What is Motocross?
Motocross is a sport. Motocross or “MX” is a dirt bike racing sport in which riders compete on off road courses like gravel, mud, or grassy roads.
Motocross isn’t all about competing with other players since the road is very hard to beat. At the beginning of the 20th century, the sport evolved in the United Kingdom. Motocross evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials, such as the Auto Cycle Clubs’s first quarterly trial in 1909 and the Scottish Six days Trial that began in 1912. The first known scramble race took place in 1924 and the sport grew in popularity in Britain in the 1930s. On August 28, 1948, Buffalo Stadium in the Paris suburb of Montrouge hosted the first motocross race on an artificial track. Technical improvements were made in motorcycles due to the intense competition.
The period after World War II was dominated by BSA, which became the largest motorcycle company in the world. Japanese motorcycle manufacturers began to challenge European factories for supremacy in the motocross world in the late 1960s. The first world championship for a Japanese factory was won by Suzuki in 1970 when Jol Robert won the 250cc crown. The stadium event, won by Marty Tripes, paved the way for stadium based motocross events known as supercross.
European riders dominated the Motocross des Nations (MXDN) events from 1969 to 1980 but, by the 1980s, American riders had caught up with their European counterparts. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, Japanese motorcycle manufacturers presided over a boom in motocross technology. The typical air cooled two strokes with twin shock rear suspension and telescopic front forks gave way to water cooled engines and single shock absorber rear suspension and “upside down” front forks.
Although the advancement of two stroke engine technology was the primary focus of the major Japanese motorcycle manufacturers well into the mid 1990s, a renewed interest in engineering a competitive, lightweight four stroke motocross race bike was expressed among several brands. Due to the low relative power output of a four stroke engine compared to the then dominating two stroke machines, the AMA increased the allowable displacement capacity for four stroke engines in 1997.
