I Really Think Tracks Are Smoother Than They Used To Be

I know this may be somewhat controversial, even coming from a curmudgeon like me, but I really do think that motocross tracks, and supercross tracks for that matter, are smoother than they were in the heyday of our sport. I don’t know exactly why this has come about, but it seems to me that it has. Perhaps some of the trends in track preparation that were originally aimed at dust control have grown more and more extreme to the point where today the spirit of the sport has changed. We hear rumors that it may have something to do with making our sport more television friendly. That could explain some of what we saw in the last few years at the AMA Nationals. A neophyte television audience “gets” high speed and big jumps, but doesn’t understand grueling terrain and riders struggling just to make it up a hill or being jarred around by nasty bumps. This explanation does not completely cover what we see at your local track. Or, maybe it does. Perhaps indirectly, amateur riders want to ride similar tracks and perform similar feats (i.e. jumps) as their professional idols.

All of these things add up to arguably smoother tracks. The fact that tracks are smoother is well discussed and, I think, agreed upon and even admitted to by the movers and shakers of motocross. If you don’t have first hand experience of how things were 30 or more years ago, or if you are not willing to listen to old guys like me, there are some ways to find out for yourself. Check out some of the old pictures or videos on youtube of the old days. Look up the footage of the famed Hannah vs. O’Mara duel at the Unadilla U.S.G.P. The uphill before the “Screw-U” was gnarly in that race. I’ve walked up that hill at 2 different races in the early 80s. I never rode it because at the time Unadilla was open for just a couple of professional races each year. That uphill was an amazing section of chunked out, square edged, thigh deep holes and bumps with absolutely no pattern to the spacing. I’ve walked up it before practice when it was covered with waist high grasses and fantasized at how much I wanted to ride it. There was no way to get a rhythm on a section like that and the youtube video will make that obvious. A bulldozer created section, on the other hand, usually has a nice rhythm to it. At the bottom of that section, where there used to be a naturally rutted stretch because it was a low spot on the property, today there is a nicely sculpted tabletop. And, instead of the gnarly 2nd gear mess of a climb, you’ve got a 4th gear sweeping climb with nary a bump. I mean it. Compare any old videos or pictures you can find of Unadilla with the more recent stuff. Look at the video from the 2010 national. Riders climbed that hill wide open and the front or rear tire never left terra firma. What was once an unglamorous, often awkward climb for the world’s most talented riders on bikes with 13 inches of suspension travel is now a section just about anyone in a professional field of riders completes wide open in the highest gear they can find. Similarly, the addition of tons of jumps all over a track calls for much more smoothness. A 100 foot tabletop is 100 feet of perfectly groomed, smooth, and pristine track that could otherwise be bumpy, rocky, muddy and challenging. Don’t tell me that these tabletops are challenging anymore. Everyone in the “A” and even “B” classes jumps these things without even challenging their skills. I stand at the takeoff to these crowd thrilling jumps at local and national tracks and watch every rider shut off the throttle and coast the last 15 feet up the impeccably smooth clay jump face, scrubbing off speed and reaching for a tearoff (or pretending to). I call that a degradation in the roots of our sport. Maybe you don’t. There are no bumps or rocks in that 100 feet of air either. At some tracks the promoters just can’t leave a track alone. There are tabletops in almost any stretch of track that will tolerate one. Coming out of or entering nearly every turn there are jumps. Tabletop landings before turns take out the once important skill of late braking into corners which created huge braking bumps. Everyone takes the fixed speed tabletop the same and lands smoothly and brakes a little for the corner. Riders today call this “flow”. I’m amazed by that term when associated motocross. Flow was something that tracks tried to take away from riders. Tracks used to be largely natural terrain over ridges, through natural ditches, twisting hill climbs, low spots that were always muddy and never drained properly. High spots that were inaccessible to the friendly smoothing tool dragged behind a tractor. In the early 80s I once raced a qualifier in Southern Illinois where I walked around with the promoters the day before the race as they laid out some new sections. They marked off some terrain that had never been touched by knobbies. They ran it through a dry creek bed with softball sized rocks. Exposed tree roots and leaves from last fall lined the steep climbs and descents. There was one hill that was so steep that I asked the guy laying it out if any of the smaller displacement bikes like 100s or 125s could even make the climb. He said he wasn’t sure. Oh, it rained all that night before the race the next day. The next morning the whole track was no picnic, and the new sections were challenging enough to separate those that deserved to qualify from those that didn’t. These obstacles intentionally disrupted your flow. At the same time they provided opportunity for real creativity in line choice. Riders didn’t complain. That’s how we used to like our motocross and those challenges were embraced or even expected. Today’s tracks often don’t allow for much creativity other than seeking out the smoothest portion as the lines change throughout the day. Today’s obstacles--jumps—don’t encourage much creativity other than the choice to double, triple or whatever. I think tracks of old offered more opportunity for a rider to demonstrate real skills that clearly demonstrated the highly skilled from the lesser skilled. The other important thing about those kinds of challenges in early motocross is that they were SAFE. It wasn’t very likely that you would break your back even if it took you a couple of tries to get up a hill on your big bore Maico.

