What Happened To Supermoto?

I was a kid at the time. 3rd or 4th grade or so. I thought it was cool because jeremy raced it. Over time he stopped and when i wanted motocross i watched it. When we watched road racing we watched the superbikes on tv. Never really thought the mix of the 2 was all that cool. Looking at it now, theres nowhere to do supermoto except 100% on the road. Or if you want to do a track day you need $200 for entry and a stupid expensive gear setup.

2018 AMA Supermoto National Championship Series Schedule
Round 1: April 14: Boise, Idaho: Expo Idaho (Season opener with motorcycle show)
Round 2: May 13: Tucson, Ariz.: Musselman Honda Circuit (4th Annual Military Appreciation Race)
Round 3: June 8: Austin, Texas: Travis County Expo Center (23rd Anniversary Republic of Texas Rally)
Round 4: June 9: Austin, Texas: Travis County Expo Center
Round 5: Aug. 3-5: Quebec, Canada: GP3R Trois-Rivières (3rd Annual GP3R w/ FIA World Rallycross)
Round 6: Sept. 8: Sturgis, S.D.: Downtown Sturgis (6th Annual Streets of Sturgis Supermoto)

The recession took the budget out of Supermoto.

But a big factor was when all the guys that were specialist in Supermoto started dominating and then the motocross/road racing stars that brought the initial exposure stopped attending the races. Lose your stars and a spectator sport will die off.

Its right up there with rollerblading........

It’s just died. It’s now called Supernomo!

KirkChandler wrote:

The recession took the budget out of Supermoto.

But a big factor was when all the guys that were specialist in Supermoto started dominating and then the motocross/road racing stars that brought the initial exposure stopped attending the races. Lose your stars and a spectator sport will die off.

I was involved in manufacturing AMA legal Supermoto tanks and muffler sliders and attending Supermoto races and when the economy tanked it died. Supermoto has been growing again for several years.

Lack of places to ride didn't help anything. I built one, had to make it street legal to ride it. Riding a supermoto within the constraints of the law is freaking boring. That leaves you doing track days on road courses which is ok, but retarded expensive when you come from moto. Plus they restrict you until you move into higher groups. I went once and had to run in the beginner group, I wasn't allowed to pass slow ass people on Ninja 250s. Waste of a day and $200.

For a little while we had a group that would get together and ride regularly. We had some good times with that group, but it died off after a couple of months of doing the same thing over and over and getting followed by cops. Needless to say, I didn't keep my bike very long.

I think Supermoto is clinging to life.

It's not as expensive as 10 years ago and it's as cheap as moto and waaaaaay cheaper than road racing. (No need for $200 track days when you can go to a kart track for less than $50.)

Husky is all-in on supermoto. Go to any kart track and you'll probably see a handful of mini-moto, supermoto, and small displacement bikes.

Track days are $30-50 and down here in SoCal a couple tracks have dirt sections.

Plus, for about $800 more than a new MX bike, you can have a brand new, purpose built track bike with high end wheels, slicks, slipper clutch, lowered suspension, and 320mm 4-Pot Brembos. Build that bike with a new MX bike and you're well over $15k.

I think part of the problem was the economy and another part was you actually had to build your bike. Now, you can put a deposit down at a Husky dealer and have one off the showroom floor that's ready to go.



I just sold mine this week and waiting for the 2019's to show up. Best part...you don't have to change air filter all summer. haha

If you're half-way decent at MX, you gotta try it. You might need better gloves and upper body armor but your existing MX gear works just fine.

Here's the bike I just sold.

Had so much fun on mine.

I always wanted one but never got into it due to lack of funds in college and no place to ride. Now I’m considering getting a ktm 690 enduro and getting a supermoto setup for it as well. This video always got me so pumped!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GDbWSkTwJdk

Lack of availability to try it probably stopped the growth. It was fun to watch, but died out quickly.

I was thinking the same when I saw Castillo in the CHiPs movie. Haha he must get fat residual checks from them shits. I should've been a stunt man.

Rotaholic wrote:

Its right up there with rollerblading........

so do I stick with the Lightning TRS's or do i splurge and go full Roces (spelling?)

Hey Zaugg, are you talking about Adams kart track? Do they have track days for bikes? I have a KTM Duke II that
is just a total blast to ride. I'd love to take it there sometime!

The Supermoto Pro Series had good run from 2003-2007, before it was killed in 2009 - but it was mismanaged from the beginning and it made it hard to grow being under the AMA Pro Racing umbrella at the time - some of the RedBull Sponsorship money was not injected into building the sport during its inception and too much burden was put on the early race promoters, some even lost money putting on a races. It was a fun time but marketing a sport called Supermoto was too vague gen motorcycle racing fans, it didn't say moto or motorcycle or racing. Should have been called SuperMotocross or SuperMotoX because it crossed over dirt/street

Then when AMA Pro Racing was broken up and sold, the Pro series was left holding the bag. Some tried to make it work and kept it going but then the economy too a crap and it was low on the pole and first to fall into the embers.

