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I propose man-karen be hitherto referred to as Todd.
It takes a bit to find it in the current rulebook. Once they come out with this bulletin, I'm sure the local race referees will be on it. I have seen altas racing locally without issue.
Leave it to the AMA to do everything they can to not support the sport and keep shit in the stone ages.
But hey....helmet laws are bad right!?
I would expect NOTHING else from the AMA but exactly this kind of stuff.
Until Honda or Harley says it's OK...it's ALWAYS verboten with the AMA.
I'd love to hear the "logic" behind this. It would probably make a great drinking game.
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yup. Davey coombs said the same thing in an interview. His point was the safety issue at the pro level, which makes sense. But there was zero attempt to look at a solution or alternatives.
An E-bike class would make sense at an AM level, but lets face it - E bike racing would not be as exciting at gas bikes and AMA sanctioned AM races will no doubt have a rule to not allow them. AMA has to protect their $, and keep attendance/view rates high. They don't care what you think is "fun"
It's all about the Benjamins.
They MADE classes for the KTM Mini E-bikes at Loretta's, just like they MADE a class for the Honda 150 when it was released. Stark just has to grease the right palms in Ohio for that to become an AMA reality...or MX Sports just needs to see potential entry fees. The whole Loretta's trail of dollars is all about gathering up as many entries as possible.
And, as we all know, AMA amateur racing is all about feeding dollars to the chase for Loretta's glory.
In the meantime, no promoter that can count dollars is gonna turn away entry fees at Chicken Licks because your bike doesn't make noise.
As excited as I am for the electric movement, the lack of sound will be a turn off to most people watching. Pumped in sound will most likely be the solution imo and it can sound pretty decent. There’s companies making “exhausts” for the BMW i8 and they actually don’t sound terrible. Saw one with the upgrade in real life a few weeks ago and did a double take 😂
Here’s an example of the BMW i8 “exhaust” if anyone is keen..
https://youtube.com/shorts/ygUidz7YSqo?si=dHNkK1FN-F6TsCJw
Allowing them to run in the Open and Vety classes at local level races makes sense.
Tracks should not be turning racers away, and if they have to have a gate drop of its own for electric bikes because of " safety" that would mean no gas bikes on the track at the sametime. That would mean you might have a moto with 4 or 5 guys in it at some tracks. If the bikes are a danger to run with gas bikes, they can not do a double gate drop and have it kinda combined like some local races will do when similar speed classes do not fill an entire gate. If they did that, then it would be the same thing as running them in a class against gas bikes.
I would love to hear what the safety issues are . Lack of sound and a rider not able to hear one coming up to pass? I could understand the concern. But I think that there would be an easy way to fix that if they put some sort of thought into it. I could understand not letting them into the 250 and 450 classes. But Vet classes and the open classes why not?
Plenty of times I don't more over because I hear a bike coming. Not unrealistic to think it could lead to collisions.
100%. There’s absolutely no way they fill up stadiums if they go down this electric road.
We can race them in Australia...
Vince Friese moves over when he hears a bike coming!
You would never fill a stadium with a sport that makes no noise!
Are you naive or just ignorant to the entertainment dynamics and demographics of different sports?
Sports and entertainment change over time and so does audience preference, evolve or die.
I hope I will be dead by the time they push the electric crap on US Supercross.
How about you do an all electric series down there in AU and let us know how it goes.
Do You think more SX fans would stop going to races, or more outdoor fans? Why is it that Supercross gets more people in the stands VS outdoor MX ?? Has attendance gone down since they reduced the max DB level that will pass the sound check?
There are more people riding Mountain Bikes than MX bikes. Yet they make no sound. What if You are wrong and its the sound that has held the sport back from being even bigger? I do love the sound of a start with 2 strokes. and a crisp 2 stroke. But I could do without the horrible sounds that 4 stroke make.
Bro...half this sport is financed by rednecks making poor decisions. Do you really think they want to go into a stadium that use to be filled with race gas fumes and thumpers to anything but that?