I place most of the blame for the changes in our tracks on the growing popularity of motocross among non-motocrossers, mainly via television and product advertising. Maybe some people today get into motocross for different reasons than us old-schoolers did. Originally, motocrossers were by definition, out of the mainstream of sports and indeed society. We were drawn to the sport because the sports others were drawn to didn’t do it for us. With the image of motocross today largely controlled by the mainstream media and mainstream product marketing, the appeal is just different. Back-flips, tattoos, partying and high fashion are the calling cards for what is called today’s “motocrosser”. To me, freestyle, the unfortunate face of our sport today, is not motocross at all. Sadly, it is not only what passes for motocross today, but what often defines it. It is likely that if you are drawn to buying a dirt bike because of the energy drink add with the flat-biller flipping his blacked-out bike in front of his bikini clad girlfriend, you are drawn to buying a dirt bike for different reasons that what drew Roger DeCoster. The actual experience you get once you through your leg over the seat and head out to a motocross track with your friends will not link up very well with the image of what you saw on TV. Yes, freestyle is difficult. Yes, it requires tremendous talent. Yes, it requires unflinching courage. Motocross requires those things as well, and much more. On another note, I have written elsewhere on the Olympic Games and things that are misclassified as sports. Look, anything that must be judged is not a sport to me. It is entertainment. It is often very difficult, very dangerous and requires tremendous physical talent. Those things don’t make it a sport. A sport, to me, is something where there is a definitive winner or loser-- first across the finish line, the one that went the farthest, fastest highest or scored the most points---stuff like that. Freestyle to me is no more a sport than figure skating.

For many decades you discovered motocross through your father or your big brother, by having a mini-bike, or riding a friend’s motorcycle. Maybe that hasn’t changed. The difference was that you often didn’t even know what motocross was until AFTER you rode some. It was a sport largely fueled by self-discovery. The sheer joy of riding hooked many of us. Anyone that spent any amount of time in the saddle at all quickly experienced the unique physical challenges motocross presented. A real rider rides in all weather—rain, snow, heat, you name it, we need to ride. I laugh at people that say things like “you shouldn’t go running today Frank, it is too hot outside, too dangerous”. See, most people avoid exercise in inclement weather of any kind. Those of you that are real racers know that hot days, or rainy days, or cold days, are the days that you MUST ride. You can’t choose the weather on race day. A real rider falls. As a result you have constant bumps and bruises at best and serious injury at worst. These are just realities of the sport. The toughness required quickly weeds out the weak of mind, body and heart. This toughness factor makes accomplishment all the more gratifying. The harder you work for something, the more you’ll value it.

I’m not so sure that many of today’s riders are drawn to the sport because of the physical challenge and dedication it takes to even be a good “C” rider. If you are drawn to a sport because of the “show” factor glamorized on television today, you’re likely looking for something different than those that discovered the sport through experience and sweat. I’ve seen it---you’ve seen it. On practice days at beautiful and demanding motocross tracks, riders spending all of their track time riding the same jump section over and over again for the thrill of jumping or showing someone in the pits how good they are at jumping. Sure, I like jumping and so do you. It is one of the things that we all enjoy about riding. But, when jumping is the only thing you like about motocross, you are not a motocrosser. Admittedly, I am not a freestyler and I don’t want to be confused with one.

One Step Up, Two Steps Back?

There have been some changes in the world of motocross that I think have had some positive effects but also have negative in other aspects. Track preparation is one of those changes? You are asking yourself, “is this guy crazy--of course, tracks are prepared better now than ever.” Well, not so fast. Again, I had the chance to ride motocross in 2 different eras, the 70s and the late 2000s. Back in the early days of motocross promoters tried to keep the dust down and usually turned up the soil a bit to smooth out the bumps from the last race. They even sometimes brought in some wood chips or soil to work into the track to make a section or 2 deeper and loamy. What makes my perspective crystal clear is that I rode in both eras almost “overnight”. See, I didn’t ride much in the latter part of the 80s, the 90s or the early 2000s. I think I saw a stark contrast that may be lost on riders that rode the same tracks week after week, month after month, year after year.


