Supermoto is motorcycle racing

Motorcycle racing

Motorcycle sport is a broad field that encompasses all sporting aspects of motorcycling. The disciplines are not all "races" or timed-speed events, as several disciplines test a competitor's various riding skills.-Motorcycle racing:...

 on a circuit

Race track

A race track is a purpose-built facility for racing of animals , automobiles, motorcycles or athletes. A race track may also feature grandstands or concourses. Some motorsport tracks are called speedways.A racetrack is a permanent facility or building...

 that alternates between three types of track: flat track

Track racing

Track racing is a form of motorcycle racing where teams or individuals race opponents around an oval track. There are differing variants, with each variant racing on a different surface type....

, motocross

Motocross

Motocross is a form of motorcycle sport or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off road circuits. It evolved from trials, and was called scrambles, and later motocross, combining the French moto with cross-country...

 and road racing

Road racing

Road racing is a general term for most forms of motor racing held on paved, purpose-built race tracks , as opposed to oval tracks and off-road racing...

, using motorcycles designed for that purpose. Supermoto was originally conceived as something like an all-star game

All-star game

An all-star game is an exhibition game played by the best players in their sports league, except in the circumstances of professional sports systems in which a democratic voting system is used...

, in which the best riders from the three separate genres of motorcycle racing could temporarily leave their normal race class to come together and compete for the title of best all around racer. Today supermoto is a distinct genre of its own and riders in the other classes do not routinely cross over into supermoto.

Races are commonly held on road racing or medium sized go-kart tracks with an off-road section in the infield. Most supermoto race tracks have a tarmac

Tarmac

Tarmac is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901...

 size of 50-75% and the remaining percentage of the course is off-road. The dirt sections are usually constructed of packed clay and feature motocross style obstacles like bermed corners and jumps. This type of racing is also very portable in that an entire track can be constructed anywhere there is a large area of open asphalt and an availability of dirt. Supermoto races have also been successfully held in busy urban centers using closed city streets for the road course and a vacant lot for the dirt sections.

The motorcycles used are frequently custom-created combinations of off-road motorcycles and road-racing wheels/tires, known as 'supermotard' bikes. Riders also wear a combination of road race and offroad equipment, normally road racing leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

s and motocross helmets and boots. Unlike normal motorcycle racing, the emphasis lies on slower speeds—typically less than 100 mph (44.7 m/s)— on short, technical tracks, where rider skill matters more than outright machine performance.

History

Supermoto has its origins in the 1970s where ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

’s Wide World of Sports

Wide World of Sports (US TV series)

ABC's Wide World of Sports is a sports anthology series on American television that ran from 1961 to 1998 and was originally hosted by Jim McKay. The title continued to be used for general sports programs until 2006...

was the highest-rated sports show in the United States. In 1979, ABC commissioned a made-for-TV event called "Superbikers," created by motorcycling journalist and promoter Gavin Trippe

Gavin Trippe

Gavin Trippe is a motorcycle racing promoter, journalist, and publisher who was inducted to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2005. Trippe was a motorcycling journalist in the UK until he founded a motorcycling magazine, Motor Cycle Weekly, in the United States in 1969...

, intended to find the ultimate all-around motorcycle racer by putting all star

All-star game

An all-star game is an exhibition game played by the best players in their sports league, except in the circumstances of professional sports systems in which a democratic voting system is used...

 riders from different genres of racing on a single track that combined three genres of racing: flat track racing

Track racing

Track racing is a form of motorcycle racing where teams or individuals race opponents around an oval track. There are differing variants, with each variant racing on a different surface type....

, motocross and road racing. Superbikers was then manifested as a yearly event run at southern California's Carlsbad Raceway. The show's tarmac-and-dirt courses were intended to draw on talent from the world's of off-road, flat track and road racing. World and National Championship-winning motorcycling greats such as Kenny Roberts

Kenny Roberts

Kenneth Leroy Roberts is a former motorcycle racer and racing team owner. In 1978, he became the first American to win a Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championship. He was also a two-time winner of the A.M.A. Grand National Championship...

 and Jeff Ward

Jeff Ward (motocross)

Jeff Ward is the first motocross rider in history to win every major AMA motocross national championship...

, whose respective sports at the time were road-racing and motocross, participated in the races. The Superbikers quickly became a huge Nielsen ratings

Nielsen Ratings

Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...

 contender, running until 1985, at which point ABC was forced to cancel the show due to new management and cuts; its cancellation also initiated a long sabbatical of the sport in the USA. The European racers who participated in the sport at Carlsbad, however, brought it back to Europe with them, where it quickly gained popularity in countries such as France.

2003 signaled the resurrection of the sport in the United States with the birth of the AMA

American Motorcyclist Association

The American Motorcyclist Association is an American not-for-profit organization of more than 300,000 motorcyclists that organizes numerous motorcycling activities and campaigns for motorcyclists' legal rights...

 Supermoto championship and with the ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

 X-Games Supermoto championship.

