zipidachimp wrote on 01/31/17 at 00:09:13:At last weeks bike show, there was an exhibition of 'flat track racing'. Every bike was a single dirt bike, not a flattracker among them. I may be wrong, but this may be a trend among sub-national tracks. I left after 2 minutes, not impressed.
There are two classes in AMA pro flat track racing. The Twins class, which used to be called the Expert class, and the Pro Singles class. The Twins class is mostly the more experienced pros and the factory riders. The Pro Singles is where the younger, up and coming riders learn their craft. In the past there was some overlap with the bikes because the experts were allowed to run singles on shorttracks (1/4mile tracks) and TT tracks. In addition, at some of the miles, the singles riders were allowed to run twins.
That's changed for 2017. Twins class riders have to run twins everywhere, and the younger riders have to run singles everywhere.
For quite a while now the bike of choice for the singles class has been a production motocross bike modified for flat track racing. Like this one:
http://www.cycleworld.com/2016/01/12/building-your-own-honda-crf450r-flat-tra...Texter is a Twins class rider. The honda in the article is the bike he rode on 1/4 mile tracks and on TT tracks last year. He rode a Kawasaki twin on the big tracks last year, and will be on a twin everywhere in the season coming up.
The singles are pretty quick. Even on half mile tracks they sometimes turn lap times as fast as the bigger bikes.
The big advantage of the production based singles class bikes is economics though. Racing is expensive. Like Texter says in the article, these bikes help the younger pros, who are pretty much paying their own bills, get on the track with competitive machinery.
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