There is surely some good that has come about with the increased promoter interest in track preparation. I’m amazed at how quickly and simply they can put water down on a track these days. Red Bud, for example, like many other tracks, has water truck access roads running alongside the track where the water truck can easily cruise along and spray a nice coating of H2O to the entire track in a pretty short period of time without ever having to drive on the track itself. These access roads allow the water trucks to quickly hit the trouble spots no matter where they are on the track without having to navigate the entire track to get there. Other tracks have tremendously powerful pumping systems that get the water to hoses positioned around the track. It isn’t the garden hoses and sprinkler heads that we felt lucky to have in the 1970s. The obvious result is that at good tracks today there is much less dust than we saw in years past. Dust was always a reality in motocross and made the all important start, that much more important. It isn’t a thing of the past, but nearly so.

A related but, I think, less positive aspect of modern track preparation is the trend to “rip” the tracks really deep. Good tracks have always disked up the soil, but lately the trend is to rip them calf-deep and pour on the water. This method helps the track maintain the water and cuts down on dust---as I said, a good thing. What’s more is that motocrossers have always loved to tear into deep loam. A nice roost shoots up in the sky, the engines sound better as they reach for every last bit of horsepower and riders love the feel of blasting through fresh soil. What could possibly be bad about that? Well, in my opinion, a track that is ripped too deeply results in a track with fewer racing lines. These tracks develop a couple of lines in each turn and even down each straight. The problem is that if you get out of the line, you are harshly penalized by deep, wet soil that slows you down tremendously in comparison to the worn in lines. Picture the typical turn on today’s ripped national (or local) track. In a 20 foot wide corner there may be a good inside line and a good outside line, each of them with about 2 feet of racing surface. Fully 16 feet of track go unused. On a track that is not ripped so deep, many more options are presented to the rider. Often you can use ALL 20 feet of the corner. Start inside-stay inside, start inside-drift outside, start outside-cut across the middle to the inside. A track with more options allows for better racing. This is why first turns are usually prepped a little differently or prepped more often on race day. A proper first turn cannot have 1 inside line and one outside line. You’ve got to have room for 40 riders to fly around there elbow to elbow. Almost without fail, when I watch national coverage on television and hear the commentators talk about the track being “1 lined”, it is because most of the track is so over-prepped as to be almost unraceable or at least too penalizing to those that stray. When I’ve seen races where everyone feels the track offers multiple lines and good racing it is inevitably a track where the corners are open to many choices by riders. Ripping a track too deep and overwatering it while ripped may cut down on dust in the 2nd motos but it in essence makes the track ride as though it was a mud race for a part of the day. Riding in rutted corners and grooved straights is nice every once in a while, and great skills for riders to attain, but race after race of 2 lined corners and 15 ruts grooved down the straights is not really a great way for riders to let it all hang out. Oh, I almost forgot—the tracks are prepped like this everywhere except for the freeway like jump takeoffs and landings. Heaven for bid a track gets so rough that you can’t jump 100 feet every lap and show the drain plug on a tabletop between nearly every corner.

In the end, I think that modern promoters have used their heads to make their tracks very accessible to watering and they’ve done a great job of making them loamy and appealing to the part of each of us that loves to tear up virgin terrain. However, as is usually the case, too much of a good thing is usually not that good. Rip the tracks, keep the watered and give riders something to dig their new tires into, but don’t overdo it. Let the tracks develop racing lines from fence to fence and let the riders hang it out instead of slot car racing their way from jump to jump.

Some Real Progress

Just so you don’t get the impression that I don’t think any progress has been made in the sport of motocross over the last 40 years or so, I thought I’d talk about a few things that seem like improvements to me.

Every track I can think of today has a backward falling gate. That’s a pretty simple change that many racers of the last couple of decades would take for granted, but it really has made the all important start a fair contest. I was a really good starter back when I was younger. I was able to time the forward falling gates because even if you bumped them a little they were falling away from you and didn’t impede your progress much. I totally killed the starts when the old bungee cords were used. If you got a spot in the center where the bungee cords were tethered, you could leave much earlier than the competitors on the far inside and outside spots because the rubber band took comparatively longer to get out of their way. Today’s backward falling gate is designed to give everyone an equal chance at getting a good jump and at the same time offers a pretty steep penalty for those that pull the trigger too early. I can’t think of much improvement needed for starting gates. Still, too many tracks have first turns that don’t offer much of a chance for riders to holeshot unless they are in the handful of prime spots. That’s always been a problem that I think many tracks with ample real estate could perhaps do a better job at.

Transponders are pretty cool. Exact lap times and splits are a great way to gauge a rider’s performance on race day and are a great training tool. I’m not so crazy about using this exact timing capability to justify qualifying for AMA motocross nationals based on lap times in qualifying practice. I’d still rather see riders race their way into the lineup at a national. I guess there is good and bad about either method. Racing your way into a position in a qualifier can leave good riders out of the show if they get a bad start or have a small crash. Of course, that is part of racing and racing is what we value as racers. Track conditions on a motocross track change so much from the first practice of the day to the second, third and whatever, that it is really doesn’t seem quite fair to qualify riders based on lap times on a track where conditions can change so much in 45 minutes that a 5-6 second gap is possible. Let’s go back to racing our way into the big show at nationals. Still, transponders are cool.