Machines

Prior to the 1990s, supermoto bikes, including the precursor motorcycles used in Superbikers, were converted open-class two-stroke motocross or enduro bikes desired for their light weight and jumping abilities. The motorcycles currently used for Supermoto racing are predominantly single-cylinder four-stroke powered dirtbikes with 17 inches (431.8 mm) or 16.5 inches (419.1 mm) wheels. The 17 inches (431.8 mm) wheels allow the use of up to 5.5 inches (139.7 mm) superbike road racing slick tire

Slick tire

A slick tyre is a type of tyre that has no tread pattern, used mostly in auto racing. The first production "slick tyre" was developed by a company called M&H Tires in the early 1950s for use in drag racing...

s. These are often hand-grooved on the rear tire to facilitate slightly better acceleration on the dirt stretches of a supermoto course. Suspension is lowered and slightly stiffened in comparison with a stock dirt bike, and braking power is improved with oversize front brake rotors and calipers. Despite the lack of trees on supermoto courses, 'bark busters' (hand guards) are frequently added to supermoto bikes due the extreme cornering angles achieved by riders. Hand guards also greatly improve survivability of the brake & clutch levers during a fall making supermoto bikes highly crash resistant and often able to quickly re-enter the fray during a race following a crash.

In 1991, Italian manufacturer Gilera

Gilera

Gilera is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer founded in Arcore in 1909 by Giuseppe Gilera. In 1969 the company was purchased by Piaggio, which now holds six marques and is the world's fourth largest motorcycle manufacturer.-History:...

 released the 'Nordwest' model, the first factory produced supermoto. Other European manufactures quickly followed suit, among them KTM

KTM

KTM Sportmotorcycle AG is an Austrian motorcycle, bicycle and moped manufacturer.The company was founded in 1934 by engineer Hans Trunkenpolz in Mattighofen. It started out as a metal working shop and was named Kraftfahrzeuge Trunkenpolz Mattighofen...

, Husqvarna

Husqvarna Motorcycles

Husqvarna Motorcycles, a subsidiary of BMW, is a company manufacturing motocross, enduro and supermoto motorcycles. The company began producing motorcycles in 1903 at Huskvarna, Sweden, as a branch of the Husqvarna armament firm which had supplied the Swedish army with rifles since 1689.-History:As...

, Husaberg

Husaberg

Husaberg is a manufacturer of off-road and supermoto four-stroke and two-stroke motorcycles. Husaberg motorcycles are known for their larger displacement engines and for their race-oriented construction...

 and CCM

Clews Competition Motorcycles

Clews Competition Motorcycles or CCM for short, is a British motorcycle manufacturer based in Bolton, England.-History:CCM was born out of the collapse of BSA's Competition Department in 1971....

; all manufacturers whose emphasis were off-road models at the time. Models were developed for both track and road use. It took another ten years, until the mid 2000s for Japanese manufacturers, such as Yamaha (2004), Honda

Honda

is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...

 (2005) and Suzuki

Suzuki

is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Hamamatsu, Japan that specializes in manufacturing compact automobiles and 4x4 vehicles, a full range of motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles , outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines...

 (2005) to start introducing supermoto models in the European market. Most of the supermoto bikes sold to the public are more domesticated models for road use rather than outright racing, for example the Suzuki DR-Z400SM. Slower and heavier but rock solid dual-purpose motorcycles such as the Kawasaki KLR650

Kawasaki KLR650

The Kawasaki KLR650 is a dual-sport motorcycle intended for use on both paved and unpaved roads. It has been a long-standing model in Kawasaki's lineup, having been introduced in 1987 and remaining almost unchanged through the 2007 model. The 2008 model was the first significant redesign of the...

 are good examples of this. In the spring of 2006, Italian bike manufacturer Ducati announced their entry in the class with the Hypermotard

Ducati HyperMotard

The Ducati Hypermotard is a 'Supermoto style' Ducati motorcycle designed by Pierre Terblanche and was first seen at the November 2005 EICMA trade show in Milan...

 machine, which has more in common with streetfighter

Streetfighter

A streetfighter is a sport bike that is customized by removing the fairing, and making other changes that result in an overall more aggressive look. Beyond simply removing fairings, specific changes that exemplify the streetfighter look are a pair of large, round headlights, tall, upright...

-type motorcycles than realistically being considered a true supermoto bike capable of surviving jumps and crashes. KTM currently has available a 999 cc V-twin that could be described as the ultimate road going Hypermoto, and a brand new (and well appreciated) single cylinder KTM690SM. Aprilia

Aprilia

Aprilia is an Italian motorcycle company, one of the seven marques owned by Piaggio, the world's fourth largest motorcycle manufacturer.Aprilia started as a scooter manufacturer, but has more recently come to be known for its race-winning sportbikes...

 also has two 450 cc and 550 cc SXV V-twin track oriented supermotos for sale.

Due to the popularity, versatility, excitement and durability of these motorcycles, some owners modify them for street use. In order to do this, headlights, tail lights, horn, mirrors and street-legal tires among other occasional modifications are needed. Some state motor vehicle departments take a dim view of turning off-road bikes into street legal bikes. In Europe most Supermotos are sold street legal from the factory and later tuned for race use. Supermoto type bikes make excellent city-goers as their upright seating position provides great visibility in traffic. Their narrow frames and light weight also make them incredibly maneuverable, as well as easier to ride in twisty or less than ideal road conditions that make most sportbikes have to slow down.

External links

• FIM Supermoto World Championship official website