Muddy Waters MX

Bultaco Pursang Revival

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:44:33 GMT

A 32-year-old Spanish automotive designer and a partner plan to relaunch the historic Bultaco motorcycle brand with the release of a modern 450cc motocross bike with retro-modern styling taken from the beautiful 1970's-era Pursangs.

Jim Palau-Ribes and partner Roger Gubert have been working on the project for seven years and hope to build a prototype 450cc bike this year. They have formed a company named Pursang Motors for the venture. Whether the two can actually pull this off or not is open to question, but it would certainly be nice to see them succeed. Found via Motocross Action Magazine.

Thinking differently - the future is coming whether we like it or not

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:55:24 GMT

This is only tangentially about motorcycles, and only in the sense that it points to how the world of the future will work. But it's an important insight into our future. This NYTimes editorial by Thomas Friedman (author of "The World is Flat" and "The Lexus and the Olive Tree") is about a new kind of car company called Better Place, based in Palo Alto, CA.

The revolution that Better Place is betting on isn't in what they're doing — electric cars — but in how they're doing it. The company is taking the business model Apple Computer used to revolutionize the music business and applying it to green transportation.

The Better Place electric car charging system involves generating electrons from as much renewable energy — such as wind and solar — as possible and then feeding those clean electrons into a national electric car charging infrastructure. This consists of electricity charging spots with plug-in outlets — the first pilots were opened in Israel this week — plus battery-exchange stations all over the respective country. The whole system is then coordinated by a service control center that integrates and does the billing.

Under the Better Place model, consumers can either buy or lease an electric car from the French automaker Renault or Japanese companies like Nissan (General Motors snubbed Agassi) and then buy miles on their electric car batteries from Better Place the way you now buy an Apple cellphone and the minutes from AT&T. That way Better Place, or any car company that partners with it, benefits from each mile you drive. G.M. sells cars. Better Place is selling mobility miles.

So what's the motorcycle connection? Maybe it's KTM and their Zero Emissions Bike or their patented hybrid, two-wheel-drive technology. It doesn't appear to be the existing behemoths of the industry, including Honda, Harley-Davidson, or BMW.

But Friedman's point is that, wherever it comes from, it will come. And probably sooner rather than later. As motorcyclists we should be prepared for what entirely new business models could mean to our pass-time, and to the political environment in which we exist. Greater access to quiet, green transportation will make our loud, smoking bikes even more of an outlier, and subject to even greater regulation.

We need to get our act together now, and figure out how to create a united effort to protect the rights we still have, while we still have them.

New hybrid patent filed by KTM

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:05:04 GMT

Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM has filed patents for a new, 2-wheel-drive, hybrid motorcycle. Following KTM's announcement of their all-electric zero-emissions bike, which is planned for production by 2010, this hybrid features an internal combustion engine driving the rear wheel with an electric motor driving the front wheel. I don't know exactly how it works, but under braking the electric motor acts as a generator to recapture energy from the wheel and store it back in the battery.

KTM is smart to be getting a head start on this. Ever since Algore (the guy who invented the internets) published his book labeling the internal combustion engine as the primary cause of all Mankind's troubles, the EcoNazis have been chomping at the bit to rid the planet of this scourge. I hope they don't succeed, but there's little doubt that there is a lot of money to be made for the companies that can effectively harness the power of the electron to provide motive force.

I just hope future generations are still able to feel the thrill and hear the roar created by capturing the power of fire in the internal combustion motor. Found via Motocross Action.

2008 AMA Congress remains ineffectual according to participant

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:43:44 GMT

There is a very disturbing letter in the upcoming (November 26, 2008, Issue #47) edition of Cycle News from AMA member Jerry Fouts. Jerry is the ATV Congressman for District 36 and attended the 2008 Congress.

I have long wondered just how effective the AMA Congress really is at effecting change in the organization. Here's what I wrote in August of last year:

Can ~5% of the financial power of the motorcycle industry exert any meaningful economic influence over the other 95%?

Can ~5% of the financial power in the motorcycle industry exert any significant bargaining power politically, economically, or socially?

When the AMA must decide whether or not to take an action that will benefit rider-members but will significantly anger the 6-member motorcycle oligopoly - who control $150 billion of capital and 80%-90% of the market - will the rider-members prevail?
If you answer yes to any of those questions you live in a very different, and vastly more naive, world than I do. Like it or not it's all about the money. The AMA cannot represent the riders and the motorcycle industry at the same time because we, the riders, are not equal to the industry. Our interests and needs are not going to align perfectly with the industry. And we are stupid if we think our paltry membership (250,000 members is about $10 million in dues) is going to get us equal footing in a conflict.