I think there are many more women racers now. That’s got to be a positive thing when we can make our sport more accessible to any demographic with the desire to compete. I can remember many women racers back in the 70s when I first started. They had to compete against the men, which, for the most part, wasn’t fair. Of course, there were some women like Lisa Akin that were plenty fast and competed at the front of the pack in the “A” class at big amateur races.

I also like the fact that promoters make special tracks for pee wee riders. What a great way to get the very youngest riders on the smallest bikes out on a real motocross track and in a real race. This gives the little ones a track of their own, more suited to their machines and skills, to learn how to ride and compete. I do see some kids stay on the pee wee track too long after their skills have progressed to the point where they should be riding the big tracks. Get those kids on the real tracks when they show the ability to ride it. I’m not sure there’s much utility in keeping them on a beginner track for very long. I think my 3rd race ever was on the same track Roger Decoster rode at Red Bud.

I suppose protective gear has progressed too. I don’t know if the changes are revolutionary, but I would say that a rider is generally safer today than when I first started. Helmets are definitely better. From a seat of the pants perspective, the padding and fit are much better than the high end helmets of the 70s and 80s. I also think the nationals safety standards have gotten higher too, which is the kind of progress we need. Knee braces are a great improvement for today’s racer. I have 2 reconstructed knees from my early years of racing. My second career was really only possible because of the high quality knee braces available today and the stability they provided me. I’m pretty sure that I would have horrifically blown out my already blown out knee a few years ago when I went down in a fast sweeper. My upper leg turned purple (which I was quite proud of), which I think was because of the way the brace redistributed the load of the crash away from my vulnerable knee to my strong thigh and femur. I wouldn’t ride without knee braces and I wouldn’t recommend that anybody does. This brings me to neck braces. Without fully knowing the science behind them, I’m fairly confident that they would likely prevent some serious neck injuries. I know that this is a controversial subject, and that many well respected racers opt not to use them. Some of the comments I’ve heard are that they “are not convinced” that neck braces are beneficial. To me, that would be a bad idea to avoid wearing one. On the other hand, I’ve heard others say that they think the current generation of neck braces actually causes some types of neck or back injuries. Again, I’ve not seen the science either way. I don’t know if I trust many of the naysayers because I see many racers avoid wearing obviously beneficial protective gear for various reasons. I remember when people avoided full face helmets because they were said to cause collarbone breaks. Now full face helmets are required and I don’t think anyone would seriously consider racing motocross without one. I also see many riders and role models avoid wearing obviously effective gear like shoulder pads because they find them hot or uncomfortable in some way. To me a little discomfort is not a good reason to avoid solid protection. In any event, I think the movement toward trying to find effective neck and spine protection has come none too soon. We’ve started down the path of developing this important technology and it will only get better.

Change is inevitable. Let’s keep trying, keep considering and keep moving when the movement makes sense for motocrossers; average, every day motocrossers.

Wanna Be Like NASCAR...Really?

In this essay, my first in the “Do you really want motocross to be more like NASCAR” series, I will focus on something that many seem to feel will automatically have a positive impact on the sport of motocross. The overwhelming consensus on message boards, web-sites and in magazines is that we would all be much better off if only motocross would grow up and be like NASCAR. This thinking has a narrow minded focus. That focus is money. Though there are possibly many other things about NASCAR to aspire to (I don’t know what they are), let us not kid ourselves. The one stirring up the motocross masses in MONEY. Money is associated with TV coverage, huge crowds, spit and polish facilities, pits crammed with beautiful 18 wheelers and hot women. The other thing that money is associated with is, well, money.

I think we need to ask ourselves who really stands to benefit from a large cash influx. Have you ever not ridden your motorcycle because there aren’t any $1000 box seats at your local track? Have you ever bowed out of a moto because your track didn’t have $12 paper cups of beer and awesome chicken wings? Paved parking? If you are a racer, have you ever even refused to go WATCH a race because the facility lacked these things? I hope not. See, it is difficult to make a case for much positive that comes about for the average racer (99.9% of us are the average racer) due to the influx of big money. When you think about it, does the average racer benefit at all from the kind of growth that many hope for today and have for 20+ years?

Over the coming months I will write about some of the specific changes we’ve actually seen in motocross over the years. Some I think are good for the sport and others I think are bad. I hope to make you think about these changes and what they mean to you and the sport that makes you unique. I hope to make you think about a perspective that does not assume that higher cost = higher satisfaction. I think you will see that most of these “improvements” will fall under the category of trying to be more like NASCAR.

