History of Motocross in the UK

One of the most storied new age motor sports in the world, the sport of motocross has had a long history around the world and especially in the United Kingdom.

Many fans of this incredibly exciting sport may not know that is originated in the UK and it has now developed greatly around the world over the last century into the trend setting culture that it is today.

The Early Days

From the beginning time trials to the magnitude of the X Games in the 21st century, motocross is an incredible popular extreme sport that has only grown in recent time. This incredible event dates back all the way to the early 1920s when timed trials began among riders who had returned home from serving in World War I. These timed trials were evolved from the events that began taking plays as early as 196 with the Auto-Cycle Club's First Quarterly Trial. It wasn't until 1924 though that the first "scramble" race would be organized at Camberley, Surrey.

It wasn't until the 1930's though that it officially became known as motocross and really began to take off. In the early 1950's, the first European Championship was founded before becoming the World Motocross Championship in 1957.

During the 70s, the sport grew immensely across Europe as television coverage began to surge around the continent and even started to spread across the pond in the United States. Unfortunately, the 80s saw a large drop off in coverage and in turn lost a percentage of its fan base.

Technology Advancements

In the early days of motocross, the bikes used on these off road tracks did not bear much difference to the ones that were still being used on the roads.

As the 70s and 80s hit however, the technology of the bikes would increase drastically, paving the way for the incredibly powerful machines we see in the sport today.

These bikes developed during this time included important features such as single shocked and engines that now included water cooling systems in an effort to make them far more efficient in the long run. These bikes would be dominated by four Japanese manufacturers who are still the leading names in the industry today: Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha. Each one of these companies has continued to develop outstanding machines that push the limit of what can be done on a dirt bike.

The sport of motocross has come a long way in the last century, and it will be exciting to see what is yet to come.

By the time the 1950s and 60s rolled around, the bikes were truly beginning to improve in quality as the first two-stroke engines were developed after 500cc bikes had already become the norm across the circuit in general.