Trail Riding vs. Offroad Racing

I think he meant motocross not endurocross..

Nothing like a quick dose of reality..
You think you can ride ok then you have 14 year olds smoking you.

oh. we have some of those around here. they call them "grand prix" races. half hare scramble (pretty wide open hare scrambles tracks) and half MX track.

i'm not a big jump guy, so they aren't my favorite type of race, but some guys love them.

When you are as slow as I am in the dirt, going slow and enjoying the scenery is the only way to go.

apples and oranges really. You live more in 5 minutes of racing than an entire month of day to day life....
Trail riding is fun but nothing compares to racing. Very rarely do you ever get the chance to understand what you're capable of as a rider before you get onto a closed and well marked race course and open up the taps. If you ever try riding race pace pretty much anywhere, you are on the clock for a long hospital visit.... or worse.
IMHO you'll never know how good of a rider you'll ever be until you race. I have been transformed as a rider through racing and highly recommend it to anyone!!



plus there is just something special about having a race bike - you have much more respect for it, put more time and money into it. It sits on a much higher pedestal. I LOVE my 525

I was excited about that format then i watched some videos which would confirm your suspicion then i was sad.

remember though that races happen on closed courses that are marked for danger which is something that trail riding never affords you. also you only have to push yourself as far as you're comfortable..... in a lot of ways, racing is safer

tons of guys go out there every weekend to have a bash and compete but not racing to win. Im the same way - Im never going to win anything out there but its fun to go out and be competitive and learn from better riders.
You would be blown away at how much you can learn in such a short amount of time
Plus there are lots of different kinds of races like Enduros that are more time trials. The fast guys dont win those, the guys that can stay on time win those

Plus there is going to be a day, someday when Im not going to be able to ride anymore. I hope that day is a very very long way off but when it comes, ill be able to look back and think of the races I was in and know that I gave it a pretty good shake.

Enduros are not closed course.

Marked for danger.??..if you see ONE X [which means danger] on as 80 mile enduro that would be a good average..they dont exactly have hail bails in every corner..
I don't think I would say safer, most people are going to push harder in a competition then out with the buds. But you defintly have those guys that want to prove they can go fast on a trail ride also.

A little bit of a drive for you..

I know racing made me a much faster/better trail rider and trail riding made me a better street rider and motorcycling in general made me a much more confident person.

well, to be fair, SOME parts to enduros are closed, some are not and the parts that are open usually you are only supposed to be averaging 15, 20 mph at most

the point being you dont HAVE to ride 10/10ths all the time no matter what. Im just saying it safer to go out and ride on a course.... and I dont know what races you have seen in the past but out here X's and down arrows are VERY common, I have marked a few courses in my day and we mark the holy crap out of a course

Well, they have mx sections, but also obstacle sections. It is the latter I equated with endurocross. In any event, it is a low pressure form of motorcycle racing that is probably a little more technical than HS. It seems to have become quite popular in the last couple years.

In a way it is something like the GP racing they have out west, but to me those were more like a HS. At least they were back in the day.

The speed around here and at the National level is 24 MPH..

As far as as speed of course you do not have to go 100% but don't you agree that would be depending on the person.. I know guys that race just to see if they can finish an Enduro. othere are top A racers that go as fast as they can the whole day..thats what racing is all about for some.!!

As far as seeing races yeah I have seen a course or a two..
and marking how many arrows can folks put in a 80 mile enduro.?
at a national the markings are much better but local clubs can only do so much.

I watched a guy break his femur at the start of a Harescamble years ago he went all of 75 feet...I remeber his bike with no one on it was in first place for about 15 feet..that thing tumbled atleast five times before it went down..I also remember the racers girlfriend[or wife] went running over to him ane she passed out looking at his leg..

Of course you will get guys that get hurt trail riding also but if you are out there to Race I would doubt to many would agree that a race is Safer..

how many trial rides have you been on where there was an ambulance on hand?



at least at races they are prepared for people to crash. Im always amazed at how badly people get hurt out "riding for fun"

Does anyone ride trails or even race offroad where you don't try to push your limits of speed and just try to ride smooth, maintain good "flow" and try to clear technical obstacles without going down?

i try to ride like that all the time...trails or races. some days, though, i just can never get into that zone.

i've noticed that when i ride like that in races, i actually end up being faster than when i "try to go fast".

usually, when i feel like i'm going fast, i'm not going fast...and i get tired. when i feel smooth and like i'm not really going that fast, i'm actually going fast (er, well, fast for me)...and i don't get tired.