Fouts' letter specifically addresses the sale (or transfer) of western region AMA Hare Scrambles racing to WORCS, and the summary dismissal of the many hard-working Districts that have put on events for years (in some cases for decades.) His issue is more the secretive, unilateral way the transfer was handled than with the transfer itself, although he has some fairly strong criticism of the transfer's consequences.

As Fouts states, AMA President Dingman is intent on taking the AMA from a club-based entity to a big-time corporation. This is a natural consequence of the AMA's nature as a servant of the motorcycle industry.

You see, it takes the big to serve the big. This is an unalterable rule of oligopolies. Fouts notes that the Districts have historically delivered the majority of AMA members. This is probably true, but they have not delivered enough. The Districts have delivered the enthusiast member, the member who joins AMA to race, specifically offroad racing.

In 2006 off-road motorcycle sales accounted for only 25% of total motorcycle unit sales. As dirt bikes usually sell for less than street bikes, we can assume they account for even less than 25% of total revenues. Add to that the sale of offroad bikes continues to decline and we can see that there are not a lot of net new members to be brought into the AMA fold through this channel.

This makes the offroad market quite a bit less important in a long-term growth strategy for the AMA. This view is consistent with the AMA's past history. Fouts notes that, while the AMA joins in on land use issues, it is the Districts that carry the banner forward and do all the hard work. Other organizations, such as the Blue Ribbon Coalition, actually do most of the heavy lifting on offroad issues at the national level.

Dingman has made it clear that he wants the AMA to become like AAA — a national corporation that serves millions of drivers, not racers. He's also made it clear that professional racing in any form is not a part of the AMA's future. Fouts' interpretation of the AMA's most recent action is that Dingman also has little regard for the current Districts' role.

Taken at face value, this means that we, as offroad riders, will be left with little if any meaningful representation in the AMA. Over time the organization will grow more and more to suit the greater majority of street riders. We will be fed the company line from the motorcycle oligopoly regarding what is and is not important to dirt riders. Whatever they want us to know, we will know. What they don't, we'll have to find out on our own.

Professional racing has been handed to NASCAR, with all the consequences (both good and bad) that entails. Professional racing is a business endeavor. There is little we can do to affect that. But offroad riding is a passion, and one that deserves protection.

The AMA has long ignored this subset of the motorcycle community. It seems that now this stance is being codified into the corporate structure of the organization. So where does that leave us?

There is no real equivalent to the SCCA for offroad riders. What organizations exist are fractionalized and often work poorly together. Our political representation is weak, and likely to grow weaker as the AMA de-emphasizes offroad riding.

This is a problem we will have to solve ourselves, and doing that will not be easy. We are not a cooperative group. We are highly individualistic and prone to going off to do it our own way rather than sacrifice some of our personal desires in order to further the greater good of a group. But we will have to get past this if we are to survive.

We will have to find it in ourselves to quiet our more outspoken tendencies and learn to work with offroad riders of all persuasions. We need a new organization that can effectively represent all offroad riders, without the industry baggage and politics that have always plagued the AMA.

I don't know if this is possible. The motorcycle oligopoly rules the market with an iron fist, and too many riders are all too happy to do whatever the oligopoly wants as long as they get a little eye candy every year with bold new graphics. But it's imperative for our survival. Will someone step up with a compelling vision of what a new, national, offroad riders group should look like?

Dual Sport bike sales up 30% over 2007

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:44:53 GMT

This L.A. Times story, "Women drive increase in sales of motorcycles, survey shows" out yesterday quotes the new Motorcycle Industry Council 2008 owner survey with some interesting statistics:

Sales of cruisers, sport bikes, tourers and off-highway or dirt models are all down in 2008 compared with last year, but scooters and dual sports (bikes that can be ridden on the street or off-road) have seen 50% and 30% gains, respectively. Overall sales are expected to be down this year. Through the third quarter they were off 2.2% compared with the first nine months of 2007.

The survey also has some interesting statistics regarding women riders, noting that 12.6% of motorcycle and scooter riders are now women, up from 9.8% in 2003. According to the article the periodic survey will be maintained and updated online beginning in 2009. Full results of the 2008 survey will also be released in early 2009.

