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Watson, Peronnard and Matthes reflect a line-up that sees what is happening from the depths of the pits to the corporate board room where people write the big checks. It's a good listen!
The Shop
Mx race day was like $50 ish for 30 minutes of track time and I'd have to be there all day to get that 30 minutes.
A practice day was like $20 ish, I could get in a solid 2 to 3 hrs of track time and be out by 1 or 2 in the afternoon.
I raced grand prix's, show up 1/2 before you're race ride an hour and go home....that was fun!
Ya, bikes at 6 to 10k is crazy, you get maybe 3 to 4 seasons out of it before it's clapped out.
Then hope you can get a few grand out of it when you try to sell it.
Another issue is the loss of ride areas, hard for a family to dump thousands into bikes and equipment then have to drive 3 or 4 hours to ride.
The sport is definatly broken.
In reality though, imo a thread like this should be looked at from a much broader perspective. It's a culmination of frustrations we have with the sport, and we are the so called die-hards of the sport. We are on a message board interacting and are lots of people in here are 100% invested in the sport. If WE have all these frustrations, imagine what it must be for all the average riders/Racers that like motocross, but are nowhere near as committed to the sport as most of the guys on here.
I don't think there is one single factor that's decisive in the decline, probably a combination of all these factors and I'm sure there are a bunch I've left out:
-Cost
-Kids no longer being into bikes/bicycles/racing
-Tracks too difficult/jumps too big
-Too many classes
-Bitter competition between sponsors at the pro level -> Less pro teams -> Less incentive to pursue a career in moto
-General superiority complex of the moto crowd
-Not enough tracks/Too far away/ Too crowded
F1 doesn't really sell cars, but it works anyway somehow. Great tv deals and lot's of mainstream interests. The visitors at the races can't be all ex F1 drivers!
SX is probably aiming in this direction, and I think they should since it's not for the masses to pursuit because of the skills required and the dangers involved.
MX is one step behind SX in many ways. It's a harder to put on tv(big area, weather, long races, not as spectacular for a new audience perhaps?) On the other hand you can/could pursuit MX/Trailriding on many different levels from novice to pro, and this generates sales of bikes/parts.
The manufacturers of bikes and parts need to sell their products to consumers. To do this they support raceteams in SX/MX on national and international level. These teams then have to pay the promotors to be able to take part in races, and it seems the bill is so high so any raceteam needs outside money to go around.. The promotors then tries to get the show attractive for visitors and tv, with rather bad result and the number of riders is declining all the time on a grassroot level. The number of raceteams is also declining due to costs/competition for the same sponsors.
It seems the businessmodel isn't working at all. We are still not mainstream, raceteams are running out of business, and bike and parts sales isn't doing very well.
Things must change. We have made a big niche sport a small one, and besides promotors and energy drinks it's a loose/loose situation. I think it's stupid that we have competing motocross series. Bring the best riders in MX together and pay for a better tv-deal for the money saved. Bring back slower and cheaper and more quiet bikes for entry level, and tracks suited to these. Make the heroes of mx real stars, but at the same time make grassroot racing affordable and accessable.
In addition to this, i think one should really wonder if the sport needs bikes with more HP and more technology, or if the sport needs at least 1 senior class with less powerfull and lower cost bikes.
When i was younger it was pretty normal that you''d race well in your 20's in the 125cc class which was 30 hp-ish back then. Now you have 16 year olds on a bike with 44 hp, and let's face it 99% of the people riding a bike will not get close to using most of the potential of the bike anyway.
There's been an argument around here that the track owners are blaming the low turnout for races on "Open Practice" days. I disagree with that and feel it's a different subset of riders. If they stop having open practice days, I think even more guys will just quit altogether.
$100k per round for the winner 450, $50k for 250.
$1 million per 450 championship, with maybe some to the TEAM (thus providing a reasonable shot for ROI for a racing season).
In general, it seems to be dying out the way the electric guitar/music made with real instruments are. It takes a lot of time, expense and effort to be quite good at it. PLUS, it's just not "cool" anymore, at least not the way it was even when I was growing up in the 90s. There's no Eddie Van Halen/Travis Pastrana types for the kids of today to worship/copycat. If they get into those things at all, it's probably because of their parents.
Pit Row
My parents were the driving force in racing by taking me all over the country. Spending tons of money, etc.
I have had numerous injuries, as most who race motorcycles tend to have. Some more then others. Some injuries worse then others.
I'm not sure how my parents were able to continue to let us race. I think from a "nerves" perspective it drove them crazy seeing their kids get hurt.
But they still let me do it.
Fast forward 10-15 years later and I have my own family and there is pretty much no way I would be able to let them race a dirt bike.
I feel bad saying that because racing all over the country was a once in a life time experience.
At the end of the day, I'm just not sure it's worth it. Every time you line up at the gate, there are so many risks.
And yeah I totally understand you take risks going to the grocery store.
If I got my kids bikes I would do more trail riding, GNCC, etc. Don't think I could ever get them into SX/MX racing.
Perhaps things go in cycles. I missed out on the stick and ball sports. It's likely my kids will do more of those. Then when my kids have kids maybe they will do something other then stick and ball sports.
Here in OZ, I cant remember exactly, but my first bike was roughly 10 weeks wages back in 1978,
2017 again it is roughly 10 weeks wages.
But now the operating costs, racing fees and travel costs are probably four times in comparision to what they were back then.
Resale of the bike is half of what it was back then on a bike a year old.
The result of a crash on the track due to obsticle size appears to be much worse.
I remember people saying that water cooling was going to drive up costs too much.
As far as danger, some obviously have a mini track, a Vet track, a full moto track etc. but that is not always possible. Like people have said, it's a combination of factors.
The industry should hold a summit and air grievances for a top to bottom re-vamp. Hell, invite Luongo.
What technology do you speak of?
The wheels are still round
The brakes are still disc
They still have chains
The forks go up and down etc
Seems youve been brainwashed into believing the mantra of manufacturer brochures
Just because its a 4 stroke at double the displacement and a little black box controlling the fuel?
People can go just as fast on a freakin Maico at a local track
Tracks made for pros at the local level
Could user a spec class like adult CRF 100 class. (Make that STOCK ONLY)
People have the money, they just think racing MX is a poor value for what you pay and put into it.
Offload is booming because.........( put something in here. MANY reasons)
If your not flashy with the newest stuff, your not going to be accepted
Too long and sitting all day
People are spending LOTS of money in other sports for Jr to do
I could go on. Just listen to the MX Sports mantra why MX is dying. Cell phones and kids sitting around. Well those cell phones can be a good marketing tool.
They just are marketing a poor product at the moment. Hopefully they get some insight here and read the posts.
As far this post right here, I honestly think more people would do this, Guys that quit and new people and most could afford an older used 125 and an S10, Ranger etc, or a cheap trailer.
More would If all local races across the country had a 125
A expert/pro
B Intermediate
C Beginner/novice
Class, thar didn't allow 250f's
Keep those classes separate!
I've heard of a few local tracks that say they're have tried
But only brought one 125cc class for all if people could count on there being an ABC everywhere I honestly think it would help with growth over time
P.S yes I'm aware it's an old thread and we should just let all this old information stay dead for who ever is gonna say what's wrong with you?
For commenting on an old thread.
Seems like there are a lot of good talking points in this tread!
I Recently saw this Clean 05 CR125 listed for sale for $2150
I feel confident that if people had classes they were comfortable with to race bikes like this that this would help with growth of local racing.
Would a local 125 only!
ABC class bring you back to racing
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