Straight up late 90s, early 2000s motocross might be the coolest thing to ever happen in motor sports, and might be the only thing keeping me together right now. I'm going to tell you why.

At the tail end of the 90s, freestyle motocross burst onto the extreme sports world stage. When the X Games included the new discipline at their fourth running in San Francisco, I don't think anyone in attendance knew it at the time, but dudes doing insane tricks on motorcycles was about to eclipse NASCAR and IndyCar in popularity, and influence pop culture for nearly a decade.

But, why? What made this niche sports soap appealing to the mainstream? And why has it sort of fallen off? To answer that, let's start at the beginning.

Compared to the double back flip, state-of freestyle motocross today, motocross had a pretty tame beginning here in the U.S. Motocross was born in Europe, with cross country races called scrambles. An American Husqvarna dealer, by the name of Edison Dye introduced the sport to Americans in the 60s by bringing over some of the top European riders, and having them compete to promote the sport, and thus sell some bikes.

Because of the low cost of entry, high amount of adrenaline ratio of the sport exploded in popularity through the 70s. I mean <

(Note: I have left all the sentences intact as per your request and only rearranged them for better readability)

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Straight up late 90s,early 2000s motocrossmight be the coolest thing toever happen in motor sports,and might be the only thingkeeping me together right now.I'm going to tell you why.That's the intro, let's just get into it.At the tail end of the 90s,freestyle motocross burst ontothe extreme sports world stage.When the X games includedthe new disciplineat their fourth running in San Francisco.I don't think anyone inattendance knew it at the time,but dudes doing insanetricks on motorcycleswas about to eclipse NASCARand IndyCar in popularity,and influence pop culturefor nearly a decade.But, why?What made this niche sports soappealing to the mainstream?And why has it sort of fallen off?To answer that, let'sstart at the beginning.Compared to the double back flip,no handed front flip stateof freestyle motocross today,motocross had a pretty tamebeginning here in the U.S.Motocross was born in Europe,with cross country races called scrambles.An American Husqvarna dealer,by the name of Edison Dyeintroduced the sportto Americans in the 60sby bringing over some ofthe top European riders,and having them competeto promote the sport,and thus sell some bikes.Because of the low cost of entry,high amount of adrenaline ratioof the sport exploded inpopularity through the 70s.I mean "On Any Sunday" was a motocross docthat got nominated for an Oscar in 1971.Then the American Motorcyclist Associationcreated their motocrosschampionship in 1972.One of the races was heldat the Los Angeles Coliseum.It was coined the Superbowl of Motocross.Through the 70s, there were more of theseindoor stadium supercrosses,and where the Europeanstypically dominatedthe traditional crosscountry motocross events,American riders were really goodon the tight and technicalSupercross courses.Another shift was the kinds of bikesthese guys were riding.Motocross started on theback of European bikes.Like the Huskies Eddie dye was selling.But as the 80s rolled around,more Japanese manufacturerswere getting into the game,and winning.Suzukis, Yamahas, andKawasakis were cleaning upwith their powerfulwater-cooled two-stroke engines,and their simple singleshock rear suspensionwas lighter and more capablethan what the Europeans wereputting out at that time.The 90s were a time of fluxin the world of motocross.The AMA wanted to helpfour-stroke engines be competitivein the sport, and allowedfour-stroke engineswith displacements as high as 550CCsto compete in the sameclass as 250CC two-strokes.Along with the splittingof the stroke preference,which I probably couldhave phrased better,a new discipline of motocrosswas beginning to take shape.Mike Metzger was a kid fromHuntington Beach, Californiawho learned to ride abike at three years old,and started racingmotocross when he was six.In junior high, he got onhis first mountain bike,and could have competed inthe pro downhill circuitwhen he graduated high school.But what Mike would go onto do would be much greater.Combining tricks from BMXand the speed of motocross,Mike was one of the firstoriginators of a new kind of Moto.Mike Metzger is known asthe Godfather of Freestyle Motocross.You watch early freestylevideos like Fox Terrafirma,Throttle Junkies, andCrusty's Dirt Demons.And the scene back thenseems like it was more abouthucking huge jumps in the wildthan it was about pullingcomplicated moves.But that was soon to changebecause the X Games took notice.Like I said at the top of this episode,the X Games added freestyle motocrossto their lineup in 1999.And to borrow an analogyfrom my buddy Jeremiah,X Games was the best becausethey basically gave theaudience 10 Evel Knievels,and then pit them against eachother for bragging rights.And from the jump, therewas a built-in rivalry.Pastrana versus Deegan.These two competitors couldnot have seemed more different.On one hand you had Travis Pastrana,the wholesome 15 year old from Maryland.The kid was a motocross prodigypoised for a spot on theSuzuki Supercross Factory Team,but he wasn't old enoughto race in Supercross yet.And he's out here fighting againstsome of the pioneersof freestyle motocross.And on the other hand,you had Brian Deegan,the bad boy of the sport.Deegan was from Bellevue, Nebraska,but had moved to So Cal tochase the Supercross dreamswhen he was 18.Deegan had won Supercrossevents as a privateer,but he didn't have the cashto continue racing at that level,so he shifted his focus to freestyle.His image stood in starkcontrast to the young Pastrana.He had tattoos,his shoulder pads had spikes,and he rolled with a crewthat called themselves the Metal Militia.Just listen to how thecommentators introduced Brian.