What permanent indoor facilities mean for MX

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:04:27 GMT

The Boston Globe Online today is reporting that a new, indoor MX facility has been approved in Bellingham, southwest of Boston. R. J. Cobb Land Clearing Inc. of Bellingham has received approval to construct a 68,400 sq. ft. enclosed facility near I-495.

To date, Supercross has remained the domain of professional racers because there are very few places for grass roots amateurs to ride true SX, or Arenacross, tracks. But there is a growing trend to build enclosed, indoor facilities — especially in the northern parts of the US where the outdoor riding season is only a few months each year.

This trend has important implications for outdoor motocross. New riders almost universally come to the sport today through riding and racing on outdoor tracks and trails. This serves to keep them connected, at some level, to the history and meaning of the sport. But as land use and noise concerns grow, it's inevitable that indoor facilities will grow in popularity.

A well-designed indoor facility can contain the noise normally associated with dirt bikes. They give riders a place to practice regardless of the weather or temperature. More importantly, they give young riders a place to practice the timing and jumping skills that are unique to SX- and AX-style racing.

The growing popularity of SX, the rock concert, pyrotechnic atmosphere of the events, the short yet furious style of racing, and the high-flying, extreme-sports nature of the competition all combine to create a powerful allure for attention-addled, video-game-addicted youth. As indoor facilities become more available it's possible that we will see riders in future generations who have never, or rarely, ridden an outdoor track at all.

What we are seeing are the early stages of a complete, cradle-to-grave SX environment against which outdoor MX will have to compete for its survival. Like any significant evolution, this one will have its ups and downs. Many of the early facilities will fail from financial or management issues, but others will take their place. Owners will learn the lessons needed to keep the facilities profitable. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see the AX series begin moving to some of the better permanent facilities as they emerge.

All of this means that grass roots outdoor MX will have to change in order to survive and grow. It will have to become more professional and focused. While this is happening already in some parts of the country (particularly SoCal), outdoor MX is still the domain of good ole boys with some land and a bulldozer in most places. Local tracks will have to improves facilities, increase their marketing, and learn to work more closely with local businesses and governments to show how they benefit local communities.

The days of (relatively) inexpensive practice tracks for budding riders may be numbered. The political, social, and economic environment is changing rapidly, and track owners will have to become more sophisticated and savvy to compete and survive. If you're a current or former track owner I'd love to hear your perspective on this. I'd love to know if you see this as a significant challenge in the future and what you'd do to compete in the emerging environment.

MediaZone closes Moto Channel

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:12:26 GMT

Last week I got email notification that MediaZone is closing their Moto Channel. This is a big disappointment to me, as I just signed up for a 1-year subscription when I watched the MXdN on live video.

MediaZone will refund my subscription fee on a pro-rated basis, but the money isn't really the problem. I'm disappointed that what seemed to be a really good service for catching all the GPs has gone by the wayside.

I don't know anything about what motivated the closure, and the email gave no reason. But if you read my post on The right broadcast model for motocross you know I think full length video on the web is the right way forward for MX.

I suspect MediaZone lost their agreement with YouthStream, or the licensing fees went way up, or maybe there just weren't enough subscribers to pay the fees. I don't know. But I do know it's a loss.

Over on Eternal Two Stroke Derrick Harris is talking about the same topic in his post Which "M" is in?. Derrick points to this cool video highlight site for Australian Supercross.

Personally, I'm not happy with highlights. I want full race coverage. If not live, at least same day. And I'm willing to pay for it. Hopefully, MX Sports will be able to negotiate something along those lines in the near future. For now, we'll have to get by on the oddly structured SPEED TV coverage.

Monster Mountain MX Park for sale

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:10:51 GMT

The following was posted on RacerX today:

Monster Mountain MX Park, one of the premier facilities in the Southeast, is for sale. Built into the beautiful rolling hills of Central Alabama by MX legend Mark Barnett and Glen Bates, the facility offes MX, Lighted SX, GP, Pit Bike, and seven miles of trails spread over its 200 acres. Concession stand, bathrooms with showers, and a newly constructed 4000 square foot steel building containing a 1500 square foot residence. Serious inquiries only please. Contact us at 334-799-5931 or Andy@MonsterMX.com

This is a very cool facility. I've had the chance to ride a couple of vintage events there. I hate to see it go on the block again. I know it's changed hands a couple of times already since it was built. The maintenance costs of a facility like this are enormous and, being in the deep south and not close to a major population center (the greater Montgomery area has fewer than 350,000 people) I'm sure it's hard to make a go of it.

