Do riders get replaced and forgot about too easy?

I don’t think this is a moto issue, it’s a professional sports issue. Unless they get into television (or a
Newsworthy event), how often do you hear about former football/baseball/basketball players?

Like you stated, it's just the nature of the beast. If a racer can get out without a major injury and a healthy bank account I think that's a successful career.

The pay gap is too wide!
The difference between what the top guys are earning and the last guys are earning is HUGE! Too big. Close that up and you have your wish.
However, like it or not there isn’t going to be a sudden influx of money coming in to this sport, so the only way to do it is be realistic and cut the top riders pay. Distribute that more evenly down the field.
Instead of Honda having having one bike out there that they’re paying $5m dollars for, they could put five bikes out there that they’re paying $1m each.

It won’t happen. But that’ll be the only way to do it.

Yes i also think injuries are taken too much for granted also in our sport. People go out with broken back, laundry list of injuries, massive gruesome stuff and its just another day for the fans, teams, industry.

More needs to be done to help reduce the severity of the injuries. I thought canards idea of working as a voice to help guide the track builders and promoters was a sound idea but seems to have gained zero traction unfortunately.

Its a dog eat dog world and Supercross is a meat grinder. The days of 4 or 5 man teams are over. With bike sales continually dropping expect things to possibly get worst. I don't have have all the answers. But i think we all can agree something will need to be done soon. Currently teams have two riders. What happens when teams can barley afford only one rider?

Talisker wrote:

Its a dog eat dog world and Supercross is a meat grinder. The days of 4 or 5 man teams are over. With bike sales continually dropping expect things to possibly get worst. I don't have have all the answers. But i think we all can agree something will need to be done soon. Currently teams have two riders. What happens when teams can barley afford only one rider?

Could run a sprinter and trailer as opposed to a damn semi... Is a full semi really needed

Wasted talent is the nature of the sport, and it is a problem. And you are right; the answer is simple: More money! The question is a little harder: From where? Jeff Bezos?...no he's going through a divorce. Bill Gates? Warren Buffet? The CBD industry?

Depends how good you are, your presence in the sport. Kenny and J Mart both having Hondas full support through their recovery processes is good to see.

ledger wrote:

Like you stated, it's just the nature of the beast. If a racer can get out without a major injury and a healthy bank account I think that's a successful career.

Has that ever been done?

I get it that RV and Dunge (in recent years) have got out with healthy bank and fairly non major injuries but still some pretty big get offs.

All I've ever done is bounce off the roof of a truck and my broken foot bothers me every day 20 years later.

The odds are against these guys for sure, even if you do everything right the risk is phenomenal.

Life is hard.

Is it really any different in other sports , or for life in any other profession?

If you don't deliver the goods you are gone and occassionally someone tells a story about you or you end up in a "whatever happened to?" Discussion.

If somebody has a hard time with that, gofundme can help, or it can reaffirm how short most people's memories last.

The team approach in the 250 class hurts the individual riders IMO. They are like clones and you can only tell them apart by their numbers. Especially to the outside observer- the lack of individuality makes the riders seem replaceable.
The teams go on, but riders have one or two years and they are gone- you are talking about guys who spent their entire lives getting to that point. The sport does not breed a lot of personality in many cases, because the training and practice is so hardcore. And I don't know anybody that is loyal to a certain mx/sx team and roots for Geico Honda- people want to have their individual riders but the casual fan won't even see their face unless they podium. Maybe they should market these guys a little more individually instead of the clone approach.

ledger wrote:

Like you stated, it's just the nature of the beast. If a racer can get out without a major injury and a healthy bank account I think that's a successful career.

This raises a good question. What is a successful career? Your definition seems to be more than successful, actually the ideal, and I'd add maybe a sustained career in the industry after retiring from actual racing.

I’m not going to get into the fact there’s 1 guy making all the money and not paying the riders or upping the purse.