- Brian Deegan.Thank God he's not dating your daughter.- I certainly think the X Games managementhelped Deegan and Pastranaplay up their images for the show,but I can't blame them,because I think this was akey to the sport's success.The tricks were impressiveon their own, even in 99.But giving the audiencepersonalities to latch ontomade it so much easierto root for someone.The contrasting personas also appealedto a wide audience all over the country.Do you root for thesqueaky clean boy wonder,Travis Pastrana?Or are you pulling for theNebraska Supercross underdogwho loved to party?It's called giving the audience choice.And it was brilliant.Speaking of choice,maybe the high flying antics of freestylewere a little too much for you.Maybe you wanted somethinga little more traditional,like good old fashioned Supercross racing.Well, lucky for you.The mid to late 90s happened to bethe golden age of the sport.While freestyle was picking up steam,Supercross was being dominatedby California native, Jeremy McGrath.Between 1993 and 2000,McGrath picked up seven AMASupercross Championships.He simply could not be beaten.Jeremy's style was extremely smooth,which satisfied fans withan eye for the technical.But McGrath's flarealso imbued him, again,with a lot of personalityfor fans to latch onto.He loved putting it on for the fans,which earned McGraththe nickname Showtime.He also loved to party.So that was pretty cool too.Thanks again to Rayconfor sponsoring this episode of Wheelhouse.You know, when I'm not making videos,or trying to convincemyself I can play guitar,or working on my Imperial,I have to find otherthings to occupy my time.Most of the time, I just pop in myRaycon Every Day E25 Earbuds,turn on some Slipknot,and escape with some cathartic rage(spitting)while cleaning my apartment.(rock music)No matter where my cleaning takes me,I know my Raycons aren'tgonna let me down.They've got six hours of battery life,and seamless Bluetooth connectivity.No wonder my friends, whom I've never met,like J.R. Smith, and Richthe Kid, and Snoop Dogg,all rock them too.I genuinely love my Raycons.They're convenient.They've got really goodsound, great battery life.I really love them.To get yours today, hit thelink in the description,or go to buyraycon.com/donutto get 15% off your order today.Now let's make like Jeremy McGrathand jump back into this episode.(explosion)As the calendar hit the year 2000,both freestyle Moto and Supercross,heck, extreme sports in general,were about to enter theirmost high profile decade yet.I don't want to sound out of touch,extreme sports are still progressingto insane levels today withYouTube and social media.I mean, my IG explore pageis basically filled with car stuff,and BMX riders like Derek Reynolds,but 15 years ago, it was different.And I think that's because of the lackof YouTube and social media.The only place you could watchextreme sports was on TV.Both the X Games and Supercrosswere broadcast on ESPN,giving dirt bikes as muchlegitimacy as other sportsthat had been around for decades.It was a really exciting timefor seven year old Nolan.Through the early 2000s,the freestyle Moto tricksonly got more impressivewith every year.At the 2002 Philly X Games,Carey Hart pulled the firstever backflip in competitionafter two failed attemptsin 2000 and 2001.Even crazier, Hart won silver.What could be crazier than a backflip?How about a no-footedback flip by Mike Metzger?The tricks kept gettingeven more impressivewith the deceptively difficult 360,and one of my personal favorite moves,Chuck Carothers' body varial in 2004.The tricks for takingless inspiration from BMX,and becoming an art style all their own.Less motor sport, andmore Cirque du Soleil.Things were heating up evenmore over in Supercross.Jeremy McGrath was in theTwilight of his careerbefore finally beingdethroned by Ricky Carmichael,AKA the Goat.Ricky's arrival to Supercrossushered in a new era.At first, Carmichael didn't do so hot.He knew he had the skills to beat McGrath,but he lacked the staminafor the demanding Supercross arenas.So he took a new approach,similar to Formula 1 drivers.He focused on fitness and health,and that's what really allowed himto win the SupercrossChampionship in 2001,and hold onto it until 2006.With the exception of 2004,which was snapped up by ChadReed, the Australian guy.While Supercross might not have hadthe bombastic theatrical freestyle,what it did have was rivalries in spades.McGrath versus Carmichael,Carmichael versus Reed,Reed versus Stewart,Pastrana versus everyone.Just like any other motor sports,all of these storylines meantthat you weren't just watchingfor the on-track action,but you wanted to seeyour favorite