Here we go again... Where are Ohio riders?

RocketRobin said:
Lesson learned???? Evidently after 12 years you forgot and popped another one!!! Should have kept on riding / racing / watching and you wouldn't have a 5 year old to get you sucked back into the sport now full force as a Mini DAD! Next thing you know, you'll have 4 Cobra's, followed by 2 more KTM 50's, and then a heard of 65's to get junior going in those small classes, and driving around the country to get him on big tracks to get ready for Loretta Lynns!
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....hmmmm who r u talking about? I wish we were driving to all.. Already 1 plane trip to Vegas for the Amsoil AX championships...and another flight back in October for a Monster Cup invite! We are lucky though for the LL stuff this year. Hit 4 qualifiers in 4 different regions and made it through to the respective regionals in each on the first attempts. Then onto the national from the first regional attempt. So,saved a bunch of money not having to go to the other 3! Bottom line, it isn't cheap, but decided if we could go all in this last year in the 50 class,we would.

.. As far as the PW's, Bars Racing dials them in. We ran the QT gear for a regional at Sunday Creek 2 years ago and it worked well. We had a choice for the PW class and the Multispeed and ran the later at the national. I agree, it did us harm in that last year he was no where near ready for stock 1. Kids start cooking in that class.. By the time the 7-8 50cc class comes, these kids take no prisoners.. Scrubbing, jumping, pegged, u name it. Amazes me the progression Mitchy has gone through in the last 2 years. For us no matter the results at Loretta's this year, junior is gonna be on a gate of 42 fast fast kids from all over the country and the week of camping at Loretta's is hard to beat. No need to win..just get there.

...all cuz he wants to be like his Uncle Rocket Robin McClain!
 
John250 said:
Chris, did you show up at Malvern over the weekend?
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Nope, I did not make it I will for sure be at chilli for the next round. I have decided that if I can drop 30lbs I am making a comeback... but I am going to do it rite. Gotta find a kx 500 to set up for myself. 40+ just sounds like too much fun
 
Chilitown is only two weeks away. Should be fun. Blair and I were talking about you waiting for our class on Sunday. Wondering if you were out there by the fence some where.
 
John250 said:
Chilitown is only two weeks away. Should be fun. Blair and I were talking about you waiting for our class on Sunday. Wondering if you were out there by the fence some where.
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Trust me. If I'm there I will find u guys. I gotta give mikey some hard times about his factory minivan with the bumper rack circa 1983. All he needs is some duct tape on his visor and boot gators and he is set. Going to try to call some of the old farts Musselman, Reed, Steel and Rand and bring them with me. Hell, Ryan Smith bought one of Chad Reeds bikes from last year. May as well call him also.
 
Zman said:
....hmmmm who r u talking about?

...all cuz he wants to be like his Uncle Rocket Robin McClain!
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Of course I'm talking about the world's craziest mini dad I know, Zman and his son Mitchy, but I'm also talking about the set up for young kids at Loretta Lynn's as they grow through those first couple of years from my observations as a dad with my own little rider and what it would take if he "really" wanted to be a MX superstar growing up. It's a tough road after the 4-6 age group which has 3 different classes for 4 - 6 year olds to compete in, with 2 of them really being a beginner type class.

After that, it's like being a little MX Pro in any class you try for, and if you weren't in the AMA Stock 1 class when you left the 4 - 6 year old age group, you are already behind and it's hard to get back in as evidenced by Mitchy needing a full year and half of big Cobra's and KTM's to get into the 7 - 8 year old Stock 2 group for a year. As soon as this is over for him, he's got to be hauling a$$ on a 65 to have a shot as a 9 year old next year doing stuff that Dad will have a hard time keeping up with as to be a Loretta Lynn's competitor in the 65cc 10-11 class in 2 years means turning the same lap times as Dad on his 450 anywhere we go....... it's a tough road for mini kids trying to make Loretta's an annual trip for sure as the kids all go faster than I can go on my big bike in plus 40 and they are on little bikes and lack the experience of many years of riding that we have.

I think Chris needs a year at Loretta Lynn's watching the "kids" and seeing how fast they go in person and checking lap times vs someone he respects in the VET classes to get a real appreciation of how FAST the kids of today are going, it is simply amazing. Luckily, or not depending on your view of all of this, my 9 year old son just likes to ride for some fun and doesn't have the killer race bug in him right now. I'm just trying to make him enjoy motorcycles as a hobby that he can enjoy for life as he wants to concentrate more on ice hockey than motocross as his sport of choice, which is just as crazy as MX in the stuff you can do throughout the year.
 
