These things are fun, I like just giving honest answers and helping people learn. Email me at steve@directmotocross.com if you have something that’s on your mind.
These things are fun, I like just giving honest answers and helping people learn. Email me at steve@directmotocross.com if you have something that’s on your mind.
1-Where is a Jeff Emig podcast????!!!!!! I want to hear the truth about how much of a pimp he was back in the 90’s. I still have dreams about being Emig circa ’97…
2-What’s the real deal with Ferry’s Scott boot deal? Why was he wearing other boots and trying to disguise them?
3-Why is Justin Barcia such a badass? Loved the podcast, he’s my new favorite rider. Can I be Barcia’s man-friend?
4-What happened to the TV broadcasts of the Canadian mx’s? The tracks always looked sick, but that one announcers voice was pretty harsh.
5-How about some obscure podcasts? I suggest Robbie Skaggs. He was sick back in the day and didn’t get the recognition or the rides he deserved. He’s also a good friend of mine and it would be cool. If you want his phone number let me know.
Keep up the great work, I can’t get enough of the podcasts. I check your site pretty much daily so anytime you put something new up I’m into it.
Thanks!
DJ
Thanks for checking the site daily DJ, it’s guys like you that we need in this world. And I need everyone reading this to click on the BTO Sports.com ad there to the right and buy some stuff. Even if you don’t need anything. An Acerbis hand guard would look good on the mantle no?
Now, onto your answers…
1-Fro podcast is coming, no doubt about it. I was thinking a while back that I need to pace myself on these things and maybe only do one a week. There was a time when I did two a week and, although there are a ton of guys to do one with, eventually I’m going to run out of the classic ones y’know? A while back Emig called me out of the blue to thank me for something I wrote and we spoke for 45 min or so about a bunch of stuff. The whole time I was thinking, man this is podcast gold! Anyways, it will happen he’s a good guy and I’m sure will be a great guest.
2-The real deal with Ferry’s Scott boot deal is he’s a weirdo. He tests the boots out, he rides with them the entire off-season. We speak on the phone weekly and he always tells me they’re good. I have a pair as well and we compare notes, he says that Scott is going to do some little changes to the boot to make them a little more custom for him but he’s fine. He shows up at A1 and at night the plastic gets cold and stiffer (even though Scott swears that the plastic they’re made of DOES NOT change when hit by temperature) and he freaks out. So the custom part of the boots took a little longer than expected with the holidays and such and he waits until they are ready. They finally become ready, he wears them and life is good. Then the worst possible thing happens to him. He breaks his heel, which although I’m no doctor, I believe is the part of your body covered by your boots. So now he’s discouraged by them and even though his Dr told him the boots didn’t cause the injury, he decides to forget the big check that Scott was giving him (and it was big) and spray paint his old boots black. Then he struck a deal with Gaerne. That’s the long and short of it. I don’t blame him, I don’t blame Scott (the Canidae Kawasaki guys take the stock boots out of the box and run them) and it’s too bad for everyone.
3-You can be Barcia’s man-friend for sure. The line forms behind me pal. No, he did seem like a good kid on the podcast show and hopefully he stays out of California and away from the trap that guys like Izzi and Stroupe have fallen into. Kids+ money+ some sort of fame+ living in Socal= bad idea. He’s an exciting rookie and I predict he’s going to kill it in SX next year. Watch.
4- SPEED TV just didn’t want the Canadian shows anymore. They are on TV down here on some channel that I’ve never heard of and tried Googling one time only to come up with nothing. One of the announcers, Marc Travers, is a friend of mine and a good dude. Go to directmotocross.com and search his name and you can listen to a podcast I did with him.
5- Skaggs would be a good show, there are a ton of guys that would be good. Robbie would be great just to hear his Eraldo Ferraci stories.
Hey Steve, love the podcasts and the site too. Not sure you’d want to REALLY answer these (I wouldn’t blame you), but here’s couple of dirty questions that keep me up at night.
What’s the effin’ deal with steroid use? There’s lots of correlations to trainers with Cycling backgrounds these days and maybe I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that an up and coming, misguided rider has some of this stuff in his fridge. What I want to know is… do any champions have this skeleton in their closet? Say it ain’t so..
