Dogger you have given away your age a bit there
You caught me Mad
Not much of my 40's left, so I guess I better go for it while I still can.
didn't have enough suspension for the jumps of the day
You got that right, there wasn't enough suspension period. I think my first three bikes only had 5 or 6 inches of
travel up front and 3 to 5 inches out back. Now add heat fade to the mix and your shocks more closely resembled
a pogo stick than a shock absorber about 15 minutes into the moto.
Remember when everyone moved their shocks forward on the swingarm to get more travel. Until better shocks
came out, all that did was blow the seals or expedite the heat fade giving you a longer travel pogo stick. My
Mikola Replica had the forward mounted shocks and those Girlings were worthless after 20 minutes. The only
bikes I remember having semi-reliable longer travel suspension were the mono shock YZs and they had their own
set of problems. Everyone wore a kidney belt back then, not for a fashion statement, but because it would be
unthinkable not to.
The idea of a "jump" wasn't really associated with motocross until long-travel suspension was on the way in.
I don't know about that, I remember plenty of jumps. There weren't any doubles or triples or whoop sections but
there were plenty of tabletops, singles and drop off jumps. Here is a picture of Saddleback from the mid 70s taken
from the top. As you can see, there are some good size jumps 200 feet down at the bottom of the course.
you have to admit that things have changed.
The times have indeed changed and the obsession with more and more technical jumps and nothing but air time
has had a somewhat chilling effect on the sport. Rick Siemans (Super Hunky) wrote: "In my less than humble
opinion, the trend toward supercross-styled outdoor tracks is one of the biggest reasons for the decline of the
sport. In this age of rampant litigation, tracks get closed down, rather than have the landowners face huge legal
fees."
I like big air as much as the next guy, but the capabilities of the bikes combined with more technical obstacles on
tracks has resulted in a lot of racers being drilled into the ground with serious and often life threatening injuries.
It got so bad a couple of years back that the promoters began making pro level tracks easier and safer. Look at
all the teams last year that had riders out for the season with injuries. It's not good for sales when racers are
constantly being seriously injured, paralyzed or sometimes killed.
dogger