Getting riders to races

[Ktmboy]

Thanks Nigel for the thread and also the feed back. What I take is the timing thing is important as Oldguy stated.
This was the first Saturday event for us and it was a good learning curve. Sundays seem to be the go from now on. I guess we will take a leaf out of the MR rides and just put good events on and it will grow over time. We missed Kiwi Rider dead lines this time. That could have been a biggy.

But hey we had some good fun and managed to average 75 to each event. 150 would be great next year.

You can never win as we just recieved confirmation that the Ardmore Schools MX is on 2nd May which is the same day as our Jolly Roosta trail ride at Leightons farm and also the final of the Warkworth Honda school mx series. At least we are a bit (well alot) different from these events.

[clmintie]

Arrrggghhhhh. I wanna do Jolly Rooster and the girls wanna ride Ardy schools..... I've been finding the the double header weekends heaps of fun, but the money starts to run out real quick.....3 riders, 4 bikes, one wage.... I think everyone should change everything to suit us.... There, problem solved.......

[takitimu]

Thanks Nigel for the thread and also the feed back. What I take is the timing thing is important as Oldguy stated.
This was the first Saturday event for us and it was a good learning curve. Sundays seem to be the go from now on. I guess we will take a leaf out of the MR rides and just put good events on and it will grow over time. We missed Kiwi Rider dead lines this time. That could have been a biggy.

No worries Tony ,

From memory you got big numbers to the 2 man series you ran, that actually shocked me how many you got. Now the timing was good in terms of competing events, but it was a race & you got really good numbers & it looked like alot of Novices ( with the odd burgler in there ).

I'm a curious bugger sometimes & I just wonder what fired people about the 2 man that never quite clicked with the Scrambles, or for that matter a recent CC series up here.

My theory after reading here & thinking about it some more is that it's about people understanding what level the racing will be at and making it real clear it's fun & beginners welcome. Which kind of follows Scotty's point, the track has to be hard but not to hard.

My last thought is it's dangerous listening to people sometimes, you listen to the riders after Operau TTR & I know a fair few who don't really like it & you'd think it'd shrink but that race just get's bigger & bigger ( it's my favourite, but terrain is like what I grew up on ). I guess the bulk of people don't really comment & it can be tough to work out what they want.

[Ktmboy]

I think the Woodhill Two Man is special because apart from the T100 there are few tracks that can accomodate winter racing. Otherwise it turns into a mud fest. I see Powers has an event in June in Maramarua and I'd bet that not many would like riding those tracks mid winter.

Still will give it a go for next year though dependant on the availability of land. Its all about the planning, scheduling and the advertising.

[RJM]

My theory after reading here & thinking about it some more is that it's about people understanding what level the racing will be at and making it real clear it's fun & beginners welcome. Which kind of follows Scotty's point, the track has to be hard but not to hard.

You're on the money there. As I've said before I'm still very much novice and hate going to an event thinking I might get in the way of other people etc. Took a bit of convincing to get a long to Scrambles and had a blast at the back of the field. The racing part of it did intimidate me but was pleasantly suprised with the set up there. Was impressed with the higher level riding too from a spectator point of view.

I suggested to Scott recently if there could possibly be some sort of difficulty rating for events. 1 being easy novice friendly to 10 being super experienced. Just another thought.

[scott411]

i have been thinking about that idea a bit RJM, but as you said at Paparimu you had trouble in the A section, that was clearly marked A section because we thought the difficulty was harder than what we normally have in our trail ride, i think most the MR Motorcycle rides would be 2 to 3 on that scale, with occastionally a 6 or 7 put in as an A section, we do advertise in our flyers and advertising that are are aimed at beginner to intermedaite level,

[takitimu]

i have been thinking about that idea a bit RJM, but as you said at Paparimu you had trouble in the A section, that was clearly marked A section because we thought the difficulty was harder than what we normally have in our trail ride, i think most the MR Motorcycle rides would be 2 to 3 on that scale, with occastionally a 6 or 7 put in as an A section, we do advertise in our flyers and advertising that are are aimed at beginner to intermedaite level,

It's an interesting concept applied to a MX track as well, like last nights Maize I'd rate a 3, but last Sunday's MX would be more of a 7 rating. If nothing else I think I'll be suggesting we keep a ranking in mind for the tracks.

Regarding Trail rides, my opinion is the first "expert/A" section should start with a hill that pretty much is the edge of difficulty for the rest of the sections, that's not always easy with terrain etc. But I think we'll have a shot in a few weeks with that idea & see how it goes, certainly there is a pretty large variation in organisers definition of Expert/A .

[RJM]

As Scott and I discovered - I was well and truly dropped in it by my 'mates' who said just do it. Thankfully Scott was on hand to get me to the top of the hill.

[stig]

I've had access to enough, and done enough, trail riding to feel comfortable participating in a clubman level event, but when it comes to MX I've only had two rides on an mx track.
I loved it and was clearing jumps etc but it would be hard to get enough track time for me to be comfortable to enter an event.
My point being that they are only open for practice during tight windows of time,
Pukekohe 1-3pm on 3 days of the month
Mercer - 1 sat per month
rotorua - was wednesdays only but looks like its changed lately.

Why is this?

2hrs at puke vs. a whole day trail riding~

[scott411]

I've had access to enough, and done enough, trail riding to feel comfortable participating in a clubman level event, but when it comes to MX I've only had two rides on an mx track.
I loved it and was clearing jumps etc but it would be hard to get enough track time for me to be comfortable to enter an event.
My point being that they are only open for practice during tight windows of time,
Pukekohe 1-3pm on 3 days of the month
Mercer - 1 sat per month
rotorua - was wednesdays only but looks like its changed lately.

Why is this?

2hrs at puke vs. a whole day trail riding~

resource consent mainly, but also that mercer/harrisville/rotorua are run by volunteers and it is what suits them to an extent

but Kimmys has a track that is open everyday, ardmore is open every wednesday, taupo you can get into sas well,

[oldskool]

I don't race, it's just an internal thing. 2 man was an abberration for me. I entered as a social thing and partly due to peer persuasion. I found the atmosphere different and the riders a bit more anal on the trail, although that didn't prevent me from stopping and asking if riders were alright if they looked stranded. I was surprisingly pleased with my eventual time. However for some reason the scramble event didn't appeal to me. I guess it is the difference between riding trail and riding mx.

I think if I was co-erced enough I most probably would have attended the scramble events if I wasn't so busy moving house and if I had a lighter bike..which I do have now. But for the most I would have had to feel confident that I would have been placed in events that I finished at least mid pack. No one likes to come last. Which brings to another issue. Given the amount of divisions I could have ridden the question of ride time for the $ has to be considered. I could be wrong but my perception is riding trail events has more value than attending scramble events.

Having said all that I would most probably do the 2man again this year for the buddy factor.

[oldguy]

resource consent mainly, but also that mercer/harrisville/rotorua are run by volunteers and it is what suits them to an extent

but Kimmys has a track that is open everyday, ardmore is open every wednesday, taupo you can get into sas well,

I absolutely love the mercer track, it is the one track that I would have a go at racing. I like admore, bit more riding there and I might have a go at racing, Be it at a novice level. Harrisville just looking at it scares the shit out of me.

[SpikedPunch]

I absolutely love the mercer track, it is the one track that I would have a go at racing. I like admore, bit more riding there and I might have a go at racing, Be it at a novice level. Harrisville just looking at it scares the shit out of me.

I'm pretty timid on motox tracks, but I really like harrisville, even tho I ride slooow I always feel pretty safe in the B's cause it's so well set up