I think Chris needs a year at Loretta Lynn's watching the "kids" and seeing how fast they go in person and checking lap times vs someone he respects in the VET classes to get a real appreciation of how FAST the kids of today are going, it is simply amazing. Luckily, or not depending on your view of all of this, my 9 year old son just likes to ride for some fun and doesn't have the killer race bug in him right now. I'm just trying to make him enjoy motorcycles as a hobby that he can enjoy for life as he wants to concentrate more on ice hockey than motocross as his sport of choice, which is just as crazy as MX in the stuff you can do throughout the year.[/QUOTE]

Rocket, I went to Loretta last year for two days and watched. I know the little kids are fast. ALWAYS have been. Are mini kids better today then 10 , 20 , 30 years ago? That's impossible to say. Different bikes, different track, different prep. (Gate and finish line are in the same place, but that about all that's the same) but I don't think they are. For thirty years at Loretta's there have been an elite few that dominate each class. And it is the same today as it was then.
100% agree with you on the Stock 1 class. If you are going anywhere in the sport then you should be in that class. BUT. I do not think its a must. Obviously the kid that wins the Stock 1 is a far better racer then the kid that wins the PW class but a lot can happen from age 6 to age 12. The little boy that won the PW class last year ( I am pretty sure he is from Ohio) was very, very good and you could see he has "it" but the Kid that won Stock 1 (Think his name is Rider) now that kids is "it".
Long and the short: I am starting my son on a PW, Why? Cause I love those little bikes and they should ALWAYS be part of our sport. If he shows promise and wants to pursue, then Dad will go totally crazy.
One more thing, just my opinion... 8 and 9 year old kids should not be on a 50. If you are old enough to ride an 85 then you should not be able to race a 50.
 
I agree with that.........a kid in theory could be riding the 50 Sr class, 65, and mini Jr class. My son just because of his height, we have had to pull off each size bike a year early, because he is too tall for the bike.
 
You also have to realize the size difference for kids at the various ages makes a huge difference in what bike they fit on, and the mini bikes are tall these days. Consider that the seat height of the 65's is 28" - 29" tall depending on your bike. That is very tall for an 7 year old who isn't tall for his age if he's going to skip 50's and go right onto 65's. Now when you move to 85's the seat height increases again, and on a KX85 (the bike best for beginner / smaller 85 pilots) is 33.1" My own inseam is only 31" and I'm an average sized guy at about 5'10" tall. So these kids are riding bikes that are too tall for them, which isn't a problem when they are under way, but what about when junior crashes and has to restart a bike that he doesn't have his starting blocks out on the track to help him with? He can't restart the bike.......

Anyway, the speed of the kids is amazing and their laptimes bear it out when comparing how fast they go vs the big bikes at Loretta Lynns. There isn't much difference between a 65 7-11 mod class speed and the Vet B/C class speed down there, but think that these kids are on 65's and only 10 years old vs the 30 plus guys on fully modified 450s for the most part.

Yes, Ryder Difrancesco is a Stock 1 winner for 2 years running 2011 and 2012, and he's a kid that is "IT". But when you see what some of those little kids can do on 50's (there was one kid in 2011 in Stock 2 jumping the whole finish line section on a 50) it's amazing at how good they are already between the ages of 5-8. My only point was that if you want your kid to have a chance moving forward and being a Loretta Lynn's contender, you really have to think long term and get him into Stock 1 if you can since that's the real starting point for some of those kids.

And PW50's are the starting point for everyone, it's nice they are still there, but many of the kids that ride in the PW50 Class at Loretta's never make it back later due to the speed that other 4-6 year olds learned in Stock 1. It's a rough game out there in Amatuer Nationals for MX for kids. ANd that's not to say that a kid that doesn't start racing or riding later can't do it, if you have "it", you will develop "it" no matter when you start riding, but the working on "it" for most regular guys who develop speed along the way need to happen with other fast kids as they grow.
 
I know personally I'm not riding at local tracks as much or racing locally as much now, just focusing in the amateur national races. I went to Baja Acres 2 weeks ago for the LL Regional Championship and there were ALOT of ohio riders and I don't think many, if any qualified for the ranch. I think a lot had to do with the regional being at Baja an it being a total foreign riding expirence. There is absolutely no sand tracks in ohio, and I know personally I've never rode sand. But my weekend was just full of bad luck. First Moto in college boy I was 6th out of the 30 in my class and was landed on off a jump and that resulted in an 18th place finish an had to go to the lcq. In the lcq I was running 3rd when I was sprayed by the watering crew while racing and when they sprayed my goggles sand got in my eyes and I over shot a berm and wrecked due to not being able to see, so my demise of the weekend was due to others mistakes, but that's racing.
 
All the sand Michigan boys are mortalized when they come to hard pack slick ohio tracks. Unfortunately none of those exist in the amateur national scene.
 
Sand riders adapt to other surfaces better than other surface riders adapt to sand, and Sand riders do pretty well in the professional ranks too. You learn a lot riding in sand and it helps transfer to other places when looking to maintain and keep speed up.
 
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