The Rise & Fall of Freestyle Motocross

Bryan Deegan is the goat of freestyle mx.

On tonights watch list 👍

Huge respect to freestyle athletes for their big balls and skills…if you made $ riding your dirt bike, thats bad ass.  I never got into the whole 90”s freestyle vibe but thats just me…whats left to do? How many backflips is too many? Feels like the wheelie boz is the new freestyle👍

Well know with padded landing ramps many of tricks do not have the risk that made them cool. When you are doing something that might kill you if you get it wrong vs sliding off a padded ramp and hopping back on the bike hits different (no pun intended). I would not do any of it, just saying it can have an impact. Obviously I do not want to see people getting seriously hurt or killed. 

I think it was when they let rando dudes wearing ranching gloves and instabangers collided at the time, it made the sport unnecessary 

Remember the dude who showed up at the X Games from like Northern Michigan for a couple years to attempt backflips in gardening gloves. LOL

Pastrana was right they needed to start making the tracks something that resembled more of a skatepark and flow so that every trick wasnt just a backip variation.

That’s a really strange way to spell Travis Pastrana. 

The level they are at now is absolutely insane and impressive. It's ridiculous what these guys are doing these days.

Lmao.

i remember back in the early 2000s to 2010ish even non moto people knew about freestyle.  Buddies would watch the Xgames the backflip was the craziest thing ever.  Moto and non moto people seemed to have a genuine interest.  I mean RC was doing step up competitions and winning xgames medals.  Now dudes are doing like triple front flip barrel roll body varials and no one bats and eye lol

Freestyle motocross has fallen?

Interesting. I was never into freestyle much. I knew about the OGs but always followed MX and SX more. My fmx interest got miniscule around the time Jeremy Lusk died. If i recall he was one of the first doing fmx on 450... 

the technique and skill of the riders has never been higher but the public interest is on the lowest imho. 

Plenty of guys rode them,  but early mid 2000's was still mostly two strokes. Cinqmars loved his 450 (rip), Metz rode one a bunch too.

Freestyle was perfect for the late 90's early 2000's crowd.  Seeing and hearing a dirtbike wasn't common like it is now with social media.  MTV was still humming, so they had cinq jumping houses, the cancun leap which is impressive to this day.  

FMX has been terrible for the public perception of what MX and SX is.

Not to mention it's filled with flatbilled douchebags with neck tattoos. 

And who can forget Lips Deegan...

I was never hugely into it but like probably most I bought the odd Dusty Demons vid (any vids of that era) back in the days of vhs, pre internet.

Here's the single biggest problem with it: for a sport to be successful it has to be at least a little relatable, and FMX just no longer is..

The originals were made up of a mixture of amatuers, semi-pros and pros alike. It was new, grounded, fresh - and some of what was recorded even felt doable for somewhat ordinary competent riders watching at home. Guys driving out to the desert and finding some natural hits. There was ironically (despite the crazy nonsense) a sense of 'humbleness' to it all, especially in terms of what was physically possible at the time.

Now a lot of what we see can't even begin to be replicated by ordinary riders, and ultimately it can't now evolve much further even by the few extraordinary riders that CAN replicate it... It's reached a point of sensory overload, increasingly beyond the realms of relevancy to mortal men who don't own training compounds and foam pits with sponsorship from Redbull etc. 

It's also partly (hugely) due to the era itself, it's just too hard these days to even find places to ride, to go and make something creative out of a natural landscape without immediately facing bike seizure and prosecution. They'll always be people that do it but ultimately it was of its time.

You're not being objective.  Like him or not, he was a great anti hero for a teenaged Pastrana.

Those early years also got dirtbikes on tv period, drumming up interest.  The video's , lifestyle stuff 100% helped sell bikes to guys who had no intent to race.

Saw Twitch and his traveling show about a month ago. 44 years old and still back flipping a bike for the thrill of it.

Quoted the wrong guy at first, my bad.

Anyway, regarding the track layouts and flow - Tyler Bereman brought it back to life with his Imagination comps

Wasn't much of a fall..

The early to mid 2000s was a huge era in general for motorcycling, credit flowed freely, and any 20 year old that wanted a new dirt bike or sport bike could get one.  Every other TV show on basic cable was about motorcycles, it was a golden age, and young people had money to burn.  When the Great Recession hit it killed the industry, and it has never really recovered, and that goes for the sports and events associated with it.  

Will big time fan filled stadium MotoX ever return? I dont think so, thats because young people just do not attend events like this any more, partly because they cant afford it, and party because its easier to watch highlights on their phones.    

I got tired of my moto gloves blowing out the seems or wearing holes in the fingers in one race, so I started wearing leather ranching gloves a lot of the time. Works great and lasts a very long time!

Travis Pastrana is the GOAT.  He made FMX fun being 18 year old competing against legit grown men. His rivalry with Metal Mulisha, they were a gnarly crew, if you were around them you know.  

Basically.. once the backflip was introduced I checked out on FMX.  Nobody really intrigues me to watch except for Colby Raha and Axell Hodges.  The free riding & big jumps are best to watch, the tricks these days are just pure insanity.  The reward isn’t worth the risk anymore, imo.  
 

pic related. 

It was cool late 90s and early 2000s. Then it got repetitive, back flip, back flip, back flip…..   

Was honestly unaware it was still a thing. 

 the Godfather of FMX

Whoever decided to have more than 1 summer X games per year killed it. 

Freestyle was just at the White House. Some are saying it’s bigger than ever.

I was never into FMX. Just a clown show, if you ask me. There's a reason why failed MXers went on to success in FMX, never the other way around. #briandeegan 

Travis was the only one to make his runs interesting by attacking the course, ripping corners and tricks. All others had boring, uninspiring runs