JMB’s podcast was great and the part about him getting benched got me thinking. To what extent do team tactics play out these days?
Thanks, Johnny
Johnny, thanks for writing in, as far as the PED question that so many fans want to know about I suggest listening to the Johnny O’Mara podcast where he totally downplays the use of PED’s in our sport and then listen to the Trey Canard one where he says it’s definitely out there. I would tend to think the truth is in the middle. I have no doubt that some greats of our sport have used PED’s. Why wouldn’t they? There’s no testing for them (some random FIM checks now though) they work if given to you by someone that knows that they’re doing (and like you say, the stuff is rampant in cycling and our sport is full of ex-bicycle trainers) and with all the millions, yes millions, of dollars that is up for grabs-I’m not sure I blame the dudes. So there you go, I would never point the finger at anyone (at least in public) without some great proof but I’m sure there has been PED’s used in our sport and they will continue to be used. They allow you to build muscle mass quicker and have less time needed for recovery. Sounds perfect for a motocrosser that wants to put in the work.
Team tactics aren’t in vogue as much anymore as they were with JMB or when Suzuki stacked the 125 class to help out Guy Cooper. You just don’t see that kind of stuff anymore but if the title is getting down to the wire, I would definitely order my team riders to make it easy for the points leader to get by. Why not? Nothing wrong with that I don’t think.
Steve-o why not a podcast with Tricky….can’t be too busy to answer the
phone.
Joe
You using the term ‘Tricky’ can only mean one guy and that would be ‘Tricky’ Nick Wey. One of The NYK’s many nick-names (many of them self appointed by the way) and a good one. I have done one with Wey, it was in the Racer X Canada ones where I was still figuring the whole podcast thing out but if you search my name in Itunes it will bring it up. Or Google it and they should still be on some site somewhere. I remember that it wasn’t that good because Nick has ADD and can’t focus on a phone call (or anything) for that long of a time. He probably just brought up things that he made fun of me for when I was his mechanic in 2002 and we laughed about that. He’s a good dude and I should do another one sometime.
Steve,
I would like to know a little more about riders contracts etc. I never hear or know anything about what goes into contracts and how forbidding or open some are??? When certain "riders" you worked for signed contracts what kind of salaries were they getting and what are some surprising things that I and probably nobody else outside the industry knows about them? Would a rider get fired if he was riding with a buddy and hopped off his YZ to ride his KX etc??
Rob
Rob, certainly a contract has all sorts of provisions and restrictions placed on a rider when they sign. The factories basically tell you where and when you are going race your dirt bike. Kawasaki forbids its guys from racing anything outside the AMA sx and mx races while Honda seems to be ok for its guys to go overseas and do whatever they want. You always have to let them know what you are doing though. They in effect “own” you when you sign that deal. You have to report for testing when they want you to, you have to do dealer signings when they want you to and for that, you’re paid quite well. Riding anything but your bike is obviously a no-no but the guys all do it. When they are the only ones for miles and miles, they all trade off bikes. It’s part of the game and always has been.
As far as salaries, well they have gone down since the hey-day but a good Lites guy could get $500,000 and up and the top guys in the 450 class get around $750,000. Well, they used to anyways. Stewie and Reed make way more than that and I would venture in the range of 5 million and up with everything in (gear, boots, helmets, goggles, bike and anything else.)
With your stellar career as a mechanic I couldn’t think of a better
person than you to ask these 2 questions.
What would a typical conversation between rider and mechanic when
dialing in a bike be like?
Why do the mechanics get so little credit, especially during a perfect
season?
Kevin
Thanks for writing in Kevin, you’re my new best friend! My "stellar" career as a mechanic was really not that good but let’s not argue with a reader right? Like the customer, the reader is ALWAYS right. A typical conversation would be a lot of noises and hand gestures followed by the rider walking off to get a drink. The mechanic then tries to make the prima-donna rider happy.
The mechanics do get less and less credit as the years roll on. The advent of teams with suspension specialists, motor specialists and truck drivers make the mechanics role less and less in recent years. The old days saw some guys that could really do it all, they had to prep the bike, drive the van, get the groceries, weld the frames etc etc. It’s not easy being a mechanic but I will tell you this-it’s easier than it was in the old days.
