Road riders vs dirt riders?

**carver** · 19th July 2006, 22:04

Here is a question, it seems to be common knowledge that dirt bike rides make good road riders, but, could a really good road rider.. say 2 smoker , beat a average dirt rider off road, if say he had…30 mins practice? but no prior exp i\on the dirt, say down a natural terrain trail.

**Oscar** · 19th July 2006, 22:15

No.

Or to put it another way, I can give you the names of a dozen dirtriders who became world champs on the track. Can you gimme one roadracer that won a Moto-X title.

**oldguy** · 19th July 2006, 22:18

Originally Posted by carver

Here is a question, it seems to be common knowledge that dirt bike rides make good road riders, but, could a really good road rider.. say 2 smoker , beat a average dirt rider off road, if say he had…30 mins practice? but no prior exp i\on the dirt, say down a natural terrain trail.

I do both, started out on farm bikes then move to trail bikes and on to road, still riding both , you will find most started out riding on trail or farm bikes, but then I'm average at both, it all come's to the rider if they are competative they will adapt quickly.

**carver** · 19th July 2006, 22:22

Originally Posted by Oscar

No.

Or to put it another way, I can give you the names of a dozen dirtriders who became world champs on the track. Can you gimme one roadracer that won a Moto-X title.

i got a huge surprise when my farmer mate wasted me on the road, despite my 6 years of exp...it was his first time on the road too...

**Motu** · 19th July 2006, 22:37

Worse than that.....There was a big New Year Party at Matiatia,on the lawn - bands all night,great stuff.Sometime in the early hours of the morning some...some creature got up on stage and started mimming and dancing,doing a sort of strip.Fuck it was awfull,I was embarrassed watching this,this thing up on stage.My wife was laughing at me,she seemed to think it strange that I would find women doing such things very interesting,but get so incensed when a guy did it.Fucking poofter!

Anyway,a few days later we had a race meeting at the dirt track,and we had a good turnout of bikes,with some visitors thrown in.And this guy turns up and seems interested in having a go.So my mate who was injured let him have a shot on his TT500....he had on some steel cap slip ons and an undone oilskin parka.In our first race this bastard is right out front,with me!.He can't ride for shit,but somehow he's doing it right,totaly out of shape - he's a real danger to the other riders and himself,not to mention me.I've got to sort him out,and I've got his number now.He cuts into the sweeper in front of me....so I barge up the inside and push him off the groove into the loose stuff....then I hit the gas hard far too early - so does he,and he's gone in a cloud of dust.He didn't turn up for the next race - told you he was a poofter.

I was really surprised that someone who didn't have a clue could be so fast first time out on a bike he didn't know,on a track he's never ridden on,and a style of riding he'd never tried.There are some dark horses out there....

**carver** · 19th July 2006, 22:46

Originally Posted by Motu

Worse than that.....There was a big New Year Party at Matiatia,on the lawn - bands all night,great stuff.Sometime in the early hours of the morning some...some creature got up on stage and started mimming and dancing,doing a sort of strip.Fuck it was awfull,I was embarrassed watching this,this thing up on stage.My wife was laughing at me,she seemed to think it strange that I would find women doing such things very interesting,but get so incensed when a guy did it.Fucking poofter!

Anyway,a few days later we had a race meeting at the dirt track,and we had a good turnout of bikes,with some visitors thrown in.And this guy turns up and seems interested in having a go.So my mate who was injured let him have a shot on his TT500....he had on some steel cap slip ons and an undone oilskin parka.In our first race this bastard is right out front,with me!.He can't ride for shit,but somehow he's doing it right,totaly out of shape - he's a real danger to the other riders and himself,not to mention me.I've got to sort him out,and I've got his number now.He cuts into the sweeper in front of me....so I barge up the inside and push him off the groove into the loose stuff....then I hit the gas hard far too early - so does he,and he's gone in a cloud of dust.He didn't turn up for the next race - told you he was a poofter.