Not Better - Modern Jumps

It is common today on practice days and race mornings to see riders lined up on the side of the track to take a look at particular sections. This has always been the case. In days past we looked closely at muddy areas, steep up-hills, nasty down-hills and rough sections of track to find the best line to pick our way through the gnarl. Today those riders are observing obstacles with much more at stake. They are looking at obstacles with very severe circumstances if they are not navigated successfully. Enormous leaps with steep penalties for small miscalculations. “Should I, or shouldn’t I” is the question all riders must now ponder. Every rider from novice to national caliber professional must at times consider jumping a distance with which they are not comfortable. Of course, nobody must jump anything. But this is racing and riders race to win.

The sense of accomplishment you get if you try and succeed in clearing a huge jump is quite high. You have now pushed your limit and have found a new one. For most young riders this game of incremental risk continues each week, each season. Sometimes we don’t successfully clear the jumps. We can laugh with our friends about how we almost “ate it”. These small failures offer little deterrence for most competitors. Other times they are much more serious. My point is that all of us misjudge our abilities at times. If you misjudge a muddy section or nasty up-hill climb, the circumstances are usually more embarrassing than they are life threatening or career ending. Of course, finding a fast, clean line on an up-hill is a much more subtle success, less impressive to spectators. It will be evident in your lap-time by a few tenths of a second if anyone is looking closely enough to notice. It doesn’t always make for a cool picture on your Facebook page. It just doesn’t look that cool to the non-racer.

I'm grown a bit tired of pictures of motocross stars jumping.  Personally, I would much rather see pictures of a rider though a tough corner, a rough section of track or simply ON THE GAS and ON THE GROUND. Not only are the big jumps overly dangerous, to me they are quite boring. Watching everyone in the “A” class clear the same gap is not impressive. I’m so nonplussed when I look through motocross magazines and web-sites at endless images of riders in the air--body and bike contorted so as to “scrub” off enough speed and not miss the landing ramp on the downside of the jump. Nobody wants to flatland a 100 foot gap. Picture after picture, page after page of riders in the most boring part of a motocross track…the air. The air is where you can take a breather, pull a tear-off or adjust your clutch. The air over a motocross track is the most non-motocross part of a motocross track. No bumps, no ruts, no acceleration, no deceleration. How many pictures can I look at of a rider and a motorcycle in the most restful part of the race? Give me pictures (and tracks) of riders working their hardest, using the engine, using the suspension and using the brakes of these amazingly engineered motorcycles. I love to look at the terrain, the hillside, the muddy valley, the corner so chewed up all day that there have been four “best lines” since the first moto. Your girlfriend might not get it. Your friends on Facebook might not understand. But, you and the others in the small fraternity that have lined up 40 wide in the most demanding sport of all will understand.  We need to start asking ourselves if we are happy that motocross has turned into a “spectator sport” or if we can be satisfied, as we have been throughout the history of motocross, with knowing that we are part of a participation sport, where only those that have done it really understand what "it" is.  Do we ride for the people in the stands (which for 99.9% of us are very few) or do we ride for the physical and mental challenge that most spectators will never come close to understanding? I know what drew me to motocross and I think it was the same thing that attracted those guys to carve through the European hills on those heavy pieces of iron just after World War II.

Why Better Motocross?

I created this blog only a couple of days ago. I have lots of thoughts and feelings around the sport of motocross. I like to share my opinions when I feel strongly about something. Motocross is something that I’ve always loved. I think I have a somewhat unique perspective on the sport. In my total of 36 years in and around motocross I have had 2 very separate periods of intense involvement and long periods of various levels of observation without direct participation. As an 11 year old, with a few years of Tecumseh mini-bike riding under my helmet I tried spinning some laps around a motocross track. Finally, not yet 13 years old, I raced in a real race. I was on a spanking new YZ-80 as was damned near every other kid on that northern Indiana natural terrain track. My first race was a snowy/rainy March day. I rode the mini “A” class. I was eligible for the “B” class but I don’t think my dad knew that or maybe he just wanted me to face a stiffer challenge. I’m pretty sure I fell in the exact same mud hole each and every lap of both motos. I’m also pretty sure I finished last, but I did finish. I raced about a dozen times that first year on tracks all over the Midwest from Byron Illinois to Red Bud Michigan. My dad and I were hooked. The next year I hit about double that number of events. I was improving. Like most burgeoning motocross racers, I spent every waking moment riding or wishing I was riding. I rode nearly every day. I mean that. Nearly every day even in the midst of the long Chicago Winters and rainy springs. Soon I was in the 100cc A class and starting to show some skills. I started winning races. Eventually I was racing further from home routinely. Florida, Georgia, Ohio, all over the Midwest. Over the years I won my share of races in the 100, 125 and 250 A classes, sometimes against some pretty stiff competition. I was never a prodigy nor did I ever feel like I had a career in motocross, but I was a fast local guy. At age 18 I blew a knee out pretty good and knew it was time to start thinking about growing up. At the time ACL surgeries were pretty sketchy. I opted not to have surgery. I rehabbed my knee and headed for the Air Force. I spent the next 12 years in the Air Force forging a career and building a family. Not a lot of time and money were available for motocross but I kept up with the sport the best I could. When I think back, I recall that I never even bought a motocross shirt or hat in all that time. Motocross is more of a participant sport and I would have felt a little funny pretending that I was one. Eventually I got out of the Air Force and settled back down in the Midwest. I waited another 12 years or so and bought another new motocross bike.  Twenty-four years between motos.  Once again it was full bore ahead for me. I got a nice enclosed trailer and spent every weekend possible riding at some of the best tracks the area has to offer. I live about 50 minutes from Red Bud, 20 minutes from a new gem called Motoland and within 2 hours or so of many other tracks. I raced or rode at least once every weekend. Sometimes even 3 races in a single weekend. I was riding the 40+ class on a YZ125 against mostly 450s. Over the next few years I regained my comfort with riding I got smoked some and I won some. Eventually I had a bad and stupid fall where I kicked the bike into a false neutral over a pretty good sized jump with a gnarly, sandy, whooped out landing. The crash left me with a damaged liver and ultimately missing a kidney. I was 45 and smart enough to know that it was time to quit again.