I was at the show at Oakley Headquarters with James Stewart and it was nothing short of a good time! Everything from James’ sweet entrance into the theater to his funny personality. The show airs on the week of October 5th. In between segments we (the audience) had a chance to ask him questions. So with that, I raised my hand, and he pointed to me to hear what I had to say. I asked him if he was going to "Pull a Hanny" at A-1? And he said he was looking to "Pull a Hanny" at US Open and the other races before Anahiem. I mentioned Australia to him and he said he just hoped that he had fans down
there. It would be hard to believe that "The fasted SX/MX rider in the world" wouldn’t naturally have fans all around the world!!!
Noe
I asked James about this and he laughed. The “pulling a Hanny” saying will live on now. When everyone counts you out, the odds are stacked against you, you’re kind of a goofball and yet you still come out on top, well you’re just pulled a Hanny.
Sent via Pulpmx Twitter from–Rubenizer "Who is the biggest disappointment with a full factory ride?"
Ruebenizer, I would say that Broc Hepler has not given Factory Yamaha much bang for the buck. Maybe him and Hill in 2009 might go down as the absolute worst factory rider combo in the history of the sport. It was a colossal waste of time and money for Yamaha to go to the races this year and I feel sorry for the guys over there. Hill battled injury and ineffectiveness and Hepler just battled injury.
With what I heard of Yamaha not doing the factory rig next year, where are these guys going to end up?
I thought if Hepler would have raced the outdoors he would have been top three for sure…
Thanks, S Perry
Mr Perry, see above.
I heard that Hepler is taking supercross off and racing the outdoors next year. For whom, what bike I have no clue but he is the type of guy that would probably show up in a pick-up truck and not even care. Might even podium as well! Hill is trying REALLY hard to be Stewie’s teammate on L&M but not sure that’s going to happen. He’s got talent and would ride for basically a bike and bonuses (let’s not cry him a river or anything, he’d probably get 200K from a clothing company) but just don’t know if he’s a Larry Brooks type of guy. We shall see.
Dear Matthes,
What are the chances that some of the mystery problems (stomach,thyroid,etc.) are somehow related to performance enhancing drugs?
-Charkie
I have no clue Charkie. I think one of the problems in our sport that hasn’t gotten the coverage that it deserves (although Steve Cox wants to tackle this at some point) is that there are some well known trainers and some riders that are completely out there as far as practicing modern medicine. Like there is one guy that puts on a plastic halo around his head and it lights up and does…something. There is a glass pyramid that one rider “drives” and gets “energy” when he does it. Now I understand where Howard Hughes got it from. Apparently the more money you have, the more nut-ball you get with medicine. I’m not in danger of this happening to me anytime soon by the way.
There are these kooky doctors and trainers that, although well-intentioned, are really selling these riders hypothesis and machines that are equivalent to unicorns and mermaids. To me, and again I’m far from an expert but I do have common sense, there are no miracles out there.
Speaking of Steve Cox (editor at Racer X), I sent this question to him and asked him what he thought. He volunteered to give an answer and here it is:
I’m not Matthes, but I get a lot of his email. I have a basic medical knowledge, having been trained and worked for a short period as an EMT, and also having read a lot of books and articles over the years about anatomy, physiology, biology, and more, but by no means am I a doctor. I mean, I’m a doctor of love, but that’s more of a ceremonial title around the house here. I can’t really call myself "Dr. Cox" in a hospital setting, but I mostly blame that on "Scrubs".
However, the "performance enhancing drugs" that might actually be of use in our sport don’t really have a side effect of thyroid problems or stomach issues, as far as I know. Most "side effects" of drugs like that pop up very early in use, so if a rider had something like that happen, they should know what’s likely causing it. I think many of the stomach problems we see today are actually undiagnosed ulcers or something similar. At least the symptoms seem to fit that, with the stomach pain getting worse on race day (because of stress) and things like that. And as for the thyroid stuff, it’s really rare in men, and rare in athletes, but it’s not impossible. However, I think that a lot of the problems in both of these instances have to do with diet more than anything. In my barely educated opinion, people need to think of their bodies like machines: The food is the fuel. The better fuel you put in for the job, the better results you’ll have. This includes supplements, and if you know anything about the supplement industry, you know it’s massive. As in $61 billion a year.
