What era of racing is your favorite? And least favorite?

deanwhite51
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deanwhite51 12/6/2020 9:30pm
12/6/2020 9:30pm Edited Date/Time 12/8/2020 1:33pm
The RC4,JS259 and CR22 era.

When 2nd was never good enough. would do anything to win.
Money was at its peak.
Bikes where factory and weren't covered in logo's.
Tracks where tight and technical.
2 strokes. (at the start)
Private jets and helicopters.
Riders didnt train together.
Big deals from out side sponsors, sick videos and photoshoots.
Commercials on TV.

The intensity was so high and you could feel and see it in interviews.

As CR22 and RC4 said, there is no separation or secrets now, every one trains together and a podium is as good as a win in these days.




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TG130
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TG130 12/6/2020 10:15pm
12/6/2020 10:15pm Edited Date/Time 12/6/2020 10:18pm
Favorite was from about 1977 to about the mid 1980's. That's when I was most into MX. Most of my racing was done in that era and I was young and had more time to devote to it. Also the most competitive era and most participation by the factories IMO. Still love it though, just have a ton of other obligations now - work, family, etc.

Least favorite might be right now with the dreaded Covid 19 wreaking havoc everywhere.
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Rupert X
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Rupert X 12/7/2020 7:06am
12/7/2020 7:06am
Whatever era this was, this was a fun era....
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Rupert X
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Rupert X 12/7/2020 7:08am
12/7/2020 7:08am
And this era
...
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Rupert X
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Rupert X 12/7/2020 7:09am
12/7/2020 7:09am
This era too
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Rupert X
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Rupert X 12/7/2020 7:11am
12/7/2020 7:11am
Not this error tho
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maicocd
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maicocd 12/7/2020 7:39am
12/7/2020 7:39am
Like many others have already said... Mid-70's to Mid-80's.
There was nothing like it ever.
- Waiting for and finally seeing the new bikes for the next model year every year in the fall from the big-4 that didn't even resemble the previous year's models.
- Trans-Ams where the US and GP stars truly squared off in epic battles.
- Works bikes that were like space ships compared to a stocker
- Seeing and experiencing the factory technology eventually trickel down to your own race bike (suspension, water cooling, disc brakes, etc)
- Full starting gates at local races (with frequently a couple or more poor saps even having to start in the second row!)
- Supercross's emergence throughout the period

My least favorite time in the sport for some reason was also the McGrath era- and I definitely love the guy, but just not a very exciting time frequently watching circles from start to finish.
I also didn't really ever get into the 90's rock star / party scene in motocross. Not that I didn't party myself, but it just didn't seem to fit motocross to me. It seemed like about this time it also started leaving its status of a cool niche sport and going more mainstream.
It's also kind of ironic on my part where when you see the sport that you always hoped would go "more mainstream" actually start doing just that and you don't particularly care for it...

All strictly my own opinions, but of course I can honestly say I also have always loved all eras of this sport for the nearly 50 years I've been around it!
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Moto520
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Moto520 12/7/2020 7:49am
12/7/2020 7:49am
Late 80's was a cool era. The tracks were starting to get really cool with tons of crazy air time. The finesse sport of supercross came together. Each track was very different than the last.
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MX114
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MX114 12/7/2020 8:30am
12/7/2020 8:30am
90’s. To go even further. 1997 was my favorite season. So much going on and it was the height of that era in my opinion. You had MC make the sudden switch to Suzuki that rocked the industry, Emig was becoming “fro” and his black gear at Troy national was legendary, Bradshaw wins high point and his last year racing, RC crushing the 125 class outdoors with Kevin Windham and Steve Lamson doing there best to beat the new wonder kid. Moto XXX was edgy and Deegan ghost riding his bike, Greg Albertyn won the opening SX. Allot more that I could keep going on about but 1997 was an exciting time in moto
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Deadric
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Deadric 12/7/2020 8:50am
12/7/2020 8:50am
Battle of the Ryans. It was awesome to watch two all-time greats go at it through their prime years.

