best 30 plus rider of all time

ktm 125
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ktm 125
Edited Date/Time 11/28/2022 6:32pm
it doesnt have to be a late bloomer. fe everts rode great in his 20s and in his 30s and he may be the best 30+ rider ever winning consecutive titles with his yzf 450. AC222 was great too in his 30s winning titles, winning the mxon at last and battling with gasjer and herlings.. Of course ama is a different animal cause of sx, so maybe reed was the best 30+ ever in his 22 motorsports team with the crf. Idk about de coster or maybe lackey (i think he won the 500 when he was 29-30) cause i only watch mx from 2000, so please throw some names here!
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Adam43
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Adam43 10/30/2022 7:37am
10/30/2022 7:37am
Everts is hard to argue with.

Tony was/is still great. Osborne was a real late bloomer too and won his title 30+.

McGrath, Windham, LaRocco, Reed and Brayton all won races in their 30s and were super competitive.

If we're talking guys who stayed at it post-retirement, Doug Dubach, Mike Brown, Kurt Nicoll and many others continue to amaze. Part of the key seems to be just staying at it.

But for me, The Junkyard Dog will always be King of the Vets.



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ATKpilot99
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ATKpilot99 10/30/2022 7:39am
10/30/2022 7:39am
Everts , Cairoli , and Reed would have to be the cream of the crop . Hakan Carliqvist raced competitively into his 30s .
Of course there's John Dowd , but the first rider I thought of when I saw the thread title was Doug Dubach because of all his vet titles , but he's obviously not on the level of those other guys .
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TalinH112
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TalinH112 10/30/2022 8:06am
10/30/2022 8:06am
Guess Mike Brown doesn’t get any love around here 😂
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McGinnis_339 10/30/2022 8:52am
10/30/2022 8:52am
Adam43 wrote:
Everts is hard to argue with. Tony was/is still great. Osborne was a real late bloomer too and won his title 30+. McGrath, Windham, LaRocco, Reed...
Everts is hard to argue with.

Tony was/is still great. Osborne was a real late bloomer too and won his title 30+.

McGrath, Windham, LaRocco, Reed and Brayton all won races in their 30s and were super competitive.

If we're talking guys who stayed at it post-retirement, Doug Dubach, Mike Brown, Kurt Nicoll and many others continue to amaze. Part of the key seems to be just staying at it.

But for me, The Junkyard Dog will always be King of the Vets.



I don't think McGrath ever won in his 30's. At least not a sx or mx race
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M1000
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M1000 10/30/2022 9:05am
10/30/2022 9:05am Edited Date/Time 10/30/2022 10:35am
Roger Decoster, Heikki Mikkola. Roger won 500cc world championships in his twenty’s and at 31,32. Heikki won 500cc Chammpionships in 77, 78 in his mid thirties.
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Renner153
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Renner153 10/30/2022 9:08am
10/30/2022 9:08am
Brownie!! Dude is still amazing. I think he can score points at a National and he’s 50
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FWYT
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FWYT 10/30/2022 9:23am
10/30/2022 9:23am
All those dudes that still line up in the 80+ class.
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Richy
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Richy 10/30/2022 10:15am
10/30/2022 10:15am
Mike Brown came straight to mind reading the title, guy is super knowledgeable, pops up in training videos with top level guys frequently both on and off the bike, still an animal once the gate drops and he seems to refuse to let himself get much slower or any less physically fit, even now.

I don't know if this is a subconscious bias due to recently seeing him ride a few times or just hearing and seeing recent results, or the fact that I never paid much attention to this angle / thought process when I was younger and mostly focussed on the McGrath, Ricky, Stew and Everts type guys at the time...

We're lucky to have so many awesome choices that you could argue every which way.
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Muttly
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Muttly 10/30/2022 10:18am
10/30/2022 10:18am
Hands down, Dowd.
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JOE_SPROCKETS#1 10/30/2022 10:59am
10/30/2022 10:59am
Brayton honorably mention for sx.
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Johnny Ringo
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Johnny Ringo 10/30/2022 11:30am
10/30/2022 11:30am
JYD podiumed Southwick 09 at like 62 years old
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Regis
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Regis 10/30/2022 12:52pm
10/30/2022 12:52pm Edited Date/Time 10/30/2022 12:58pm
Dowd was a bad man!!!

Winning the 125cc West coast SX title at over thirty and bald was bad ass. Funny how back then a guy like him was celebrated for his age and dominance in the toddler class. Back then, the 125 class was truly a stepping stone class and he had been pro for 11 years when winning the title in 1998. Personally, I think it was bad ass even as I raced back then.

I just find it funny how he is remembered as revered and others are chastised for robbing the cradle.
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Richy
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Richy 10/30/2022 2:33pm
10/30/2022 2:33pm
Regis wrote:
Dowd was a bad man!!! Winning the 125cc West coast SX title at over thirty and bald was bad ass. Funny how back then a guy...
Dowd was a bad man!!!

Winning the 125cc West coast SX title at over thirty and bald was bad ass. Funny how back then a guy like him was celebrated for his age and dominance in the toddler class. Back then, the 125 class was truly a stepping stone class and he had been pro for 11 years when winning the title in 1998. Personally, I think it was bad ass even as I raced back then.

I just find it funny how he is remembered as revered and others are chastised for robbing the cradle.
I remember an old MXA intro from the early 00's, I think it was Jody's box, it was running through a day at a race, and I'm badly paraphrasing. Basically he was saying the track was too slow and over watered, then it was too fast and the place was dangerous, then it was too dry and dusty and it was all one-lined, they should shut the place down, etc... all said and done, track owner asked how his day was and he said "it was great, see you next weekend".

