An Observation on Junior Motocross

[TT]

On Sunday, I spent the day at Ravenswood watching and taking a few photos.
Early in the day the young fellas struggled a bit with the muddy conditions and a there weren't many that didn't hit the deck at one time or another.
However, the thing that struck me most, was after crashing, the first thing many of them would do was look up to see if someone was coming their way to help them. If there was, they would make no attempt to pick the bike up themselves and just walk away and wait for the flaggy or whoever to pick their bike up and get it going for them.
One kid in particular, just stood up and stared at me, obviously waiting for me to drop my cameras and rush over to get him going again. I just stared back.......... 
It certainly wasn't the majority that behaved like this, but there was a hell of a lot that thought it was someone elses job to pick their bike up for them. 
The conditions were pretty tough for the little buggers, but I would have thought they'd make some sort of effort to get themselves going again.
Comments? Am I being too harsh?

[Graeme M]

You are a hard bastard Tony. Does this mean that if I fall over at CD7 while you are photographing me, you'll just leave me to somehow get my bike back up all on my own?

[TT]

Yes.

[vandy010]

i'd agree Tony,
a while back i flag marshalled on a set of whoops and there was quite a few spills though out the day.
the 60cc kids moto had this little guy on a KX60 absolutely demolishing the rest of the field.
this kid could ride good yeah.
till he threw it away in the whoops and lay there crying and screaming.
i thought he'd really hurt himself.
he hadn't.
turned out he'd stalled his bike and couldn't start it
let alone pick it up
the 80cc brigade were a bit better.

[All Things 414]

I made no attempt to extract my bike from the hole it was in because I simply couldn't breath anymore.......

[Mick]

I was at Ravenswood to taking photo's and I noticed at the start there were 3 or 4 kids that had starting blocks so they could even sit on the bikes, so there was no chance they were ever going to be able to start there bike out on the track, I reckon the kids did great and I heard more complaints from the big kids and men, one bloke I heard say this is to hard and he never rode for the rest of the day, but the little kids just tried there hearts out all day in very muddy and slippery condition's.

Cheers Mick.

[TT]

I do agree that the majority did try their hearts out all day.
I'm just of the opinion that if you drop your bike, you try and get it up and going again yourself, and if someone comes to help, great. But a lot I saw made no attempt to even pick it up at all and just tried to get someone's attention to come and do it for them. It was quite obvious that they were never going to even try and do it for themselves. That's the bit I don't agree with.
That said, maybe I didn't see the previous crashes they may or may not have had, nor did I know how exhausted they might have been. It just didn't look good in the instances I saw.

One funny example.............. many years ago I was shooting at the Aust. Minibike Championships when a kid got taken out by someone else. Instead of picking his bike up, he jumped up ran over to me and started ranting about how bad the other rider was and did I see that and on and on and on.................
I thought to myself that this kid was fast but didn't have the right attitude to go anywhere in the sport.
I remember his name now........... Mat Mladin.............     

[Marc.com]

Interesting Aussie picked up its first world MX title in the Juniors at the WC at Taupo.

They might be a pack of spoilt little shits but they are bringing home the silver. One of my nephews is really fast on 85cc and is also spoilt rotten red headed prick of the year.

[matcho mick]

what i noticed at Coffs on the weekend watching the juniors was 1st guy in,stops at pit exit,& shook all the rest of his races hands,was good to see sportsmanship at this ealy stage in their sport,of course one kid dummy spits,walks off track,hands on hips,while dad ran over & picked his bike up!,that was an exception,(no attempt to move it??),message??,
of course when i was laying pinned under my bike in the same spot 3 races later,(for 2 laps ),young guy jumps the fence,& picked it up off me,my dummy spit was private, when back in the pits spotted throttle cable adjuster wound out to 3/4 throttle,

[Mick]

Just before the finish line at Ravenswood about 15-16 year old kid lost his number plate in the mud, I walked over and picked it up and then started to head down to were they pull up, I walked up towards the kid and said is this yours, he grunted yes and then I passed it to him and he just turned around and walked off, no thanks or anything  .

I think all kids should know how to start there own bike, I know I made sure my boys knew how to get there own bikes going, I think at Ravenswood there was a couple of times the adults jumped in a tad fast to help the kids out and other times from what I could see the kids had no chance as they were having trouble just standing up in spots, the club people might have told the kids to get away from your bike and off the track when you stack in the middle of it.

Maybe they should have a ( Can you start your bike on your own ) at a club day, if not we will teach you.

Cheers Mick.

[Freakshow]

Under the " Start up program" dont juniors have to pass a laydown pick up bike test to be able to get there licence renewed ? its mandatory component of the 5 hours training component they do every year.  SO blame the club or whoever runs the training/licence renewal test days.

[caps 999]

I think that only happens in sa In Vic 5 hours coaching and you can race

[TT]

In the cases I witnessed, I don't think there was any lack of ability to pick the bike up and get going, just a lack of desire. 

[Freakshow]

In the cases I witnessed, I don't think there was any lack of ability to pick the bike up and get going, just a lack of desire. 

Bloody Victorians heh , lazy pricks.         Just look at nimmo..... thats there mentor    :

[All Things 414]

As oppososed to a South Australian I know who was looking for one of those wheel spinning devices (like the road race guys use) to start his TM  ........