Tykes on dirt bikes: Motocross is experiencing an unlikely youth boom amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Dressed in fancy neon pants, plastic boots, goggles and helmets that are too big that make them look like bobble-headed figures, a group of around 30 young motocross racers – some of them still in kindergarten – spin tiny engines at the starting gate of the 2021 Walton TransCan, their biggest race short careers. If this group of four to six year olds show up on your doorstep in their racing insignia on Halloween, you might suspect they were superheroes, but in fact, they are a sign of the bright future of motorcycling.

Under blue skies, the racers sit patiently on their miniature motorcycles on a Saturday in August at Walton Raceway, home of the TransCan Grand National Championship, the most important event in Canada’s amateur motocross season. It’s a four-day affair that draws families from Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, and the Maritimes, as well as from across Ontario.

While the parents take pictures and hold up cheers at the last minute, many of the boys and girls look forward into the first corner and wait for the starting gate to drop. When this is the case, they take off at surprising speed and make a sound like a swarm of mosquitoes buzzing into the distance. They bounce around the dirt track, catch a bit of air over jumps, and generally create the kind of formative experiences that can lead to a lifelong obsession with motorcycles, the industry hopes.

Young riders are the future of motocross, and this year there were more of these little rippers in the 50cc dirt bike class at TransCan – and more young riders in general – than in seven or eight years, says Melody Hodgson, co-owner of the Walton Raceway. The route for her and her family – on their 200 acre farm in Walton, Ontario. – is at home. Find it northwest of Kitchener, in a farmland not far from Lake Huron, and you know you’re in the right place because the Walton sign shows the hamlet as Motocross Town.

In total, there were over 830 registrations in all classes this year – from four-year-olds to retirees – which was the second highest number in the event’s 29-year history, says Hodgson. “It’s more than phenomenal,” she adds. She is not alone. Organizers of other races, from House League events to the Province of Ontario amateur series, say motocross participation has roughly doubled since the pandemic began.

“To be honest, it’s COVID,” says Hodgson. “The pandemic had major disadvantages, of course, but as far as this industry is concerned, motocross, we benefit enormously from it,” she says as another group of riders starts from the start. Without team sports, no personal school and no visits to friends in the last year and a half, more parents and children have been thrown into the mud.

This is good news, not just for Hodgson and Walton Raceway, but for the future of motocross and maybe even the motorcycle industry in general. Most of these young riders won’t become professional racers, but some will certainly race weekends, ride forest trails, or maybe even buy a Harley-Davidson.

Tom McMullin of Nottawa, Ontario, a few minutes south of Collingwood, is with his five-year-old son James on TransCan, who drives in the Tyke class for the newest drivers; some of their bikes still have training wheels, but they line up like the pros and turn the gas when the flag goes down. (It’s cute. But no young racer wants to hear that before a big race.)

McMullin bought his son his first motorcycle during the pandemic. “He wakes up with his jersey on and asks himself, ‘When can I ride?'” Says McMullin. “That was the only thing last year that [James] actually got dressed, ”he adds.

Motocross, however, is not a cheap sport to excite a child; the used Yamaha PW50 that McMullin bought for his son was $ 1,200. Protective equipment costs at least a few hundred dollars. New motorcycles in the 50cc class cost between 1,800 and more than 6,000 US dollars for a state-of-the-art electric KTM or Husqvarna.

It’s not cheap, but since riding is on closed courses in wide open spaces and requires protective equipment – in the form of helmets, goggles, and gloves – motocross is an oddly perfect sport in a pandemic. This fact may not have been on the minds of early attendees as they scrambled through muddy fields on rough motorcycles in the 1920s, but it has nonetheless helped sell many motorcycles lately.

In addition to other outdoor recreational vehicles such as bicycles and jet skis, sale of off-road motorcycles like the ones you see at TransCan. see skyrocketed last year. In 2021, sales have so far fallen slightly below last year’s record highs, but experts and industry insiders suspect the decline has more to do with delivery bottlenecks and shipping issues than lack of demand. Walton Raceway, in turn, ordered 15 dirt bikes for their learning program, but only about half were delivered and they were late.

Finding a place to ride is a bigger problem for Amanda Keller’s four-year-old son Ryder Jamieson, who got his first bike during the pandemic. They live in a town house in Alliston, Ontario, about 40 minutes southwest of Barrie. At the TransCan, Jamieson can let the 50cc engine sing, but at home the neighbors complained if he would ride behind their houses.

That is the greatest challenge for the sport, admits Jean-Sebastien Roy. “It’s hard to find places to drive,” he says without upsetting the neighbors. JSR, as motocross fans call it, has been involved with dirt bikes since the 1980s, first as a racer who won the TransCan in the 1990s and early 2000s, and now as a racing team manager for KTM, a major European motorcycle brand.

He understands that some parents have the idea of ​​letting their child or teenager ride a motorcycle. There are risks, but he believes five years is the perfect time to start riding. “You won’t get hurt,” he says. “You learn how to fall and get up again. They learn to fight each other at running pace. “

Despite the risks and costs, JSR says, participation in motocross has increased, albeit slowly, since around 2011 – until the pandemic gave the sport a huge boost. This was made possible in part by Ryan Gauld, president of Amateur Motocross Ontario, one of the sport’s sanctions authorities. Gauld worked on behalf of the communities and the provincial government to ensure that events could take place with appropriate security measures.

It’s not just young riders who are getting into motocross now; Brett Lee – Melody Hodgson’s husband and the other co-owner of Walton Raceway – recently resumed horseback riding after a 15-year hiatus. “I made one of the big jumps here and you feel a bit alive,” says Lee, who is still enthusiastic even after four long days with the TransCan.

Whether the pandemic-driven motocross boom turns out to be a slip-up or not, one thing is certain: You want to ride a motorcycle again and again and possibly for the rest of your life.

The boom is welcome for the motorcycle industry, even if street legal motorcycles still make up the bulk of sales. For Brett Lee, Melody Hodgson, and their family farm, however, the boom means everything.

In the years leading up to the pandemic, they struggled to make the TransCan what it is today. “We just didn’t have the money,” recalls Hodgson. In 2018, they were happy to just break even at the event. “You try to pay the mortgage on the farm, you try to make sure you service all of your debts, pay back bills, and there was just nothing left.” Now, she says, the future looks bright.

After the final race of the TransCan 2021, Hodgson and Lee hand out trophies on stage at sunset. The names of the drivers in the Tyke class are called out – including James McMullin and Ryder Jamieson – and everyone goes to the podium to collect their plaques for what may be the first of many times.

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