Rained-off Meetings Then And Now

[YAMYAMBANDIT]

Its not about living in the past,speedway is in dire state, there are lot of others things to replace it nowadays and a bit of damp weather has become a major issue in the sport ,some thing needs to be done the majority of the fans are not that gullible.Like has been pointed out in another these rain -off meeting will have be be run at the end of the season where if conditions are bad they will soldier on just to complete.Except there will be no one to watch the ways things are handled just now.

I have to admit, I have always wondered why many meetings are off, as you said riders just need to adapt their riding to suit. The biggest problem in many things is the bl**dy 'Health & Safety Man' they seem to look for problems that are not really problems.

[BRITISHSPEEDPOWER]

Speedway seems to be about the only motorsport that does'nt have a range of tyre's to suit different conditions. could a wet weather tyre not be developed? de tune the engine, stick a big nobbly on and ride according to conditions..

[Fromafar]

Speedway seems to be about the only motorsport that does'nt have a range of tyre's to suit different conditions. could a wet weather tyre not be developed? de tune the engine, stick a big nobbly on and ride according to conditions..

That's one of the solutions if the powers at be would recognise that there are issues regarding running speedway in wet track conditions.Unfortunately their answer is abandon the meeting we've got the punters cash.

[weatherwatcher]

No matter what sort of tyre the put on the bikes the way the tracks are laid with no dirt would mean that a nobbly tyre would be even worse that the ones they run on as they would not hold on the slick tracks. With no dirt to bite into it would be like ridding on ice.

It seems that in days gone by when the riders where nothing more than amateurs, they had a bigger heart than the guys do now.

Unless the track is 100% then it is easier to just call it off.

[ch958]

technology has ruined the sport and the powers at be will still not recognise it.there is more to the sport than speed,get some dirt on the track and produce some rules to slow the sport down and bring back the skill factor instead of just holding on too a rocket ship.

 

this should be printed off and used by BSPA as a mission statement

[Vince]

Which sort of tyre is it keeps your goggles clear?

[weatherwatcher]

I have seen riders looking like mud monsters in the past and they still carried on riding. No tear off strips in those days just lots of heart and 100% comitment.

[Fromafar]

Which sort of tyre is it keeps your goggles clear?

You obviously don't know much about modern goggle technology.

[BRITISHSPEEDPOWER]

Seems speedway riders just aren't the men they used to be! Never hear Villopoto,Dungey,Stewart ect complaining about wet mottos, they just get on with it.

[van wolfswinkel]

No matter what sort of tyre the put on the bikes the way the tracks are laid with no dirt would mean that a nobbly tyre would be even worse that the ones they run on as they would not hold on the slick tracks. With no dirt to bite into it would be like ridding on ice.

It seems that in days gone by when the riders where nothing more than amateurs, they had a bigger heart than the guys do now.

Unless the track is 100% then it is easier to just call it off.

They may have had bigger hearts, but another thing is a lot of the riders were local, and had pride to ride for their local club. Nowadays a lot of riders are just foreign mercenaries who ride for 3/4 different clubs, and don't have the same commitment.

[ruffdiamond]

They may have had bigger hearts, but another thing is a lot of the riders were local, and had pride to ride for their local club. Nowadays a lot of riders are just foreign mercenaries who ride for 3/4 different clubs, and don't have the same commitment.

is it because local's don't have the funds available to make money from their hobbies,,, or are they just poor riders ???

[Vince]

You obviously don't know much about modern goggle technology.

Unless something new came out in the past week I have all the up to date goggle technology in my kit bag. Fact still remains that vision is far more of a problem than grip.

[Shale Searcher]

There has to be a solution to the visibility issues....... What about the tear-offs on a roll? At the moment they snag a piece of string/cord and this roll out a fresh piece of clear roll over the goggles.... Work pretty well, but some riders have issues and end up with a trailing scarf of tape flapping behind them.....!

Also, when its really wet with mucky spray, the mucky spray seeps between goggles and tear off and laminates a strip of muddy water and you cannot see or clear it... So what about a motorised roll-over system? Like they have on cameras in formula 1 cars? So a constant strip of clear tear off is there?

