Ask Ping!
Friday, May 25, 2012 | 9:30 AM
ODI dates back to the 1980’s as the leader in grip manufacturing. Focusing primarily on the bmx and mountain bike industries through the 90’s and early 2000’s, ODI re-entered the motocross scene when they developed the patented lock-on grip system that eliminates wire and glue. Continuing to advance the way riders hold on to their bikes, ODI has worked closely with the teams they support such as Troy Lee Designs to create the product that is now being used by some of the top teams in the industry.
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PrintDave
How are things? Hope all is well in SoCal.
The reason I am writing you is to talk about speed…speed kills, right? And if it doesn’t kill it sure as hell hurts when you are hitting the ground going fast. What I am getting at is I have been involved in this sport for a while as a racer and rider and what I have seen over the years seems to be an increase in deaths and injuries at the races and during practice and more and more top riders seem to get injured more often.
I think the reason for this is not the tracks; the tracks are better now than ever. I think the reason is the advent of the 4 stroke. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my KX450’s and if you want to take them away, well, you better invent a 2 smoker that is direct injected with a broad power band. Anyway I think the simple answer here is everyone, Vets, Pros, B riders, C riders are all going faster than ever on these bikes. A 5-mile an hour difference on impact is huge and can make a big difference on being injured or getting up and riding away. So what I am saying are asking are 4 strokes really death/injury machines?.....
What do you think?
Wes Turner
First of all, I don’t think it’s fair to call any motorcycle an injury/death machine. If you eat at McDonald’s too often you could call a fork an illness/death tool, but I think we all realize it is the tub-o-lard on the business end of the utensil that is the problem. That said, there is absolute validity to your notion of increased injury with increased speed. Four-strokes are easier to ride and much faster than the two-strokes of the past and riders are simply going faster. So, while there may not be more crashes than before, the crashes that happen are at increased speeds. When looking at a traumatic event you have to consider kinetic energy and force. Kinetic energy = mass x velocity (squared). That means that speed is an exponentially significant factor in a crash. Force is mass x deceleration so the quicker you stop the more damage you are likely to incur. Sometimes a rider will roll out of high-speed crash unscathed or land down the backside of a jump, which will slow his deceleration. Chad Reed at Millville last year comes to mind. That’s the best you can hope for.
I don’t know the answer but a good start is to wear all the protective gear you can, get your bike set up properly and ride within your limits. Otherwise get really good insurance and make sure you have a loved one willing to wipe your ass for a while when you do break yourself off.
PING
Hey Ping,
I see that Hughes is stepping up for Hangtown, why not you?
I see that Ryan is injured now and I am not. That’s why. Sometimes you have to know when the ship has sailed.
PING
Ping,
Lets get the classic “you have the best article on the website” out of the way even though it still needs to be said. I have a question about all of these new trends:
First off, the nicknames are about as boring as you can think, RV2,JS7,RD5,CR22,RC4..Really? Can't we come up with anything better than those oh so exciting names and get back to the good ones like in the JGR commercial, The Bomber?
Secondly, what is up with all of this swag? Arm swag, head swag, leg swag? Just another one of those things I guess, even though I must admit it is quite amusing to watch the best of the best throw some fun back into it.
Oh ya, forgot the entire reason I wrote you was to ask why the riders grab their helmets over the triples in supercross? Is it just to make them loosen their grip and not tighten up?
Thanks,
Matt
Leg Swag for days.
I’ve been over the nickname thing a hundred times and, sadly, it’s just going to have to run its course. I’ve suggested some nicknames to young riders but they look up to the top riders and want to have simple initial/number nicknames like them…Like lemmings off a cliff. And it doesn’t end with nicknames. You want to know where the helmet grab started? Ricky Carmichael used to do it when he first started racing professionally. It was out of necessity at first as his helmet would push his goggles down into his line of sight and the grab was actually to adjust his goggles. After a while it just became sort of a nervous twitch that calmed him down during a race. Eventually, every young kid with dreams of supercross stardom began grabbing the front of their helmets on bigger jumps to emulate the GOAT. Like I said… lemmings off a cliff.
I haven’t seen the arm or head swag but the leg swag, as performed flawlessly and in abundance by Justin Bogle, can look pretty fun. Hopefully he doesn’t lose his leg swag when he gets his ACL repaired soon. If he does, maybe he can make arm or head swag popular?
PING
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If RC pooped his pants during a moto I would give it a shot because all avenues should be explored to find the secret of his talent and speed.
i remember him flying back to the pits @ binghamton 98' or 99' , his skipped the podium interview. it was only muddy in his shorts that day. i think the time he had a bee in his goggles was worse, still won the moto.
It seems the nicknames have improved a tad to me over Lammy, Hanny, Reedy etc. But at Hangtown they were calling Jessica Patterson J P Money stealing that from Jason Thomas which is bad. The money name should have belonged to RC because when you put your money on him you never lost.
They should make the 150 and 250 class. 450 are no fun when all you do is twist, bring back the shifting and carrying speed, and of course less injury's.
