RANT 10/19

So as I write this I am cruising over the great Midwest at something like 37,000.  From this distance you can see that our nation is a patchwork of agriculture, forests, rivers, and occasional city or town.  Even this high up you can pick out golf courses, baseball fields, football stadiums, and an occasional public pool.  After crisscrossing the country the last couple of days it became apparent to me that there are not that many motocross tracks out there.  With unlimited visibility and a window seat I spotted one in my travels that looked like it might be a track outside of Chicago.   Now I know if you are a motohead you are thinking “not so”.  If you live in So Cal and you fly anywhere you will see dozens of motocross tracks public and private dotting the terrain.  Get out of Cali and it’s not the case.  I spent 4 days in Memphis and driving all over Mississippi this past week.  Not once did I see a dirt bike, or even a sport quad in nearly 1000 miles of driving.  On my third day I did spot one of the industrial looking quads all camo’d out with gun racks on a trailer.  It was shortly after that,  I saw my first street bike of the trip.  But, not one dirt bike.  If you live in So Cal you know you cannot drive five minutes without spotting a dirt bike in the back of someone’s truck.  And you can’t drive more than 10 minutes without spotting a race bike.  Whether or not it is actually used for racing or practicing you never know, but it will have numbers, pipe, graphics, etc..   Not only that, I didn’t see trucks driving down the road with stickers on the rear windows.  No FOX heads, no Alpinestars, no in memory of’s, no mini number plates, no little stick people families, not even a not of this world, nada, zip.  I have no idea why it’s so different.  You read it on the moto forums all the time about how big moto is.  How it should be the national pastime, how it should be live 24-7 on tv.  I have a feeling that most of the country would disagree with us.  In the big scheme of things motocross is pitifully small.  Disagree with me if you want but the last place guy at most PGA events makes more purse money than the winner of most pro mx events.  Until sponsors like Ford, Bristol-Meyers, Fed Ex, and Sony start sponsoring teams and events on a major league level we are small potatoes.  The reality is a MLB pitcher with a .500 winning percentage can get a 30 million dollar contract for three years  in this economy, for working something like 35 days a year throwing a little white ball.   Chad Reed is buying his own insurance policy to get a couple of million to win the Outdoor Nationals.  I understand the difference, a ball player travels to many more games on a chartered jet, risks  foot fungus from the locker room every day, showers with a bunch of grown men, risks cancer from chewing tobacco, risks clap from baseball groupies, and an occasional line drive to the noggin.  You cannot really compare motocross to most other sports, yes there are fatalities in many other sports, yes they take risks, there are injuries.  Yes, they work hard and are very good at what they do.  If you have ever played golf you know how hard it is to hit that f’ing little ball.  Are they worth the millions that get dumped into that sport.  The sponsors say yes.  Far more people will go out and hit that little white ball this weekend than will ever race motocross.  Motocross is a niche sport.  Not everyone can or will ride a motorcycle, and of those only a handful will ever take up dirt biking.  And even fewer will ever compete on a dirt bike, let alone turn pro.  Everyone plays ball in school, baseball, basketball, football, soccer, even golf.  Very few of those ever get to race moto.   Those folks play ball with their kids, get them into little league, pony league, everything possible.   But, mom is always in the background to tell them motorcycles are too dangerous, and you will only ride them over her dead body.   It is difficult for someone who does not have the Passion of the Moto to understand this sport.  Back to my trip to the south, upon further review Mississippi does have several motocross tracks.  They have dealerships that sell motocross bikes, they have websites with races advertised.  Why I did not see there, what I see every day in So Cal I haven’t a clue.  Maybe everyone was working and doesn’t have time to practice during the week.  Maybe they don’t waste money on stickers to advertise other people’s business or agendas.  I don’t know, but I found it fascinating.  I found perfect riding conditions.  Plenty of land to ride on, plenty of water,  everything was beautiful and green.  People were friendly, minded their own business and didn’t seem to have all the hidden agendas like here in Cali.  Kevin Windham lives in Southern Mississippi on the border to Louisiana, he could live anywhere but he chose there.  I have no idea what it would be like to race in the middle of summer when the temp goes up with the high humidity.  But, my visit it was 85 with 90% humidity and it didn’t seem that bad.  Plus I got to see something I hadn’t seen in a long time, rain, heavy rain, green grass, and $2.20 gas.  Would I live there?  I don’t know, could I live without the drama that is So Cal?  It was nice to get some perspective though.  Motocross is just something that a very few of us do on the weekend, and that seems to be the way that most of the rest of the US of A sees it.

You can always reach me at info@remsatmx.com