The motocross community
There is a large population of people who ride dirt bikes in America. Many of these people ride for recreation on the weekend, often called “weekend warriors”. But within the dirt bike community there is a group that dedicate a lot more than average time to riding and customizing their dirt bikes. The motocross racer is far from being the average weekend warrior in many ways. The list that separates a weekend rider from a motocross racer is pretty extensive, from the dirt bike they ride down to the parts they replace them with. The weekend rider will usually keep his bike with all the original parts and will personalize it to their liking. When something breaks on this riders bike he replaces it with OEM parts, these parts are the original parts the bike came with and are a lot more cheap to replace then buying upgraded parts. The racer will not race his bike until he or she feels it is race ready, usually the first thing to go is the exhaust pipe. The OEM exhaust system sells for 395.00 dollars, while a racer will take if off his bike and replace it with an aftermarket exhaust, the average price is 854.00 dollars. Stock camshafts cost 253.00 dollars; aftermarket cost 524.00 dollars. Foot pegs that get the job done can be purchased for fourteen dollars while titanium aftermarket pegs go for 219.00 dollars. And these are basic parts that get replaced by the motocross racer.
The dirt bike model is the easiest thing to distinguish a motocross racer from a weekend rider. Many companies make many types of dirt bikes. For example Honda makes the CRF which is the race model of their dirt bikes such as the CR 250F, someone who owns this dirt bike more than likely races. While on the other hand the trail version of this Honda would be the CR 250X. By appearance they may look the same but when it comes to their engine, they are far from the same. The major differences between the two engines would be that the motocross bike’s engine will have a transmission with closer gear ratios allowing the racer to accelerate faster so he can shift into higher and faster gears. The CRX’s transmission will be a lot more spaced out allowing the rider to find a nice sweet spot to cruise without having to worry about having to whine the engine out to get the best power out. The suspension is also very different, The CRF’s suspension is tuned to handle better at high speeds and take hard landings after hitting big jumps. The shaft on the forks are 49mm wide which gives it more surface area than the CRX’s which is 47mm. This allows the oil in the Forks to resist the shaft going into them so they will stay stiff for harder and more aggressive riding. The forks on the CRX are tuned for a more low to medium speed riding style and the since the shaft is thinner it allows the rider to use all his suspension instead of saving it for the big jumps and extremely high speeds. This in turn makes for a smoother ride when just out trail riding. The parts the manufactures put on their bikes also correlates on who they market it for. For example the CRF comes from the factory with aluminum handle bars, an aggressive tuned exhaust, aluminum head valves and an ECU tuned specifically for aggressive riding. While the CRX has a steel exhaust, steel head valves, an exhaust that gets the job done and an ECU programmed to keep the engine reliable. But the big difference is how much money a racer spends compared to a weekend rider.
