riding 'till i'm 30 than get old regretting that I quited.
If you picked MX as an adult by your own choice I don't see the same dilemma when a rider gets hurt/killed.
I I want to start riding when I'm 20yo for my own money there's nothing my parents could do. It's different story with feeling guilty if you picked it for them before they were even borned. See what I mean?
My friend's parents don't want their daughter to ride anymore after they saw what happend and the sadness in Johans father's eyes, and I would undestand if my parents didn't want me to ride anymore either, but i've done it my whole life and it would be so hard to stop now. I got injured 6 weeks this summer and I didn't know what to do and almost got depressed.
I'm probably not the right person to answer your question since i'm only a teenager but I can say this, I love motocross, the riding, training and all the people around it, it's a family sport and I never want to quit.
you can have a 100ft table top and work your way up to doing it safely. but dig the middle out of that tabletop and turn it into a double and you have a potentially dangerous jump
When I became a father I started to look on MX differently. When I read how much you love it it reminds me of what I felt when i was 17yo. My daughter has her own horse, but since I'm not into horses it's my wifes concern and responsibility to keep her safe. I know to well how dangerous MX is and that's my biggest concern regarding my son.
When I was 17yo I was bitterly disapointed on my parents for not supporting my racing enough. Now 17 years later I'm unwilling to do the same thing for my son. The irony in life... = )
i pulled my kids off of the track at 7 and 8. by then, their fearlessness/aggressiveness far outpaced their ability and maturity. knowing that, i couldn't let them continue. i felt like any injury would be my fault, knowing that they hadn't come to the realization that they were not bulletproof, in spite of having several discussions to the contrary.
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