Is super cross seriously THAT difficult?

ocscottie
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Redding, CA US
3/12/2022 3:37pm Edited Date/Time 3/12/2022 3:37pm
Yet another class of '22 Vitard, see fellas, n00b hazing served a real purpose back in the day.
8
3
trace704
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TX US
3/12/2022 3:45pm
I've never seen any other racing series where the talent and speed differential through the field is so vast. It seems like there's only about 10-15...
I've never seen any other racing series where the talent and speed differential through the field is so vast. It seems like there's only about 10-15 actual pros between all three classes. I genuinely think I could show up at a west coast race and qualify for the night show having never ridden SX before.

Guys with more experience, why is the field soooooo spread out? A few tenths between the pros and then 5+ seconds/lap compared to the trash riders filling the bottom of the classes.
1911 wrote:
[img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2022/03/12/537774/s1200_22721972_3A2D_447F_845B_46FD925540EF.jpg[/img]

I honestly don't think that many of the riders are using cocaine and I wouldn't classify it as a PED by any means. I've done tons...
I honestly don't think that many of the riders are using cocaine and I wouldn't classify it as a PED by any means. I've done tons of it.
Obviously...
1
lestat
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Piut RE
3/12/2022 3:45pm
The supercross video game seems relatively easy … 🤷🏻‍♂️
JBecker 72
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VA US
3/12/2022 4:36pm
Nairb#70 wrote:
But seriously, I knew someone who thought that if he bought a bike and practiced for 6 mo's.he could race SX. I told him that he...
But seriously, I knew someone who thought that if he bought a bike and practiced for 6 mo's.he could race SX. I told him that he might be ready to enter his first local race in the beginners class if he exhibited tremendous acclimation to MX after 6 mo's.
Sounds like one of my coworkers. He bought an R1 and thinks he has a shot at racing professional super bike. Hasn’t done a single track day, let alone a local club race. He’s just another squid that runs from cops on backroads.

The Shop

Tbteam
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Ormond Beach, FL US
3/12/2022 4:52pm
I've never seen any other racing series where the talent and speed differential through the field is so vast. It seems like there's only about 10-15...
I've never seen any other racing series where the talent and speed differential through the field is so vast. It seems like there's only about 10-15 actual pros between all three classes. I genuinely think I could show up at a west coast race and qualify for the night show having never ridden SX before.

Guys with more experience, why is the field soooooo spread out? A few tenths between the pros and then 5+ seconds/lap compared to the trash riders filling the bottom of the classes.
If you have a pro license, I’ll pay your entry fee. If you qualify, I’ll give you $1000.
6
3/12/2022 4:57pm
yes, its that difficult and NO i do not like supercrosss anymore. still watch it occasionally but im more of an outdoors purist kind of guy (im in my 30s btw)
2
UpTiTe
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3/12/2022 5:08pm
I've never seen any other racing series where the talent and speed differential through the field is so vast. It seems like there's only about 10-15...
I've never seen any other racing series where the talent and speed differential through the field is so vast. It seems like there's only about 10-15 actual pros between all three classes. I genuinely think I could show up at a west coast race and qualify for the night show having never ridden SX before.

Guys with more experience, why is the field soooooo spread out? A few tenths between the pros and then 5+ seconds/lap compared to the trash riders filling the bottom of the classes.
Those “trash riders” would show up to any local track, or big money race and smash the locals.
2
vetmxr
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NE US
3/12/2022 5:19pm Edited Date/Time 3/12/2022 5:25pm
It's been a minute since I've ridden on an amateur, toned down supercross track, but I do remember thinking to myself that in order to ride the track correctly I would need to somehow shut off the self preservation gene in my head and just go for it. You can not think about the obstacles.....you just have to hammer and go for it and hope to get some kind of flow going ....I cannot do that to myself so I decided to let the insanely talented guys make the money, and I'll watch them do what they do.....Go walk a track and you'll soon see that these men do not get paid enough to risk what they need to risk to succeed ......amazing.
Titan1
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Lehi, UT US
3/12/2022 5:27pm
Nairb#70 wrote:
But seriously, I knew someone who thought that if he bought a bike and practiced for 6 mo's.he could race SX. I told him that he...
But seriously, I knew someone who thought that if he bought a bike and practiced for 6 mo's.he could race SX. I told him that he might be ready to enter his first local race in the beginners class if he exhibited tremendous acclimation to MX after 6 mo's.
JBecker 72 wrote:
Sounds like one of my coworkers. He bought an R1 and thinks he has a shot at racing professional super bike. Hasn’t done a single track...
Sounds like one of my coworkers. He bought an R1 and thinks he has a shot at racing professional super bike. Hasn’t done a single track day, let alone a local club race. He’s just another squid that runs from cops on backroads.
I figure that’s most dudes that buy a liter class sport bike…

