I’m noticing a lot of conversations going on right now where the whole sport seems to actually be doing some reflecting inward for once vs always just pushing fwd as usual. You have many many different riders being vocal out in the open about how there are too many races and its leading to burn out. You also have people like on pulp today talking about how regimented the training programs are in the us and have 0 flexibility and its probably detrimental to individual riders growth and this is also leading to burn out. Not only are there over 30 races that are leading to burn out but on top of that these programs will never let any of these guys take some days off. Then on top of all of that you have cooksey talking about the amount of money that the media deal brought to the sport and how puny the purses still are, this also comes back to why wsx was started which was to have a different revenue sharing model.
Were probably not at the point of a riders union, but does it seem like were at a point where the riders are going to be able to get more say in their careers and the series going fwd? Motocross is never this open with communication and there is never really industry wide conversations and reflection on how to be better. Is this a new chapter or will it all be gone by next week and everyone will forget about it? Many times once a can of worms is opened it cant be closed again.
Edit: I also literally just came across this vid of Ac saying hes going to do everything he can to get the riders salaries into the public.
On behalf of feld: Thx for the free labour suckers
At the end of the day, A rider doesn't have to train or ride. It's ultimately their decision. Hearing this generation complain about having to race their dirtbike kind of pisses a mid 50's guy like me off. I was fortunate enough to chase the flattrack dream for a long time but damn I never would have asked for less races.
^I'm with you, mgif. I know these guys train hard, race hard, sacrifice, travel, etc. But so do I. You know how many weeks a year I work? 50. And my job is not nearly as fun as racing.
No. As long as Feld runs shit, what the riders say/think won’t matter. What they are to Feld is no different than Mickey and Goofy on ice skates.
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Ok but I dont think making the argument that the training compounds are probably leading to burnout and less racecraft plus letting many riders fall through the cracks who would do better with a different style of program is necessarily complaining.
I don't think there is a chance to reduce the amount of races as fewer races would end and/or reduce the influx of NBC money.....I do think that somehow they have to have a testing blackout after the season is over until November 1...it's crazy that they only take one or two weeks off after the season ends and then are back at it....not sure how you police it but that would help.
Totally agree on the training compounds. I use to train a pretty fast kid and he got to a point where his dad just built him a townhouse at Reynards. That was around 04 I think. Probably about when the compound thing started taking off. Gregory lived down there until he was so burned out he didn't care if he ever saw a dirtbike again.
I thought that was MXGP....
Impossible to regulate, but adopt a F1 rule where there is only a certain amount of testing / driving hours per year.
I know it sounds dumb, but thats what the Pro riders (some) are asking for, isnt it?
I don’t think anything will change from a schedule perspective, but Lewis talking about MXGPs training compared to the US was eye opening
I do think overtime you will start to see riders relax on their training programs, we won’t ever go back to the 90s program, but the daily grind won’t be there forever
I had a fairly enlightening conversation with Keefer about this and flagging at the Pulp ride day and it ultimately ended with both of us agreeing that we have all the answers to “fix” whatever issues this sport has but implementing them will be a challenge. These conversations just always end with a 🤷🏻♀️ followed by a “that’s just how it is”.
This attitude towards the sport changing is pretty lame to put it lightly and whenever they decide to pull their heads out of their very tight and secretive buttholes the better the sport will become.
Just my very obvious but hilariously insignificant 2¢
Exactly, Id encourage everybody to listen to the pulp podcast from today because they dug in super deep about the compounds. Lewis said without mentioning his name that herlings basically just rides his dirt bike for hours and hours and hours and then shows up to every single off season race he possibly can instead of doing tons and tons of bicycle riding or working out and that works for him obviously but if he came to the us he would be told hes doing it wrong and needs to follow aldons program. He also said that lots of the gp guys are able to take days off or even a week off here and there without getting yelled at or made to feel like theyre slacking. Obviously its not hurting them at all in fitness so theres different ways to skin a cat.
Weimer was saying that its not so much how many races they do its only once per week but all of the training every day with 0 days off that really wears ppl out by the end of the year. So it seems like in a lot of cases its not even how many races the guys are doing thats burning them out its the training compounds during the week. We all know rv retired basically to stop having to do aldons program another year. I think theres really something to this.
Riders aren’t contracted to race the playoff rounds. If they want to sit them out they can. They’re CHOOSING to do the extra races for the extra money.
