AHRMA Sicily Island Event

[Larry Perkins]

Richard I hope you are right as I love racing Vintage but the turnouts for AHRMA events is going to have to get better for them to survive.  The turnouts, especially in Cross Country are poor and a promoter can rarely make any money which is a necessity to have long term success. Something is needed to bring attendance up.  Diamond Dons and Barber are money makers with good attendance but most of the others are very poor.  Most Nationals have 50-60 riders if that.  There either needs to be less Nationals or some changes to boost attendance. After you have done it a bit longer you will get a better perspective of AHRMA and reality.  Things are much better run with David at the helm but there has to be progression and change over time or it will die.  Not frustration just reality.  Look at the MOVMX series which has kids classes and classes for even newer Vintage bikes as a progressive example.  They routinely draw 100-150 riders.

Larry P

[brian kirby]

Larry is right about how AHRMA used to operate and I was very vocal about it, creating some hard feelings with some of the people in charge at the time. Fortunately, things have changed a lot since Fred Guidi has been Off Road director for these several years, he and Dave are working together and making a difference like the addition of the Pre-Modern front disc brake class for example. The kinds of things Larry described unfortunately still happen, but they are happening much much less often.

I still think there is absolutely no good excuse for AHRMA not having a vintage kids class. I was told at several different times by the "powers that be" that AHRMA didnt have a kids class because kids didnt race back in the day. Thats funny, because I was racing at 8-10 years old on an XR75 and I remember having big classes of kids racing against me. It would be VERY easy for AHRMA to have an XR80/100 class for kids 12-15 years old, those bikes are everywhere and they fit the same exact specifications as an XR200 so they fit within the AHRMA technical guidelines.

Brian

[tooclose racing]

DAMN!!- No King Ferry NY round this year.  I gotta tell you - the Cayuga Trail Riders Club (I think I have that right) did a beautiful job.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

YEA!! - Bear Creek NY Qualifier this year.  Ladies and Gentlemen - be prepared.  There is a sheet-load of tough trail in that little Catskill Mountains "hood".    The club layed out a 6 mile plus loop for our 2016 regional XC and I was seeing/talking to dead people before the end of my 2nd race.  

And I also wanna say THANKS to our AHRMA committees.  Great job.

[Richard Colahan]

Bob...don't panic!!!
King Ferry 2 day WILL be back again on 8/12,13 2017...just not as a national XC series event.

Rather...it will be NE region event...and part of a new "mini" enduro series co-promoted by NE and MA (Dave Kutskel) regions.

It will be a Start Control enduro format...no timekeeping needed...and very similar to previous years...with all of their great trails and epic grass track!

Stay tuned...more info to follow.



Richard Colahan
1969 V1225
Upper Black Eddy PA

[tooclose racing]

Great news. Thanks, Mr. Colahan.

[Dale Sonnenschein]

If I remember right, I saw that McKees enduro and king ferry along with Hancock are the enduro series. There could be more but I'm not sure.

75 husky wr250
73 Husky 360 WR/RT
78 husky cr250
83 husky wr250
84 husky wr400
10 ktm 250xc
02 bmw r1150r

[Richard Colahan]

If this were cable TV...Dale would be announcing "Breaking News".
I'll start a new thread...

Richard Colahan
1969 V1225
Upper Black Eddy PA

[Gordon Brennan]

quote:Originally posted by Larry Perkins

the vast majority of AHRMA decisions are still made by the old guard and have from day one.  They have rarely done things based on racer opinion unless it is roadracers making off-road decisions.
Larry P

+1
Don't mean to get off the CC reference, but the Trials end of things is in the same boat. There just aren't enough people willing or wanting to ride the old AJS, BSA and Triumph Trials bikes to keep the series going. Those bikes are what ahrma Trials was built on, but at some point they will have to move forward and allow more Vintage class bikes in the Modern Classic class. They only recognize bikes built up to 1979. But there are so many early to mid 80's bikes that are air-cooled with drum brakes and twin shocks. Can Am, Fantic, SWM, Honda and more are excluded. There are so many Honda Reflex's out there that are certainly no more competitive than a 1970's Bultaco that could be competing, but have to ride the promoter class, with no points or recognition.
This year I will be unable to set up the ahrma Trials at Unadilla, so I won't be begging you folks for help.
So what does ahrma do ... take it off the schedule, after all the work that went in to building it and getting riders accustomed to it being there. Granted, it didn't pull huge numbers like the CC and MX does, but it was moving forward and all the riders I talked to had a great time riding the events.
I just don't get it. Seems a shame to me to drop it.
Sorry for the rant, but reading Larry's post dredged it up for me.
Thanks to the folks who have helped me in the past with checking and scoring.