[Vince]

_{Roll offs are a bit of a nightmare when it is raining as they tend to stick to the lens, you can run a piece of fishing line underneath the film which helps but it is still hit and miss. You could get a battery powered roll off, not sure if you still can but they weren't very good. Best option in my opinion is still the old fashioned tear off.}

 

_{Speedway is different to most other sports in the fact that it is run under lights which makes a big difference when visibility is a problem. No doubt somebody will point out that Supercross meetings are run in the wet and under lights, while that is true it's also a completely different thing running brakes when you are struggling to see compared to Speedway. I'm not disputing that some meetings could be run if the will was there but the tyres aren't the issue in any way that I can think of.}

 

_{It just strikes me a bit strange that some of the same people who think the sport needs slowing down because riders are too brave and lacking in skill for their own good and getting injured then go on to say they haven't got the balls to ride in bad conditions. Seems to boil down to wanting the old days back and changing the argument to make sure those old days were better. I can tell you one reason that meetings are cancelled more often, the fans will not accept paying to watch meetings where riders can't compete because of a poor track. perhaps in the oh so wonderful old days either the fans were willing to accept less or maybe the riders and promoters cared less for the fans opinion.}

[teddy2706]

It would be awful to go back thirty years to a time when you could travel a hundred miles only to find a bit of A4 paper pinned to the gate telling you a meeting was off and a carpark full of fed up fellow supporters.

The instant communication world in which we live means that is a thing of the past.

Weather prediction appears to have advanced little over thirty years though, but Halifax Tiger advised me some time ago to use XC Weather to test my travel arrangements and it was excellent advice indeed.

It is a shame then, that as others have suggested, promotors might be deciding the weather for us depending on the availability of riders!

But, the safety of riders is paramount, if they don't want to ride, then that's good enough for me, even if promoters feel blackmailed by that concept.

I would rather go home disappointed than see any rider fall off, or worse be injured.

[BWitcher]

Yup! Boiler suits donned, copious amounts of sawdust spread on the racing line, puddles near kerbs swept down drains, bulldog clip on helmet peak, stacked with plenty of small perspex squares with different corners creased, and off they raced, slower times, but they raced....

Yes, and you got absolutely awful processional strung out racing.

 

Marvelous that was.

Which sort of tyre is it keeps your goggles clear?

 

That was the much hailed Barry Briggs Dirt deflector... the saviour of the sport...

 

Oh wait...

I have seen riders looking like mud monsters in the past and they still carried on riding. No tear off strips in those days just lots of heart and 100% comitment.

 

And crap racing.

 

It's marvelous how folk continually try to re-write history. From this thread you'd assume no meetings were ever called off in the 'good old days'.

Edited June 5, 2014 by BWitcher

[Bruiser McHuge]

There were less rain offs years ago...I remember sitting in school when a mid week match was scheduled and often it was hammering down early afternoon but if it cleared a bit the meeting was usually on....these days it would be called off there and then..no messing

That is due to the tracks and the shale and preparation.....of course there were rain offs back in the day and you mustn't forget there were some awful meetings in rain that went ahead so poor value for spectators at times , but more meetings did go ahead

 

I remember plenty of times pulling into services and ringing the track when on route to a meeting...no mobiles or internet then ! And getting through to the office who usually told you it was on anyway.....then it was off when you got there ...that was frustrating...but it took a lot more for a meeting to be off that's for sure

[Shale Searcher]

_{Roll offs are a bit of a nightmare when it is raining as they tend to stick to the lens, you can run a piece of fishing line underneath the film which helps but it is still hit and miss. You could get a battery powered roll off, not sure if you still can but they weren't very good. Best option in my opinion is still the old fashioned tear off.}

 

_{Speedway is different to most other sports in the fact that it is run under lights which makes a big difference when visibility is a problem. No doubt somebody will point out that Supercross meetings are run in the wet and under lights, while that is true it's also a completely different thing running brakes when you are struggling to see compared to Speedway. I'm not disputing that some meetings could be run if the will was there but the tyres aren't the issue in any way that I can think of.}

 

_{It just strikes me a bit strange that some of the same people who think the sport needs slowing down because riders are too brave and lacking in skill for their own good and getting injured then go on to say they haven't got the balls to ride in bad conditions. Seems to boil down to wanting the old days back and changing the argument to make sure those old days were better. I can tell you one reason that meetings are cancelled more often, the fans will not accept paying to watch meetings where riders can't compete because of a poor track. perhaps in the oh so wonderful old days either the fans were willing to accept less or maybe the riders and promoters cared less for the fans opinion.}

Vince, can you remember in the 70's and 80's before pre cut to fit modern goggle tear-offs were common place, riders used to have a couple of bulldog clips screwed to the helmet peak and they used to cut sheets of stiff, but thinnish perspex squares with creased corners in the clips.... So there was distance between throw away lens and goggles, I seem to remember some riders managing to have half a dozen fresh pieces on per race when wet.. could that method be better for today's wet meetings...???

[Vince]

You can buy special clips that hold some flat Perspex sheets on the front of the peak, they are still in use by a few riders when conditions are bad.