I dont know that I have a least favorite but I will say Im not a huge fan of US tracks today. Its all about big jumps.. I feel the GP's have better tracks.
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Kelz87
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Kelz87 12/7/2020 9:27am
12/7/2020 9:27am
For me, late 90’s/early 2000’s and the last couple of years. Even freestyle was fun to watch back in the early 2000s. Whatever era gear started looking wild and crazy, I wasn’t really watching for some reason

The era we are in now is pretty awesome too. Bikes and gear look clean, footage is great, competition is good, and riding style is awesome.
Johnny Ringo
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Johnny Ringo 12/7/2020 9:32am
12/7/2020 9:32am
I was also a big fan in the 2011-2013 era. Vurb and other edits were coming out every week, driven to ride, bunch of cool media from that era
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Zycki11
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Zycki11 12/7/2020 9:56am
12/7/2020 9:56am
RC,JS,CR era is the best. Followed by the MC dominance just because it’s MC and the sport was growing. Today, it doesn’t feel the same. Everyone is friends
FlickitFlat 12/7/2020 10:12am
12/7/2020 10:12am Edited Date/Time 12/7/2020 10:14am
125, 250, 500... After that I quit caring about the bikes themselves. I no longer seek to see the next model coming out. I no longer stare at pictures in amazement of the factory bikes. I no longer look forward to shootouts. If it wasn't for white and black backgrounds you can hardly tell a 250 and 450 apart.

I miss the days when a national number was the rider's final standings they placed the year prior. Everyone used to race for #1 but they also had to race for the highest number thereafter. I miss the days when only the super special riders were able to do things on a track that no others could. Now it seems every rider can clear every jump, take the same lines and nearly every rider is great in corners.
Since my response sounds like a rant, lets just go ahead and make it one. Steel City is gone. The start gate triple at High Point is gone. Fuck me, fuck the 20teens.

So for me, 80's, 90's and Ricky, James and Travis. Other than that all my interest falls in the category of love of sport.
Thank God for Ricky and James. I truly believe they were a once in a lifetime treat.
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fullfloater 12/7/2020 10:14am
12/7/2020 10:14am
Favorite was the Dogger era. Least favorite has been the post Dogger era. Smile
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Thisusernameisavailable 12/7/2020 10:42am
12/7/2020 10:42am
91-93 ish, was a great era for me in the USA. When MC started to dominate, I kinda got bored with it. So then 94-97 ish I was heavily in to GPs.

Then back to USA for 02-07 ish for RC. (Everts domination in Europe was kinda boring..)
Then a little bored with the USA throughout 09-15. But similarly bored with AC222 dominating Europe.

At the minute, USA racing is king for me- Because the GP's are no longer available on MotorsTV, I won't subscribe to it (Fingers burned with MXON2018) so rather than signing up, they've lost me as a fan.
jonesaustin
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jonesaustin 12/7/2020 10:57am
12/7/2020 10:57am
Aside from the 80’s, the Villopoto on 450’s era. TV and online packages were finally convenient, which if I recall was fairly new, and the racing seemed intense. There was electricity in the air each Saturday night.
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Eric_Johnson
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Eric_Johnson 12/7/2020 11:01am
12/7/2020 11:01am
1981 through 1989. America took the supermotocross world over and revolutionized everything. (And I was at a lot of the races to see it all play out).
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Jimmy Jingles 12/7/2020 11:04am
12/7/2020 11:04am
80's for sure for me because I grew up during that time, and started racing during that time. RJ and Wardy were my hero's. Also the 2000's with RC, Stew and Reed was the tits.

Least favorite? Well, I am dig almost all era's, but if I had to pick one as a least favorite, it would have to be the early 2010's when RV was dominating pretty much everything.
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queen of spodes 12/7/2020 11:12am
12/7/2020 11:12am
Fav era, late 80s early 90s

least fav, mid to late aughts (setting aside bubba, RC4, CR22)
queen of spodes 12/7/2020 11:14am
12/7/2020 11:14am
FlickitFlat wrote:
125, 250, 500... After that I quit caring about the bikes themselves. I no longer seek to see the next model coming out. I no longer...
125, 250, 500... After that I quit caring about the bikes themselves. I no longer seek to see the next model coming out. I no longer stare at pictures in amazement of the factory bikes. I no longer look forward to shootouts. If it wasn't for white and black backgrounds you can hardly tell a 250 and 450 apart.

I miss the days when a national number was the rider's final standings they placed the year prior. Everyone used to race for #1 but they also had to race for the highest number thereafter. I miss the days when only the super special riders were able to do things on a track that no others could. Now it seems every rider can clear every jump, take the same lines and nearly every rider is great in corners.
Since my response sounds like a rant, lets just go ahead and make it one. Steel City is gone. The start gate triple at High Point is gone. Fuck me, fuck the 20teens.

