Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
I’m 30+ slow b rider, super out of shape, but can still do a 30 minute moto at around 70-80% of my sprint lap pace. Being smooth, conserving energy, sneaky smooth lines etc.
It makes moto more strategy, and mental, and about craft, not just risk management and pin it.
Anywhere I race its always the vets complaining the races are too long when it has already been cut to 4 laps. I will do pro open and vet to get more track time but then I get harassed by officials about flag marshalling as I have two kids racing as well. I'm not sure what the answer is. Outrageous entry fees for big events and not enough participants at club level races has really ruined the fun and has me questioning the future.
Ruts, corners (combo of off-camber, tight and wide open) , along with somewhat forgivable landings make a fun track for all.
nauseating response.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Free shipping: VITALMX
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
My buddy made a great point about the tracks and insurance issues too. If the tracks were more forgiving and built for the 99% instead of the 1%, the injuries would be so much less severe and much less frequent: if kids weren’t cracking their skulls open and breaking femurs on a weekly basis insurance wouldn’t be the issue it is.
Is that what happened in the Eks Brand Rich Taylor lawsuit?
No reason for a berm tall enough and steep enough with a cliff on the back side. Yes some thought should be put into design to be safe and forgiving.
I don’t think he should have sued but if the tracks built shit with half a brain and with safety in mind a lot of this gets reduced and prevented.
You have to make it safe. You have to taper landings. You have to taper track edges. You have to taper back sides of berms: you can’t have trees and branches against the lanes.
Jumps shouldn’t be impending doom if you misjudge by 5% at an amateur track.
Was there a jump before that berm? Why are there jumps in every lane? Why so many back to back? If you get a little loose off the first, now you send it out of control off the second instead of having space to get it together.
This is motocross for amateurs… not supercross for hardened pros.
Grow the sport is my least favorite saying of all time. They still say it in the NFL. It’s never good enough. Just enjoy what you have.
I’m sort of conflating two things. I always hear people wanting it to grow. But I mostly want the amateur side of things to improve.
Hard no on Ruts=fun. Agree on turns and jumps.
I’ll take nice fluffy berms and straights you can move around on every time. The ripped deep, flooded track prep that turns into a rut fest is one of the worst changes I’ve seen in the sport.
Are Flat Track promoters able to get insurance? They don't have any jumps or berms.
Is this the straw man argument you want to go down on? Do you really think what I’m saying is wrong or are you just being difficult for fun…
Your assumption is that tracks with fewer/smaller obstacles would lead to more favorable insurance terms.
Flat tracks do not have obstacles, so if flat tracks do not have favorable insurance terms, then we have to acknowledge it's not the obstacles that are causing the insurance costs to increase.
This is just one facet to this discussion.
Flat track also uses 1000cc motorcycles don’t they? Insurance cares about that kind of shit.
does road racing get insurance they don’t have jumps. Can we stick to moto? Or what?
I have no idea about flat track, let me know fill me in.
Flat track uses similar bikes for offroad track events. Seems like a good comparison if we want to test your hypothesis.
I'm not a promotor or insurance agent, so I don't know if the insurance landscape is different between the 2 disciplines, but I would be interested in knowing.
Fair enough I didn’t think the question was in good faith but that’s a fair take. Regardless if insurance views it differently at a glance, the tracks certainly would if they aren’t getting massive law suits from life altering injuries. If the obstacles and tracks are built with some margin, those types of injuries will go down.
And also I think they’ll get more business if the tracks are more forgiving and approachable/ the average rider will be able to “get into a flow” and feel safe and confident.
The way many tracks are you have to be very high level to find the flow. It just isn’t fun for most riders and many won’t even go to most tracks anymore.
You're assuming flat track has fewer injuries but the fact is that speed increases risk significantly, and flat track speeds are considerably higher than motocross.
Fewer/smaller obstacles is going to increase the speed, leading more risk.
Why does everyone feel the need to be so fucking argumentative and sassy
Pit Row
Yeah I don’t believe that for a moment dude.
I’ve seen people life flighted and tracks closed for ems for hours too many times to count and it’s 9.9/10 times at a jump. Reduce the jumps, taper and round the jumps that remain, you will reduce the injuries and severity.
Add some turns, add some off cambers , you can slow down the speeds without sx rhythm sections.
Dude that’s such a wild take.
So the riders after big injuries when they start back out on a turn track, with few/no/small obstacles they do that because the risk is higher?
And then they progress to moto before getting back to soupy because the risk is higher in moto?
Come on bro…
Promoters will never give you longer motos because then they can’t do that and still run 47 classes and make that dough.
Local moto is cooked. Shark has been jumped.
I genuinely think you could charge 125 per rider for 30 minute moto. Nobody gives you actual motocross. I think it could be a large draw. Pack the gates, wouldn’t need 470 classes.
All the folks doing off-road 1/2 of them would be at a motocross race if it was motocross. Motocross isn’t 4 lap sprints. That’s a joke.
That’s my opinion anyway on it!
What don't you believe? Speed is a predominant risk factor for injury, you even agree in your last sentance "Add some turns, add some off cambers , you can slow down the speeds without sx rhythm sections."
Agree...been hearing that saying for 40 years. The vast majority of people don't like or care about MX and never will.
Tracks need to be safer...which, hate to say, means easier but not faster.
I don’t believe that a friendlier lower difficulty track increases risk.
I don’t picture many people being life flighted with critical injuries from a grass track style course vs the 95 foot jumps we have at amateur tracks.
You’re insane on this take.
someone mentioned Elephant in the room? I think there is 1, but the bigger picture hasn't risen to the top of discussion here IMO. I've been involved in this pastime since early 1970s and things tend to go in cycles with places to ride (not just race) and affordability. New bikes are WAY too expensive for the average person who has even a slight interest in MX. Way too complex 4 strokes for the average person to maintain and fix themselves- more cost having dealers do repairs. Landowners would rather make big $ selling their land for data centers now and powerful special interest groups with lots of $ for lawyers are constantly trying to influence governments to shut down off roading entirely.
As with Soccer moms, we have Moto dads as the main way kids are introduced to off-roading and once the kids grow up and doing stuff as a family falls in importance many/most families get out of moto IMO. So huge expense + few local places available to ride- much less race + dwindling support and interest as a family focused pastime when kids grow up = moto dying NOT growing IMO.
I totally agree. I switched to mostly racing off road because MX races were so overcrowded and short it seemed pointless to spend a whole weekend to ride around in a traffic jamb for 8 minutes.
I agree on track design too. A really jumpy, A or pro level track is pretty inaccessible for many riders. My son is 12 and good but not super aggressive and he just doesn't have a ton of fun on an advanced track yet. Give him some natural terrain and intermediate jumps and he'll ride all day, but a track ripped deep, rutted up and littered with huge, peaky jumps is no fun for him.
Agreed. 125 only classes or even crf250f style air cooled only classes where suspension springs only mod allowed would be a great way to get costs, speeds and risk down.
Build the tracks to suit the 99% and forgiving enough for vets on 125s to shred on, and the fun goes up while the risk goes down.
Cost for a 125 is nearly half the top of the line 450s it’s atleast significantly cheaper.
pay more to pack the venue with riders? don't see how that would pencil out or fix what we have now for the better.
In the 90s and 2000s it was pretty normal to see dudes go buy a new 125 and 250 every year. Maybe put a pipe and some bars on them. Then sell em and do it again the next year. That would be a 25k endeavor in 2026
But when you compare dirt bike price increases over the last 25 year with anything else, we are doing ok. It’s all the other costs that are fucking us
Post a reply to: Grow the sport? Fix local tracks and racing.