I was headed up a canyon last fall, and a guy on a white R1 pulled up next to me at the stop light before the canyon….He goes 0-100 on the four lane straight after the stop light, before it merges into a narrow two lane road…I figured he’d go rip the canyon, dragging a knee…

I wasn’t 5 turns into the canyon before I caught him…in my wife’s mini-van…he’d pin it on the straights, and then slow way way way down for every corner (slower than I was going in the mini-van). I laughed….
1
ShipLap
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Location
Moab, UT US
3/12/2022 6:18pm
yES.

It is.
TeamFlannel
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9/23/2018
Location
Ellsworth, IL US
3/12/2022 8:59pm
I've never seen any other racing series where the talent and speed differential through the field is so vast. It seems like there's only about 10-15...
I've never seen any other racing series where the talent and speed differential through the field is so vast. It seems like there's only about 10-15 actual pros between all three classes. I genuinely think I could show up at a west coast race and qualify for the night show having never ridden SX before.

Guys with more experience, why is the field soooooo spread out? A few tenths between the pros and then 5+ seconds/lap compared to the trash riders filling the bottom of the classes.

Falcon
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Menifee, CA US
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3/18/2022 8:41am
Back when I was "fast," i.e., SoCal Intermediate, riding with pros, jumping all the big triples, etc., I had the opportunity to ride on four supercross tracks. Here are my experiences:

1) Practice track at a local pro's house.
I was able to ride the track. I could not execute all the jumps until late in the afternoon, because the runup to them was so short, and the jump lips so vertical, that there just wasn't any way to generate speed.

2) Practice track #2 at another pro's house.
Also difficult to master, but this guy's doubles had more room. This was more of a "semi" SX track. I shorted one of the doubles so hard that my bars rotated in the triple clamps down into my lap.

3) 2003 San Diego Supercross, amateur day.
Even with half the jumps removed and the whoops mowed down, it was hard to jump the obstacles. There was a single-table-single combo that went into a 180 and back over the same group of obstacles. Nobody was doing it right. I felt like a goon and had to single it all day.

4) Castillo Ranch SX track.
I could not get going fast enough to jump even the doubles that I knew I could do, because the rhythm required to land in the place I needed in order to get enough speed to do so, was impossible for me. The whoops were so big and steep I could teeter-totter on the frame rails with both wheels off the ground. It was seriously like trying to ride over a big line of bike stands, all about 10' apart. I could barely even roll the track.


To answer the OP, yes, Supercross is seriously THAT difficult.
1
4/3/2022 8:48pm
Titan1 wrote:
I remember a local pro that would clean house every local race…125 and 250 class…dominate. Showed up at the SLC supercross…couldn’t even come close to qualifying…rode...
I remember a local pro that would clean house every local race…125 and 250 class…dominate.

Showed up at the SLC supercross…couldn’t even come close to qualifying…rode around the whoops almost every lap of practice…looked like a total amateur out there. I was shocked! The way he rode locally, I thought FOR SURE make the night show and likely make the main…I thought he was that good.

So I think the OP is drastically underestimating just how good those guys that are getting lapped in the main event actually are…and they are probably a lot closer in talent to Tomac, than you’d like to admit (despite the lap time difference).
Your pal probably didn’t have his suspension valved for sx whoops. Jimmy Gaddis a sx champion kawi flew him in for 15 rnds at Lake Geneva sx no it’s not a full blow sx track. But our local guy handled him and won races in Florida. The top pros r very impressive but everyone is beatable. Chad Johnson a AX racer was sitting at home in 3 ft of snow. Got a call went to Daytona and got 4th.
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