MotoAmerica Climate

I suppose you're right about boomers raising millenials (after looking it up, it seems I was a bit off on the years for boomers/gen x). That said, I still stand by my own observations, that boomers will outwork millenials and gen x, in general. While I greatly value the opinion of guys like Jocko on certain subjects, you're also talking about the extreme end of the spectrum. There will always be a select few on each end of every generation that are either insanely strong, capable human beings as well as horrifically lazy, useless ones. What I'm referring to is which direction the majority of the ones in the middle lean towards.

I think that little line I threw out earlier about good times, bad times, soft/strong men is applicable on a sliding scale. The boomers grandparents and parents survived some rough shit. Two world wars and the depression. The strength that those events commanded from them was passed on to boomers - to a degree. But the boomers never experienced those kinds of tribulations themselves so they never got the full effect. With gen x, this became even more so. They had some of the good traits of their parents but it was getting progressively less. So on and so forth all the way to the current generation. And each generation will continue to get weaker until another catastrophe.

I agree to an extent that every generation has a tainted view of following generations due to gaps in maturity. But I do think, like the economy, generational traits have ebbs and flows. Most millenials and gen z that I've ever known spend more time crying about how life is so unfair and the greed of others is holding them down, blah blah blah, while doing nothing to further their own lives. So they just spend years running in place, accomplishing little and bitching about it the whole time. And until they're forced to work 90 hours a week or scrounge for food to keep from starving to death or work their ass off out of fear that the japs or nazis will take over their homeland, they'll never learn just how good they have it and much opportunity lies in front of them.

I've mentioned this in threads before, but I've gotten to where I am just through hard work, determination, and good decision making. I started at the bottom as a temp on an automotive plant floor at 22 years old with no degree. Now I'm a 30 year old industrial engineer with no student loan debt. Quite the rarity these days. I got here by taking advantage of the opportunities laid in front of me. And the sad part is, it was kind of easy. Sure, it was hard work. But I've had very little competition. All I had to do was put in the work. There was rarely ever someone else competing for the promotions I got because I was the only one putting in the work to expand my education and skill set. Sure other people applied for those jobs but they weren't even close to qualified. I specifically remember bombing one interview (my boss later confirmed this so it wasn't just in my head) and still getting the promotion over 29 other applicants, roughly half of whom had been there longer than I had - quite a bit longer in some cases. Because my resume was that much more padded than theirs. Some of those people had been there over 20 years and I, with only 5 years under my belt, starting from the bottom as a temp, got a salaried entry level engineering job on my first try over 29 other applicants, with experience ranging from 2-20 years, even after delivering the worst interview of my life. Let that sink in.

 

Still the problem is racing will not grow if it's up to moms and dads to carry the financial burden unless they are extremely wealthy.

 

I think this is a big point that gets skipped over. Only reason I ride now and can hit the track is because me and my wife make enough money to barely be considered in the middle class. And it still takes planning and saving for me to participate. I dont smoke, rarely drink, dont gamble, yadda yadda, so it gives me more money available for this hobby.

I'm 34. Always loved motorcycles and dirt bikes. Watched everything bike related I could as a kid. Jeremy McGrath was my f'n hero as a kid. But my family was too poor to even consider riding one realistic. Couldn't even afford bikes. As a kid my bikes were hodge podges of pieces of abandoned bikes that a neighbor with tools taught me how to work on.

I watched all the X-games stuff too (half-pike, flatland tricks, everthing). Built ramps from scrap and jumped stuff all day on my home built bike. Jacked myself up royally as a kid, recover from injuries, get right back to it. Me and lots of friends. We would've perfect to funnel into the racing and Motorsports pipeline, but we were all too poor.

I think there are a lot of kids today that fall into the same category, but they'll never have the $$ to pursue or develop those interests. Let's face it, it ain't cheap.

 

I could’ve been mortgage free at 34 but instead I raced motorcycles for a few years.

When I tell people it costs me $2500-$4000 for a race weekend they look for the closest seat before they fall over. Not many people can afford to basically light bills on fire and unless you’re pulling in a bunch of sponsorship money (lol) or you HAVE money, you’re racing “career” is over before it starts.