That's the tragedy of our time — you need to be close to a population center with about 1 million people to support a facility like this, but you can't find or afford the land in those areas. It's the kind of track where you could hold a national, but the facility would need lots of upgrades. And the population just isn't there.

I wish the owners good luck. I hate to see another fine facility bite the dust.

The right broadcast model for motocross

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:47:35 GMT

Last weekend I got up early (too early, it turns out) to watch the MXdN live video feed via MediaZone. I really enjoyed it — well worth the $24.99 I paid for a year’s subscription that also buys me full coverage of the 2009 GP season and access to the archives for 2005–2008. If you want a recap of the coverage itself see Davey Coombs’ Racerhead #40 over at RacerX.

What I want to talk about is a realization I had while watching — that Internet video is the right medium for motocross. Not broadcast TV.

It’s no new idea that motocross is a niche sport. I think we all know this and, to my mind, it always will be. A big niche, perhaps, but a niche nonetheless. It’s a special sport. A different sport. It’s an extreme sport, but not a circus like Supercross. There is a history, a mind set, and a culture that are inherent in the way man and machine attack the terrain and the elements. There is an endurance aspect that simply doesn’t exist in other forms of closed course competition. It is not a complicated sport, yet it requires understanding.

None of this fits neatly into 1–hour, commercial-laden segments of American broadcast TV. The sport, at it’s core, does not match up well with normal, accepted TV practices for niche sports — 8 minutes of action punctuated by 1.5–2.5 minutes of commercials. Then repeat the cycle over and over.

It’s unrealistic to think motocross will ever get a regular 3–4 hours of live network coverage like NASCAR. Just won’t happen. We’re even unlikely to get extended coverage of once-a-year events like the Indy 500 or Petite LeMans can do. The best we can hope for is the foreshortened, summarized coverage of one moto or the other that is shown by SPEED TV. And the truth is, from a race fan perspective, that coverage is pretty poor. I don’t mean to bash SPEED. I’m grateful they show it. I understand the limitations, I know why it is what it is.

Start with the internet in mind

And that’s my point. In all the discussions of “going mainstream” and getting bigger audiences and live TV I’ve tried to maintain an open mind. There are a lot of people at MXSportswho are far smarter and more experienced than I. They are sincerely interested in doing the best thing for the sport — their livelihoods now depend on it. Besides, I never had a clear vision of what should happen, vs. what is being proposed to happen. It’s clear to me now that what should happen is a comprehensive plan to develop the future of the sport (and perhaps all niche sports) around Internet video.

The for-pay, real-time and on-demand video of the MXoN was excellent. It was a bit small on screen, but that’s the limit of current bandwidth and technology. Hopefully it will get better, but I was happy to pay for it. I got my coffee and sat in front of my nice LCD monitor and kicked back to watch the races. I chose to watch it live, but I didn’t have to. I could have gone riding in the morning and come home to watch it afterwards with the same effect. I have since watched portions of it again.

I didn’t suffer through commercial interruptions that broke up the races based on contracted commercial time, or a video editor’s idea of a good time-point to insert meaningless drivel. I didn’t suffer through commercials at all. There was plenty of screen real estate that could have been used for clickable adverts had MediaZone chosen to do so, but there weren’t any.

This is the viewing experience that befits motocross — not commercial, broadcast TV. Yet I fear that we may well abandon the fundamental personality of the sport in pursuit of something we can never achieve — mainstream, commercial television appeal.

The challenges of broadcast

I have no idea of the financials at work in this. The facilities expense for doing decent coverage is the same, whether you’re sending the signal out via commercial broadcast or on-demand. I don’t know enough to know whether on-demand is a viable model, but if we can’t get enough paying on-demand customers to make it go, how is it we’re going to draw enough sponsors to make a commercial broadcast viable? Maybe the difference is that in the US there is a well-established entity — SPEED TV — that can manage the broadcast logistics and the hope is that a package can be devised that will convince them to pay lots of money for the rights. Just remember that when Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation bought SpeedChannel in 2001 the plan was to make it into a 24–hour NASCAR channel. This has implications I’ll discuss in a moment.

Either way, we may still have to give up certain fundamental elements, like the beautiful, natural terrain courses in the middle of nowhere that used to be the heart of MX. Tracks bulldozed out of the infields of road race courses are Supercross tracks, not MX. Thankfully, the AMA contract for SX stipulates that any facility with more than 30,000 fixed seats is SX. But that still leaves a lot of potential facilities that aren’t really suitable for MX. But I digress.

