# The Bikes of the Middle Ages (History of Motocross) Part 2

An episode of [Mobile Suit Breakdown: the Gundam Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1434773197), 24 Jan 2026, 18 min.

Audio: https://pinecast.com/listen/45646f28-c6ea-4c4d-9f29-2a5f54b2dbd1.mp3?source=rss&ext=asset.mp3

Show Notes It's a short episode this week as Nina wraps up her research on the history of motocross, bringing us forward to the Xtreme sports era of the 1990s, offering our theory on why it took Japan so long to produce an internationally competitive motocross rider, and considering the connotations Duker Iq's biker lifestyle would have carried for a 90s audience. And next week... the 13th Gundam Fight is about to begin! Please listen to it! Show notes are available at gundampodcast.com/patreon Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario. You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment. You can subscribe to Mobile Suit Breakdown for free! on fine Podcast services everywhere and on YouTube, visit our website GundamPodcast.com, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or email your questions, comments, and complaints to gundampodcast@gmail.com. Mobile Suit Breakdown wouldn't exist without the support of our fans and Patrons! You can join our Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, extra out-takes, behind-the-scenes photos and video, MSB gear, and much more! The intro music is WASP by Misha Dioxin, and the outro is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio, both licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licenses. All music used in the podcast has been edited to fit the text. Mobile Suit Breakdown provides critical commentary and is protected by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Gundam content is copyright and/or trademark of Sunrise Inc., Bandai, Sotsu Agency, or its original creator. Mobile Suit Breakdown is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu, or any of their subsidiaries, employees, or associates and makes no claim to own Gundam or any of the copyrights or trademarks related to it. Copyrighted content used in Mobile Suit Breakdown is used in accordance with the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright law. Any queries should be directed to gundampodcast@gmail.com Read transcript

## Transcript

[0:15] Welcome back to another episode of Mobile Suit Breakdown. I hope you enjoyed last week's motocross research. I am certainly looking forward to hearing the conclusion in just a few minutes. As some of you guessed, last week these research segments were recorded on the road while we were traveling to see family for the holidays using some of our old equipment. So if you thought that Nina sounded a little different, that's why she will be back to normal next week for the first episode of the new season. And for patrons, there will be a watch along track for G Gundam Episode one dropping around the same time recorded on even worse microphones. Before I hand things over to her, let me just remind you that we are revamping our Patreon alongside the new season. Starting in February we will be offering more bonus content, including more bonus episodes, but we will also be phasing out most of our physical rewards. So if you have been coveting one of our stylish Frabo and the Orphans band T shirts, now is the moment. Go to gundampodcast.com patreon and sign up on or before January 31, 2026 to be eligible for the last round of gift boxes. That is also the eligibility date for the Double Pin promotion. If you want to receive our Year six and Year seven commemorative gratitude pins, then you need to be signed up on that date January 31, 2026. Some restrictions apply. The details are all on the Patreon. Now let's all fly off into Biker Valhalla aboard the Motorcycle of Knowledge.
[2:03] Welcome to Part two of my research on motocross looking at the history of the sport post World War II. The post war period affected different motorcycle markets in different ways. In many European markets, consumers were starved for personal transport and machinery manufacturers had some excess capacity now that they weren't making war materiel. For example, Husqvarna, a Swedish company that I know for their sewing machines but at the time manufactured weapons too, saw an opportunity. They took some of that now unused capacity and entered the motorcycle market with a focus on small light bikes that met Sweden's legal restrictions for teen riders, incorporating lightweight alloys that greatly reduced overall weight. Though not intended as a racing bike, racers saw the 175cc silver Pilen or Silver Arrows potential and modded a more powerful 250cc engine onto the lightweight frame. Japan's industrial capacity had been obliterated. Total national motorcycle manufacture was a mere 127 units in 1945 and had only increased to 2,633 units by 1950. But the market Forces that eventually spurred rapid expansion of Japan's motorcycle industry were similar to those in Europe. Wartime manufacturers, for example Kawasaki, which started out as an aircraft manufacturer, had know how. And as Japan rebuilt after the war, industrial capacity increased by leaps and bounds. And just like in Europe, the public was in need of convenient personal transportation. The Japanese Wikipedia page for motocross credits tracks built on U.S. army bases during the occupation with introducing the sport of motocross to Japan, but it's an unsourced claim that no other source verified. There were prominent and popular off road races during this time, but these were hill climbs. One, on the slopes of Mount Fuji, was held from 1953 to 1956 and involved a change in altitude of 1,500 meters over just 27 kilometers. Another, held on Mount Asama, began in 1955. The first official motocross race was held in…
[16:31] Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded and produced by us, Tom and Nina in scenic New York City within the ancestral and unceded land of the Lenape people and made possible by listeners like you. The opening track is WASP by Misha Dioxin. The closing music is Long Way Home by Spinning Ratio. You can find links to the sources for our research, the music used in the episode, additional information about the Lenape people and and more in the show Notes on our website gundampodcast.com if you'd like to get in touch with us, you can email hostsundampodcast.com or look for links to our social media accounts on our website. And if you would like to support the show, please share us with your friends. Leave a nice review wherever you listen to podcasts or support us financially@gundumpodcast.com Patreon you can find links and more ways to help out@gundampodcast.com support thank you for listening.

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