Just as a question. I know a lot of people that buy good buggies/trucks/Truggies purely for bashing. Like going to the local bmx track or making jumps in their backyard. Thats fun, but in the long term isn't that pretty boring? I went with my mate who has bought a Losi Aftershock to the nearby BMX track. After about 2 tanks and some stacks and a couple of cool jumps we packed it in. (I was bored after 1 tank..). For me racing is where its at, having to compete against others fielding similair eqiupment. So much more fun (with some frustration when things go wrong).
Not saying bashing is pointless, but what is the enjoyment in it?

Watched a few vids on Youtube, the only one's I find amusing are people going hell for leather trying to wreck their truck doing massive/ridiculous jumps.

Hmmm, well, to be honest, I feel precisely the opposite of the way you do. I think racing takes the FUN out of things.. Like when in college I blew off the college soccer team, cuz it's just so much more fun to play intramurals without all the stress and pressure and DULL training..

As for what makes bashing so much fun, this will sound totally crazy and odd.., but for me it's like a Zen thing - being totally focussed and hitting a ramp JUST RIGHT, getting the truck to fly just right, land etc.. There's the sound of WOT before the ramp, the smack when it hits it, the revving down in the air, or maybe revving to correct, and the thump of the landing. I love it.. I always really enjoyed just passing a football back and forth on a nice day for kind of the same reason(if I only had a Euro for every hour I spent doing that as a student..) I'd rather do that at the beach than be on some field running laps in circles or windsprints with the team..

I was big into skating as a teenager too, and for me bashing is a kind of subsitute. Skating is about doing your own thing, finding your own style, always trying to go faster, higher, etc.. I also like the aggrssion of it. But when you crash skating, it's your body that takes the hit(25 years of soccer and five or so of skating took their toll - gonna need surgery on both knees here in the next couple of years I think...) With RC MT bashing, it's your wallet that takes the hit..

Anyway, that's probably a totally weird answer, but that's how I see it. I'd like to try racing some day, and I AM rather, um.., EXTREMELY competitive, but first of all, and this is another obvious factor, it's just not possible where I live. Secondly, it's REALLY expensive, isn't it? And thirdly, I would be worried that it would be too serious and take the fun out of it - at least the kind of fun I'm after.

So no offense, but - I hate cliches - whatever floats your boat, different strokes for different folks, to each his own, and all that..

One last thing about bashing. When jumping, as with skating, snowboarding, motorcross jumping, etc..., there's always MORE air.. You can alway try to go higher..................

I agree with that and I can sit out there at the picnic table with my nice cool drink and have a ball with out packing everything up and driving who knows where to have fun.If you want racing then have some of your buds over and race the course your bashing on.I have one truck set up to see how fast I can get it and keep it manageable and one for some lite bashing,so there is something for everyone the idea is have fun that's what it is about right?

Bashing by yourself can be pretty boring, but with friends (all trying to outdo each other) it's a hoot

Yea I get home from work and unwind,terrorize the cats,dogs,little kids,squirrels etc...lol even have one of the neighborhood kids come over with his elect. scooter to drag race lol he gets a kick out of it,he is laughing so hard he can't stay on the scooter.

HAHA, one of my favourite things to do is go up to the school, with a litre of fuel and just let loose, theres big open ovals, a bush with lots of dirt and jumps to. I sometimes take my ramp up to the oval and go WOT at it and get massive air. SOO FUN, then u get people walking there dogs or kids riding around, that stop and watch, its fun showing off lol, the looks on the little kids faces is like[X(][:-], theres a guy who lives just behind the bush, when i start it up hes out watching with his dog lol, the dog goes crazy, so i just tell him to let it of the leash and it chases the MGT HEHE,

I have to admit, it WOULD be better if I had some RC contacts or friends to run with. But even more than that, I don't really have any cool places to run.. That's my main prob at the moment.. Still need to find some good spots. Unfortunately there aren't many here - in a more mountainy or hilly area though I would think just looking for a good spot would be part of the fun..