So, my unique perspective is that I got 2 separate and distinct snapshots of the sport from the perspective of a very active participant. I saw with great clarity the things that had changed and the things that had stay the same. Over the course of this motocross rebirth I had witnessed an interesting behavior in myself which is very subtle but says something of human behavior. When I raced as a kid I had long hair. I would have to pull my hair back a bit, fling my head back and slide the helmet on to keep the hair out of my eyes and face. In my second career I was running a buzz cut down to about 1/8 inch. The first time I went to put on my racing helmet as a fully grown man my instinct was to push back my hair and tilt my head back. It was unconscious and without reflection. I noticed it right away and chucked a bit. For the rest of my second career I remained amazed at the subtle behaviors that had stayed with me despite 25 years of dormancy. I always thought that was pretty cool and very interesting. What I mostly learned was that while there was a huge continuity break in my partcipation as a motocross racer, there was at the same time a feeling of absolute continuity that allowed me to experience the evolution of motocross as if over night.

My two distinct experiences with participating in motocross allowed me to see the changes and the similarities with an almost eerie clarity. It was like I never left but was transported to the future. All of a sudden I was on a modern bike, on modern tracks and constantly buying parts on the internet. This clarity allowed me, or even forced me, to evaluate the state of the sport today as compared with how it was a quarter century ago. Like a motocross Rip Van Winkle.

This blog will be where I voice those observations. I think my approach will be to alternate my postings to comment on changes that I feel are better for the sport, not better for the sport, or undecided. I’ll touch everything from tracks, rules, equipment, media coverage, demographics and maybe a few more. To start with you can see my first two postings were somewhat critical views on modernity. “Supercross only” contracts and riders were unthinkable in the early days, so that got my attention. Of course, it is becoming apparent to most of us today that we have nearly a crisis of injuries and death in our inherently dangerous sport. This is disturbing to me and I’m happy to see some professional riders fed up enough to consider making changes. We need voices of reason in our sport, especially on a topic with such obvious importance as safety. So, tune in, read on, get pissed, agree, disagree, whatever, but think about what you love about racing motocross.

Can We Make Motocross Safer?

We all saw recently that Grant Langston and Chad Reed are starting a rider's representative group. I couldn't be happier. I don't know those guys nor do I pretend to speak for them to any degree, but we're all motivated by the same thing. We need to do something about the safety of our sport. We've taken the "extreme sport" status far enough. The tendency of humanity is to push all limits. Motocrossers are part of humanity. If a little is good then more is better and lots more is better yet. We've pushed our track designs over the years. Outdoor tracks have supercross obstacles (and worse) and supercross tracks are more brutally penalizing than ever.

As someone that has been involved in the sport since the mid 70s, I've seen many changes, good and bad. The modern motocross track is made for fans and sponsors outside of the mainstream of the sport. The average non-racer, energy drink consumer wouldn't get excited by watching the RedBud grass track race or races on any of the tracks that popped up all over the world for the first 35 years of this sport's history. By making the tracks more appealing to outside sponsorship, we've made them less appealing to the majority of actual riders. In the late 70s motocross bike sales were much higher than they are today. Tracks in the midwestern U.S., where I live, routinely had rider turnouts 2 or 3 times larger than typically seen today. The likely reasons are many (cost?), but certainly the severity of the tracks for the average rider has to be one culprit. The many riders that filled up the novice class gates historically are scared away from the sport because of the skill level it can require to make one safe lap. There really is no novice class like I remember it in the formative years of our sport. The class for real beginners is all but gone. Today's "C" class riders are clearing giant doubles and exhibiting skills far superior to the majority of the riders that filled the gates in past years. This is because many real entry level riders, and I mean adults, not 6 year olds, are afraid to even venture out on a track with intimidating jumps and a high possibility for great injury. This is bad for our sport. When you cut your supply of entry level riders you cut your possible supply of expert riders.

