Start Gates

[JohnnyMac]

i think it would be cool if you could have the starting gate drop randomly, like every race the gate drops at a different time. it would help with people timing the gate, and it'd be more realistic.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that! Thanks. I liked how in mva unleashed there was just a board and after it went away, gate dropped randomly. Now dont need to change the guy running across track, but how about adding a random 1-5 sec delay at the end???

[warrior462]

Whatever happened to this? JLV, you made it sound like you were going to do something about this and we haven't seen anything yet. This is one of the best improvements that could be made right now, it's so annoying to have your race screwed up by some idiot before the gate even drops, and it happens WAY too often.

[jlv]

I forgot about it. I've put it on my to do list now.

[JETZcorp]

I do think you should be allowed to back up a bit, though not two bike lengths. I saw an old Wide World of Sports video of a Carlsbad Grand Prix where the two main contenders for the world motocross championship had both backed up one bike length from the gate. And they both mis-judged when the gate was going to drop, and both simultaneously SLAMMED into the gate at warp speed. Both almost went over the bars, and the race was delayed for several minutes while officials tried to pry the 500cc two-strokes' front wheels out from under the gate. Another time, at the 1975 Superbowl of Motocross (aka Supercross for you young ones) every rider on the line backed their bike up about six feet, according to the announcer. "They're all going trying to get the same kind of start. They've backed up five or six feet from the gate so they'll be going that much fast- AND THERE THEY GO!"

The legendary Super Hunky also has a tale of his epic holeshot he got by backing up from the gate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S3-hiCackY

Of course, both of those examples are a little old so I don't know if there's been a change in the rules or something since then. If it were up to me, I'd restrict riders to backing up no more than six feet, and keep the bike dead straight until the front wheel crosses the pivot axis of the gate.

[Zane_Mx#88]

Disable wheelies before the gate drops. And an invisible wall to only let the rider back up about 2/3 feet