Who is our sports biggest Mainstream name?

TP199 by a mile

Pastrana and it's not even close.

Roger DeCoster by a kilometer.

Roger

In my other profession,  other than what I do with two wheels - Teaching Youngsters - it seems nearly every one of them, well, at least the boys, but many  girls too, know the name : Travis Pastrana.

I'm Not kidding, boys and girls. 

I try to open their Motorcycle knowledge beyond him ( and that's Nothing against Travis ) and show them through Videos, Magazines and Books, other aspects of our great pastime.

But, it's Travis Pastrana all the way for name recognition, with Kids and their Parents that I deal with, away from Motorcycling. And "away from Motorcycling", is the Mainstream.

Kim K

Travis is everywhere.  All my non-moto friends know who he is without any input from me.  

There is no true mainstream name in moto. Even valentino rossi is like a c lister in the grandest scheme of things. The only mainstream names in all of motorsports are lewis hamilton and max verstappen. I wouldn't even want moto to go mainstream it would become too politicized and fake

Travis is BY far the biggest name in our sport. James is probably second, but I’m guessing he’s probably half as known as Travis.

This comes from a teacher I know, we had this conversation about 6 months ago and she asked a few classrooms full of students. 
 

Travis for sure, then McGrath, RC and Tomac as the only current rider. Honorable mention from the teenager future inmate club is RonnieMac

Yeah? But what if you're wrong?

Axell Hodges is up there these days. But it’s gotta be TP. 

But how old are you? Twenty?

Roger was a legit household name in Europe in the 1970s and has been on the radar over 60 years.

Far more people have heard of him than a late arrival with stunts but no world championships.

Travis , Jeremy , Carmichael, Stewart . In that order exactly !! Don’t question it , I did a world wide poll and these are the exact results. If you down vote this ..you dislike yourself and your mother is a ….

53

By your own logic better throw Jeff Smith and Joel Robert on that list.

MC & RC

mic drop. Suck it. Done.

Fair comment.

Roger's best years spanned the sports golden era; when it was comparatively 3 or 5 times the size it is now and could rival some ball sports for pull. We've all seen the era shots of the vast crowds 100000 plus.

Nobody 😊

No one knows about us and that's just the way I like it.

Stop trying to push my little sport into the spotlight.

Happily been the grimey dirt bike guy for 40 years.

World SX?.....yeeeah,yeah that should do it.

Side note:-Pastrana is so mainstream that most his moto career is blurred into rally/car racing and extreme stunts

They may know Pastrana,but not for moto.

If you put Roger, RC, James, MC under one canopy and Travis under another...his crowd would be larger.

The dude is a people magnet.  His positive vibes draw people like hogs to a trough.  His fans don't love him...they ADORE him.

Aj Catanzaro 

My Dad who is 75 years old and was never a moto fan surprisingly knew who both Bob Hannah and Roger D were . Found that out in a conversation with him some years ago . 

A large percentage of the people that saw Roger race are dead.

The average person knows Travis because of Nitro Circus etc.  If he only raced moto no one would know who he is . Tell someone he was the 125 national mx champ and they'll ask how many back flips he did to get it . 

The sport was definitely not larger then. Far more people participate and watch these days. The difference is you couldn’t watch on tv in Roger’s day. The only way to see them race was in person. 

That’s actually a very fair statement. Travis was and is a media darling. Very comfortable on camera, very nice, and quick witted.

Considering that Roger is 78 years old, that makes sense. 

Pastrana among the younger and extreme sports. But I'm gonna go with Dungey amongst the non-'hip' crowd. His Wheaties and 'naked' non-moto magazine and tv stuff was huge, comparatively.

No one has mentioned Mickael Pichon’s father. What gives?