Obviously it was meant as a joke, but the morale taken from it was that for a bunch of mostly reasonably tough-guy riders and racer, we do love to have something to whine about.
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KiwiBermRailer 10/30/2022 3:14pm
10/30/2022 3:14pm
Joel Smets was winning GPS into his 30s! Pretty sure he won the MX3 class at 31?
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Park Boys
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Park Boys 10/30/2022 3:20pm
10/30/2022 3:20pm
72 and 222 by a mile.
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Mavetism
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Mavetism 10/30/2022 3:59pm
10/30/2022 3:59pm Edited Date/Time 10/30/2022 4:03pm
Park Boys wrote:
72 and 222 by a mile.
Yeah, both won world championships at 30+ plus. Stefan Everts was pretty much unbeatable at the end of his career, I think he won every round but one in his last year. Who knows how many more titles he could have won if he continued.
Cairoli won a title at the age of 32 and then went bar to bar against Herlings in his prime. It's hard to say who theoretically is better because of different decades, both legends nonetheless.
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Nairb#70
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Nairb#70 10/30/2022 5:16pm
10/30/2022 5:16pm
Pretty sure John Dowd entered his first local race at Southwick in the novice class at age 18. Some pro careers end before that age.
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thewrizzle
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thewrizzle 10/30/2022 5:22pm
10/30/2022 5:22pm
Adam43 wrote:
Everts is hard to argue with. Tony was/is still great. Osborne was a real late bloomer too and won his title 30+. McGrath, Windham, LaRocco, Reed...
Everts is hard to argue with.

Tony was/is still great. Osborne was a real late bloomer too and won his title 30+.

McGrath, Windham, LaRocco, Reed and Brayton all won races in their 30s and were super competitive.

If we're talking guys who stayed at it post-retirement, Doug Dubach, Mike Brown, Kurt Nicoll and many others continue to amaze. Part of the key seems to be just staying at it.

But for me, The Junkyard Dog will always be King of the Vets.



McGrath was 29 the last time he won a supercross.
Alex814
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Alex814 10/30/2022 7:39pm
10/30/2022 7:39pm
Tomac should be in this conversation after '23 SX.
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TxT0RKiT
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TxT0RKiT 10/30/2022 8:03pm
10/30/2022 8:03pm
Brownie, 2001 125cc MX title, EnduroX, X-games, WORCs title, LL, and recently Vet MxDN. He is over 50 now.
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RPM68
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RPM68 10/30/2022 8:04pm
10/30/2022 8:04pm
Richy wrote:
Mike Brown came straight to mind reading the title, guy is super knowledgeable, pops up in training videos with top level guys frequently both on and...
Mike Brown came straight to mind reading the title, guy is super knowledgeable, pops up in training videos with top level guys frequently both on and off the bike, still an animal once the gate drops and he seems to refuse to let himself get much slower or any less physically fit, even now.

I don't know if this is a subconscious bias due to recently seeing him ride a few times or just hearing and seeing recent results, or the fact that I never paid much attention to this angle / thought process when I was younger and mostly focussed on the McGrath, Ricky, Stew and Everts type guys at the time...

We're lucky to have so many awesome choices that you could argue every which way.
x2 on everything.
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mb60
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mb60 10/30/2022 8:17pm
10/30/2022 8:17pm
TalinH112 wrote:
Guess Mike Brown doesn’t get any love around here 😂
They said 30's not 50's 😂
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CPR
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CPR 10/30/2022 8:45pm
10/30/2022 8:45pm
MX- Everts, SX- Reed.
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Boomslang 10/30/2022 10:10pm
10/30/2022 10:10pm
Alex814 wrote:
Tomac should be in this conversation after '23 SX.
Technically Tomac can be in this conversation in two weeks time....he will clock 30.
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NorCalRedRyder 10/30/2022 10:47pm
10/30/2022 10:47pm Edited Date/Time 10/30/2022 10:48pm
Boomslang wrote:
Technically Tomac can be in this conversation in two weeks time....he will clock 30.
Huge Tomac fan here, but he had been racing for days. Dowd and even McGrath started riding way later in life. I think Larry Ward also got a late start into the sport? I gotta go with JYD!
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Books
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Books 10/30/2022 10:53pm
10/30/2022 10:53pm
NorCalRedRyder wrote:
Huge Tomac fan here, but he had been racing for days. Dowd and even McGrath started riding way later in life. I think Larry Ward also...
Huge Tomac fan here, but he had been racing for days. Dowd and even McGrath started riding way later in life. I think Larry Ward also got a late start into the sport? I gotta go with JYD!
Joel Smets started to ride dirtbikes on a age off 18 year old. Ended up winning GPs and titles in his 30s.

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headlightracer 10/30/2022 10:59pm
10/30/2022 10:59pm
How old was Windham when he retired? No title at 30+ but his SX transfers are worth mentioning. 😉
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NorCalRedRyder 10/30/2022 11:02pm
10/30/2022 11:02pm Edited Date/Time 10/30/2022 11:06pm
Books wrote:
Joel Smets started to ride dirtbikes on a age off 18 year old. Ended up winning GPs and titles in his 30s.

I guess it's him and Dowd. Wasn't he big dude and race a 4 stroke 501 Husky? I do remember him being a badass and didn't he put in a great ride at the MXDN in the late 90's or early 2000s?
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