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Soft parenting, soft schools, soft culture. It's over.

Not an American, but I absolutely can't ride a MTB with the left lever being the front brake. 😱

And we wonder why we're struggling to get event insurance. What an absolute disaster of a week for MX Sports between this, Archview Regional, and the Flo Sports deal.

What do you mean “you don’t get to”? He did. Then made an assload of money in the process. out of curiosity. How much does your opinion of him pay?

so, you admit you're using a "made up scenario using favorable numbers" yet somehow convincing yourself of things without actual proof or 1st hand experience in what you are all worked up about. Here's some friendly advice: Go sit with an actual professional mortgage advisor/writer and give them your REAL personal financials and let them explain exactly what you might qualify for and get REAL information on how much home you could actually afford if you tried to buy- instead of assuming it's not possible. There are simple calculations they use with income to debt to ratios and credit rating...

“QUIT SUING TRACKS”! Did you hear that, Rich Taylor?

And it’s my opinion it’s happened and they haven’t responded. How many of us know folks who used to ride and aren’t willing to take the risk the current tracks ask of us? How many have gone to off road because the tracks are all jump infested? How many more could we get into it if the tracks rewarded you and encourage you instead of punish you?

Of course it’s a free country but we’re discussing how to improve local riding and racing and get more people riding. Building a pro level track than punishes and quite literally breaks the riders isn’t a great way to get repeat customers.

The AMA needs to do something to help out with places to ride. All they need to do is organize people and I think most people are willing to help the local tracks but there is no one out there as a real leader for the dirt bike community. The membership should come with some voting rights and your own influence over AMA funds. There could be local chapters of AMA that can just get organized for track owners, track workers and funds. In the whole dirt bike community of people who actually ride very few people race and even...

Here is Grok’s AI Answer: Motocross (Supercross & Pro MX) • Pro-level deaths are relatively rare in recent decades. Wikipedia’s list of motorcycle racing deaths shows only a handful in major AMA/Australian series over 20+ years: e.g., Jason Ciarletta (2004 Supercross), Josh Lichtle (2011 AMA MX, heat exhaustion), Andrew McFarlane (2010 Australian MX), and Joel Evans (2025 Australian ProMX). • Broader motocross (including amateurs/youth at tracks) has higher numbers. A 2025 USA TODAY investigation found at least 158 youth (under 18/19) deaths on dirt bikes/motocross tracks since 2000 (~6+ per year), with nearly 2/3 at tracks. This made it the...

Agreed. And of those crashes about half of them are from coming up short, a little sideways, bouncing off the short abrupt landing, landing the opposite way and then hard crash. If the landing was rounded and tapered and the jumps weren’t as oversized as they are, those type of crashes all but disappear.

Interesting thoughts and discussion here. On the safety aspect, I largely agree with the OP. Also the point about the prevalence of man-made jumps on otherwise flat MX tracks is a good one. Bikes are clearly faster and more capable than they were in the 70s when I started racing. Tracks are very different, and serious injuries (requiring immediate emergency care/ambulance trips to the ER) are way up from that time. The constant dilemma for track owners is making their tracks safe but still exciting. Excessively fast tracks are a problem, but I do believe that large, fast gap jumps...

FWIW I did the math about a year ago on the MSRP of a brand new YZ125 vs the early 80s and it has basically stayed consistent with inflation. But for some reason, everyone wants a CRF450 WE or similar and then wants to bitch about how expensive the sport is.

A big problem is most modern tracks are built on flat land and truck in dirt to create the track. This lends it's self to a more SX type track as you can't do much else than build jumps. A natural terrain track offers more diversity of natural obstacles that keep it from getting too fast while still being challenging enough to excite the average rider. I'm old but i still like big jumps and going fast just not into taking a hospital trip cos I missed something due to a minor mistake. I don't want to have to ride...

There's too many problems with motocross racing at the local and regional level to discuss on this medium of communication.

Brother how many folks are life flighted from turn tracks? Or grass tracks? How are we still arguing this same point?

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.

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...

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...

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.