Headcase Top 5

6. Fans that have no concept of racers having good days and bad. 

I thought for sure I was going to see Roczen on the list. 

He was mentally strong enough to come back from career ending injuries, but then has full-on meltdowns on Instagram over meaningless comments.

Complete polar opposites. 

It's puzzling.

Try not to take this wrong but your list of 5 does not include one rider I would gone with. Sexton/Reed/KW?????? 
 

You have to be joking/trolling

Sexton seems mentally strong to me. He just makes silly riding errors that cost him. 

Should just flip this around and say Top 5 Mentally Strong Racers

RC, RV, Hannah, MC, Reed.

if he was on the Honda then yes but because he is on Suzuki apparently his head is now fine...go figure

Edit: oh I see why now, his profile pic is of a Suzuki

Sexton is too good to keep this up.  In fact Webb almost ate it in those same whoops.

I'm a fan of someone like AC but perhaps he is too smart?  Have to put yourself in the right amount of dumb to let it flow and race fast.  If you think too much = dirt nap.

Reynard (should’ve won titles)

Cianciarulo 

K Dub

Barcia (always crashes in the clutch)

Crash Sexton

Dungey. 

J-Law won the battle in '08, but Dungey clearly won the war. 

I think most of us have enough trouble trying to understand the mental states of people we know well, But we know something (anything!) about the states of mind of people we watch from a distance? The idea that you can infer something interesting about state of mind from results (e.g. beyond something banal like poor results cause disappointment) strikes me as silly. Shit, I'm skeptical that mental health professionals get it right most of the time with patients they examine. 

I remember a guy named Elitomac..

Webb deserves to be in the top 5

Reed a head case?

He was almost living rent free in Ricky's head in '03.

I'd also put him up there as one of the most mentally tough riders of all time just from sheer arrogance and self belief.

The only thing Chad appeared to struggle with mentally for a while was accepting the results of father time.

Having Reed on that list is laughable. Like, wtf are you even attempting to imply?

Yup.

Wasn't like only a few years ago there was a weekly thread about Eli always choking. Like all those times he was slow to get back to race speed after a small tip over, or when his pants were malfunctioning, etc. 

Yep....that whole time frame was just bizarre.  

Glad to see he has put that behind him.

I recall RC sobbing after losing a 125 SX race.

RV quit racing all together after looping out.

Hannah whined all the time about his non Honda bikes.

Reed was a full time whiner.

MC always won SX but quit outdoors because he was a sore loser and too soft to train adequately.

 Who else? Stewart needed Adderall, Roczen always needs an excuse, Dungey was always unhappy with set-up until RD told him to smarten up.

I'm just messing around here but it's an interesting topic. Everyone is a tough guy until there not I suppose. For arguably the worlds' hardest sport, even more so.

One could say anyone who burns out from this sport is soft, or, stronger than most who never even dare to line up behind a starting gate.

How the hell can u have Reed of all riders on the list. He is probably one of the strongest mental game s to ever race

Don’t agree with anyone on your list😀. Pretty rough crowd in here. Sexton is still young and arguably the fastest American rider in SX and MX.KW wasn’t a mentally weak rider, he just had to race the best of the best most of his career. I’ll add that KW was one of the most entertaining riders to watch live ever IMHO. As for Reed I thought mental toughness was one of his strong points but, what do I know? Not much. 

Dungey is the most outstanding of the bunch. He started out as a basket case, getting owned by an arguably inferior Jason Lawrence, then turned the tide to become one of the most confidence-driven riders in the field. 

I'd add Joey Savatgy to the list. Not so much this year, but in years past you could almost count on him choking under pressure.