There was even a magazine dedicated to the sport that was published from the end of 2003 - 2009

Here is the late Marty Moates dragging the pegs on his 2-wheel drive Yamaha

Supermotard is still alive here in europe ... with France having the best series and riders , same as MX
my own brother races supermotard


There is a Supermoto of Nations and in 2014 the USA went there for the first time

RichardLoots wrote:

Supermotard is still alive here in europe ... with France having the best series and riders , same as MX
my own brother races supermotard


There is a Supermoto of Nations and in 2014 the USA went there for the first time

No one pays attention to Supermotard and your boys Marv and Dylan are getting mopped up every week by Eli and Ap. ?

NorCalRedRyder wrote:

No one pays attention to Supermotard and your boys Marv and Dylan are getting mopped up every week by Eli and Ap. ?

just keep scrolling as the rest of the world doesnt care about your opinion

MXON is creeping up peoples head here and some just go full loco as you just did dude ... grow up

RichardLoots wrote:

Supermotard is still alive here in europe ... with France having the best series and riders , same as MX
my own brother races supermotard


There is a Supermoto of Nations and in 2014 the USA went there for the first time

NorCalRedRyder wrote:

No one pays attention to Supermotard and your boys Marv and Dylan are getting mopped up every week by Eli and Ap. ?

RichardLoots wrote:

just keep scrolling as the rest of the world doesnt care about your opinion

MXON is creeping up peoples head here and some just go full loco as you just did dude ... grow up

Ok Richard

RichardLoots wrote:

Supermotard is still alive here in europe ... with France having the best series and riders , same as MX
my own brother races supermotard


There is a Supermoto of Nations and in 2014 the USA went there for the first time

NorCalRedRyder wrote:

No one pays attention to Supermotard and your boys Marv and Dylan are getting mopped up every week by Eli and Ap. ?

RichardLoots wrote:

just keep scrolling as the rest of the world doesnt care about your opinion

MXON is creeping up peoples head here and some just go full loco as you just did dude ... grow up

Don't start nothin', won't be nothin'.....

RichardLoots wrote:

Supermotard is still alive here in europe ... with France having the best series and riders , same as MX
my own brother races supermotard


There is a Supermoto of Nations and in 2014 the USA went there for the first time

I had no idea. That is pretty cool actually.

Never understood it myself, take two different disciplines and do neither as fast as possible

Jeff Ward and Micky Dymond will be racing on Alta's at the last round of the series at Sturgis.

The resurgence of dirt track stole some thunder from Super Moto post 2008. Honestly, dirt track is a better sport for America anyway.

Supermoto is alive and well. In fact Jeff Ward and Micky Dymond are racing the AMA Supermoto event at Sturgis this week. It has always been a very niche segment of motorcycle racing and comes into fashion here and there, but always remains. Motoheads just don't see it until moto guys start racing it.

A lot of people think it was a new thing in the 2000s, but there were supermoto races back in the late 70s and early 80s. They used to show them on ABC, which they don't even do now. Also, it has always been bigger in Europe where they call it Supermotard.

I know it wouldn’t be competitive, but damn I’ve always thought it would be fun to take my yz250 and do some supermoto racing! I’d get killed by everyone I’m sure due to lack of skill and probably the worst bike possible being a two stroke, but you can’t tell me it wouldn’t be more fun than should be legal.

In it's American heyday, you couldn't beat the badassness of AMA Supermoto. Big names from both the road racing and motocross world entered regularly and the events were held at some unique places like Xgames, The Queen Mary and Pala. Not to mention the stylization of everything was impeccable. I miss it.





Right now if Gage McAllister signs up, just hand him the trophy.

FWYT wrote:

Hey Zaugg, are you talking about Adams kart track? Do they have track days for bikes? I have a KTM Duke II that
is just a total blast to ride. I'd love to take it there sometime!

Adams and Apex are more often than not open to bikes.

Apex is off and on with opening up their dirt section. Adams typically will open up their dirt section if SoCal Supermoto is holding classes.

Either way, check their calendars. The only time either has not been open to open practice is when there's a race.

Both typically run karts and bikes the same day (just different sessions). In fact, there's usually enough people there where they'll split up karts into fast and slow groups and bikes into fast and slow groups.

That being said, it's never been crowded and the staff at both are super cool. Just hold your line. haha

One cool thing about Apex is you can run in both directions depending on the day.