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Which is my point. BMX, our "flag football" is more dangerous than the actual dangerous version of football.
BMX racing is not more dangerous than football.
How many 60+ year olds do you know that play football regularly? BMX Racing is full of old men and children. There are <5 people at a local race that even leave the ground. They have moms out there doing it.
I think the fact that we have world class athletes like Connor Fields leaving our "flag football version" due to TBI is pretty telling.
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I wonder if the numbers for mtb are somewhat close. I don't know anybody who died, but I personally know 3 people who got seriously injured. And from the crashes I see on the internet, they are not the only ones.
I looked it up and youth football deaths are kinda all over the place, but probably more than moto. They track them differently depending on cause, brain damage and spinal injuries are tracked differently than internal organ injuries. Heat stroke deaths are also tracked separately. At least 7 youth football deaths in August of 2024 though points to it being much worse than the article says. Another thing that makes a difference is probably the fact moto has more girls participating. A typical woman is more likely to die or be seriously injured in an auto accident, so probably the same in moto. I know I can bounce off the ground several times in a 2 hour hare scramble and finish the race without anything other than some sore spots. My wife falls over and she's done for a month with way nastier bruises and joint issues than I've ever had.
Being involved in mx for many years now and watching my son grow to love the sport as well has had way more good experiences than bad. That being said you gotta know when to hold em and know when to fold em. We have left multiple tracks over the years due to what I deemed as unsafe conditions. Everything from track prep to flaggers to watching enough people eat shit on a particular day to make me say load em up, we’re out. Much of this can be blamed on track owners, but like so many other things in society now we all need to look in the mirror. The best person to make your safety paramount is you. Don’t support tracks that don’t care about your well being and continued support. Also we live in PA but as mentioned above about NJ tracks, they are sticklers and I love it! Try and sneak out in the wrong practice at NJMP and see how that goes. And all of us want safer tracks, right? Great now don’t dare come on here or their FB page bitching when it costs more to ride. Safety measures we want aren’t free.
We need to be mindful of the other side of this.
MX kids know how to look adults in the eye and have a conversation. Something about both young and old alike struggling with the same rut or obstacle creates a common bond.
MX kids know how to use tools and do basic maintenance. They also learn the downside of NOT doing it I'm the form of a DNF.
MX kids know how to overcome fear and anxiety.
MX kids learn deferred gratification. Wash your goggles and fill up with gas right after your moto. That way, when you lose track of time and have to rush to the gate you're not going to run out of gas.
MX kids have built a lot of character through both winning, and losing.
I've got a lot of people in my life my kids age, that I've known since they were still able to count out their birthdays with their fingers, that I still interact with regularly. I see them growing up, starting families, buying their first house, and it's rewarding to see what fantastic young men and women they've become. MX cultivates good people.
It's a horrible compromise, but alongside all the risk is great reward.
Yeah, common sense, you're correct.
If you know taking a gate drop after a women's class is goin to be dangerous, don't do it...
Yes, the promoter was wrong, but so were you, because you knew better. Dont participate and then pass the buck.
Do I really need to make some obvious analogies?
Sure anytime you put speed and a free human body together theres potential to have wrecks and get hurt. I would say BMX racing and tackle football are about comparatively dangerous,
Really I think the answer you are looking for is rc car racing, but that's more of a different thing to MX than tackle to flag football.
They didn't want to mention the stats around the injuries and deaths from kids attending school compared to attending an MX track.🤫
Ranking which sports are more dangerous really misses the point. Sure, other sports and activities are dangerous too, but the issue this sport seems to have more than most is either denial or a fatalistic response instead of trying to make improvements.
If you want to compare football, it's practically a different game than it was when I played high school ball in the 90's. Rules have changed, helmets have gotten better, people are wearing guardian caps, there's standardized head injury protocols, educational requirements for anyone involved, screening physicals, EMS at every game, no more two a day practices and setting puke buckets out...... it's still dangerous but they've taken steps to address it in the areas that they can.
This sport, as evidenced in this thread, just wants to deflect and move on with the status quo. Crap helmets with people spending 5x as much for a pipe, not wearing the protective stuff that is available because excuses excuses excuses, preschoolers and pros on same tracks, flagging is a joke, bikes are unnecessarily powerful. Even at the pro level we just pretend like head injuries didn't happen and guys who were out cold are fine after taking Sunday off. Some of this stuff is so simple yet so hard to standardize in this sport mostly because of the attitudes of the participants. Blaming track owners and mx sports or ama is kinda lame, they're just giving us what we want. Rather save $5 on practice fee instead of having flagger that might save your life.