charactercome out on top at the end of the story.It's a tried and true formulayou can find in wrestling,tennis, and Formula 1.I mean, that's like 80% ofthe reason I watch Formula 1.So what kind of impact did thesesports have on pop culture?Well, I would say a lot.Today, I'm not very cool.I don't dress cool.My meme game is pretty weak,and I definitely don't knowwhat the kids are listening to.But back in the early 2000s,that might've been theonly time in my lifewhen what I thought was coolwas also what everyoneelse thought was cool.Let's start with fashion.Dude, if you lived in a rural town,and you didn't own at least one Fox,No Fear, or Metal Militia shirtfor every day of the week,you were not cool.If you wanted people to knowyou were down back then,if you wanted to flex onyour sixth grade class,you threw on that Fox Jersey with pridebecause you knew you were the coolest kidasking if you could goto the bathroom that day.The style's popularitythrough the mid 2000sshows just how universallythe American public love motocross,which is pretty amazing.Imagine if like NASCARdriver gear became trendyin an earnest and un-ironic way.What if people startedwearing F1 team polos,like Felipe, because ofthe undeniable swaggerof drivers like LouisHamilton or Lance Stroll?I would love that.And it wasn't just clothing, either.Motocross found its way intoall facets of entertainment.There were video gameslike MX vs. ATV Unleashed,and EA's Freakstyle,which featured realriders like Brian Deegan.Speaking of Brian Deegan,he had a cameo in thatVIN diesel "XXX" movie.Carrie Hart had a cameoin "Charlie's Angels"and who could forget theDisney Original Movie,"Motocrossed".I loved "Motocrossed".If you wanted your movieto be extreme to the max,you had to get a freestyleMoto guy in there.Motocross' popularity also coincided withthe commercializationof music like Nu Metal,which also featured dirtbikes and other extreme sportsin their music videos.The riders may have beenfrom all over the country,but because many of them hadmoved to Southern California,the trends of the region,intertwined with the sport.And as a result,they were broadcast out tothe rest of the country.I think because of theinternet and social media,tastes are a little more global today.But man, back then it wasall about So Cal, dude.(laughing)So what happened?Why did the scene kind of fall off?Well to understand it, wehave to go back to 2006.It's X Games 12 in 2006at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.Travis Pastrana is at the top of the ramppreparing for the biggesttrick of his life.He puts his goggles on,and what happens next seems impossible.On his first try, Travis Pastranalands a double back flip.I watched this live on TV,and I'll never forget it.It was easily the craziestthing anyone had ever seen.If he messed up, hecould have easily died.He promised to neverattempt the trick again.It was a big deal.Travis would compete in XGames for five more yearsbefore breaking his foot in competition,attempting a rodeo 720at X Games 17 in 2011.For me, the double back flipwas the height of the X Games.It was an unbelievable featthat played out on live TVand recapped by millions of kidswhen they got back toschool later that summer.it was a cultural moment.Between 1999 and hislast appearance in 2012,Pastrana had become an American icon,an unrivaled talent with no equal.And that was kind of the problem.When he left, there was noone to really take his placebecause he was just that good.Travis had so much star powerthat has absence might'vetaken away from the popularity.Another blow to the scene was a symptom ofsuffering from success.Outside of X Games and Supercross,lots of regular peoplewere buying dirt bikes.Too many people, some might say.And as a result, a lot of previouslyno-problem riding spotsbecame overrun with people,and shut down.And that sucks.But when you have a bunchof wannabe Mike Metzgers,who don't know what they're doing,destroying trails andbeing a general nuisance,you can't be surprisedwhen the neighbors complainand shut it down.Researching this episode filledme with a level of nostalgia.I hadn't felt in a long, long time.I wasn't expecting to have feelingsfor footage of someonedoing a Superman seat grab,or seeing James Stewartdo as a bubba scrub.The world isn't getting more complicated.We had just as many problemsback then as we do now.But something that does seem simpleris an agreement that amotorcycle flying through the airis really cool.Whether it be off a freestyle ramp,or around a racetrack.(upbeat music)(engine humming)That's the episode.We put out a video pretty much every day.So please subscribe to the channelif you'd like to see more.Follow Donut Media on all social media@donutmedia, follow me @nolanjsykes.Titan Speed Engineering forall your racing oil pump needs.Be kind, I'll see you next time.- 4 million subs.Thank you guys so much.Whether it's showing up in the comments.- Or the Subreddit.- Or on social media.- It means the world seeing you guystake part in our community.- To celebrate this monumentous occasion,and to say thank you to you guys,we have made this commemorative4 million sub sticker.- It's not for people who comefor five, it's for you guys,the fantastic 4 million.- And we're only gonna tomake as many as we sell.So they're never going to make it 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