Perhaps more importantly is that parents are scared away. With the great television exposure of our "extreme" sport today, every parent of every 12 year old boy knows what motocross is, or thinks they do. When you tell a lay-person that you race motocross, the first thing they'll say is "that's the sport where you jump really high....that's crazy!" This alone scares away many responsible parents and their kids. Even when the tracks were primarily natural terrain the concept of letting your child race a dirt bike was prohibitively frightening for most parents. Think about all of your friends that are not (or were not) allowed to have a dirt bike. Do you think that the exposure of motocross on TV today as an extreme sport has helped or hurt the reputation of our sport as a safe pursuit for your child? Real motocross frustratingly shares its identity with freestyle jump contests where the single intent is to do something as dangerous as possible without crashing. Racers, on the other hand, are rewarded for riding the track as fast as they can while doing it as safely as possible. The reasons to compete or spectate in either can be quite different.

We need to do something with our sport to return the appeal to racers, not daredevils and outsiders. I would propose that we no longer allow jumps with landing ramps on motocross tracks. Go back to tracks where you can only jump as far as you are willing to flat-land or as far as the natural terrain will safely allow. The result will be the evaporation of the concept of a double/triple/quad. As a result, jump angles and heights will flatten dramatically, and the physical penalty of coming up short will go away as well. Sure, tabletops common on today's motocross track are a safer alternative than the high penalty true double jump, but still they encourage very high launch angles and jumps of great distances. Return to really rough tracks and longer motos that separate the talent and fitness that we all appreciate. Look at some old footage of Unadilla if you want to see a good example of a very rough track long before we cared so much about grooming motocross tracks. Such a change may sound drastic but it is not unprecedented in world class motorsports. One only needs to look at how the NHRA shortened the length of the drag strip from 1320 feet to 1000 feet for the fastest classes after they had seen enough tragedy. Many have said that it was a small step. There is no argument that it was a step.

I understand the reasons these ideas wil not be a popular for some. First, many of today's racers are comfortable with the excitement of big jumps. Modern riders themselves identify motocross with jumps as much or more than they do negotiating tricky natural terrain and the fitness required to endure 2 long motos. Jumping is the sport they have learned. Everyone likes jumping high in the air and doing a cool whip for your girlfriend. Still, given a chance, I think even younger riders would find that a return to natural terrain would provide them with a track on which they could attack each and every section as opposed to many of the "fixed speed" obstacles seen at today's tracks. On a natural terrain track you gain time on your opponents by leaving the gas on longer or finding a smoother line through the bumps rather than slightly more economically scrubbing speed over a fixed speed obstacle.

Another reason that will be offered against a return to traditional motocross tracks is that it could negatively impact outside sponsorship revenue. The average non-racer, energy drink consumer doesn't understand the grueling nature of the sport so we've fallen victim to making the action flashy for them. Watching guys riding around a really rough track with little air time doesn't interest the non-racer. The stylish nature and riskiness of big air launches is something that non-racers can be entertained by for 1 hour on TV. I agree that removing the stunt aspects could negatively impact our mass appeal and as a result, outside sponsorship. This is a chance that we'll have to take if we are interested in improving the safety of our riders. In the end, as mentioned above, improving the safety should actually draw in more riders and potentially offset some of the lost revenues or overcome them altogether in time. I know there are lots of industry people that live on the tremendous revenues brought into our sport from the outside. For that reason, bringing in non-motocross related sponsorship was a long-time goal in our sport. No doubt, that such a revenue loss would impact many good people in our sport. We see a taste of this today as our sport weathers the economic downturn. That said, for the common weekend racer, the sport is not much different whether or not it is on TV or there is a green logo spray painted on the track 12 times a year for our professional riders. No matter the amount of outside revenue there will be manufacturers, niche aftermarket providers and tracks to ride. There was literally zero outside sponsorship for many years. Motocross bike sales were very high and the core racers and fans thrived.

In fact, my point is that if we continue to turn this into an exclusive sport for only the most talented and high risk takers we in fact jeopardize the future of the sport in its entirety.

Supercross Only?

