Polarizing Riders

Bubba

Barcia

Jason Lawrence.

I never liked Hannah's mouth.  Fucker could ride a bike like a Viking swingin' an axe and I give him all the props for what he could do.  But, his shit talk was tiresome.  He says it was effective and I never heard him lie about anything so I believe him.   

Maybe it was because I was a Marty fan...idk.

Webb, Deegan, and Barcia are probably the three current most polarizing riders.

Omg...Hannah is legendary.  On the gate...in the pits...at the hotels...everywhere.  Hell...he probably didn't invent shit talk but he damn sure raised the bar.  There's guys here that heard it in person...maybe they'll chime in.

Mike Alessi

Some good ones in here. Bubba, J-Law, Alessi. Vince Friese? J/k

Reed. Or maybe I'm the only one that always hated him? 

JMB.  He had a tough road only because he was from France.  I'm a huge Guy Cooper fan and wanted to not like him, but he was so good.

Describe polarizing??? Deegan and his mostly fan base is under the age of 18. 

I remember as recently as 2019 & 2021 when Webb was spanking Roczen in Supercross and it seemed like a majority of the sport's fanbase just hated seeing Webb achieve any sort of success. Probably because Roczen had SO many superfans at the time, but people would grasp at straws to give reasons as to why Webb's winning was illegitimate. 

Good pick. I think he was a heel of sorts the beginning of his career. After getting on the Zook through the rest of his career he gained a lot of fans

I think it’s more of an athlete leaning into the “being cocky” territory. Webb is a good answer for this, he certainly has a “TV persona” that is put on for podium/press conference interviews but if he’s winning and still showing attitude, it will put off half of the viewers but will also makes the other half cheer for him ever harder. Especially when he’s beating one of the most popular riders in the sport. That’s the definition of polarizing. 
 

I’m a sucker for it, though, I cannot deny.  I’ll take the polarizing attitude over the sponsor list shoutout after ever moto. 

Dont know if theyre polarizing but I'd throw the Hill brothers, Josh Hansen and Axel Hodges in there. For some its wasted talent but I think they just did it their way.

Deegan's dad. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

RC....people hated his so called cockiness when he first arrived on the scene....if social media was around then it would have been exactly the same.

Stewart wasn't polarizing, but a lot of his fans were.

J Law, for sure.

You've changed your definitions half way through Oldstyle.  Someone could me the 'most' polarizing - as in the extreme views held by others about them - but not actually that popular (as in having a large fan base). 

In terms of polarizing in the correct sense, I think Deegan is the best example.  To be truly polarising you need a large amount of opinions about you from both sides - negative and positive.  It seems a lot of people really love Deegan, and conversely a lot don't.  In regards Webb, I know a lot don't like him, but does anyone really love him? In the same way people love - say - AP?  

I think Barcia is not so much popular/unpopular, he's more popular for being unpopular (from being a dirty bastard on the track). 

This is true Swap (just kidding I know you're 'not f**king Swap' - in either sense of that phrase).  People quickly forget how unpopular some riders once were and base their views on how they're viewed in the present day.  People seriously disliked RC, much of it because he dethroned MC.  Stew was also disliked a lot - but also loved by a lot - during his heyday. 

I like this thread...pretty cool discussion.

Can I add Herlings to the list?

RC is probably the winner as so many disliked him in the early days but just about everyone liked him in the end when he got older. Well, until he started commentating j/k