More injuries?

Double D

PR Founding Father
They are doing something. More and more tracks are putting sand down to slow the bikes down. Filling in gaps. Bikes are faser and heavy.

I rip my kids track as deep as I can to get his speeds down.

Riding/sports is not as dangerous as sitting home playing video games and eating McDonalds for 60 years....
 

Double D

PR Founding Father
Maybe they should have safety equipment for that! (eating) Like a restricter plate for your mouth so only so much food can fit in at any one meal!
 

ck1racerx

PR Addict
...and this is why we are STILL not doing anything to prevent injuries. Tracks blame the riders, Riders blame tracks and equipment... Stop pointing the finger as someone else and blame yourself. Tracks play a part, riders play a part, equipment and machines play a part but noting is done because everyone blames EVERYTHING else.
If you own a cheap China made helmet, you are to blame. If you ride without a chest protector and neck brace, you are to blame. If you build an obstacle that results in several severe injuries, you are to blame.
You have made my point for me. Our sport needs an independent third party with authority over everyone. Until that happens. The finger pointing will continue.
 

mikeschaefer

PR Member
I think the question here was safety, And equipment. I don't think the people want a governing body of safety to intervene in the sport of motocross. When we were drag racing for years we had Rules developed by the SFI foundation that stated Equipment had a life span of usage. Example; Helmet was to be SFI approved And to be a 2 year service span, Excluding crashes, Then to be replaced after a crash. The crash part makes since, But the 2 year rule is bullshit. Seat belts; 2 years, no exceptions. I believe in safety to the fullest. But be careful what your wanting to implement, I can see tracks closing due to people not being able to afford a war on your equipment. Tracks can be made to be safer for sure, And the whole track prep crap is overrated sometimes. I see people not wanting to ride a practice track that is not prepped to their liking. Ok, Track owner preps a track of 25 ft wide and every body pounds the same line over and over, Until someone gets smart and moves to make a different line. So we are using 25% of said prepped track.. That's a lot of wasted fuel and water to make 2 fresh paths thru the dirt. Some people BITCH just to BITCH and cause a stink. These people need to try supermoto or A one ball sport. Let MX be MX. Be glad you have a place to ride, If you come to my track and you don't like it, That means it's to tough for you and you should come back and learn how to ride.
People STOP smearing s**t on here, What happened to the time of, If you have a problem with someone Go talk to the person. Don't take your problem to the social media. It's not the right thing to do.
 

BriarcliffMx

PR Founding Father
The sport is too dynamic, too many things can go wrong. I think that if you are concerned about safety to the point of being worried, then maybe your time in the sport has passed. Riding with fear is more dangerous than the track, gear, or anything else.

Getting on the track with the absurd notion that this is perfectly safe and nothing bad can happen, is like going to war in Vietnam ore Afghanistan and thinking nothing can go wrong, I cant get hurt here.

Thee only innovation I can think of to make the sport safe, would be if the bikes had a reactive safety shield bubble that was deployed whenever issues came up. Good luck developing that a cost palatable to racers. The answer is UTVs, they had safety harnesses and roll cages. I know you don't want to hear that, but they are slower, heavier, more safety restraints......less chance of an injury, IMHO.
 

mshafer62

PR Addict
From what I understand, a broken femur is a guaranteed heli trip.
It's the largest bone in your body and the leg also has large arteries.
Times have changed from the day when every serious injury was an ambulance ride.
 

Scoob

PR Founding Father
Has anyone stopped to consider that maybe the reason there are more accidents at B.C. Is that there are considerably more riders that attend practices over the course of the year. It's kind of common sense more riders = more crashes.

Was my thought. Nothing wrong with trying to be safer, but peeps need to quit trying to place blame. You all sound like a bunch of democrats in that you are trying to tell peeps how to have fun...or not. Why can't folks take responsibility for themselves and quit placing blame on others (i.e. "It couldn't possibly be me that rides over my head, must be the track, the lack of people/laws telling me what safety equipment to wear and buy, and the manufacturers for not making a no maintanence, no failure EVER motocross bike).

Get over yourselves... If you want another solution, create it YOURSELF instead of telling everyone else what you think THEY should do to fix it... Seem to have the time to. May cut into your bitching time on Pitracer, but hey, that could be a good thing for all of us and we get a safer sport to boot! A win win for all. Merry Octobermas!!!...oops, Happy Octobermas. :)
 

Double D

PR Founding Father
Hey. I like to bitch. So there. And i have to do it on social media cuz no one in real life will listen.
 

LuckyStar64

PR Addict
I agree with 23MX. There have always been injuries and deaths from dirt bikes, but the internet spreads the news like wildfire. If it happened, but you didn't hear about it-- it didn't really happen.

Another thing me and Pit talked about a few times is that the new crop of bikes are so confidence inspiring, they make it seem like you can do anything on them. Years ago on a 125 stroker, you weren't going to blow the turn before a jump out of a corner, and still expect to get over it. Hell-- with the new bikes, you could almost start at the base and still overjump it. I don't remember riders doing huge scrubs over everything back in the '80's? Nor do I remember the +40 classes being one of the faster races of the day? Alot has changed in the world of dirt bikes in 25 years, and unfortunately maybe the injuries are a byproduct.

We've talked about this before too, but I guess I'll bring the point up again. There are so many alternatives to the straight up moto that seems to cause a majority of the injuries. We have trails, GP races, hare scrambles, Vintage, C tracks, etc. If you want to ride, but full on moto is beyond you-- there are so many great options out there to your avail. I agree with Jeremy in that if you're worried about it, you should probably reconsider whether you should even be doing it. --L*64
 

NQ1965

PR Elite
A little more learned from what I've read:

Professional Motocross is driven by big money. Due to this, the sports are extreme, and getting more so all the time. Extreme in many diferent ways. Big Business and big money doesn't give a rats ass about the well being or safety of the racers or the followers of the sports, only the revenue they can draw from them and the spectators.