I get pumped as hell as soon as I get to the stadium and smell the fumes and hear the bikes, without even seeing them.
Pit Row
you guys keep talking about the advantages of electric bikes but think it would be fair to race them against ICE bikes. the AMA already caused immense damage to the sport by allowing 4 strokes to race, at least maybe they will make up for it by making E-bikes have their own class, as they should.
US Supercross is likely to go electric when Honda has their production electric bike ready
Why would Australia have a separate electric series, electric bikes can already race against gas bikes in Australia.
That's the eternal argument about noise. Yes the lack of noise would be a turn off for a significant part of the spectators. But at the end of the day it's still a dirtbike race, not having deafening noise it will also attract new people to the sport, what will the balance be no one knows.
As for electrics competing with ICE it's already happening in France SX, UK AX, and next year in Australia MX and SX. That will show if there are any safety issues with pros. So far, none, and it could be easily addressed if that was the case anyway with any kind of sound device. The lack of engine noise will be a bigger issue for spectators than for pro riders safety.
For those proposing electric bike class for pros that sounds reasonable. But here is a question for you. The Varg is already on par with ICE, then what happens when the electric bikes start lapping faster than the ICE? Do you think pro riders would be happy to race in second class? What would it look like if they know they could lap a couple second faster on the other bikes?
Amateur racing will not be bothered by that, people will stick to their preferred bikes because it's about competing and having fun. But pros, they will want to race the fastest bikes out there.
Pros race what bike is given to them; otherwise every lites pro would be on Yamaha 250f.
It's really not that hard to find viable power limits comparable to gas bikes for different classes, it just takes a little bit of testing time. Lumping them into their own class is just lazy and short sighted, there's no reason we can't have gas racing with electric.
I'd say deaf people are generally more keen on racing than blind people are...
I don't understand how anyone thought that electric bikes would just automatically be allowed to race in classes that the rules say are for bikes with 4stroke & 2 stroke engines.
I wouldn't expect to automatically be allowed to ride a jet powered bike or a rotary engined bike , just because I think it's the future.
The classes already have restrictions placed on 2 strokes to try and make everyone ride a 4 stroke, you would have to be naive to just think that electric bikes are going to be allowed to beat the precious 4 stroke bikes.
The existing classes mostly have engine capacity & fuel rules etc. that limit power, yet at the moment there don't appear to be any such rules for electric bikes to limit power, so unless you change the rules for ICE bikes to allow more power , it won't be a fair competition.
As far as I can see, for an electric bike, at the moment there are no rules for the - battery,electric motor, software etc.
that is the same as having no rules for engines & fuel etc. for an ICE bike.
They're doing it the other way, right now the British, French and soon Australian federations are limiting power for electric bikes (48 hp to compete against 250, 60 hp to compete against 450). This period is a test to see if they can get some fair racing between ICE and electric. Then they will analyze the results to assess what to do next.
The point is IF the experiment is successful and federations agree on a set of rules to allow electric against ICE in a number of national championships in a year or two, it will get harder and harder for some championships to justify keeping them out.
It's easier to put restrictions on electrics because if you want to add or remove another couple hp it's all software no hardware.
You should read your own country's rule book before commenting...
https://amca.uk.com/images/downloads-general/Motocross_Rule_Book_2023.pdf
Love the UN and avatar I used to be friends with a bunch of cool Moto Dudes from PA.
Why don't you read what I said properly ?
I was writing about places where the rules say - 2stroke & 4stroke only.
what part of that don't you understand ?
I am well aware that the UK and some other countries do allow electric bikes in their rules
Also that's the AMCA rules, we have a lot of other sanctioning bodies, the ACU is probably the biggest, they allow electric in mx2 I believe with a 16kw max output, but no electric in some other classes.
So you wouldn't automatically be allowed to ride electric in any class or event, just some.
I think the goal is to price us out of the sport.
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