I realize the driving motivation for all this TV talk is to bring in more money — money that can give promoters more capital for improving facilities, pay riders better purses, and provide a better overall experience for fans. I hope this works. But I also know this whole process has been done. It’s called Supercross. And it is not motocross.

The audience matters

If you look at what does get lots TV coverage, it’s clear that the mainstream TV audience is just not right for MX. I mean, really, SPEED TV reruns the same Monster Truck shows over and over at 6:00pm every day. There is obviously a huge audience for this motorized version of the WWE.

Want another indicator? Look at the coverage given to the MXoN on the most popular, dedicated, multi-disciplinary racing show in the US — Dave Despain's Wind Tunnel. On the day the US claimed their 19th victory, the MXoN — one of, if not the, largest outdoor off-road motorcycle events in the world — got barely a mention. This unprecedented domination of a huge international event didn't even warrant a still photo of Stewart or Villopoto taking the checker. That says something important about where we fit in the overall scheme of TV spectator motorsports. Despain is a motorcycle fan. The night of MXoN he had Ricky Carmichael in studio talking about his stock car racing. On tonight's show he had James Stewart talking about his switch of Supercross teams. But motocross races don't make the cut.

The 900-lb gorilla of motorsports, NASCAR is also sports entertainment. There hasn’t been a technical development for street cars or any level of consumer technology to come out of NASCAR in decades. The entire discipline is micro-managed to the smallest degree to remove as much technology as possible from the racing equation. NASCAR is pure entertainment, and there is a huge audience for this.

But it’s not the technically literate, participatory audience that is drawn to motorcycle racing. The motorcycle racing community is all about technology, performance, and improvement. This little disconnect is at the heart of the goat rodeo that has paralyzed professional road racing in the months since AMA Pro Racing was purchased by NASCAR-centric DMG. While motocross is an entertaining sport, it is not sports entertainment. The difference is big and significant.

I will still keep an open mind about whatever comes out of the current management meetings. MXSports is as good as anyone to shepherd the sport forward. But I sincerely hope they do not get sidetracked by the lure of an unattainable goal. Preserving the soul of our sport should be the first priority.

Live Nation sells Supercross with motor sports division

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 05:00:00 GMT

No surprise here as Live Nation has sold off its entire motorsports division to Feld Entertainment in a deal valued at $205 million. The sale is the latest step in Live Nation's current corporate gin rummy hand — the predictable, cyclical business of first acquiring unrelated businesses to "leverage synergy for increased profits and growth" and then, a few years later, selling them off to "release pent up value for increased profits and growth." Funny, that.

We have stated here before our position that Live Nation had very little, if any, corporate commitment to Supercross and that believing otherwise was naive. At best there is only marginal synergy between motor sports events and music concerts. Live Nation have known this since their inception as a spin-off from media conglomerate Clear Channel at the end of 2005. In 2006 they began selling off everything that was not "core" to the music concert business — including theatrical shows, sports representation, and real estate. The company has now sold off more than $460 million in non-core businesses.

With Live Nation completely out of the Supercross business, who is in charge? Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus, Disney on Ice, Disney Live, and other live attractions.

What is most interesting about Feld is their description of themselves:

Feld Entertainment is the worldwide leader in producing and presenting live entertainment experiences that lift the human spirit and create indelible memories, with 30 million people in attendance at its shows each year.

This is clearly not Live Nation &mdash the company that promotes Fergie, Rob Zombie, and Madonna among dozens of others. I haven't seen a self-promo that corny in years. But maybe it's time we had someone in charge of Supercross that at least has a clue what the term "family entertainment" means.

The entire Clear Channel/Live Nation episode of Supercross history has been a gut-wrenching experience for true motocross fans, who watched as their beloved sport turned into a cartoon-like caricature, a frenzy of near-naked girls and violent crashes feverishly pitched at hormone-addled 18-year-old boys and pro wrestling fans.

Yes, the sport grew. Yes, it brought in more money. Yes, a handful of riders can now make contracts well into the 7-figure range and a good number more can make nice 6-figures. But yes, it also become "sports entertainment", just like monster truck racing and the WWE. I don't know that Feld intends anything differently, but I feel no loss for Live Nation.

For now, Feld says they will keep everything intact at the Aurora, IL HQ of the former Live Nation Motor Sports, including all management, schedules, partnerships, and structure. Changes will likely begin late 2009, as Feld gets a feel for what they do and do not like about the new business.

There are many, many possibilities for the future. Far too many to cover here, and at least as many bad as good. But one thing we can be sure of, nothing stays the same in these scenarios.