History Of The 125cc Us Championship

[mich lin]

It was mentioned on another tred about a past 125cc US national championship, this is true. It was first organized along with the MOTA "Michigan Ontario Trials Assn" North American Championship in 1972 and 73, these events had an open class and a 125cc class.

When the first NATC meeting was held in early 1974 at Yamaha USA there was discussion of keeping the 125cc class along with the open class. Remember that MX in those days had 3 classes, 125cc 250cc and 500cc and it was considered very normal to segrigate bikes into displacement classes in the USA.

Why the 125 class was dropped was simply a desire to partern our new US Championship series as close to European rules as possible. 125cc bikes simply didn't have their own class in the World Championship at that time.

In around 1982 the US Fantic importer and the US Montesa importer sponsored an AMA sanctioned 125cc and 250cc US National Championship series called the Montesa Championship series. Which was outside the umbrella of the NATC US open class championship. Yet had full blessing from the American Motorcyclist Assn.

We must remember that in those days a lot of the bikes were Jumbo motored machines. Fantic and Montesa both had excellent small bikes and perhaps that's their reason for supporting the series.

Today there is again an interest in 125cc machines simply because of the new 125cc world championship. Why 125cc machines you may ask, simply it's because of European traffic laws that require young riders to stay on smaller machines until a certain age.

Are smaller machines better to learn on? To be honest I'm not really sure but many people swear by them as the best learning tool.

I do know that it's difficult for a rider to switch back and forth between a 125cc bike and a 250cc or 290cc and ride as well as someone who is always on one size bike. So it makes sense that if a young rider wants to become world champion, he would be wise to stay on a 125cc machine.

That's really the only legitimate reason for interest in a new 125cc class for the USA Championship. To keep us with the same rules as the Europeans, the exact reason we dropped the class in 1974!

A US 125cc class would also give an incentive for youngsters to stay on a 125cc bike. Then peak his skills on the 125 instead of jumping up to a 250cc or 290cc machine sooner than the Europeans.

Simply, riders on the 125cc machines will have the option of several years of world championship competiton under their belts before the riders who move onto the larger bikes will. Unless of course they can afford a 125 and a full size bike at the same time but then they still face the disadvantage of bike swapping!

In my view, I'd rather not have to deal with the 125cc bikes, in fact I voted against the class in 1974. Today however we find ourselves being forced to rethink the 125cc class only because the FIM has adopted age and displacement limitations on young riders.

Again, like in 1974 we have to decide if we follow the rest of the world's rules and this time adopt the 125cc class or do we go our own way this time around and say we don't care how the heck they do it in Europe?

[alan bechard]

OK Lane, here is a thought for you.

You want a US world champion right?

I assume you want an overall champion right? Not just a 125 world Champ but top dog, numero uno, the big Kahuna right.

You say that switching between bikes is tough and it takes different skills and techniques right?

OK, so following this logic, lets require that all youngsters riding National level sections must ride on full displacement machines so that they are doing the logical step to progress towards the World Championship title that you (oh yeah, I mean WE) desire.....

For those of you reading along....

THIS IS A JOKE,

I can see it now, the beave, submitting to the NATC, that Alan Bechard wants to make all youth riders be required to ride large displacement machines. Of course, Ringo, the official, unofficial, Hawaiian shirt wearing, dingle ball trouser toting ATA president will have to carry the official word forward as Lane will be too busy hanging with Arnie, reminiscing over where they were in 74.......

AGAIN, FOR those of you reading along, THIS WHOLE POST IS A JOKE, maybe a bit tounge in cheek, but a choke,,, oh, I mean JOKE

[copemech]

I have news for you, some of these kids, like Cody, don't even want to ride the 125's any more. They want to ride real bikes!

What about a 200 or 250cc limit on HS class on the expert line. A US junior class championship?

Just a thought!