So for me, 80's, 90's and Ricky, James and Travis. Other than that all my interest falls in the category of love of sport.
Thank God for Ricky and James. I truly believe they were a once in a lifetime treat.
I feel this. Also the modern bikes look so much heavier today with blacked out everything. I got legit excited seeing the new Gas Gas models they reminded me of an era where I was super excited about models coming out.
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UsernameIsUnavailable 12/7/2020 11:38am
12/7/2020 11:38am
the mid 90s were my favorite. I'd go over to my brother's house while we were in college and we'd watch the Sun afternoon broadcast (tape delayed). Great memories.

Worst? Everything recent. The bikes make racing so boring to me. Everybody does the same rhythm, the 250s run same laps as 450s and there's so little separation from pos 1-10. JMO.
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Steve125
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Steve125 12/7/2020 11:38am
12/7/2020 11:38am
For me 76 to 85. Seeing real one off works bikes out on the track for 40+ minute motos did it for me. So much technological progress during those years it makes your head spin. MXA would do a huge spread on what the Factories showed up to Hangtown with.
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bayodome
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bayodome 12/7/2020 11:56am
12/7/2020 11:56am
I should also add that 2012 SX was shaping up to be a good, if not great, season. But most of the top guys got hurt and RV absolutely smoked everyone in the last half of the season, wrapping up the title four (YES 4!!!) rounds early. It was a yawner toward the end and was probably my least favorite season to watch.
Park Boys
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Park Boys 12/7/2020 2:37pm
12/7/2020 2:37pm
2005 thru 2007. They brought the level up so much, We still have not left that pace completely today. You could watch 2006 High Point and it holds up today. You could watch Stew jump stuff in 07 like at Vegas that guys might not even do today.
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kijen
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kijen 12/7/2020 3:36pm
12/7/2020 3:36pm
70's for me, lived 30 minutes from Saddleback, Maicos, Elsinore's, Mono shock yz's, my sister lived in Corona, weekwnd riding in apple valley, i fell in love with dirtbikes, least favorite era, guess when im dead it will suck!
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Suicidal_Tendencies 12/7/2020 4:48pm
12/7/2020 4:48pm
FlickitFlat wrote:
125, 250, 500... After that I quit caring about the bikes themselves. I no longer seek to see the next model coming out. I no longer...
125, 250, 500... After that I quit caring about the bikes themselves. I no longer seek to see the next model coming out. I no longer stare at pictures in amazement of the factory bikes. I no longer look forward to shootouts. If it wasn't for white and black backgrounds you can hardly tell a 250 and 450 apart.

I miss the days when a national number was the rider's final standings they placed the year prior. Everyone used to race for #1 but they also had to race for the highest number thereafter. I miss the days when only the super special riders were able to do things on a track that no others could. Now it seems every rider can clear every jump, take the same lines and nearly every rider is great in corners.
Since my response sounds like a rant, lets just go ahead and make it one. Steel City is gone. The start gate triple at High Point is gone. Fuck me, fuck the 20teens.

So for me, 80's, 90's and Ricky, James and Travis. Other than that all my interest falls in the category of love of sport.
Thank God for Ricky and James. I truly believe they were a once in a lifetime treat.
I agree with almost everything you said, FlickitFlat. I would include the late 70s as a great era as well, with many of the riders carrying over to the 80s (Hannah and Glover for example).

However, I still enjoy today's racing because it's still very much exciting to me to see how fast these guys go.
ccullins
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ccullins 12/7/2020 5:01pm
12/7/2020 5:01pm
Probably depends on your age. I’m guessing most people feel the era when they where say 10 to teenagers was the best? For me that was pretty much the 80’s.
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TeamGreen
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TeamGreen 12/7/2020 5:13pm
12/7/2020 5:13pm
nickm wrote:
For me personally, these are all the golden eras in order. [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2020/12/06/463867/s1200_wardybailey.jpg[/img] [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2020/12/06/463868/s1200_late70s.jpg[/img] [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2020/12/06/463869/s1200_reed_vs_stewart.jpg[/img] [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2020/12/06/463870/s1200_3058ecd65c3ff5e49d7c29ff87409754.jpg[/img]
For me personally, these are all the golden eras in order.





Some damn good posting going on today!
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ecmx274
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ecmx274 12/7/2020 5:25pm
12/7/2020 5:25pm
2004 is my favorite I loved watching stew on the 125. I think that’s the year milsaps became pro as well.
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