In the Early 1970's Motocross was booming.... The creation of mini motocross bikes had a lot to do with that, they were small easy to ride bikes that where affordable to most families.
Bikes like the Honda XR75, these were the perfect bike for beginners, and in the 1970's they had racing classes and points series set for them.
I personally believe that there is a large void in the sport here in America now days, and that we don't need bikes as high performance as what we are currently using at the local level.
As the bikes evolved over the years they kept getting faster and lighter with more suspension travel, and better brakes, and became easier to go fast on but as a result of this the sport became more extreme, Most people didn't consider racing XR75's extreme, sure there was some danger but it was nothing like what the general public thinks of it now. it was thought of as something that anyone could do.
Here is an interesting fact I heard in a podcast recently that when Brian Deegan's son Haiden (aka Dangerboy) wanted to start racing dirt bikes Brian wasn't gonna let him at first. I heard Brian say this in a podcast.
he said "this sport has really gotten gnarly and I came close to not letting him do because I didn't want him to get hurt"
Even he says it's evolved to a very elevated level, to hear an ex pro racer/Freestyle pioneer say that he was worried about letting his own kid ride really makes you think doesn't it? If Even Brian Deegan of all people who is known as a bad ass is questioning if it's too dangerous for his son, What do you think the general public is thinking? It also doesn't help that only the most extreme stuff is shown on TV.
(**Side note, I wrote this post in 2019, Its amazing to see how far Danger boy has come "I'm feeling dangerous" )
I am a life long motocross enthusiast and a die hard fan,
I absolutely love motocross even in its current form, but for a kid that's to old for a 50cc bike, or for a young adult that has an interest but has never ridden a dirt bike I believe that it has evolved to much for its own good, it's evolved to the point where there is really no place in the sport for Beginners, not even at the local level.
It's not an easy sport to get started in, everyone in the industry says they want the sport to grow, but if it's ever going to grow we need more beginners.
I have some solutions, one part of it is a plan that will fill in the gaps by introducing less extreme bike options, and racing classes, and another part is to use new marketing ideas and themes to show it to the public, when is the last time you saw any type of commercial or even a promotion of any kind to encourage new people to ride motocross?
I absolutely believe we can attract more new riders, I have a multifaceted plan that ties it all together. its somewhat complex but I believe that it would work.
Steve Jobs says everything in life is a remix.
I am working on a passion project that is about ways to help grow the sport & ways to re introduce Motocross to the masses.
#motocross,#supercross,#kidsdirtbike