There is an element of resposibility to all of this. Professional racers are the peer groups and hero's of the sport. Many strive to emulate them and this is evident in the quantity of modern 4strokes being raced, as well as the designs of todays amateur tracks.

Again, from my last issue of MXA magazine, both the Daryl Eckland article and also in the article on Pro racer Christophe Pourcel. They both made comments that if a pro racer today is not on factory equipment, it is very dangerous for them and they are racing at great risk.

When R. Carmichael retired, he made the comment that it was just getting too fast and dangerous. (of course that was after James Stewart landed on him).

What does all of this speak to the youth of our sport. Those that are young, impressionable and full of juice and vinegar?

In my family, at this time, we are introducing the wonderful world of motorcycles and dirt to our grandchildren. But it's too important to let them get their heads filled up with a bunch of garbage and peer pressures at the possible expense of their good health and life safety.
I want them to be, and remain free of any major injuries and to have a long, long life of riding with this family and all of you.
acttr
 
Last edited:

KingRacing

PR Addict
I don't need the internet to tell me motocross is dangerous lol 4 broken collarbones and Christy figures she should maybe lose the neck brace. First ride out without and she brakes her neck! And then there's Jimmy... Lots of dynamics for sure. Definitely would not blame the tracks.
 

KTMkarl794

PR Addict
I don't need the internet to tell me motocross is dangerous lol 4 broken collarbones and Christy figures she should maybe lose the neck brace. First ride out without and she brakes her neck! And then there's Jimmy... Lots of dynamics for sure. Definitely would not blame the tracks.

YIKES! That's some pretty terrible luck.

It's all been argued until we are all blue in the face. More capable bikes lead to; higher speeds and more challenging tracks leads to; more crashes leads to; more injuries. The more injuries, the more debate on whats safe and what isn't, what protective gear...bla bla bla.

Point is, you are all right. We could ALL (and by we I mean track owners, riders, moto-based companies) change one thing or another that MIGHT make the sport a little safer in some way. But how many people actually take ownership or accountability in things like this? The worst part to me is the lack of responsibility on the rider's part. When I whiskey throttled into the cement wall at Ram Jam and broke my back, did I say their track setup was at fault? No, it was me, I should have pulled off because I had arm pump and not tried to do "just one more lap". At the end of the day it is always you, you chose the sport, you chose to swing your leg over that bike, and by doing so you have accepted ALL possible outcomes.

It's the nature of the sport. NQ1965 nailed a big portion of it too, big business. Do you think it was safe for Travis Pastrana to race a 500CC TWO STROKE in straight rhythm? Not a chance!! He almost wadded numerous times, but guess what, all that publicity and hype brought in lots of $$$ for the promoter.

On a side note, after watching On Any Sunday the other day, those guys were crazier than we are! The speeds of the flat track or motocross bikes with open face helmets made from materials that offered little to ZERO compression dampening during a crash, boots that were hardly anything more than construction boots. Motocross pants? Nope...glorified jeans. Neck brace? Never heard of it. Knee braces? What are you 90 years old?

Those guys would b*tch slap 99% the kids on the line today whining about the track prep. Personally I don't want this sport to become NASCAR, it's already hard enough for a privateer to make a night show, but that time that they do, I could imagine there is no sweeter feeling than that. That's the great thing about moto, there is still that chance of the grassroots no name joe that can pull a holeshot in the main and get some spotlight for a brief minute. You start enforcing safety rules and equipment standards and kiss the "underdog" stories goodbye.
 

Scoob

PR Founding Father
I don't need the internet to tell me motocross is dangerous lol 4 broken collarbones and Christy figures she should maybe lose the neck brace. First ride out without and she brakes her neck! And then there's Jimmy... Lots of dynamics for sure. Definitely would not blame the tracks.

Yes, been thinking of you guys through all of this convo and Todd. Didn't hear about Christy. Bum luck. Miss the days back when for sure... Good days ahead I am hopeful for... Take care. Tell everybody I said hello. :)
 

John250

PR Founding Father
Tracks can be built a little safer. I have mentioned it before about the videos of a lot of west coast tracks, and the design of the jumps. Way safer than two jumps built, and if you case the second your over the bars.

I personally think Marvern is probably the closest track to what I am talking about. The way the landings are designed you can jump half way, or all the way over them. It is a fun track, has some speed, and yet is pretty safe. Probably why it is one of my favorite tracks also.

New Vienna in SW Ohio, nice long track, but probably way too fast. Nothing technical, but fast. I usually like a faster less technical track, but have to agree with Hershey, a 4th gear tapped double or table top is probably not the smartest thing to have.

CTMX.....seems like every time I am there, seems they have a crash in the whoops. Not there tracks should not have whoops, but really why does an outdoor MX track need a straight away full of whoops?

People will always continue to ride. I know one thing, we DO NOT want the government to get involved in the sport. So it is up to riders, manufactures, sanctioning bodies, promoters, and track owners to all kind of do their part to try and keep the sport happy. But as a track owner if some experienced riders are saying, you know.....this jump is just not right, or I would suggest this, they should not be so closed minded to listening to their comments. And there are some that will look at you and say, you don't like it, don't come back.
 

Scoob

PR Founding Father
Closed minded know it all riders are tuff nuts also... Makes the world go around I suppose...
 
Top