Hi John, I thought I would open myself up to the full on-slaught of why you are saying NZ VMX is in a mess
Farrrk, if it stops all this BS, I have a YZ250B frame I may part with......geezus.....what a load of horse manure....DJ, you shouldnt be stirring the pot with the mess the NZ VMX scene your coming back to after 3 or 4 years fishing (I hope you put back all those undersize fish!!)....your pre 75 (sorry "Classic" ) class allows 75/76 models to race in it (and your mate who was the main sponsor of your Kiwi VMX series to run I think a 77 Maico AW400 against your legit pre 75 bikes and no one would say anything so he keep doing it year after year ).....and you wonder why that class has almost disapeared....your pre78 class morfhs into your evo/twinshock and then you have pre 86.....what the?....even Murray Anderson says it should stop at pre85....there is a huge diference between 85/86 models....even TMBill agrees we have it pretty much sorted and you guys should get into line and follow the leader. We have a great scene over here which you have attended on occasion and it pretty much runs with alot of commonsence on the day...sure some peoples noses get put out of joint but we have a structured rule book that is pretty close to the mark and getting closer every year (and quite easy to read to see the do's and the dont's). Your lucky TMBill has eloped with the Italian Princess for the week but I'm sure he'll set you straight when he returns. Now go and make Karen a nice cocoa....and make sure my 360B is covered up.
I dont believe that this is the case here and the reasons are many as to why we have our own style of VMX but the one main reason is pure and simple. Its numbers. We dont have 4,000,000 people to entice into vmx as you do in your state (not country). We have that number thoughout the whole of NZ and when it is cut in half by an expensive piece of water the numbers for each region decline dramatically. This is why we have slightly different rules and race programmes from yourselves.
And yes I have raced and ridden in Aust and have fully enjoyed the experience plus have had always tried my best to understand the way vmx is run over there and played by your rules.
Here, NZ, we combine some classes to create bigger numbers on the start line so the riders have more competition to race against and although it can affect some lovers of a certain era with different CC' rating bikes I feel that they are more happier to have better racing with all in CC's. This is the reason TMBill enjoys the racing so much in Aust because of the numbers in a certain era and being able to split them up into CC rating.
As for our "Classic" class which took over from our Pre75 class because numbers were getting small it now has increased in numbers and for the most part the bikes are pre75. The bike in question that you mention I believe will not be racing in that class anymore and the last time I was at a vmx meeting the start line for our 'Classic' class looked very good with all bikes looking as a pre75 class should look.
Most welcome to try to answer any more questions from you or anyone else that has queries into how we do it here in NZ