After a hiatus of 24 years, I have decided to get back into the sport I once loved. Nowadays, I am a 42-year-old husband with a career and I am not looking to be the next Ricky Johnson anymore, so I am interested in the 40+ class in the Vintage Ultima and/or Pre-Modern category (looks really fun and low-cost) or even just a modern class in the Vet category (I know jack shit about today's MX bikes...4 strokes were for enduros in my heyday, but reign supreme now in all things motocross, evidently).

Anyway, just looking to get back into shape, have fun, bang some bars without having Reynard, Dement, and Windham trying to put me in an early grave like they did when we were kids on minis back in the '80s.

Are there any of you old guys doing this? What do I need to know? I live in Northeast, TX and I can travel to races within 2-3 hours of Texarkana. I just have been out of it so long, I don't know where to start anymore. I plan on attending Diamond Don's National as a spectator  in Jefferson, TX this coming April and hope learn all I can in the pits, but I really hope I am ready to race it in 2020!

Anybody have any advice?

Oh, yeah...does anyone know if CTI still honors their lifetime warranty on their knee braces? Mine don't fit anymore.

I'm 33 and race +30 now and then. Mostly just ride practice days. I have a 2013 YZ250 and 2016 KX450F. Modern FI 4 strokes are where it's at. So fast and easy to ride. Depending on your size, a FI 250F would probably be the most ideal bike to get back into MX. And there are a ton of new knee braces out there for way less than a set of CTI's will run you. A modern 250F and a post Vintage (mid 80's) 125 would be sweet.

I want to make it out to Diamond Don's next year. My uncle lives in Texas and goes every year. He's raced it too, think last time he rode a Maico. Looks like a lot of fun and the bikes there are incredible.

I will be there for sure, unless I am 6ft under and if you make it, give me heads up so we can meet for beverages. I have 200 acres just 30 minutes away from Jefferson that used to have 4 tracks on it. I had a grass track, a sand track, an outdoor arena cross style track, and a pro-level outdoor national track. If I do manage to get back into it, I intend to rebuild the outdoor national track which my dad had built for me around 1989 or 1990. Several of the local fast guys, Trey Clingfost, Jason Langford, David Mitchell, etc. used it for practice in between their Arenacross series races and Nationals. I was just a kid, but it was like a Texas version of Unadilla. I have to rebuild the few jumps, but the overall layout is still there. I take my Jeep out on it every now and then. It is an ass-kicker.

I definitely want a Post-Vintage 125 two-stroke. When I got off minis, I tested a FMF-moded RM125 and it was was the sweetest bike I ever twisted a throttle on. It wasn't the fastest I ever rode, but it was like riding on a cloud. Maybe I can re-create that bike. I always lusted after Johnny O'Mara's white Mugen 125, too.

I'm still not sure about them strokers, though. The only ones I ever played on were the old Honda XR's from back in the day. I know they are nothing like that, but are the really that much easier to ride than the 2-bangers?

I'll definitely hit you up if I make it down.

Yeah, the new 4 strokes are that good. They've gotten super lightweight, figured out how to reduce the feel of the engine, and just overall refined the shit out of them. Plus the suspension and brakes are so good these days.

Break out the kidney belt

You may be right! I had one back in the '80s but I never could get used to it. Ofcourse, at 12 years old, I was lean, mean, and fast on a CR80 and my kidneys had yet to suffer the abuse they would endure a few years later when I was a 21 year old Marine away from home for the first time.

I'm here to say the new 4 strokers are over rated for woods use. The more time I spend on two strokes the more I regret buying my KTM 250XCFW. But they seem all the rage on the track. The 4 strokes are expensive to rebuild so keep that in mind when buying a used one of you plan to go that route, especially the MX 250Fs they get run hard.