Posts
2295
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Clovis, CA, USA
Edited Date/Time
1/26/2012 8:14am
RV is flat slaying it right now on his oh-12 KX. He looks and seems dramatically faster than he was on his 11, so is it the bike? Is it that much better? I've always believed that at the highest level bikes do make a difference but after about 20th place in the AMA and down from there the bike is far less important. By the time you get to the weekend racers the bike is maybe 10% responsible for the race outcome. Drop below intermediate I would say the bike makes NO difference in results. But contrary to this is that most people want the latest or they sit on the sidelines because they're "not competitive". It's like they would rather watch instead of ride if they don't have a "new" bike.
However are the bikes really better every year? Why don't people race 10 year old equipment? I am beginning to think that riders haven't been able to use a bike up to its potential for nearly 20 years. Riders simply haven't kept pace with the bikes. The huge vet population only serves to further fuel this theory because they aren't getting faster but they are using an ever smaller percentage of their bikes potential.
How many people believe that it is truly the bike that makes the difference between a podium or not? So why bother competing in the arms race for the latest MX technology?
However are the bikes really better every year? Why don't people race 10 year old equipment? I am beginning to think that riders haven't been able to use a bike up to its potential for nearly 20 years. Riders simply haven't kept pace with the bikes. The huge vet population only serves to further fuel this theory because they aren't getting faster but they are using an ever smaller percentage of their bikes potential.
How many people believe that it is truly the bike that makes the difference between a podium or not? So why bother competing in the arms race for the latest MX technology?
Expect bikes to stay the same for quite sometime due to the economy.
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
I remember in an interview Voss said 15 hours regardless of rebuilds and his race motor was a practice motor.
Now, there are improvements that companies can and should make but some of them fall into the above category ^
`G
japans bottom is getting ready to fall out hardcore in the next 12 months. at that point, look for 2-3 years of BNG bikes and a KTM take-over. japan can't keep a prime minister in office for more than a year, and they are pumping money into the economy into an effort to stimulate it. its not working. the only reason they havent completely fell off the map is because they own their own debt, where as china owns ours.
japan is a mercantile economy, that is an economy that survives from exporting a lot of good, but importing very little. so an economy that survives like this can not have a strong currency, it makes their goods more expensive. well, japans currency has been the strongest currency on the planet for the last 4 years, and as a result, no one is buying their good like they were. combine that with a stagnated local economy, and political turmoil, and you've got a country ready to implode.
you'vee seen the MX bike price hike. its exchange rate driven, not technolgy driven. the exchange rate today is 75:1 on the dollar. thats a 25% "tax" on everything you buy from japan. doesnt make a difference on a pack of gum, but a 7,000 dollar CRF becomes 9,000 dollars really quick.
Motors? Same kind of thing...but, a different color scheme.
Honda, Suzuki and kawi dropped their 2-strokes but they still make them else where
It's a pretty big move to discontinue a complete line
however, the manufacturers making the bikes more and more expensive by adding things like EFI, that i don't need, have made me stop buying new bikes every year.
also Obama.
Pit Row
Not saying Villopoto wouldn't have cleaned up anyway, but it probably helped him get x3 holeshots.
(Kawasaki got six holeshots from eight starts!)
Granted the rider has a lot to do with it but I think having a good bike setup is not given enough credit. It's really much more important than most of us think. That's why they do so much testing.
We've only scratched the surface............
Also remember that sometimes in the quest for an advantage they get it wrong and go a few steps backwards, then spend the next couple of years on "improvements" that are really only restoring the bike to where it was previously.
If you look at the improvement of a given model over say, a 10 year period, then yes they do get better. Whether that improvement is actually noticeable year on year might be debatable.
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