One of my favorite motorcycle parlor games is trying to imagine how good I could be at something if I didn’t have the limitations of real-life intruding. I’m not talking about the self-imposed boundaries of lack of time or dedication to reaching a level of accomplishment—that’s on me.
For those of us who include speed or skill as part of our motorcycle riding experience, it’s easy to point a finger at ourselves for our failures. We don’t get enough instruction, put in the necessary time, or have enough confidence.
Now, it’s the last one of those problems that I like to address with fairy dust and dreams.
Suppose your fairy godmother came to visit and sprinkled fairy dust on you and your motorcycle one day. Her magical concoction made you invulnerable to injury and your motorcycle immune from damage. Nothing else changes. You’re still you. With those two disincentives to success removed, how good can you be?
I wonder about that when I watch Toni Bou ride trials, Marc Márquez on a MotoGP circuit, and Jett Lawrence on motocross and supercross tracks. Without any doubt, there’s no way I could do what those three riders do, even with the inhibitions caused by injury and damage removed. Superhuman skills aren’t simply attained with extraordinary bravery or unlimited practice. Something innate in those riders makes it possible, though they still need the ingredients of dedication to the task at hand.
Let’s start with Bou, who you may not realize you are familiar with. If you’ve seen a video of a guy on a seatless dirt bike, hopping around on the rear wheel, and doing all sorts of tricks that appear to defy physics, it is most likely Bou. He’s the undisputed greatest of all time in trials and, arguably, motorsports. He has 35 consecutive Trial (outdoor) and X-Trial World Championships, and he’s poised to take #36 later this year. Yeah, you read that right.
Could I eventually hop around on the rear wheel or scale giant boulders in a single bound? I think that if I could send it enough times without consequences, I could eventually tackle some pretty big rock walls. However, the magic of his rear wheel hopping is likely far beyond my capabilities, even if I don’t have to worry about crashing while trying to learn. It would be interesting to discover how much of it is learned technique, and how much is innate balance skills and strength. I have to say it one more time—35 consecutive World Championships. Seriously. How does that happen?
Next up, we have Marc Márquez, who has a mere eight World Championships on his résumé. Sure, I could probably ride pretty fast on a MotoGP circuit if I didn’t have to worry about high sides or losing the front end. I would guess I could start testing some edge grip if fear was removed from the equation, though I doubt 60 degrees of lean angle is on my can-do list.
Still, you can’t just lean it over and have it stick, as we see at every MotoGP round. The amazing saves that Márquez performs aren’t something I could ever manage, regardless of the number of mulligans issued to me. Regardless, it would be great fun to see just how hard I could push a MotoGP bike with my fairy godmother on my shoulder.
When you watch Jett Lawrence race a dirt bike, it’s poetry in motion. His line selection and what he does with those lines through treacherous terrain is magic all his own. The number of mental calculations performed instantaneously under extreme duress can’t be counted.
I couldn’t replicate Lawrence’s track savvy, even if I had the strength to do it, which I don’t. However, I might have a shot at clearing something like LaRocco’s Leap at RedBud MX in Buchanan, Michigan, if I could keep crashing my brains out without actually harming my brain, and every other part of my body. Likewise, a triple jump on a stadium supercross track seems approachable for a mere mortal. Could I hang on for a pass through the whoops? Maybe, but there’s no way in real life I’m even going to try to learn that advanced technique.
So, it looks like the superheroes of motorcycle competition are just that—superheroes. Even with the help of a fairy godmother, the heights they attain are impossible to reach by mere mortals, and that’s why we love watching them perform feats of brilliance, skill, and, yes, magic.
