Motocross Riding
Invented in the early 1950’s in New Zealand, ‘Motocross Riding’ has become a massive phenomenon in the United States, Europe and Australia.
Basically involving fast 2-stroke dirt bikes and more recently 4-stroke ‘thumper’ dirt bikes, motocross riding sees a host of riders battling it out on dirt jumps, kangaroos, table tops and sweeping bends.
More recently the super series of motocross riding has seen tighter tracks, turns and carnage as plenty of riders cram for limited space on the dirt tracks inside massive stadiums and arenas around the world.
Motocross riding has spawned several other events such as ‘extreme dirt bike jumping’ similar to the ‘krusty / crusty demons’ who thrust their bikes many meters into the air and perform staggering stunts such as flips, pancakes, cross ups, no handers and other crazy jumps to entertain large crowds.
Even more extreme dirt bike stunts have been performed by the likes of Robbie Kinevel who will jump obstacles such as cars, trucks and huge distances to entertain fans.
The risk of injury through motocross riding, stunts and extreme events continues to grow. Broken limbs, spinal injury and actual death are real possibilities in these events and to some degree the crowds watch purely because of the high risk involved in the sports.
The popularity of motocross riding has spawned plenty of computer games too, even free online games such as those from teagames.com where motocross games rank as the hugely popular titles among gamers looking to copy their favourite riders from either the motocross series, krusty demons or stunt bike gurus.
Background notes on Robbie Kinevel:
Robbie has completed over 250 jumps, setting 20 world records. These include the Caesars Palace Fountain jump, the building to building jump and The Grand Canyon jump. The canyon jump was partially based on Robbie’s father’s radical and ill-fated attempt at jumping the Snake River Canyon in 1974 on a rocket “motorcycle” which was really much more rocket than motorcycle. In Robbie’s jump he used a motorcycle and he jumped the canyon
Background notes on Crusty Demons:
The Crusty Demons is a group of extreme freestyle motocross (FMX) riders which become popular over a decade ago thanks to the action video film called “the crusty demons of dirt” which was a doco-style piece exposing behind-the-scenes life of motocross riders performing outlandish bike tricks against the backdrops of the deserts, sand dunes and arid landscapes of California.
The sport of motorcross though has been around for many years. It involves racing off-road motorcycles, otherwise known as dirt bikes around man-made dirt tracks.
Background notes for Motorbike (invention):
Some attribute the invention of the dirt bike, or at least the most notable inspiration for what would become the modern day dirt bike to two German inventors named Gottlieb Daimler (yes, that Daimler) and Wilhelm Maybach. In 1885 these two men created a bike powered by gasoline, but it was much closer to a moped than an actual motorcycle. This dirt bike precursors was called a Reitwagen, which is German for “riding car.”
