When you look at teens in urban areas and teens in not so urban areas, one of the differences you will notice is the availability of legal motor sports. Small towns across America have nearby race tracks that are accessible to almost everyone and on Friday and Saturday nights those venues pack the stands with fans and pack the pits with young men dreaming of being the next AJ Foyt, Richard Petty or Al Unser.
Locally there are race tracks near Asheboro, Altamahaw (Burlington) and Madison. There's even a go cart track next door to a City of Greensboro water pumping station on Glass House Road on the Guilford/Alamance County line but I'm betting that if you polled Greensboro's teens, 99% of them would have no idea of the existence of any of those tracks. And no way to get there if they knew.
In Southern California and Arizona a new form of motor racing is taking root, one that inexpensive and helping to build new green industries there. Motorized Bicycle racing began at the behest of several dealers of EZ Motorbikes and other brands of motorized bicycles as a tool to promote their brands. As the licensed Greensboro dealer for EZ Motorbikes I've thought for a long time I should attempt this at the existing race tracks mentioned above but recent events have prompted me to change my mind.
If the City of Greensboro were to make spaces available for motorized bicycle racing events I would gladly give my EZ Motorbike dealership rights to the City of Greensboro or a city affiliate in order to make this happen. There are currently a few EZM parts being used in the construction of our Wackemall mopeds and if the agency that gets the dealership is willing to work with us we would be more than happy to buy from Greensboro rather than to have them made elsewhere.
As I've quite a bit of experience working, building and tuning on these 50cc motorized bicycles (probably more than anyone else locally) I would be more than happy to act as a consultant to the various teams.
How fast do they go? In stock form about 35 miles per hour. The tracks should be made small and dirt. Smart tuners will quickly learn how to achieve a 50 to 55 mph top end but if the tracks are properly sized they'll never get that fast. Besides, if we never give them room enough to achieve top end they'll never blow these little engines which we've found to be extremely reliable as long as you stay below the factory red line. When you exceed red line they tend to break connecting rods.
Of course, even then not all is lost. A new engine retails for less than $150 and could be swapped out between heat races.
How loud are they? Even without mufflers they're not as loud as your lawnmower. That said, I think we'll want to require mufflers and set a db limit as not to disturb Theresa Yon, aka axleskater and Roy Carroll.
My contract won't allow me to tell you the wholesale price of a kit but as you can see from the EZM website they retail at $600 plus shipping. Then you'll need a used bicycle and about $50 to $100 dollars worth of stuff EZM doesn't warn you about. Being that EZM is located in Manns Harbor, NC we could save a chunk on shipping by getting together big orders and driving a truck to the beach and back. I could easily load 60 to 100 of these kits on a pick-up truck and trailer.
There are cheaper brands, I've tried them, you won't like them. Nor do we want those loud little 2 stroke engines screaming about inside the city limits. The engines I use are quiet, clean burning 4 cycle engines.
Neighborhoods could assemble teams supervised by parents and volunteers. Driving privileges would be earned and rotated through the team members as most all the young men and some of the young women would want to wear the crash helmets.
Is there some danger involved? Not as much as say the gunfight at City Center Park might entail. No guarantees but in the video at the bottom of the post all the riders get up and walk away from the crashes.
A points system could be established for a season championship with the big money being paid for the season championship. And while we're talking points let it be known that being involved in fights takes points away from your team.
Admission to the races should be dirt cheap with lots of free passes to needy families. Concessions should be provided not by the City or out of town vendors but by licensed local (Guilford County and preferably Greensboro) vendors thereby keeping our money in our communities.
In the end, a few businesses new and existing would see the potential and a trickle of economic development would ensue. High performance tuners selling high performance parts would turn up. (They're already out there, just not in Greensboro.) These same kids who began as racers might start selling complete motorized bicycles in their neighborhoods from kits bought through the program. And with 150 MPG, EPA and Californa CARB approved engines how can anyone say they are anything but a greening of our city.
This is but one suggestion. Fact is: there are hundreds of ways to deal with this problem and dozens of them will be needed to create a solution. One size doesn't fit all and until we have a City Council with creativity, vision and courage instead of councilmembers that behave like anxious, overprotective mothers, Greensboro will always remain a violent city with the neighborhood gangs that have been always been here since the 1940s.
Let's go racing!
Me, I'm off to the Moped factory.
Update: Back from the moped factory. I got an e-mail asking where the money would come from to pay for all this. Living in North Carolina, the birthplace of NASCAR, I thought it obvious but then I remembered this is Greensboro, the city that ran NASCAR out of town in 1958. In case you're wondering where the money would come from to pay for all this; are you aware that besides Cable channel 8, the City of Greensboro currently streams television programing 24/7/365 worldwide via the web? Currently this programming is one giant money pit for the City of Greensboro as we, the taxpayers must pay for the rights to rebroadcast at least some of that programming and nothing viewed there is bringing in any revenue for the City of Greensboro.
If City TV were to film these races they could be broadcast along with commercials from sponsors. Rebroadcast rights could also be sold to privately owned stations or other cities hoping to generate public interest in doing the same. I'm not saying I'm 100% certain the economic returns would exceed the costs but what is the value of the life of a child and how do we measure our losses when the next violent confrontation turns deadly?
You know, if Greensboro's leaders had creativity, vision and courage.
And finally, if you'd like to see some of these vehicles up close I have a couple In our shop that we ride around Greensboro and Burlington.
