What is the deal with MX and woods racers not getting along? Who started this World War III style battle of refusing to agree on just about anything? Woods guys blame it on the MXers and MX guys blame it on everyone that runs bark busters.
MXers have no endurance! Who races for 6 laps anyway??? Woods guys are sissies and get scared if their tires leave the ground. Besides they’re not really racing out there anyway, it‘s just a 2 hour trail ride. The MX races are full of wannabe “pimp daddies” with oversize Lady Gaga sunglasses and saggy britches. But look at those woods guys! It’s nothing but a bunch of flannel shirt and overall wearing rednecks!
Let’s face it though, are we really that different? Don’t we all ride the same dirt bikes but with different suspension settings and handlebar configurations? Don’t we all love to blow up sandy berms and scrap footpegs through rutted out corners? Do woods guys love the smell of premix in the morning more than the MX guys? Well, maybe. But either way we all love 2 strokes whether we are still racing them or not. After all, aren’t 4 strokes just some sort of wacky conspiracy theory planted by the manufacturers so will spend more money maintaining our bikes?
Maybe it’s time we call a truce. Maybe it’s one of those agree to disagree moments? No matter how you look at it, we all spend way too much time and money keeping our bikes going and traveling to the races. We can’t really be that different and we can certainly find a way to get along and appreciate the other side of the sport.
So here is my take on the sibling like rivalry we have going: The MX guys that don’t appreciate woods racing are the ones that lose all riding ability when trees get within 20 feet of their bike. And the woods guys that don’t appreciate how much energy it takes to go throw down on the MX track for a 6-8 lap race, well, they can barely jump their bike safely over a log in the woods yet alone hit the smallest jump on the MX track. You see it’s not that we are that different, but our inability to appreciate the other side of the sport is just a defense mechanism. You remember the spitting dinosaur in Jurassic Park that would spit in the eyes of its prey which would in turn blind them? No? Well, never mind… My point is defense mechanisms come in all kinds of different forms and most importantly it’s natural to feel that way until you have been on the other side of the equation.
Being from the woods genre of racers, although I ride about as much MX during the off weekends as I do woods, it’s all about what you are used to. I can go do a 2 hour offroad event and be just as sore from going to the MX track and turning a few 30 min motos. Actually, I raced the amateur day at the Hampton Arenacross event this year. It was a total of 4 practice laps, 4 heat race laps, and 6 main event laps. So, maybe 12 minutes of actual seat time. I was just as sore after 12 minutes of AX as I was from a 2 hour woods race! Granted it was a different kind of soreness, but still sore nonetheless.
It’s time for us to join together as a group of obsessed 2 wheel knobby tire adrenaline junky enthusiasts and come to the honest conclusion that we’re all in the same battle together, on the same side. Finding new places to ride and keeping the existing ones open!
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