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DC has a fear that the OEM's will run away. They won't. But if by some crazy chance they did they would leave a vacuum that will be filled quickly. Moto is not like road racing where this did happen. Most moto fans ride and race and support the industry. Most road racing fans have never put a wheel on the track in anger. They might buy an issue of Cycle News once in a while, and maybe a street bike once every 5 to 10 years. That is far removed from the involvement of the fans in Moto.
Second, what fantasy world do some of you guys live in? What power/leverage does he have to coerce manufacturers to build or not build any particular kind of bike, or to price them and their parts affordably?
While you're at it, DC, make Bultaco, Montesa, Ossa, etc start producing bikes again.
What power or leverage does he have to coerce aftermarket shops from hopping up bikes and consumers from paying their money for that?
He can change rules for the series he has control over, that's it. No one has to participate in those series, either at the pro level or amateur.
The rules people want are in the amateurs. In the pros, it was one of the first issues that got broached and he has told you most of the OEMs told him to pound sand.
Have people forgotten the state of things by the time the AMA had screwed the nationals into the toilet and decided to sell them ~ last minute TV deals, no series sponsor, OEM's pulling team resources, major private teams pulling out, all shifting resources to an SX series run by an entirely different set of people, with the FIM and another outdoor series in the wings disparaging US outdoor racing at every turn and today still doing all they can to undermine it. All non-profits, no doubt, though, unlike that money grubbing bastard DC.
It's easy on this side of the door to say the OEM's won't walk. It's easy to say they'll make additional models of bikes, in a depressed economy, just because DC changes the rules. It doesn't make it so, and DC is the only one who has posted here who had to decide whether they meant what they said. They sell orders of magnitude more street bikes than MX bikes, and road racing lost resources and had OEM's walk.
Big deal if the OEMs walk. What do we really lose. PC, Geico, San Manuel, 22 all seem to do fine. Some like JGR and 22 do it with little or no help from the OEM's. Who cares? Let them go if they don't care about the amatuers, it's them after all who this whole thing is built on. Hopefully they will still be able to afford this sport ten years from now.
this is the fundamental difference between these two types of racing.
and to say that the pro ranks would not suffer if all big 4 manf. picked up and walked out tomorrow then i would disagree with you. i also fail to see how giving the oems the finger in pro racing would help amateur racing flourish.
To hear that there are a lot of people riding road rockets where you are is good. I'm surprised though, as it seems here there are very few in comparison with the cruiser and touring bikes. Plus, have you ever seen the attendance at a road race. It's nothing compared to Moto or SX, unless you are talking MotoGP. I guess everything needs to be looked at from all angles. But the bottom line for me still is that allowing two strokes a level playing field or including them with a new 125 only class can only help in a time when our sport is seeing decreased numbers every year.
in all of these discussions though i sometimes wonder if the 2stroke guys are remembering the cost of bikes from their hay day and not the current pricing. msrp on a 2011 yamaha 125 is 6250. that is nothing to sneeze at, and quite a bit more then most kids have in their piggybanks.
This is not about Pro racers, they race on unobtainium with huge budgets as is!
This is all about average folks like you and me who are racing on a shoe-string.
Again, MXA's point is that for %99 of us, we go just as fast on either bike.
Speed is equal... Cost is not ( between 2 and 4 stroke bikes )
high costs are killing the sport from the BOTTOM up. ( as well as noise )
In 1997 there was a rumor that Californians were going to have to leave the state to buy a bike not hindered by the manufacturer. Throttle stops, catch bottles - you can see the evidence of these on CA street bikes. Why did California lose the RZ350 from show room floors?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_Rz350
Pit Row
My 2 cents
Most sport bike fans don't road race. Most are street riders who enjoy curvy back roads with their friends. I know because I was one of those guys for years. Pro road racing is very screwed up right now and we need to be very careful that motocross doesn't end up the same way.
http://www.motocrossactionmag.com/Main/News/WHAT-YOURE-MISSING-IF-YOU-H…
The cost of four stroke repairs have no doubt driven some people off, but I'm willing to bet that there are many people who could not afford to go racing right now if a two stroke was all we could buy. New two stroke s are still 6-7 grand. Many people cannot even afford that in todays economy.
I believe the equation is much more complex than most people think.
If that's the longterm plan of Luongo and DC I can see why they aren't interested in the sport on grassrootlevel. There's other forces that decide the size of their paychecks, and that's nothing wrong with that looking at it from their perspective. Are they friends of motocross as we know it and the sport we learned to love? No they are not, they just found out they could make motocross a lot fancier and more xpensive than before, and still be a lot cheaper than F1 etc. They don't really care that motocross used to be pretty close between proffessionel level and amateur level, and people are going bancrupt trying to keep up with the new conditions in our sport. They do not depend on bikesales of motocrossbikes and therefore they have a lot in common with the big4 that always cry that they don't make any profit making dirtbikes, it's just marketing.
Seems like it time to put our money elsewhere. Not the big4, not YS and not MXsports. Soon we all be riding around on chinese pitbikes wondering what the hell happened...
I think the first one to let the twostrokes back in on prolevel will be the winner between YS and MXsports. It's a new initiative that would boost bikesales and the sport and give them the upper hand and therefore the focus of the big sponsors
Don't think for a minute the big 4 wouldn't pull the plug if they don't get their way.
Honda left dirttrack racing when the rules were changed to help the Harleys.
They left F1 when they took that ride to a level even they couldn't afford.
They left AMA roadracing when DMG took over and they didn't like the rules.
And every time they did it was adios m/f, we're off, carry on as you wish.
Why support this arrogance?
Post a reply to: Jody, MXA, Two Strokes and Matthes