And people will sell supplements claiming they do myriad of things that they don’t actually do because regulation is very lax on this industry. However, if you’re a professional athlete, you don’t want someone else to have an advantage you don’t have, so sometimes you’ll take anything just in the hopes that it does what they claim, because if you don’t take it, your competitors will anyway. Although the most common cause of ulcer is actually a bacteria, there are other ways to get them, or just to make them worse, and I think taking an overabundance of supplements (which would be hard on your stomach, due to processing even just the shells of the pills), or taking the wrong ones, could easily lead to the problems we see in many of our riders. So, in short, no, I doubt it’s from "performance-enhancing drugs", but it may be due to bad advice from trainers and people like that, for sure. After all, those are the people trusted by the riders to make sure that sort of stuff doesn’t happen in the first place.
Matthes, a few more suggestions for podcasts;
Brad Lackey
Tim Ferry- why not yet
Jody Wiesel- ask him about the good old days
Magoo
Jim Holley
Jammer
-Bob
Bob, I asked Jody to come on but he declined. Well, one of his guys said he declined actually. I think the problem was I couldn’t do the show at Glen Helen on Saturday at the REM races. Ferry will be soon and we actually did one once but he was on his cell phone and it sounded really crappy plus what I realized listening to it afterwards was, every question I asked him, I knew the answer to! It just didn’t make for good listening but we do need to do one. Holley is coming, no doubt about that. He’s a great guy and a great story teller. Lackey would be good, I interviewed him a while back for Racer X and he really remembered a lot of stuff. Magoo, yes-another good one. I would love to get Jody on the show as well as RC but he doesn’t like me very much and I don’t think he’d do one.
Matthes, your podcasts are truly entertaining and your site is great as well. I have two questions, if that’s okay.
1) How is Freestone a National track? Its flatter than a parking lot, provides worse spectator views than Verne Troyer at a parade, hotter than a Death Valley enduro (just ask Metty), and fewer jumps than the pee wee section of my local track. It also sounds like its about an hour away from any amenities. I would imagine there are countless other tracks that would be more rider, fan and industry friendly, so how did someone secure a National before the track was even built? You know what, there’s a sizeable flat field not too far from my house in Phoenix. If I promise to make a track can I get a National, preferably in July?
2) Why is everyone so "super pumped" on the new TV package for the Nationals? HD looks awesome, same day coverage is great and more exposure means more money in the sport, but has anyone noticed we, the viewers, only get to see half the racing now? You only got first motos by sitting in front of your computer at the designated time, hoping the Alli site would unfreeze or would fix the sound. I’d take low-def on Versus and week-long delays if it meant I could see all the racing (minus some necessary commercial breaks). I can’t be alone on this!
Eric
Phoenix, AZ
Eric, you’re a real Debbie Downer huh? Just kidding, you make some valid points no doubt about it. The Texas national is getting better over the years and you can’t award a guy a national and then take it away a few years later after he’s invested all this time and money into it right? There may be some better tracks in Texas but maybe the politics of the whole thing got in the way. As I’m sure you know, life isn’t always just straightforward, honest and fair. Not saying the national process is that way but you get my drift that there are so many factors into getting a national. I think the general consensus was that Texas deserved a national and the process began.
As far as your second question, I think you’re the only one that would take a tape-delayed two moto format over what we have now. I never did like how they skimmed over the motos and didn’t get all the highlights. I stayed home for two nationals and Allied worked great for me so I can’t say for sure whether they suck or not. I do think the Alli website needs some work as does the AMA site as they don’t have any archived results beyond 2004 or something like that.
This may not be appropriate for public viewing but my question is this…Is it just me, or is the Tara Gieger and David Knight pairing really weird? Like, almost creepy. Not something that keeps me up at night or anything, but it does strike me as odd.
Cheers!
Chris L
Chris, love knows no boundaries. After all, some woman married me and I’m hideous.