Is there a link to where I can listen to this? Thanks so much
He spoke about it on the latest Pulp show. I don’t have a timestamp unfortunately.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pulpmx-com-show/id349529445?i=1000668977269
Youtube link if it’s preferred…
https://www.youtube.com/live/weOOdiPbDSY?si=H58lFzZl3COAiCT_
The sport already changed years ago....and not for the better.
Plenty of evidence of that.
I remember the sport in it's hey day when dudes were racing Friday nights, Sats and Sundays.
Today....the sport isn't about the average Joe....it's about the clicks, likes and money.
I have always said, if this sport really wants the big bucks, then they need to drop the traveling circus business model and adopt the league play business model used to great effect by the big stick and ball leagues.
It’s all subjective really. The “fun” is gone and has been replaced with athleticism, prestige and of course, money. Thankfully the riders are receiving some of that cash.
Pit Row
Care to elaborate? Not saying you’re wrong, just don’t know what they should do to be more like stick and ball sports
The late 90,s riders rode a lot more than todays riders. That’s why they where much better riders . Check out the best free ride vid ever, McGrath hit every jump in dozens of different ways and did impossible cliff jumps. Most talented rider ever most say he was born to ride a bike. Ever see him ride and you would agree. People say they didn’t train but they did just not like the robots of today. MC was more ripped than any pro now. Emig hell all of them. I think the sx riders pay should get clipped and sent to a 125 pro series. Arenacross is 100 % more exciting than sx , throw some sx money there too. The pro ams get the purses up and add a points fund, there a much better event than sx. If it wasn’t for fan boyz no one would really care about sx boring series.
I’ve given this a lot of thought, and have actually written essays about it, but I’m too tired to get into it right now. But if you look at major leagues, they focus on home teams that have home facilities that not only have more than one major event a year, they are multi use, so the home team owners can maximize profits.
With this model, multiple cities/ regions are involved, each with their own team.
League play is team versus team. If you follow the model set by the NFL, most of the events take place simultaneously on one day. Considering the physicality of MX/SX, that probably makes more sense than say the MLB model of holding events every other day or so.
In any case, the point is to multiply everything: more teams mean more jobs for riders and crew members and facility workers; holding multiple events simultaneously means more races/tickets sold without having to have a ridiculously long season.
Y’all can take it from there. European Speedway has been doing this forever.
Jeff is doing it right , if you race a bike you ride a bike a lot. Not faking out a training session. Remember the 2 sx races a week in 2020 ? The racers Loved it. The more you race the better your race is. Think about truckers 7 days a week for months straight a million times more physical than racing a Mx bike. Our bodies get a lot more destroyed but it is Really amazing how skilled we are at least I am. The north east was Awesome today the steep hills sharp curves, driving the shit out of it. High g forces actually much higher than a bike. Same as racing in a pack then get a opening & go for it pass a few then a gap then more to pass. It never ends
So I am clear, you are proposing a league model that looks like… an Aldon vs Star race in FL, on the same day/time as a PC vs HRC race in SoCal?
I feel like you’re acting like at the 450 level the trainers are actually the ones running the show. Here’s the convenient part about being a 450 guy (short of within KTM group for now), generally they choose their own trainer…they don’t like 50 weeks of boot camp and think that it would benefit them to relax for some time? Hire a trainer that agrees with that…250 guys don’t have the same luxury sometimes on the factory outfits, but they also don’t race the 31 races that 450 guys do.
Yeah I think that’s what he is saying. This training camp & hiring a trainer is ridiculous. That’s like me hiring a driving instructor. Or the worlds strongest hhg rig job . Hiring a hvy equipment operator coach , haha. I,m the best crane operator there is why would I hire someone to f that up. Or a mechanic coach or a hard core laborer coach . I think the outside people f the riders head up. I like the rider who has to switch trainers all the time. The other riders know they got him beat.
Lay off the paint huffing. In what fantasy were 90's riders much better riders? Technique has advanced so much since then. Those guys look like C riders compared to current pros. Even Dungey said techniques had changed a lot when he came out of retirement and he was sitting down too much. He was only retired 5yrs. But 25yrs ago they were better riders?
Mike Brown beats a lot young guys when he races the pro classes. Mike is a 90,s rider. A 2nd place 250f rider today would fight to get in the top 10 in 95-99. They lost the art of corner speed . No one does the big scrub anymore because it doesn’t shave time off a lap. So what advances r there in riding ? Staying low off jumps ? No one is as good as MC today at it. All the tracks r easier now nothing technical about them.
C riders huh? Sure..
I wasn’t aware that Dungee was the bench mark of the sport . Is he the fastest most winning rider ever with the highest level of talent? Huffman could beat Dungee easily. Larocco, Larry Ward , etc
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