History of Motocross / Enduro

[Bitten]

I was having trouble sleeping last night and was thinking about all things to do with small engines as you are want to do and I started wondering is there a definitive book on the history of off road motorcycling?

Not Just a list of bike models and race results etc but something really comprehensive that goes back to its origins in europe and through to the growth in North America includes some of the politics between manufactures & race teams, the reasons behind why some bikes came into existence and others failed, the growth in Supercross

What prompts this was I enjoyed a recent thread on the development of the HL500 plus other insightful reads like the birth of Supercross in a VMX mag a few editions ago.

Off road motorcycling has a facinating history of which I know bugger all and I would love to learn more, you pick up bits and pieces from here and there but it would be great to find something all encompassing

Cheers

[TooFastTim]

Dunno about a book but ALL off-road sport is derived from the Scott trial.

The Scott trial was first held in 1914 and was and remains a time and observed trial. That is the competitors are scored on both time and observation (observation being the only criteria in observed trials now). Enduros dispensed with the observation scoring but kept the time. But that happened later.

Meanwhile, down south, a bunch of guys also did away with observation criteria and held a "scott" trial. A mad "scramble" across the country side against the clock. One long lap in one direction in the morning and another in the opposite direction in the afternoon. This was the southern scott and this became known as scrambling. In the 1950's the French and Belgium's got held of the idea and ran  mufti lap races in the same direction (!) on shorter laps. And the sport of motocross was born.

[IT400C]

Hi Bitten,

Not quite what you were asking, but I am doing a book at the moment on the history of Enduros in SE Queensland. 

Basically looking at the period from the early organised Trailrides by the QTRA and TMCC that went on to become the first competitive Enduros (TMCC's Great Dividing Run, QTRA's Boonah 2 Day), through to probably the I4DE.... 

Originally I was going to finish at 1985 (the currently accepted Vinduro cut-off date), but now I'm thinking is the I4DE in '88 may be a better end point..

And anybody out there that has any stories/results/photos etc from the early days in QLD, please get in touch!

PM me or email at [email protected]

Tony