Friday, October 31, 2008

Old school pitbike races - SL70 and XR75

Recently my old school friend Ronnie Welch sent me a bunch of pictures from TVRC's annual "King of the Ant Hill" race in Texas. If you were under the misguided belief that pitbike races were some new phenomenon, well, let me assure you that the only thing truly new in dirt biking is the backflip.

There were plenty of cool XR75s, including some single-shock models using aftermarket swingarms. But Ronnie was representin' for all the Po' Boys who had to ride 'em like they came from the factory. His beater SL70 was sporting nothing more than a Green Weenie filter and a DG-style megaphone.

Wish I had been there. I have two SL70 project bikes sitting around the house here somewhere if I can ever get back to them...

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

MediaZone closes Moto Channel

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.

Friday, October 10, 2008

MX Sports press conference Saturday

In today's Racerhead column Davey Combs announced a press conference to be held tomorrow morning at the MGM Grand Hotel. Coombs will announce some of MX Sports' plans for the 2009 Pro MX season. There have been a lot of discomfiting rumors flying about. Many sound far-fetched, to me. But you never know. Hopefully we'll get answers that put the worst of them to bed.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Motocross des Nations ramp up

It's time for the Motocross des Nations, the largest international motocross race in the world. I just signed up for the MediaZone coverage so I can watch the event live on Sunday morning.

I attended the Budds Creek event last year and had a blast. I wish I could go every year. My goal is to attend an international MXdN before too much more time passes. There's lots of great info available at RacerX and the MXNationals web sites, including Ryan Villopotto's photo blog. He's got some great photos.

So get your favorite beverage ready for an early drop of the gate (7:00am EDT Sunday) and let's watch Team USA bring home the Chamberlain Cup for the fourth consecutive time!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

freecaster.tv to show 2009 FIM MX GPs live

I saw this announcement FIM Motocross and Supermoto Live Online in '09 on RacerXIll.com today. I haven't really kept up with the World GP scene and so wasn't aware that freecaster.tv already have video highlights of all the GPs on online. According to the release:

The FIM Motocross World Championship promoter Youthstream and the online broadcaster Freecaster.tv have reached an important agreement to broadcast the series for free live and delayed on www.freecaster.tv from 2009.

There's no press release on either the FIM or Youthstream web sites so I don't know where it came from, but RacerX is a pretty reliable source.

There are a lot of changes in store for American MX in 2009 and beyond. It would be cool if a similar webcast arrangement was one of them.