Ping jumped on a Suzuki this week to emulate JS?? LOL
Dear Matt, My 12 year old son's nickname is "Airballs" and he regularly races a kid with the nickname "Superman". Both kids have these nicknames on thier bikes. You can rest easy knowing there is hope for the future!
Ship has sailed? My ship has sailed, been sold for scrap, and that scrap has sailed and is getting close to being sold as scrap again. Mirrors were invented by Satan, IMO, and bathroom scales was his next invention. Who said time heals all wounds?
Not to say that the faster bikes are omitted, but another factor in the increased number of Moto related injuries at the local tracks may be the increased number of participants. Having more riders out there can inflate the number of injuries over a given period of time.
Secondly, with the increase in moto media outlets comes better exposure for the positive and negative events in the sport. It isn't uncommon now to hear of the injuries of an amateur rider in a state many miles away. Re Tweets didn't exist just a few short years ago and an accident like Vallee's may not have caught the attention of a rider in N. Carolina.
To me it's stating the obvious, but the tracks could easily be made to not allow a bike to gain speed. Speed takes distance to build up. Shorter distances between corners/direction changes equals lower speeds. Am I wrong, enlighten me? You can have long straights just cut down on the "dangerous" obstacles in them.
Good job ping! Yet another week with no major sarcasm and smart azz reply to the faithfuls... As for the speed and classes, I agree totally. I love riding anything with a motor and two wheels, but I really dont understand why these manufacturers insist on upping the cc's like they have. The racing would be just as great to watch if everyone on the gate was riding a pitbike. I am really scared for moto, just because of the path it is taking. Another ten years go by, it's going to be like watching a real mx video game where they are jumping 200' jumps, and hitting speeds of 100 plus miles an hour. The speeds are certainly getting up there, and I just dont really see where it needs to get to such levels... The 125 days were so sweet, cause when you seen a rider string together a gnarly triple-triple, or a huge leaper in mx, you knew that they were a bad dude. Thats when the real skilled guys were really noticeable compared to the average guy. I just thought it was cooler to watch and made it so much more interesting.
Another reason 4 strokes have almost ruined this sport. Its 100% true, go back and watch any race from 2000 ish and you can see how much speeds have gone up. And any idiot can ride a thumper fast. There are thousands of riders going way faster than their ability level. It used to be you had to have skill to go fast. Add that to the fact that the cost of ownership has skyrocketed, the steady downward trend, it makes me wonder when we are going to reach the breaking point....
Ryno should stick to his meathead videos.
One of these days Bogle is going to nut himself so hard that deep voice is going soprano.
Good job this week DPG101.
I love how the local guys pipe and hop up those 450's then go half throttle and coast for a mile into corners. It seems the 250's now can handle any track so maybe they need to go 250A and B classes.
Looks like Ping has been studying a little physics along with his EMT qualifications.
Just to add to that line of thinking, the way to measure the instantaneous force on impact is impulse, which is the instantaneous rate of change of momentum (mass v velocity). Going from 50+ mph (and faster than on 2 strokes) to near zero in a fraction of a second is why there are more injuries now than in the past. Since many of the crashes lead to head first impacts, we are seeing more severe concussions as well.
If 4 strokes are here to stay, it is time to look at bringing down displacement to say 200cc and 400cc (or 350cc)
My $,02
Ping - since you sound like a physics professor this week...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_(physics)
4 Stks are cool...but the co ordination to shift/clutch/throttle control makes the 2 smoker shows a great rider...makes a rider that knows how to ride a smoker fast.
4 stks make it easy for riders to go at speed easier.
Shiow me a guy that can race a two smoker fast and that is a rider. It carries over
to a 4 stk but...
And the ave racer can not afford a new 4 stk every year its already hurting Am MX
as we all know...
i used to watch this thing called...??,...nascar with my dad and my younger brother...in the..60tys and early 70tys..at that time they hit top speeds over 200mph..and then some..same with indy 500...check their speeds this weekend. Memorial day.......Priceless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you all that serve and protect our Freedoms. you dont know what you got till its gone. Richard Petty's #...??? long live the king!
Dear Ping:
You are a moron.
First of all,
Kinetic energy = 1/2 * mass * velocity (squared)
THEN you say "That means that speed is an exponentially significant factor in a crash."
No. The severity of the crash (the amount of kinetic energy) is proportional to the square of velocity, which represents a polynomial relationship with velocity. An exponential function increases in value faster than any polynomial. If kinetic energy were an exponential function of velocity, then it would be defined by a function where velocity WAS the exponent, not a function where velocity is raised to a fixed exponent.
Hey - did you and Weege take the same "Engineering for Journalists" class? Maybe you two physics savants should discuss the principles of traction control on motorcycles...
come on GraciousOne, take it easy here. We're a bunch of fans that watch motorcycles go around in circles in the dirt. I don't think ping is really trying to teach us an exact physics lesson and is just using the "general" reference. I really don't think anyone cares that his reference is exact or not, the mans building to a bigger point...
Larrywitmer I couldn't agree more, When you seen a guy on a 125 hucking the uphill triple behind the starting gate at High point, you knew he was a bad dude.
cr500af Right you are, Hit the nail on the head for sure! The displacement should be dropped down some.