“His riding style is perfect”
Statements like that get thrown around a bit in recent times. With the textbook form of current stars like Chase Sexton, Ken Roczen, and Christian Craig. All are great riders and very successful riders, but what is the perfect riding style?
James Stewart rode way over the front. Ryan Villopoto rode towards the back, steering with the rear. Two of the greatest ever, with very different techniques. Jason Anderson rides really loose, perfectly described recently by Broc Glover, as “Like Surfing”. Eli Tomac rides
with strength, gripping, and man-handling the bike.
But it's more than a different body position. It’s different throttle control, think of Justin Barcia hanging off the loud handle. Compared to Kenny, so quiet, he sneaks up on the rider in front. How about clutch control, Stew hardly used the left lever, Eli uses it constantly.
Our sport also uses pretty much the same size motorcycle for a Ricky Carmichael-sized rider, to an Adam Cianciarulo-sized rider. There’s no picking your frame size like a mountain bike.
Sure, you can tweak things like bars, pegs, and seats. But short or tall riders have to adapt their riding style to make it work for them. We all remember Ricky’s dead shock, seemingly void of rebound, so the seat didn’t hit his ass in the whoops!
Some riders are technical, especially Europeans like Marvin Musquin, flowing and working with the terrain. And then some are just bulldogs, like Jeremy Martin, just making that track his bitch! Some riders are amazing at railing an outside line, Eli is maybe the best ever at that. And then Cooper Webb is surely one of the best ever at cutting a tight line, with what looks like impossible traction. We have seen Coop and Eli racing at the front of the pack, with their contrasting styles, whilst daylight, or should I say flood light, was in third place.
There’s also the matter of natural talent vs hard work. Every top-level rider has a mixture of the two for sure. But a Jett Lawrence level of natural talent is not common. And a Zach Osborne level of grit and determination isn’t either. No disrespect to Zach, in fact, massive
respect to him. He achieved greatness with an, at times, criticized riding style.
It makes me wonder about the vast number of “Riding Coaches” nowadays. I’m sure the good coaches, are flexible and work to improve the rider without trying to pour them into a mold. But I can’t help thinking that many coaches are saying, “This is the right way” or “This is how I do it”. Sure, some fundamentals don’t change. But there’s more than one way to win a championship, the proof is above. Every rider I have mentioned has one.
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