So, you want to "grow the sport" or return Moto to it's former glory?

Give the gift of motorcycling this holiday season OR complain on the internet bah humbug

early wrote:

Give the gift of motorcycling this holiday season OR complain on the internet bah humbug

Classic

Someone gets it!

It's true, if someone you know shows interest, and if the opportunity is available, take them riding. Look, it doesn't matter if they ride or not. If you can show, let's say, whomever that shows interest, what a day of going riding is like and to see if it furthers their interest is all you need to do. Some will want to pursue it more while others may not. If you do have the opportunity to, or at the least, show someone what it is about, by all means, do it and go from there. If you have done this already well, God bless ya!!! You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink.......or something along those lines.

And if you won't take a friend riding...at least take your kids.

I ride because my dad rode...my brothers (all 5 of us) ride because our dad rode. My sons ride (and both my girls want to ride) because I ride...my nephews all ride because their dads ride.

Great post.

A friend of mine always rode streetbikes. He wanted to try one of my dirtbikes. He rode it down the street and back. Fast forward about 6 months him and his friend went and got a quad to ride in the trails.

Not exactly MX, but it does work to get more guys riding offroad.

Supercross (and especially motocross) is one of those things that is hard to appreciate and really get into if you've never tried it. I completely agree. I would add one thing - host a viewing party.

I did this a couple of years ago and it was awesome. Two guys from my neighborhood ended up buying bikes within the year to go riding with me in the woods behind our house.

I’ve gotten two people to buy bikes. One was a room mate with prior riding experience. The second was a friend who didn’t even have a truck or a place to store the bike at the time. Four or five years later and both are still riding.

Ive gotten a few Friends into riding over the years , 1 on 80's when i was a teenager and 2 on 125's
And and i dont know if it was just because of the 2 stroke or not , but when watching them ride ,all 3 of them i would just cringe when i whatched them try to jump , it would either be air wheelie or endo every time. And none of them stuck with it. I definitely think it helps to start young.
And maybe partly just a personality type because me personally,i was jumping on bicycles before ever trying to jump a motorcycle and judging by these guys and most newbs it seems like they didnt.

This is exactly how I got into riding. Neighbor took me to Gorman and I rode a xr 100 all day and I fell in love with the sport. Went and bought a bike a couple weeks later. Although I have to admit, I’ve taken a few people out that I wish I hadn’t.??......wish someone would have taken me out sooner.

My riding buddies and I tried this summer. Kid said he wanted to ride and possibly race after a bit. One of us loaned him the extra money, one did leg work to find a good bike and I drove a 6 hour round trip.

Found a nice 08 CRF 250 brought it back cleaned it up. Took it to our mechanic for a check up. Kid rode for an hour. Wouldn't listen to any advice. Bike sat in the garage for month and half until he payed my friend, for the bike only not the mechanic because he said, "he didn't ask us to take it over". Told us it was too boring doing laps. Kid and his father ( born loser) took the bike then told us a week later that the mechanic we've known and used for decades must have done something to the bike because it won't run.

Some kids you just can't reach. Hopefully others will have better luck.

Half the reason I have a pitbike is for the noobs I know to ride when they come over.

Got 3 new riders in the last few months from work

Only problem is Florida sucks for play riding. If your not into mx or harescrambles sand gets boring.

Not like victorville back in the day!

There are not shortage of riders here, just a shortage of racers

philG wrote:

There are not shortage of riders here, just a shortage of racers

Same here.

The sport increased in cost, while the target demographic decreased in buying power.

In motocross years, Boomers are very old, Generation X is old, and Generation Y is over the hill. Generation Z will likely no longer participate when Mommy and Daddy are no longer footing the bill. Increasing in age typically means other responsibilities, less time, and less willingness to take physical risks.

Sprawl has reduced riding opportunities, making the sport less accessible.

I wish you luck in fixing all of these to the point where we will have a net gain in participation. I suspect we have less and less participants by the year. The times, they are a changin'. Given the new economic landscape and generational turnover, local motocross may be on the way out.