 

This whole conversation is bogus, why haven’t we shifted focus to just the Twins Class? Where are all my Twins homies?

 

That’s awesome

 

Love it!!

 

It shouldn’t be a big thing to change brands. Again I will use Mesa. Pirelli guy racing on Dunlop’s. He was fast all year. Going back and forth between tires.

 

You could be a team winning crew chief with lots of AMA/MA experience, but I will share our limited experience.

I agree a racer with a lot of experience would make it much easier to swap back and forth. I can tell you when dealing with a 16 yr old boy with limited big bike experience, it isn't as easy.

Tyler finished the points championship in 5th place his first year in AMA 600SS and we didnt get any points at Daytona because he was still 15 and couldn't run that round.

It was everything we could do to find a setup for each round. Other than Miller, each track was new and we had to learn on the fly. It was two practices, then qualifier one late afternoon Friday, Qual 2 Saturday morning and then race Saturday. Sunday warm-up and then Sunday race.

When he started riding his 600, we used Bridegstone because we had over 2k in contingency from his SV650 and RS125.

Then he joined a team in Jan 2012 that ran Pirelli. We ran those until March. In Wera Vegas he beat Dustin Dominguez one race and that guy had won multiple AMA races so we were excited. In reality at that time I think the Pirellis were faster than the Dunlops Dustin was running, but we didn't know that yet.

We decided to run AMA and became teammates with Bryce Prince that year. Sonoma is the first round he was old enough, so I started buying Dunlops for him to club run and practice with.

He qualified poorly at Sonoma but came up around 10 positions and finished .001 behind Elena Meyers on a track he had never raced. However, we did do one track day the month before trying to learn that track. We were super excited because Elena had actually won an AMA 600 race there before.

At Miller in his 3rd AMA race he and Stephano Mesa battled back and forth many times with Stephano beating him. I think they finished 5th and 6th.

We saw many racers that ran other brands try and switch just for AMA/MA rounds and have trouble.

So, in conclusion.....sorry about the book, but I wanted to show we had multi tire brand experience and the kid was a decent racer. There is no way we could have also figured out which brand and compound was good at each round. We would have just picked one and taken our lumps at whichever rounds that brand wasn't good.

That brand disparity will make the races more strung out and having to try different brands will cost racers more time and money. I like spec tires and if you've been around awhile, John Ulrich's teams never won AMA/MA championships until spec tires, because they couldn't buy the good stuff.

 

It's not about switching brands each round It's about being able to run what works for you. If other brands were allowed its possible to save money

 

Disagree, it's a huge deal. Before everybody went to spec tires, more than one racers career has veered off course due to a tire manufacturer change they couldn't adapt to.

 

I know you have many more years at top level experience than me, so help me understand.

I think we spent around $1200-1600 per round on tires. In reality with all travel costs, hotel, food, airfare, engine rebuilds, bike amortized for the season, I bet each round is 6-12k.

Other than rider, and now electronics, tires are probably the biggest potential performance differentiator. If I'm getting free tires from someone else, but they make me less competitive, I'm working way to hard and spending too much money to not have the best chance at a win.

 

If you haven't, this is a good read.

 

what kind of change... like the feel or feedback or lack of??

 

I disagree. If you are going to race and try to be at the front of the pack you have to be able to "feel" the bike and setup first, then the tires. And riders that can do that are more valuable to any team.

 

Here's a few guys that have jumped around on different brands
Cory West
Jeff May
Kyle Wyman
Barney
Ben Spies
Stefano Mesa
Taylor Knapp
Just to name a few

 

I guess just a general lack of feel that they were used to.

 

Yeah, no shit Sherlock. But reality is there are definitely world class riders that have their preferences.

This was common knowledge 20 years ago but apparently it's fresh news to the beeb now.

 

And yet in 2019 I still see riders bouncing off the front bump stop

 

Rob ,

how much less competitive would you be if you were on any of the top tire brands ? If you get your setup correct and the rider is dialed he is not going to due poorly on whatever brand. Back in the day it wasn't the "special tires ' everyone complained about that made guys fast. It was the top teams could dial in their stuff. I can remember when the Dunlops weren't the only special tire in the paddock , they all had them. Even when people said give me the same tire as so and so. they didn't do better.