Sparkplug #5

Well, I was a little off on last week’s prediction for the opening National at Hangtown. Rick Carmichael did indeed go 1-1, but James Stewart, as everyone knows by now, was unable to finish higher than 6th in the first moto… and then pulled off the track feeling ill during the second race.

However, it was what happened in the 250F class that leads to this week’s Sparkplug, because the topic is electric starters. As in, “How many races have to be lost before the factories begin equipping their bikes with them?”

Mike Alessi had a fantastic day last Sunday, running top 5 for most of moto 1, and then leading the second race from gate drop to that fateful last turn incident with Grant Langston. Much has been said about the incident, but no one has commented on the glaring fact that there is in fact a better way to start or restart a motocross motorcycle without resorting to brute force.

I am old enough to remember when electric starting first became commonplace on street motorcycles. I recall actually being a bit pissed off that the manufacturers, after a few years of electric starting, began building motorcycles WITHOUT KICKSTARTERS! “How lame is THAT?”, I thought back then. To me, in my mid-teens at the time, kickstarting your motorcycle was one of the coolest things you could possibly do. Heck, before I had my first motorcycle, I used to pretend “kickstarting” my Sears ten-speed! Of course, the end of the kickstart-only era opened motorcycling up to a much wider market. How many of those big twin Harleys do you think they would be selling today if those middle-aged yuppies had to exert themselves to start them?

No doubt, e-start was a godsend to the street side of our sport, and it is proving very, VERY popular in the offroad community as well. I think KTM deserves a lot of credit for providing it on their great cross-country bikes. I remember racing a Saturday REM round at Glen Helen; lined up next to me on the starting gate was a guy who had to be 65 if he was a day, sitting on a big Katoom 520. It was hot as heck, and I was just waiting to see this old guy kick that big boy over. When the 30 second card went up, I glanced over at him… and his bike was already running! Yep, he had a “happy button” on that bike. (Oh yeah, that “old guy” lapped me during that moto, too!)

Back to the present. I truly believe Alessi would have won that moto at Hangtown if he had a “happy button” on his 250F. Even though he had to run a few yards to where his bike lay, he was ahead of Grant and they both picked up their bikes at about the same time. But no, KTM Racing decided to forego installing electric starting on their race bikes, so they had to pay the price at the finish line. And it’s not the first time something like this has happened.

Back in 1999, at the L.A. Supercross, living legend Doug Henry led every lap of the muddy main on his works Yamaha YZ400… until he fell on the last lap and … guess what? That’s right: he couldn’t kickstart the bike! Well, he did eventually light the beast, but not before a surprised Sebastien Tortelli stole the win. I also seem to recall during the maiden year of Yamaha’s 250F, when Ernesto Fonseca was laying waste to what was then truly the 125 class in supercross, there was a race he lost in much the same manner, sitting on the sidelines, kicking and kicking and kicking…

Even at last year’s Hangtown opener, young Josh Grant’s first moto surprise lead was ruined when, after crashing, he couldn’t refire his little Honda thumper right away. Again, how many motos have to be lost before something is done?

The lone argument against e-starting is weight. That’s it! To me, a person who carries more than a few extra pounds on his frame, that’s a non-issue. Give me effortless starting, and I’ll give up a few pizza nights. Obviously, though, for the world-class athletes that race on the National circuit, those extra pounds make a difference… but maybe we should ask Mike Alessi if the tradeoff was worth it last Sunday.