By John Basher
For great number eight I'll take a look into the high dollar world of pit bike riding. To be completely honest, my view on this segment of the industry has drastically changed from only a year ago.
NUMBER EIGHT: PIT BIKES ARE FUN
I didn't think so a year ago, though. I had never really tried my throttle hand at 50's and 110's until last July. My brother, who is a pit bike guru and quite a good small bike rider, wanted me to try this souped up pit bike he had. Me being me, I got a little cocky on the 50 (but the engine was bored and stroked to a 106). I started hitting smaller tabletops, but my protective wear wasn't quite up to spec. I wore a cut-off tee, surf shorts, and some skateboarding shoes (for my mother's sake I had also worn a helmet, goggles, and gloves). Things happen very fast and something can go wrong in an instant. I learned the hard way, which seems to be the motto of my life. Suddenly, on one of the tabletops I over-jumped the landing while leaning back. The combination of spode moves sent me to the ground in a heap of skin and bones. Fortunately I skidded across the ground, but unfortunately my left kneecap found a rock embedded in the bulletproof soil. Instantly the rock tore a quarter size gaping hole into my knee, rendering me down for the count and seeing stars. I looked at my knee and saw a fatty white substance extruding from the hole, and I thought to myself, "That can't be too good." To make a long story short, every day I look down at my left kneecap and see that ugly scar I have a constant reminder that I should not ride pit bikes. I figured that I would leave those things to BMX inspired riders.
Slowly my perception and internal bitterness began to change to concerned and cautious enjoyment. In November, as the pro racing scene was on a break, the boys at BBR invited my brother and I up to their compound near Seattle to test out a trick CRF150/CRF250. How could it be two bikes? Easy. BBR took a 250F engine and stuffed it into an unbelievably cool CRF150 chassis. Honestly, I was taken back by such an extreme conception, and the bike was insanely fun. On top of that, because BBR used a 150 frame, it was large enough for my 6'1" frame to wrap around semi-comfortably. By the way, Duane Brown, I'm still waiting for my free bike to arrive in the mail! That bike was the start to something beautiful in my eyes, something that in my mind previously had been tainted with blood and a beat down body.
And, months passed before I rode a mini again. However, I didn't lose faith in 10-inch wheels. Around May a friend of the magazine, Tony Megla, informed us that he was running a race focusing on pit bikes at a top secret location. I decided to participate, although I was dressed in more padding than a middle linebacker for the Oakland Raiders. No more dents, bumps, or bruises for me. It turns out that the Megladome race was a mix of craziness, fun, and dirty riding. All ingredients I need for excitement and a good time. My thoughts on pit bikes were starting to come around, and the visual of my tattered knee was beginning to fade away in my mind.
Then, just last week, SDG introduced their 125cc Pro Mini. The day before the guys at MXA joked about me going out there and riding, saying that I should wear everything from a Supermoto suit to football pads, because they figured it was guaranteed that I'd crash and at least scrape myself up. How right they were. Out at Starwest Raceway on the mini bike track I turned from reserved pit bike rider to aggressive animal in just a few laps, which translated into me going over the bars. It was a valiant crash, and of course I did a lawn dart directly in front of the SDG guys. I shrugged off the crash, made the blood stop oozing from my arm, and went back out on the track for more punishment. It came only a short time later again, when I was goofing around trying to demolish soft puffy berms. I slid out, tumbled like a box of rocks in a 55-gallon drum, and came to a halt and found that I had broken the clutch perch. Truth be told, other than the blood pouring from my open wound and a bike that I had thrashed but wasn't supposed to, I had a really good time.
What's the moral of my rambling stories? I like pit bikes, even if they do throw me to the ground faster than a bull would. Pit bikes have opened up another segment of the motocross market where companies like BBR, Two Brothers, SDG, Sik 50's, Big Minis, and many other businesses can thrive. Better yet, it's great to see that new people are entering the sport through purchasing 50's and 110's to race around on with their friends and knock the plastic off of each other. Even some of my friends who had shown little interest before in motocross now have taken an extreme liking to pit bike riding, thus they are sucked into the black hole of MX. I even think it's pretty cool that kids, with their lifted trucks to the moon and blacked out 50's, come to the track just to hang out with their friends and not ride. They (when they do ride), along with everyone else who has a passion for pit bike riding, enjoys the same basic essence for riding motorcycles as Ricky Carmichael, Travis Pastrana, or Carey Hart.
I no longer cringe when I think of pit bike riding, although my body shudders at the thought of going over the bars again or tearing a chunk of skin out of my knee. To the pit bike industry, I salute you. Now the next time you see someone augured into the ground taking a dirt nap after crashing on a pit bike, please at least stop and yank my head out of the ground so that I can breath. After all, I'm not ostrich!
