[TxTaoRider]

Originally Posted by franque

If you've heard of Dwight Rudder, who has written a ton on Thumper Talk about racing the XR200 (and I'm pretty sure he's Vet-A +65 class), he is now racing a GPX FSE250SE and making podium finishes, so there are Chinese bikes that are racing competitively, but GPXs are in a completely different class in terms of durability and quality.

Racing courses have become much more difficult and strenuous over the years, so comparing a '70s enduro racing in the '70s to racing today on modern courses isn't a fair comparison.

Even something competitive from that era, like a ČZ, Maico, or a Bultaco would not hold it's own with something modern without falling apart quickly.

The Hawk and TBR7 are basically copies of an XL185 frame from the 80s, that are likely no better quality, if not worse, than the original.

If it were a spec series, with racing courses adapted to the limitations of the machine, I wouldn't see any problem with it, but if anyone were trying to ride a modern course at more than a plonking page, I would expect the suspension and rider to be completely overwhelmed, and something would break very quickly.

To put it more succinctly, horses for courses.

If you think of these like a draft horse, and a KTM/Honda CRF-R as a race horse, you'd get an idea of their strengths and weaknesses. You wouldn't ask a race horse to pull a plow, nor would you run a draft horse in a race, but that doesn't mean either one is bad, they just play different roles. A 500exc wouldn't hold up to 3rd world service intervals without breaking, nor would a Hawk be able to run balls to the wall in a modern hare scramble without blowing out the shocks, forks, and wheels in no particular order.

I understand what you're saying, and I agree we wouldn't be competitive with any dirtbikes made in the past 30 years.

The races they run around here are 40 minutes I think, without any man made jumps, mostly through trees. I think our bikes would hold up to it. And if you got a few guys on our style bikes, or even 1970s/early 80s bikes, the race would be between them and not the rest of the field.

I raced in a thing we had here called "Scramblecross" years ago on my Polaris outlaw w/IRS, I built for long trial rides not for jumping and sliding around corners. My buddy ran his scrambler 850 (big 4x4) just to give it a try. We were racing with guys who did this allot, on ktms,hondas,yamahas,kaws, tricked out race quads (I wore a Hawaiian shirt for giggles). We ran 3 motos and oddly we ended up not in last place. Some guys wrecked, broke, etc....we finished all 3 motos and had more fun than the rest of guys.

For me it's not about winning, heck I fall over riding around the yard. It's about comoradery and having fun.