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Joined
4/17/2009
Location
High Desert, CA
US
Edited Date/Time
2/22/2012 8:18am
We were still on 2 strokes? 3-2-1 Go!
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A modern 4-stroke is a (hold on to your hats) MACHINE. It's not a fucking buckin bronco or PBR rank bull that wants to kill you. Machines ONLY DO WHAT YOU TELL IT TO DO!!!! When I want my 450 to wheelie, gues what it does? It wheelies! Amazing.
Guess what a 250 two stroke would do when I wanted it to wheelie? Loop out, bog, slide out, or huckabuck....take your pick but it rarely did what I wanted it to do.
The reason we have more injuries is due in part to two things: LOTS more people (amateurs) riding/racing now than ever before, and every time anyone gets hurt it is blasted all over the interweb within the hour (making it SEEM like a worse problem than before).
Not sure why I spent so much time (5 mins?) and energy (one twinkie) responding to such a dumb thread. LOL
Check my avatar. It!s a typical 125 novice field in 1974 at a local weekly race.
I think the advent of modern long travel suspensions made racing more dangerous. Riders jump much, much higher and further than in the 70's. Tracks are built with massive double and triple jumps now which almost send bikes into orbit.
Simple physics tells you the farther you fall, the harder you crash.
It only stands to reason that if you are going faster, doing ever larger jumps, w/ shorter and shorter run ups, that the inevitable crashes are going to be more violent and therefore more damaging.
For instance, Reed wouldn't have been able to jump in as deep as he did last Saturday night on a 250cc 2 stroke and therefore that speed and distance would not have occurred. Sure he might crash at a slower speed as a guy like him is always going to try and push the limits, but he would be going slower doing it and therefore less likely to get as injuried. Also the bike would have been lighter and really just easier to save.
I am a perfect example of the 4 stroke curse. After years of roadracing at the age of 35 I went and bought a CRF450R as my first real dirtbike. I was horrible at the turns, the ruts, shifting, maintaining momentum...but I rolled thru every turn in 3rd gear and held that 450F wide open and cleared every obstacle on the track. And let me tell you when I crashed on that 450, it hurt me. I got taken out on several occasions by that bike and limped for weeks at times. The crashes always had the same theme. I'd get sideways, and then usually have a huge highside or spit off. Once that bike went out, there was no saving it at my skill level.
Then I moved to a new 2 stroke and the weekly crashes just completely went away. I rode more aggresively than ever, faster than ever, with much higher corner speeds. When ever I feel the need to upgrade, I just borrow a new 450F from anyone of my friends and in 1-2 laps I remember that I'm already home on my KTM 250SX.
Pit Row
I really wasnt referreing to amatures. The comment about the web and how the info travels much faser is definitly true.
The injuries in the Pro ranks the last 10 or so years has gone bananas. I don't expect any of the band wagon noobs to understand this. But for you guys who have been riding and racing for 15-20 years how can you not agree?
I don't hate on thumps. I LOVE my CRF. I love the technology. Got nothing to do with that. I just think it's painfully obvious as to what is happening. But nobody is talking about it.
I like horses and worms. Don't like worms in my horses though.
Wasn't attempting to discredit your theory.
It does seem like there are more injuries with these bikes, but without stats, documentation or studies,
we are simply speculating The bikes are heavier, power is available more readily and the results are
sometimes unforgiving. I don't like the unfair advantages that have been mandated by policy to permit the
4 stroke to thrive - and I'm firmly behind the two-stroke rebellion (read my manifesto), but I'd also be pissed
if you took away my four stroke. Like you, I hate seeing our motocross brothers and sisters in pain.
Motocross, like life, will never be wreck or injury free, but we damn sure need to find some ways to
make things safer.
No, today's racing is not really a faster pace... How is it faster? The tracks are flatter and have a little less of everything...
When you are going to ride fast on difficult terrian, it stands to reason you should have the best equipment possible. Equipment such as a light, fast bike.
Boat racing on a supercross track is extremely dangerous.... even if you do the responsible thing and scale down the size of everything on the track to try to make it safer...
Observe Chad Reed's crash from a recent Booper-Cross main savant... Look how the bumps he lands in with his Boatbike are about 1 foot high and 6 feet long.... for a nice, gentle slope that should be safe even for a baby elephant to walk on without tripping.
MISHAP on BOOPER-CROSS TRACK - "Is somebody out there on a Honda Rebel cruiser???"
Here is the same rider in the same city, but this is on an older "Full Sized" supercross track, before Booper-Cross was legislated into existence at the start of 2006, by the makers of Kool Aide.
LIGHTER, FASTER MOTOCROSS BIKES ON REAL SUPERCROSS TRACK - BEFORE THE TRACKS WERE FLATTENED OUT FOR BOAT RACING.....
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