Pro Supercross Bike Gearing

So while talking to some friends last weekend about supercross and what not, on of my friends who races in 250sx (dylan schmoke #670, didnt race this year due to breaking his back before the season started)

anyhow he was saying that most of the racers run only 3 gears. anyone else heard of this?
 
no, i asked he said some of the bikes are 3 speeds. maybe some have 4 and so forth, but he for sure said 3 speeds
 
I have heard of it. However there is no real benefit that I can see. Bikes all check in at the same weight and unless they are trying to eliminate rotating mass within the engine. And since there is a production rule for AMA racing then there are no custom gears or shift drums. Maybe one of the industry guys can chime in.
 

James

Staff member
Figured it'd be good to get input from a guy that actually races [450]SX every weekend...

When asked about the number of gears he uses:
I use every gear even fifth in the whoops sometimes. I try to avoid first gear unless its a really tight corner with a jump right out of it that I need to pop up on.
And if he only had one gear to pick from:
If you only had one gear, I would either choose 2nd or 3rd. 2nd would be fine everywhere but whoops on a normal SX track. Vegas might be a third gear track.
 
most of the pro enduro cross bikes have 4th and 5th gear removed, However that is a lot tighter than a supercross track. In 2011 they set up a speed trap on Thunder Alley at Las Vegas SX and the top guys, Reed, RV, Dungey, were getting up about 60, I don't think you do that in 3rd gear
 
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