History and Evolution of Off-Road Motorcycles

If talking about motorcycle racing with the extreme and ruggedness of riding, many people would definitely think of the “Motocross” races. As it takes place outdoors with a combination of natural terrain so the motorcycle must be "Off-road motorcycle" designed for riding on rough terrain, dirt-mud roads, especially.






The origins of motocross
It is said that the first recorded motocross race was known as “Scrambles” in the United Kingdom, it would later be called a Motocross race. The first ever official scramble was held in Camberley, Surrey in 1924, this is a race that all riders in a single class start on the same row, and the event is an all-out race to the finish. Most of the race routes will be a path that cuts through agricultural areas, hills, open fields, until the various dirt paths in the England countryside.

At that time, the motorcycles equipment, costumes of the rider were not designed for off-road racing or use in rough terrain and a motorcycle used in competition was built primarily for use on roads rather than on dirt roads. In terms of clothing and protective equipment, there are so few.

The race in 1924 at that time was considered an important foundation and could be regarded as a pioneer for various motocross races that would occur in the future.






After World War II
World War 2 resulted in a great deal of innovation and technology. When the war ended various technologies used in the war was produced for use by civilian. This includes vehicles such as motorcycles, with strength and have better performance, the motorcycle used for off-road racing was developed even better. This makes motocross races became popular and lot of races followed.






Two-stroke engine
In the late 1950s, many motorcycle companies such as Husqvarna, Jawa and Greeves developed 250cc “two-stroke” engine, resulting in bikes that had greater agility and that were lighter, faster and more flexible. It’s also easier to maintain, repair and cheaper than their predecessors that most of them have 4-cylinder engine and the engine size is 500cc.

In addition, in 1957, the Motocross World Championships was born, in which there was a race of motocross bikes in the 250cc engine rating as well.






Arrival of Japanese manufacturers
In the late 60's to early 70's, Japanese motorcycle manufacturers such as Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha began producing off-road racing motorcycles with good performance equivalent to motorcycles from the west whether it's a matter of speed, engine power, various technologies and appearance. As a result, the popularity of off-road motorcycles has grown considerably.

Evidence of the popularity seen from the 70's where most racers entirely used motorcycles from the Japanese company. They can also win many championships for example, the FIM 500cc World Motocross Championship held in 1979 where racer Graham Noyce rode Honda to win the title.






The Golden Age of Motocross
Since the 1980s, the trend of off-road motorcycle and motocross racing boom in popularity due to the influence of media that is more open and accessible to many people whether it is broadcasting various races on television such as Supercross races which is a new form of racing that used the artificial elements to create great jumps, plateaus in the flatter areas which was created in the United States. Also in that time, there were lots of movies that used off-road motorcycles on the scene.






Today
Off-road motorcycles and motocross racing are not limited to race in rough road and rugged terrain but have been developed into other forms of competition and many different of sport such as

• Supercross, an indoor dirt-bike racing sport that evolved from motocross.
• Freestyle Motocross which is a variation on the sport of motocross that focuses on jumping and stunt in the air as long as possible along with various shows and attempt to impress judges.
• Supermoto is a form of motorcycle racing that mixes between dirt and track racing with a proportion of 70% of the flat road and 30% of the off- road section with jumps and berms.

In addition, off-road motorcycles are often used in Extreme Sport performances that also require the athlete skill to perform at a high rate of speed and rugged performance. Motocross motorcycle can be able to wade through all situations whether in flat road or off-road and riding in many styles. This makes motocross motorcycles is a vehicle for ruggedness and truly extreme.