Kymco Seeks Big Time Exposure

[kz1000st]

Big time exposure with Flat Track racing on the rise.

http://portal.criticalimpact.com/vm2...473c7b9fa19141

[Irish]

I'm too old now but for you younger riders , try your hand at flat tracking & you will see just how much intestinal fortitude (guts) that you have! You really need a bike that is set up for "Flat Tracking" tho & who can afford that? Irish

[DisillusionedPrepper]

Look back at any/all of motor sports.
It used to be you would beg, borrow, steal anything that had an engine on it. You could meet up with a half dozen like minded people, and race.
The original flat trackers were nothing more than the cheapest, most beat down bikes available.
Same for Moto cross, NASCAR, drag racing...

Fellas with junk, and guts (lack of brain power?) started all the motor sports that the factories dominate today.
Even at the most grass root of arenas it is ALWAYS the guy with the most money that wins. ALWAYS!

Now, why Kymco chose flat tracking as their venue is anyones guess. It's perhaps the smallest of venues in the US, and kymco has nothing to offer in that venue.
Sure they have the UTV but there is another example of my point from above. If you can afford a 10k UTV to haul your fat, lazy ass to the podium or haul your Gatorade from the SUV to the pit... Oh hell, here I go again!

Go get 'em Kymco! How about some scooter super cross? One crash, and the place looks like the town dump.

[kz1000st]

Originally Posted by DisillusionedPrepper

Look back at any/all of motor sports.
It used to be you would beg, borrow, steal anything that had an engine on it. You could meet up with a half dozen like minded people, and race.
The original flat trackers were nothing more than the cheapest, most beat down bikes available.

Flat Track racing has enjoyed a rebirth in the pats few years on the back of just one engine. The Kawasaki 650 fell into the hands of Privateers and Harley Davidson started to get their butts whipped. The Howerton team that won this year with Bryan Smith is not associated with the factory but beat the Harley/Vance and Hines Factory bikes at their own game.

Sadly Indian has entered that sport by buying the three best riders and the winning team. Even still privateers can buy Indians and have taken races in the past from the factories. I'm hoping that the few good riders left on Kawasakis will stir things up. One brand racing stinks. Flat Track suffered through it for forty years.

[wheelbender6]

Hurray! We will see Kymco girls at the flat track races.
Kymco was a major sponsor of NHRA drag racing last year. I hope they continue that sponsorship too.

[DisillusionedPrepper]

That's bait, and switch.
I'll bet they are trained to tell you how cool you look on that 10 grand UTV.

[DisillusionedPrepper]

I always think of those horizontal Harley-s as THE flat track bike. It really came down to the rider, and not much more. That's where the factory effort hurt us. They have a way of stealing off the best riders, enter every event, and hurt the small guy trying to have fun. It's no fun losing every time you saddle up. Especially with no hope of that ever changing.
Maybe splitting off into factory only events, and leave some crumbs for the average Joe?

Adding any other type of engine or frame is well... Like Dennis Conner entering a catamaran in the Americas Cup or running a gear box in a CVT scooter race...

There is just something in a one inch set of handlebars vibrating to a four inch diameter.
"Pucker up, and race" (the suction in your butt is the only thing keeping you on the bike.)

Maybe another example could be - Male super models hanging out at every bar you went to... Might just as well stay home.

[kz1000st]

At the moment it looks like a few factories will be jumping into Flat Track. I'd prefer to think that it will be more open with available whole bikes, as Indian has promised, or engines as Harley claims there will be sold.

No professional sport will ever be pure. Heck, I quit racing motocross years ago when I realized I was racing against younger kids who were bankrolled by their parents. Unless you are wealthy somebody will always have more money. Whether Sponsors or Parents with good jobs.

[DisillusionedPrepper]

I guess I was a Mayberry RFD kind of kid.
We lived out on Long Island before it was "The Hamptons", and it was just us kids.
Cut up plumbing parts for exhausts, and intakes. A thousand drywall screws for winter ice racing. Chopped off shopping cart frames for wheelie bars.
You never knew who was gonna win or was going to the hospital.

I've broken every joint in my body dirt riding, and today I can barely move without tylenol or alieve or something. It was more than fun... Until $$$$$ F'd it all up.
Joe Blow gets a new YZ whatever, Billy's dad gets the next size up, the town wants to stop the kids because there is no insurance, cops on the prowl for 'Dirt Bike Gangs".

Now you have a bunch of kids smoking meth, and mugging old ladies... Yeah.
I need another asprin.

[kz1000st]

Hah! I grew up in Levittown and raced all over the place in the early 1970's. It was out at Westhampton behind the drag strip, next to the oval, where there was a motocross track. There I came to the blinding realization that I was wasting my time racing. I ditched the MX bike, bought a street bike and never looked back.

[DisillusionedPrepper]

Small world...
You may have known a place called "The Plateaus" out in East Quoge.
West Hampton Speedway, and The plateaus were where everyone knew to meet up. I left a few teeth out there.

We'd all get there by riding the power lines (from Hampton Bays) that ran parallel to the LIRR.
Small world indeed.