I will say this, if they got professional and ran the teams and riders like adac (Germany sx) series I think it could be a good direction but I’m not sure it would happen. In German sx they have a set amount of teams with a set amount of riders per team, each spot the teams get paid I believe 800 euros each night start money that the promoter pays the team to MAKE SURE those spots are always filled. If your not on a team your basically not ‘invited’ to race. It’s clear cut and because it’s in order it allows the teams to be paid by the promoter and to have funding for that racer to have a bike and transportation and also a little money on the side start money. This allows the teams to focus a little more on the needs of the racer because they are basically being paid 1600- to whatever the rider agrees on with the promoter, there’s no reason guys are getting paid 10 grand start money in Germany but come home and can’t barely make it from race to race because big ol Supercross pays $975 and that’s ‘the best they can do’ it’s not the best they can do. For example what’s bigger and more profitable, American Supercross or the one off Supercross bercy in Paris? Who can commit to paying more for there riders to be there? Obviously the fim Supercross series here in America because it’s the biggest. Armed with that, why was I paid 40 grand at 15 years old to race bercy but not a penny to race Supercross here at home in front of a much bigger crowd? Just that same weekend another racer got paid $250 thousand (87 thousand per night of racing) and my bro $60k to race this event, yet Supercross has a purse under 70k for the 450 class entirely. It doesn’t make sense and there’s a lot of people that know it’s going on. Not one of them wants the open there mouth and ruffle feathers so they hold it in. I fact they hold in all kinds of information they know about to ‘simply not get involved’ when those things directly impact there opportunity to do better at the races and they just don’t get it.

ledger wrote:

Like you stated, it's just the nature of the beast. If a racer can get out without a major injury and a healthy bank account I think that's a successful career.

KB221 wrote:

Has that ever been done?

I get it that RV and Dunge (in recent years) have got out with healthy bank and fairly non major injuries but still some pretty big get offs.

All I've ever done is bounce off the roof of a truck and my broken foot bothers me every day 20 years later.

The odds are against these guys for sure, even if you do everything right the risk is phenomenal.

I guess it depends on your definition of "major". In my opinion, it is a sport with risks, so injury is expected, I would take major as life altering.

If you think about it that way, I think there are quite a few with a "successful career", some that come to mind in the last 20 years (leaving out the elite of the sport) and obviously not knowing their bank account, but guessing they did okay in their racing years

David Vuillemin
Ezra Lusk
Nate Ramsey
Nick Wey
Tim Ferry
Larry Ward
Kevin Windham
Travis Preston
Ivan Tedesco
Michael Byrne
Andrew Short
Mike Alessi

I do think riders who get hurt are swept aside pretty quickly but that is the nature of the business and fans have a short memory. The season is already at round two and Weston Peick's who was in a multitude of treads back in Nov and Dec after he got hurt has almost vanished from Vitals moto forum current threads.

Smaller salary to the top guy on the team. Not saying a rider can’t make more but it shouldn’t eat the entire teams budget. Same with the clan mentality in the pits. Pit presence shouldn’t eat up the teams budget to pay other riders. Do they really need fake grass? Rubber mats? Rolling tool boxes the size of VW’s for a few T handles. I see no diference in spectator pit behavior from when it was box vans til now. People still walk by, look at the bikes and some line up for autographs like they always have. Less is more...

brocster wrote:

Smaller salary to the top guy on the team. Not saying a rider can’t make more but it shouldn’t eat the entire teams budget. Same with the clan mentality in the pits. Pit presence shouldn’t eat up the teams budget to pay other riders. Do they really need fake grass? Rubber mats? Rolling tool boxes the size of VW’s for a few T handles. I see no diference in spectator pit behavior from when it was box vans til now. People still walk by, look at the bikes and some line up for autographs like they always have. Less is more...

thats what im saying too. Is a semi seriously needed for 2 friggin riders and some spares for maybe 1.5hrs of track time?