road racing's population problem

Ad the quality of safety at an MX event? A few years back I raced MX here in Georgia and loved how you could come to a double where the landing was totally blind and have the flag dude looking elsewhere with his head totally up his ass. Safety was like a big 'so what'. No thanks. Glad my son lost interest. And read the GA MX forum: it's like no one can speak above a 3rd grade education. AND you would not believe the number of race dads that home school their 'future' champs. Being that the dad can't put a full sentence together it's almost child abuse.
Long story short? Don't compare what we do and the cost involved to make it happen with that shit.

 

Archie B keeps trying to talk me into bringing my only street bike out for a SMARS event. Its a Goldwing

 

Roadracing will never be as cheap as that other shit. Never. As has been said many times, you can figure $1,000 a weekend as a good base figure if you ride a 600+cc bike and do 3+ classes, and that is a minimum.

It can be as cheap or expensive as you make it. You can race a small bike, only do 2 classes, use pump gas, stretch tires and might can get away with spending $500-$600. Or you can race a lot of classes on big bikes, run race fuel, change tires when you feel they are holding you back a lil bit and spend $4000-$5000 in a weekend.

But you will never be able to race/ride all weekend on $100. It simply isn't going to happen.

The bikes are more expensive, tires are more expensive, entry fees are more expensive, all of the associated gear is more expensive, etc. This isn't a sport for somebody counting pennies.

 

The only person I know that raced mx at a decent level would never claim it's cheap. Traveling across the country constantly out of his own pocket always just around the corner from "making it" put him in big money debt.

I'm with stupid on the danger part. Seems my natural reaction when someone asks me "oh dirt bikes?" Is to respond with "no way! Those guys are crazy. I do it on a road style course". They look at me confused so I try to explain the difference between 100mph and a 100mph while being 60ft in the air.

 

You can race minis at Herrin's for next to nothing, but it'll never equal running Barber or Road Atlanta on a proper bike

 

thats what im training for now. Sold the RR and picked up a sumo CRF. to race here in florida and a few WERA rounds in the southeast.
i had never ridden dirt before and was pretty shocked at how cheap it is.
I agree on the safety concerns in mx.

 

Most of the people I know who have kids coming up in the MX world spend more a year on co-pays and emergency room visits than I do road racing. Dont kid yourself on bike costs either. Theres 14 year olds at the big races on $45000 Factory unobtanium just like in roadracing.

I would rather spend the money on tires and fuel than casts and knee surgery.

The 18 year old girl I have racing for me is possibly having her big toe removed in a week or two from an MX injury. Add that to the shoulder reconstruction and random other injuries she has had and MX doesnt seem all that fun. I'm glad she has taken a liking to road racing.

 

Porsche GT3 Cup, basically a spec racing series for Porsches where you buy the car race ready directly from Porsche. Just the maintenance alone is ridiculous, between the tranny rebuilds (every 25 hours), the motor rebuilds (40 hours), brakes, tires, fuel, etc it costs roughly $1000 per hour to run one of these cars

And this is still amateur racing...

 

You can ride on the dirt in your backyard. Woo-woo. ::snore::

Riding on a purpose-built roadracing circuit is SO much more fun. At least to me.

-jim

 

I wish i could ride my dirty bike in the back yard. It isn't big enough. I mean, i could...but i would only go a lil bit and would have to stop and turn around.

I need to find me a circle dirt track that i can practice on.

 

Flat track is the shit. I'm hoping to start next year at Perris. Seems like you get a lot of the rush of high speed like a road course but at a fraction of the cost. What're you racing?

Motocross looks fun, when they're not crashing their brains out.

 

Don't say that. I'm still rolling pennies to stay in the game

Can we get a definition on 'proper bike'? (may be a rhetorical question, I haven't decided)

Take into account age becomes a factor very soon while trying to chase anything MX. I would love to be back on the MX track, and be competitive, but then I have to think about how much it would hurt physically. I don't think there's any part of my body that could handle a motocross race. Road racing is very tough for me to do. I come away from a weekend of road racing and I'm torn up pretty bad, even after I've been exercising. Throw in a crash I get to walk away from and the day is still workable (most of the time). Just food for thought.

Guess it's all about what you want, how bad do you want it and what you'd like to accomplish. You're young enough and in good shape Curtis. Enjoy it while you can. We'll see you back at the road track again soon.

 

Or you can go back to the `60's~`70's and have three 'Production Classes'. Lightweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight. You can change DOT tires, brake pads and air cleaner element. If it doesn't say you can do it, you CAN'T do it.

Ask some of the old-timers that used to be tech inspectors. It's almost impossible to police as there are SO many things you can do that aren't visible to the naked eye. Almost EVERY race ended up with protest money changing hands.

NO class is immune to cheaters with $$$!

 

you can get the same injuries from a road racing crash.
simple policy, dont crash....

Jim I used to think the same thing, til i actually got out and rode on an MX track. To me its just as fun.

Thanks Randy, im definately not chasing anything in MX, just doing it because I didnt want show up at a supermoto race and never ridden a bike on dirt intentionally. I'll either be out there towards the end of this season or early next season depending on fire school and work...

 

MX might be cheaper but it's not if, it's when your going to the hospital. I was fortunate to never have any injuries rr but in mx I've been in a cast more times than I'd count and I am not a crasher so to speak. That being said I still like mx better as I can do it way more often.

 

That's how I got into bike racing. Wanted to race cars (1991) but figured out bike cost WAY less (and they lean in the corners...especially when cornering "Low")

So here I am....Roadracing legend...It's been an awesome ride!

 

Front gate v. back gate. The only way to significantly reduce the cost to the participants is to increase the revenue generated from pure spectators. The end.