I was really surprised that someone who didn't have a clue could be so fast first time out on a bike he didn't know,on a track he's never ridden on,and a style of riding he'd never tried.There are some dark horses out there....

this sounds a bit like something i would do- if i had enough alchofuel in my system, anyhow, my first ride on a "proper" dirt bike was on a race modded CRF 250 R
me thinks 250 single...hmmm..easy, but me jumps on, honda is bitch to start, and easy to stall, once i got going i was astonished, so much power, so light...man, i had some idea of how to corner from riding a bored out DR 2500, but it was hard work at first, but by the end of the day i was smittin, i also rode a KTM 520, which was easier (less rev's, more torque)
i really got into it after 30 mins of trying to take it hard...then going a bit faster.
i would love to do it again with the skill i have now.
oh yea, fortunatly the CRF handled very well!

**merv** · 19th July 2006, 22:56

I reckon a good rider is a good rider. Give a good rider any bike and they'll figure out how to make it go fast sooner or later.

Colin Edwards won 2 WSB titles, but he started on dirt bikes when he was 4. Is he a dirt biker or a roadracer.

Many of the Yank world champs like Kenny Snr and Schwantz have also raced dirt whether it be flat track or MX.

**Hellraiser** · 19th July 2006, 23:00

The Short answer is NO

I enjoy riding on the road / track BUT i also enjoy MOTOX.

Moto X is a completly differant way of riding a bike compared to riding on the road. The best example is in Moto X you spend most of your time standing up on the bike with your head hanging out over the handel bars. Most road/track riders take along time to get to grips with this.

**merv** · 19th July 2006, 23:03

Do none of you remember Hugh Anderson?

Once he retired from the European GP scene he took up MX and became NZ champion and since then has returned to road racing on classics.

That man was able to go from head down arse up riding position and 16 speed gearboxes to standing up and winning in the dirt. He has ridden just about anything and done well.

**Hellraiser** · 19th July 2006, 23:04

Originally Posted by merv

I reckon a good rider is a good rider. Give a good rider any bike and they'll figure out how to make it go fast sooner or later.

Not true give a MX rider a road bike and it will not take him very long to have it going fast.

Give a road rider a MX bike on a MX track and it will take him months to get the hang of it.

**merv** · 19th July 2006, 23:18

Yeah but its all about how much you are generalising and what is the definition of a road rider vs a dirt rider? There will be many examples of people that mastered both from whatever angle. Carl Fogarty even was handy in the dirt - was he a dirt rider first or road rider?

My vintage we all started out riding road a lot, but then did it all on dirt bikes using them for everything. My first competition experience was trials. Am I a road rider or a dirt rider? Buggered if I know I like both.

A lot of it is probably to do with fitness as MX requires you to be in very good shape to do it well.

**Motu** · 19th July 2006, 23:38

It's a matter of what you can take from each and apply to the other - it's just that a dirt rider can take so much more and apply it to road riding.....for the road rider he can't apply so much of what he's learned to the dirt.

When I was trying to get the young guys to ride on the dirt track oval,it was a bit hard to get across what we were doing....as far as they were concerned they were riding dirt bikes on a dirt track,no problem.I was riding off road with these guys every weekend - but on the dirt track I was using my road riding skills,setting my bike up with smaller road front wheels and using more road type tyres than knobs.It was obvious to them I was faster around the track,but not obvious how I was doing it with such an odd looking bike.No one ever bothered to change their tyres,presures or riding style.

It's whether you can take what you learn,and apply it somewhere else.

**texmo** · 20th July 2006, 00:46

Originally Posted by Oscar

No.

Or to put it another way, I can give you the names of a dozen dirtriders who became world champs on the track. Can you gimme one roadracer that won a Moto-X title.

Yeah because people tend to go up in the world not down...

**onearmedbandit** · 20th July 2006, 01:22

Originally Posted by Hellraiser

Not true give a MX rider a road bike and it will not take him very long to have it going fast.

Give a road rider a MX bike on a MX track and it will take him months to get the hang of it.

LMAO!!

Pretty sweeping generalisation there buddy. I'm 100% certain there are road bike racers out there whip a lot of dirt bikers arses yet have never swung a leg over a mx bike, and vica versa.

**Oscar** · 20th July 2006, 09:14

Originally Posted by merv

Do none of you remember Hugh Anderson?

Once he retired from the European GP scene he took up MX and became NZ champion and since then has returned to road racing on classics.

That man was able to go from head down arse up riding position and 16 speed gearboxes to standing up and winning in the dirt. He has ridden just about anything and done well.

Not quite.
He rode MX in Europe while he was road racing.
He won the French MX Championship, I think...