This is also why Rich Taylor sucks. Had opportunity to turn personal story and industry connections into a noble cause, instead went for the cash and signed the NDA, because of safety, of course.....
Shoutout to Perris raceway for making the article!!
#ripsmk556
Per capita is gonna bite you there buddy
That, and going to school isn’t an optional, recreational sport.
Let’s be honest here: did anyone here seriously think motocross was less dangerous than football, or any other youth sport? I feel like the USA Today story is simply summarizing what most of us have known from the moment we entered the sport.
Not a big statistics guy are you? Guessing you didn’t attend college.
Spot on until you gave track owners and mx sports an out. They are the ones that can drive the change you were talking about and then you say not to blame them? Ok maybe not track owners but for sure mx sports, ama and OEMs for not driving change
I wanted to find all sorts of errors, logical fallacies, and outright falsehoods in the story. Unfortunately the biggest issue that I can find fault with is that some of their terminology or mx-culture ‘slang’ is a little bit off in places. The gist of the story is pretty sobering because it’s pretty accurate. It is also something that causes cognitive dissonance in most of us who enjoy the ‘sport’, whether through participation or spectating/viewing. Including myself.
Pit Row
My biggest take away from this thread is the shocking number of you who don’t understand per capita.
That being said, moto is super dangerous and as tough as it is to read, the article is pretty close to spot on. I rode and raced every weekend from 8-43 years old. I was very technically sound and never crashed. One day I had a big one followed by a few days in the hospital and I had no clue how it happened. That was enough for me to sell everything. Prior to that day I was in the never me crowd. But the reality is that as the bikes get bigger and the tracks get more technical, the margin for error continues to shrink and it could happen to any one of us.
Was thinking the same- which I why I am hesitant to encourage my son to race. He does love motox, but we would ride/race a lot more if I wasn’t so concerned. (Same goes for myself as I’ve gotten older).
Yeah he plays football, basketball and all that and I have no concern..
Hopefully tracks take this opportunity to make things as safe as possible (while still understanding injuries and death are inevitable). But do what they can do reduce the chances..(common sense things)..
I see some comments about flaggers and medical crews, Most places are charging 30 bucks per day to ride, add in a dozen flaggers and med crew and no one would be able to afford to ride anywhere.
Many of these issues regarding safety could be addressed with a riders union like @stull33 had suggested a few weeks ago. The culture among motocrossers is the biggest hindrance towards the longevity of the sport. We’re our own worst enemy and a riders union can help to shape the optics of how we see ourselves and how others see us.
The culture of motocross needs to change. We need to police and organize ourselves before some asshat steps in and forces us to do it by law which will be the end of motocross as a competition and participation sport for all ages.
I doubt it, at least for deaths. Spinal injuries and broken bones, etc., maybe. We had a kid in my town get injured pretty bad in a downhill race a few years ago. The pointy end of both sports are inherently different with DH/Enduro being the most dangerous, but you're racing against the clock and speeds are overall a bit lower than MX and ruts are not as much of a factor. XC is head-to-head, but typically much tamer trails. Big jump line park riding is probably the closest.
By the logic of the author that wrote this article, downhill MTB is the most dangerous sport in the world. There is literally deadly objects every 5 feet. But.. Certain states and people are all about hiking, equestrian, and MTB - anything without a motor. So although MTB has a shitload more deadly obstacles, it will never be mentioned, it doesn't fit the agenda - you get what you vote for.
I'm not giving them an out, but it's just reality that if they raised prices $10 but made it clear it was to staff flaggers or for on-site medic, it would be met with far more complaining than it would be support. If the next track over stays cheaper and less safe, that's where a majority of people will go to ride. What's a track owner supposed to do about that if there's no law mandating they all do the same things? Just like with the helmets a lot of people are wearing, cheap is prioritized over safe.
I got some bad news for you there aren't 300 classes being run anywhere and back in the late 80s when I went to my first race (125 beginner class) they had over 50 entries in my class alone. They didn't have a girls/womens class so I rode with everyone else. It was a long day and racing till the middle of the afternoon just like today.
Not much has changed other than fewer and fewer people racing and riding. The answer to that is loud af exhausts and ignoring articles like these as if we can chuck our heads in the sand and pretend times haven't changed.
Yes and I think they went easy focusing on deaths and not really putting an emphasis on SCIs that would most likely really look bad
Case in point, the track should that have made that jump a double. Tabletops or camelbacks work just as well if not better. Nobody is going to hurt themselves badly on a very small double (15ish feet or under) but big gaps should always be filled in, no choice
Thanks for verifying the point I'm making, they used to have full gates until they started making 75% of the program for children.
This article suggests we're a little late for that
Post a reply to: USA Today