I'm an old-timer I suppose. I started riding on motocross tracks in 1974, racing motocross in 1976 and ended my racing career in 2007 after hard crash left me with only 1 kidney. The sport of motocross was pretty young when I first got involved. Over the years I’ve gotten to witness a great deal of growth. Factory box vans were the hot setup in the early days, available only to a precious few. Now we have privateers riding out of beautiful semi tractor-trailer rigs. The great Bob Hannah seems to get credit for ushering in the era of high salaries. There came a point when the top riders motocrossers could make a respectable living, certainly not comparable to some of the other professional sports, but respectable.

By the late 1970’s supercross was already wildly popular. Big turnouts were common across the country. To us Mid-Westerners, supercross was sort of a compromise--you know, something you rode or watched when the weather sucked so bad you couldn't get out to a real motocross track. Even the factories and the riders themselves seemed to concentrate more on building bikes for the outdoors and honing their outdoor riding skills. Still, the sport was called motocross and it seemed more like there was a form of motocross called supercross. Everyone that rode supercross was really a motocrosser.

Something changed somewhere. I even saw on one of the popular season wrap-up DVD’s a couple of years ago where a young professional rider said that he was really a supercross specialist and needed more time on motocross tracks. Huh? Some riders even choose to race supercross exclusively, or at least concentrate on supercross. Chad Reed was one of the most notable to me since he was among the best in the sport when he chose not to compete outdoors. He sat out an entire motocross racing season. Think about that. Think about how much you love racing. Think about how hard it is to work or go to school all week, and what a great feeling it is on Friday afternoon to begin to focus all of your thoughts and efforts on heading to the racetrack. Reed admitted in a post race interview that he really could have ridden the outdoors in 2008, but chose not to. Does that mean he was being dishonest when he originally said that he didn’t have an outdoor ride? Well, I don’t think so. He obviously wasn’t able to negotiate something to his liking. His expectations were likely pretty high, in fact, it turns out that they were prohibitively high. Whatever the offers were on the table, they obviously didn’t meet his needs for fielding a whole program. So, Chad went supercross only. I gotta tell you, I hated it. We forget that racing a motorcycle is not the same as sending a rocket to the moon. Chad would win outdoor nationals if someone took his bike in the back of a box van and he flew in on Saturday to meet them at the track. Certainly he would have to work hard all week riding, training and wearing out motorcycles. In the end though, all you need is to show up at the track with your body in shape to ride a couple of 35 minute motos. Plain and simple.

Of course James Stewart made the same choice in 2009. This only compounded the frustration for me that Chad tapped into. James too made what I’m sure he would refer to as a “business decision”. If you think someone wouldn’t have paid the absolute best rider in the world a ton of money to go out, and with a very high probability, win a motocross national championship, you are delusional. Hell, for a return on my investment I would have gotten him a couple of good bikes and sent him out there to win for me. A business decision. James didn’t need to though. Why would a guy put his body and mind through all that torture for a long summer outdoor series when he can make a lavish living racing shorter motos at slower speeds for a 3 or 4 months each winter? Supercross does provide the sport with lots of exposure to the less die-hard fans. A business decision.

In addition to not being able to understand why someone would choose not to go out kick everyone’s ass all summer on the world’s best motorcross tracks, other things bother me about this business decision. Even if motocross is seen these days as only half of the game, with supercross being the other half, why would it be acceptable for a guy to voluntarily participate only in one half. Would the Indianapolis Colts allow Peyton Manning to sign a contract that was half-season only? Not likely (yet?). How about Tiger Woods sitting out golf’s major championships because they are so much more grueling than the other tournaments? Probably not.

Let’s look at this from a personal and ethical perspective? Is there no dedication to the sport that gave these guys their lavish lives? The current economic climate has our sport reeling. Good people and good companies are losing their pants trying to stay afloat in what amounts to a leisure industry. Do you think that having your star players voluntarily bow out of competition helps the situation in any way? Of course not. We are still a very small sport. We are also a sport where skill consistently equals results. The best riders win every week. It is very unusual for the best rider in the world to finish 15th one weekend (unless he crashes or has mechanical troubles). We’re not like tennis or baseball. In tennis the number 1 seed can go out in the early rounds. In baseball the best team in the league can lose to the worst team in the league and nobody bats an eye. What I’m saying is that when our stars are not on the track it is painfully obvious. I was at RedBud this year. A great day of racing. I still couldn’t help but close my eyes and envision Stewart 45 seconds out in front of everyone displaying awe inspiring skills. It was a great day and a great summer, but in some ways cheapened somewhat by his absence. All at a time when the sport is struggling like I have never seen it struggle before. I hope for all of us that the realities of the current economy soon pass. At the same time, I also hope that our sport’s elite athletes will realize the shaky ground upon which our sport stands. If we are going to keep motocross growing, even under the best of economic circumstances, we need everyone on the starting line.