Posts
7
Joined
3/4/2022
Location
Claremore, OK
US
Edited Date/Time
3/25/2022 6:58am
Something I've been thinking about. I know this may be random for this forum but I just wanna tell it to someone.
I use to think anyone could end up being a fast rider. Let's say atleast local pro level speed. Alot of people are right? But now I've come to believe that not everyone has the talent to go fast on a dirt bike.
I started riding at 14 yr old and never got past the local C class. I never put forth effort to get in better physical shape so that didn't help matters. I could only ride as much as my mother could afford me to ride. So once sometimes twice a week. I didn't start getting the speed to run up towards the front of the C class until I like 19 yrs old. I joined the military at 21 and picked up riding again at 23. I was somehow faster at 23 than I was before.
But I had a buddy at the track that had only been riding for 2 yrs and was winning local B class races. And even did well in some local pro classes. Only 2 yrs of riding! So maybe some people are just born with natural talent and that lack of fear they need to go fast.
But I was just sitting here thinking about it and sometimes I'm filled with regret and pity for myself that I was never really that good. The only C class race I won was because the fast guys weren't there that night. I thought I was faster than I really was. I wanted to be a part of that group of fast guys at the track ya know? I wanted my name to be known
I just watched a video of 250C limited moto at Spring a ding and thought dang those guys aren't that slow. You can tell it's C riders. But then I realized I couldn't even win a local C race. I'd get fuckin lapped at spring a ding at the amateur level! It's just insane how fast AMA pros really are
But my point is. Maybe some people just arent ever gonna be that good at motocross. It's the hardest sport in the world.
I use to think anyone could end up being a fast rider. Let's say atleast local pro level speed. Alot of people are right? But now I've come to believe that not everyone has the talent to go fast on a dirt bike.
I started riding at 14 yr old and never got past the local C class. I never put forth effort to get in better physical shape so that didn't help matters. I could only ride as much as my mother could afford me to ride. So once sometimes twice a week. I didn't start getting the speed to run up towards the front of the C class until I like 19 yrs old. I joined the military at 21 and picked up riding again at 23. I was somehow faster at 23 than I was before.
But I had a buddy at the track that had only been riding for 2 yrs and was winning local B class races. And even did well in some local pro classes. Only 2 yrs of riding! So maybe some people are just born with natural talent and that lack of fear they need to go fast.
But I was just sitting here thinking about it and sometimes I'm filled with regret and pity for myself that I was never really that good. The only C class race I won was because the fast guys weren't there that night. I thought I was faster than I really was. I wanted to be a part of that group of fast guys at the track ya know? I wanted my name to be known
I just watched a video of 250C limited moto at Spring a ding and thought dang those guys aren't that slow. You can tell it's C riders. But then I realized I couldn't even win a local C race. I'd get fuckin lapped at spring a ding at the amateur level! It's just insane how fast AMA pros really are
But my point is. Maybe some people just arent ever gonna be that good at motocross. It's the hardest sport in the world.
I absolutely love the sport though and obviously still keep up with it 24 years after I quit riding, I just suck at it. I was a lot better at playing golf and have a natural talent for it, it just came easy to me but I don’t love it. I can’t go spend hours at the range or play three days in a row I get bored with it. I guess I just love the wrong sport, oh well.
The Shop
I am not fast, and at 59 I never will be. My boy (15YO) is starting to get fast and it has nothing to do with me other than althletic genetics, exposure, and support. He's a good athlete and has ridden since he was 4. Plenty of seat time, always good equipment. But, I don't see him getting to the "go faster than humanly possible" level, and maybe not even deep into "go really fast" if it is gene influenced. And I sure as hell ain't mortgaging the farm to see if he can make it in a sport where only the elite make real money.
Good question OP.
Hammer 663s
There’s the mental toughness, ability to process things coming at you quickly, ability to overcome fear or turn it off, etc. but at the end of the day, IMO some people don’t physically have what it takes to move a motorcycle around the way you need to go fast.
Unfortunately, each on their own will only get you so far.
If there is such a thing, how would we know that who we think are the fastest riders in the world are actually the fastest riders in the world??
How do you know that unassuming guy who you walk past in the street today doesn't possess that 'Extra magic fast gene'?? He could be the most insanely fast man on a dirt bike ever witnessed..... but he's just never bothered to throw his leg over a dirt bike..
Its all in the schooling. Not physically on the bike, not necessarily in the gym, but in the mind. The mind has to learn resilience, strength, determination, doggedness and a willing to suffer. By virtue of these traits, the gym work will naturally happen and also the on bike work will naturally happen too.
Positivity- if a rider gets beat down he stops trying, its important to take a lesson from every fail and use that to push forward instead of fall back.
Learn some things- "Cant hurt me" by David Goggins- read it!
I consider myself a pretty hard worker and I still can ride easily twenty minute moto's at steady pace. But no matter how many hours I had put on my riding and physical training, the best I could do was being in mid pack at local races.
Being forty years old now I can admit to myself that I will never get any faster. I have accepted the fact that I'm slow but I still love riding and rebuilding dirt bikes despite of that.
I know many talented guys that have incredible speed but are lacking the work ethic fitness wise to be great riders. It always makes me sad to see those guys wasting their talent that I never had myself
Most quick riders (I class myself as a decent rider) (Mid pack A). Most of us have the same processes going on. Such as looking at the track for the quickest line (not the easiest), work on technique a lot. Rarely do I spin laps for the sake of laps. Typically split my sessions to 1/3rd technique, 1/3rd moto hard and 1/3 playtime.
I structure my practice a lot too. Most of the quick riders (upto GP speed lads) that I have practiced with a very similar.
For me, I took up trials riding 18 months ago and I am up there with the top 10 riders in the club (150 members) who typically have spent there riding careers in trials.
Not one skill applies from moto. Everything in trials is the opposite of what you learn. But through structured practice and around 80 hours of riding I am getting reasonable on one. Now to get to the top 5 will take the same effort again, and the top 3 the same again. So realistically I am 5 years or so away from the highest level guys. Not willing to dedicate that amount of time for it, but I think top 5 is an achievable goal as long as I keep myself relatively healthy.
But what makes it so interesting is that there were guys that were in the C class when I raced in it that are still in the C class 15 years later.
Pit Row
Then they progress in to winning every class they move up to, there has to be a genetic reason these kids are so fast. A combination of lack of fear, extremely good reaction times, and surely natural ability.
Sucks to not be one of these guys but the older I get the more I can appreciate just how talented these kids are (while secretly wishing I was one of them!)
And I'm paraphrasing.
Same with dopamine. Some people require more stimulation to get a dopamine response. This means they have to push themselves closer to the edge of disaster to get it. If you don't need high stimulation to get a dopamine response, you're not going to push as far.
Then there is fine motor skill, reaction time, spacial perception, memory, short vs long twitch muscles, sensory response, VO2 Max, etc. All of these things are going to affect how well you perform at any task. The best riders have the best combination of all of these things. Practice and training will get you closer to your maximum. But it won't get you to the level of someone else who is at their maximum and has a better set of traits than you.
A rider who is incredibly smooth may have better spacial awareness, reaction time and fine motor control than a rider with less finesse. But the second rider may have better muscle fiber ratio, VO2max, and less fear response. The different traits will affect how they approach going fast.
I'm not "naturally talented" I have to ride a lot to feel good on the bike. I can be flowing great and take a month off and suck the next time I get on the bike. I had the size and was naturally talented enough as a football player that I had scholarship offers but even the lowest level privateer team wouldn't have given me a second glance.
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