I enjoyed the sport very much, but accept being priced out of it. I'm content to ride my mountain bike and be happy with my memories.

philG wrote:

There are not shortage of riders here, just a shortage of racers

kb228 wrote:

Same here.

And what are the tracks doing about that? Most refuse to change or adapt.

Most don't even have a real dedicated peewee track. Parents are not going to spend $4,000 on a 50cc bike to put a 6yr old on the big bike track to practice with 450's. Have peewee/mini only race events if nothing else.

Most tracks are still running 35 classes (with 6 riders on the line), etc. Drop this already. It's not 1990 anymore.

Cater to the classes with the largest turns outs. Have Vet +40/50 only race days.

The answers are very obvious to the racer turn out problem. Until the tracks realize times have changed more and more people will just ride.

Bry145 wrote:

The sport increased in cost, while the target demographic decreased in buying power.

In motocross years, Boomers are very old, Generation X is old, and Generation Y is over the hill. Generation Z will likely no longer participate when Mommy and Daddy are no longer footing the bill. Increasing in age typically means other responsibilities, less time, and less willingness to take physical risks.

Sprawl has reduced riding opportunities, making the sport less accessible.

I wish you luck in fixing all of these to the point where we will have a net gain in participation. I suspect we have less and less participants by the year. The times, they are a changin'. Given the new economic landscape and generational turnover, local motocross may be on the way out.

I enjoyed the sport very much, but accept being priced out of it. I'm content to ride my mountain bike and be happy with my memories.

This ^ . I had no idea when I was stationed in NJ how anemic our sport was until I PCS'd to Arizona. Jersey though lacking places to ride had a healthy amount of participants just due to being a densly populated area with the means to afford it, the usual was 50-200 riders every weekend for practice. Coming to AZ, I was baffled and continue to be when I show up Saturday at the track and it's only me or a handful of other people. Talking to local dealers and the track manager who runs it for the county, who is also a dealer, people just can't afford it or are buying side by sides for their powersports fix. I totally agree, I spend entirely too much money with this hobby, most that don't ride would scratch their heads as to why. Factor in injuries on top of that. And as less ride and tracks begin to close (we all see it every week here about some track on its last breath) I see our sport heading the way of the dodo unfortunately.

philG wrote:

There are not shortage of riders here, just a shortage of racers

kb228 wrote:

Same here.

Frank wrote:

And what are the tracks doing about that? Most refuse to change or adapt.

Most don't even have a real dedicated peewee track. Parents are not going to spend $4,000 on a 50cc bike to put a 6yr old on the big bike track to practice with 450's. Have peewee/mini only race events if nothing else.

Most tracks are still running 35 classes (with 6 riders on the line), etc. Drop this already. It's not 1990 anymore.

Cater to the classes with the largest turns outs. Have Vet +40/50 only race days.

The answers are very obvious to the racer turn out problem. Until the tracks realize times have changed more and more people will just ride.

I have to say , that the amount of classes in the US is just nuts.

I will say this is how I got into the sport. Raised by a single mom, so didn't have the Dad to take me riding / wrenching. When I got to my first duty station I bought a street bike (always wanted to ride a motorcycle), my first supervisor also rode both street and dirt and invited me to go ride dirt with him, a week and $1000 later I had a 01 CR125 in the garage a month after that traded my car in for a Tacoma, and the rest is history. I will forever be in debt to that dude, moto is just who I am now, even if I suck at it lol.

I truly believe the problem is cultural not financial.

Kenny Lingus wrote:

I truly believe the problem is cultural not financial.

You are not wrong. It's not cool to take risks and get hurt. In fact your a fucking idiot to do so in today's culture. Far cooler to put it all on the line in a round of battle royal in a video game or post pictures of your insignificant life online.

Did that yesterday

Kenny Lingus wrote:

I truly believe the problem is cultural not financial.

That too. Alot of my generation (millenials) just aren't into wrenching / fixing /building things/ riding dirt bikes or taking risks. As someone else pointed out they are all about yelp reviewing craft beers and reposting memes on social media...

