We can put an air raid siren, adding noise is easy. In my personal experience, nobody ever heard me (with ICE) coming from behind, I always had to time their braking to my shouting, so I'm not sold on the silent passing issues. But that's my personal opinion.
Same day/format makes sense if there's enough manufacturers (other than a single brand class, which could also be a thing). But we'll be addressing all the safety concerns in that case (charging, marshalls, fire etc), so the only remaining case to race together becomes "it's not fair". I wouldn't want to be in the position of answering "how much worse do we need to make our bikes for you to feel competitive?"
Fastest is hard to define, as a lot of it comes down to rider and team. The top riders will want to be in the premier class. That's why I think it's important to achieve inclusion at some point.
I love this cause when the NOISE argument fails the advantage one starts….
Ironic to me the electric bikes are bringing the truth to the surface….what I knew all along and was called a conspiracy theorist.
Imagine that! It’s not about the environment, but it’s about MONEY!!
The “it’s not fair..” was used not long ago when the 4 stroke rattle boxes I had to end my motocross career on were allowed to be double the displacement….
Why is it allowed to be not fair? Well 2 strokes burn oil!! Naughty naughty, 4 strokes are better for the environment so we will allow the advantage….did we mention the cost to race/maintain/parts is 700% more expensive and it’ll will pretty much ruin any privateers chance to make it?
Sorry…that’s the cost of saving the trees from the evil 2 stroke!!
(Let’s be clear, I DO NOT think electric is better for the environment….I actually see many ways that it is worse in its production/mining/disposal….we can get political if you want but I’ll stay on topic…)
So for fun let’s get on the side that electric is better for the environment….let’s assume it’s not some sort of narrative…
Why can’t they race? If you cut through the crap…looks like cost to maintain would put the ICE companies in a position to lose a LOT of money. No more “the unfair advantage goes to the least emissions….” Funny how quickly that dissolved..
Anyone actually believe KTM couldn’t make the freeride better? Most of us had built or ridden a surron that makes the freeride look silly. It’s been the same for years…KTM has no excuse with the access to funds and R&D to not have a bike that is at the stark level…UNLESS MAYBE THEY DONT WANT ONE!!
Look at the kids bikes….the e5 is limited just a little slower than the 50. My son has a cobra 50 a husky e5 and an electric cobra 50. He races pretty seriously and I will say the e bikes for racing. Wow how much less stress and pain…I get his suspension dialed chain right and tire pressure. No more too and bottom ends…amazing. These could be so much better but the powers to be keep them limited…I could go into this but unless you have the few years of dealing with racing the e bikes in ice 50 classes I’ll spare the novel.
Anyway, the point is ktm was going to release the E6 and E8 late last year and produce this year. They got such a big flood of interest then all of a sudden they were delayed and then the e3 and smaller bikes came out. Seems strange to me.
I’m not for or against anything. A free market is a fair market and it creates the best product for the consumer. There is no control in a free market. My favorite is 2 stroke cause I grew up in them but I can’t ride those in the hills of SD anymore…I can with electric. I can take my sons to some of my old spots that are still around and ride. We can bring shovels and no one cares. We can’t do that On ice anymore. We will prob always have our ice bikes but I wanna see some free and fair competition….tired of these paid “bike shootouts” and spoon fed info. It’s no different than mainstream media and government at this point.
Instead of all electric let’s go open. I’d bet an open class would be a revival of the 2 stroke cause it’s just better…we are so behind on 2 stroke tech because these manufacturers put every dime in 4 stroke development. Imagine if 2 strokes were still allowed to be competitive…? Where are the modern age 500s?
It’s a matter of time. these organizations are causing self inflicted wounds…it’s up to us to start making some noise about it. They can’t hide it, the lies are out in the open.