Sunday, March 16, 2008

Fairytales and Myths About Modern Racing

I just saw a boisterous rebuttal of an earlier article – The Long-term Effects of Production-based Racing – over on the TMSuzuki Yahoo! group. I can't post it here because I don't have permission but I hope the author will stop by and do it himself. The author takes great exception to my assertion that a current race-tuned 4-stroke is more complex and costly to maintain than a comparable two-stroke, and my assertion that the complexity and ongoing cost of the modern 4-stroke is not appealing to a significant portion of 30+, 40+, and 50+ riders.

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Saturday, March 15, 2008

Know Your Enemy - PEER's Off Road Wreckreation

I've just come across a scary group of virulent, anti-off road activists whose salaries we pay, whose jobs depend on our taxes, whose sole purpose in life seems to be stopping normal, hard-working taxpayers from using public lands. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is a great example of why we need, more than ever, to become involved in the fight to keep our public lands open. The environmental wackos have infiltrated our government at all levels (mostly because they can't do anything productive) and have increasingly rigged the system in their favor.

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Sunday, March 9, 2008

Big Cajones - Vintage Boardtrack Video

 

This is a way cool video. Original footage from a 1920 film made at the Daytona boardtrack. I found this via a post over at the Southeast Vintage MX forum. It was posted on Jockey Journal which appears to be one of several very nice sites by Atomic Industry. Check out their Garage Journal. It's cool.

Update on the "Cone-head" Helmet Liner

From Don Morgan, inventor of the cone-head motorcycle helmet liner technology, comes an e-mail update on this interesting approach to helmet safety. According to Don, the response to his appearance on "The New Inventors" (which named the cone-head 2007 Invention of the Year) has been huge, with interest from around the globe. A helmet using the technology will be released later this year into the Australian and NZ markets. He has signed a license agreement with an overseas helmet manufacturer which allows them to determine when and where helmets become available.

I hope Don's licensing agreement is not exclusive, or at least provides for limited exclusivity. It would be a shame to see this development get only limited testing and exposure due to a tie-up in licensing. For a bit more background on the technology see this transcript from an ABC-TV interview and Cone-head helmet not a bonehead idea in the Brisbane Times.

Will the AMA Become AAA?

AMA President Rob Dingman continues to emphasize that the AMA needs to be a better member services organization, providing better benefits to members. This has been a consistent theme in every interview Dingman has held over the past year. That worries me. While Dingman is always careful to mention that the AMA needs to protect the future of motorcycling and be stronger on the legislative and government front, it is always secondary to member benefits.

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Saturday, March 8, 2008

Dingman and Edmondson Interviewed by SPEED

From Mike Kincaid of Rampant Racing comes this link to two video interviews over at SPEED. There is a 4 1/2-minute interview with Rob Dingman, AMA president, and a much more informative 10-minute interview with Roger Edmondson of the Daytona Motorsports Group. If you are concerned about the future of American motorcycle racing I think the Edmondson interview will give you hope.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Guest Response: AMA Selects Daytona Group for Pro Racing

It's a wonder that after 25 years of running roadracing, and flat track into the ground the AMA finally woke up and decided it was time to get rid those those cycle sports. Gone are the days when the average dirtbike riding kid (or adult for that matter) knows the name of even one RR or FT star. Do you? I don't. Ever since the AMA blundered into the golden goose that is Supercross, the AMA abandoned RR, FT, and to some degree motocross. For the AMA to sell to the people that control the tracks was a no brainer.

It's Official - AMA Selects Daytona Group for Pro Racing

It's official, the AMA is selling virtually all the Pro Racing properties (everything but SuperCross and ArenaCross) to the the Daytona investment group led by Jim France of NASCAR and ISC, and Roger Edmondson, President of the Grand American Road Race Series. Here is a video of the Daytona press conference and here is a complete transcript.

I think this is good, for a lot of reasons, but I wonder how it will affect the National Promoters Group that has worked so hard to build outdoor MX into the first-rate show that it is today. I suspect they will be fine, but it's probably a difficult time for them right now. This is a big day. More later...

Update: The National Promoters Group has issued a press release in support of the AMA sale. The language of it indicates to me that they were pretty much left out in the cold on this deal. But I have to think the Daytona Motorsports Group will rely heavily on NPG to keep doing what they've been doing, which is work to better outdoor MX. One thing I don't think will happen – I don't think DMG will try to kill off outdoor MX which what it often looked like the AMA was trying to do.