I'm newer into MX and it's a struggle to get any of my friends to the track. However, they'll go riding in singletrack no questions asked. I think most new offroad riders just associate the MX track with getting hurt or being to dangerous for a newer rider. I had no problem taking a crf100 I used for road racing out there on the pewee track when I got started. However, most people wouldn't want to do that

TeamGreen wrote:

Then...TAKE SOMEONE RIDING!

Yup, a total noob that's told ya,"Man, I'd really like to try that!"

Well, go "get them on a bike" & take'em riding! Take a kid riding. Take a friend riding.

Show someone TOTALLY NEW...take'em riding. I'm gonna take my daughter's BFF's dad out to the track and teach him the basics. At the track...probabaly Pala on a Monday...on something REALLY easy to ride and I'll probably Rekluse it, too. I'm gonna show a total noob how insanely fun our sport is.

I'm gonna share Moto with a total noob.

I done reading and listening to all the whining and bitching. It's time to go old school like the Nike ad's from back in the day...and...

Just Do It.

totally agreed!!!!

Broughton859 wrote:

I'm newer into MX and it's a struggle to get any of my friends to the track. However, they'll go riding in singletrack no questions asked. I think most new offroad riders just associate the MX track with getting hurt or being to dangerous for a newer rider. I had no problem taking a crf100 I used for road racing out there on the pewee track when I got started. However, most people wouldn't want to do that

Singletrack one can ride for hours. The trail is the challenge, not someone landing on another rider. MX you sit around most of the day. No need for new clutches and tires trail riding, have not changed a clutch in a few decades. But noise is the biggest problem in the way of getting the sport back to where is was. Alta had the right idea, the AMA rules to favor 4 strokes turned out to be a bad idea. Lots of tracks closed due to noise and insurance. Clubs owning tracks will be the future IMO. Much quieter exhausts should be standard from the factory. The after market companies should also push for a much lower db level.
The cost to race is not cheap but many people today will not give up their 100$ a month cell phone and their 125$ a month cable. Drop those and brown bag a lunch will support a dirt bike habit.

I love the conversation in here

Our church has an Adventure Sports division (not affiliated with RUTS) that started with a dirt bikes group 20 years ago that makes available bunny slope to black diamond riding experiences. The group was and is a conduit to introducing new folks including intro riding schools at different times as appropriate sites are available, some by the group alone and early on staffing volunteers to the PALs program in California. There’s two large all family invited big trips to the northern Nevada desert a couple times a year that draw a couple people, at least half or more families. All of my kids had formative life and riding experiences, including a 50 mile loop my then little pup year ran on an xr50. Smaller trips in the rest of the year, taking advantage of NorCal’s really pretty rich riding opportunities. Be more than happy to connect anyone to the guy who cooked this up; his vision is to help other folks start these groups. Some pics from over the years.





My boys much younger (pw rider now taller than his older brother)






All of my kid learned to ride clutch bikes on this 87 XR100 I bought for $400 bucks. We don’t need cheaper bikes; we have those options. We need land convenient enough for parents or groups like above who can bring people along. This is the gateway to involvement; people who learn to ride discover racing, and support it even if they never themselves race.



You can see my daughter’s smile in her eyes. Dirt biking is great for kids.

philG wrote:

There are not shortage of riders here, just a shortage of racers

kb228 wrote:

Same here.

Frank wrote:

And what are the tracks doing about that? Most refuse to change or adapt.

Most don't even have a real dedicated peewee track. Parents are not going to spend $4,000 on a 50cc bike to put a 6yr old on the big bike track to practice with 450's. Have peewee/mini only race events if nothing else.

Most tracks are still running 35 classes (with 6 riders on the line), etc. Drop this already. It's not 1990 anymore.

Cater to the classes with the largest turns outs. Have Vet +40/50 only race days.

The answers are very obvious to the racer turn out problem. Until the tracks realize times have changed more and more people will just ride.

For $4000 you can have a nice big bike and full gear.

For $2000 you can have your kid on a new bike.

Tired of you people thinking bikes have to be brand new. I can go on facebook right now and find 20 yz250s and 125s for $1500.

I rode my entire life on $1500 bikes and had a blast. My nice ones i have today are just luxuries