Bashing is mostly boring. Unlike racing, there is no real yardstick to measure who was the better driver that day. No way to tell how much your driving is improving, and most important of all, no real competition. You also have very little chance of making new R/C friends, whereas at a big race you might meet 100 new people and make lots of friends.

Where's the true competition in bashing? How can you really say that you took those jumps better than your friend? Perhaps some arbitrary 1-10 rating from passersby? Competitive bashing is like playing a game with no rules. Not much fun.

Racing gives you: A structured format and a mostly level playing field in which to test your skills against others. A great place to make new friends - friends who are already into R/C and often someone you can bounce R/C ideas off of. And a way to measure your performance. Down to a hundredth of a second!

I do it all and enjoy it. Our local club races are almost a social event for some of the guys. We are very competitive but enjoy each others company also.

We were rained out this weekend so I bashed and had a good time.

Muggy in the backyard...2 tanks on the STS30

No jumps are duplicated in this video that I took yesterday.


I sometimes setup a circuit using the 2 small ramps and my big one just to improve on my technique. I can't think of a activity that I did not strive to get better at and I enjoy the competition of racing.

I enjoy bashing out in the woods with my mgt. I will just start down the trail and go what ever way I want and hit many jumps, mud holes, wot, and the best part is that I'm away from the house and just out where I enjoy to be. I also like just messing around the yard to see what I cant climb over and have the dog chase it around awhile. I used to really like carpet racing with my electric .... but that turned into what someone else already said .... to serious and it took the fun out of it. They came out with these dumb rules about moving over for the faster cars and just let them by. Even If you were on the same lap you were expected to let em lap you. The years before it was race a clean race and make clean passes. Then a certain few discovered a few tricks to massive speed and decided to rear end you in turn instead of going around you in turn. Then they started complaining because we were to slow and where blocking on passes. I never tried to block a pass ..... I ran the same route everytime around the oval and if he would take me on the outside to inside on turn one and just plain inside on turn two then we wouldnt have a prob. I used to like racing till people became D***S.

When I was heavy into skateboarding, when skating with a bunch of guys, or just among all the other dudes I knew, you KNEW who was good.. You don't need points or a finish line to be good at everything.. Or to get better.

Skate boarding so different from R/C racing that your analogy does not even make any sense to me. Just my opinion.

For me anyway it's a very good analogy. Fun goes up as does speed and air - and along with it, risk. It requires lots of concentration and focus.. You can make cool vids with heavy-metal music... There's attitude, etc.. It's practically an extreme sport. It would be a perfect event for the X-games.. (Do they still even have those?? 'Been away for a while....) But as I said, when you wreck, it's not your body that takes the hit, but your wallet.. Perfect for a 30-something like me with wrecked knees....

I had to quit skating cuz of what it was doing to my body, and never took up snowboarding mostly for the same reason.. RC has filled the void nicely..

Actually, its a perfect anology.

So Patrick, how did you stack up against Tony Hawk, or any other pro boarders then? And in answering that question, what are you going to use to measure yourself against their skills??? Your opinion of yourself and your buddies? This is exactly the arbitrary measure I was speaking of. If I want to know how I compare to Jared Tebo, I simply need to hit a track he has been to and compare my lap times to his. This way, skill level isn't based soley on opinion, but actual measureable statistics.

It no crime not to want to race, a lot of people feel too intimidated to hit the track. They might find out that, even after years of driving around the backyard, they don't do well in a real race. The skill and concentration level it takes to make the big show are sometimes close to superhuman.

Bashing is great fun and so is racing. If you get a good bashing spot with lots of variables you could spend a day there and not get bored. Also racing is fun but IMO only if the track changes often - if its permanent it gets boring.

I agree with Patrick on the analogy. I used to skate and I find things similar to it in bashing. Like doing what you want, seeing what you can pull off, and just being creative. To me thats more fun then competing with people. When I get my old butt home from work or a have a day off, I dont need to compete with anybody about anything. Work can be stressful enough.

I say just do what you enjoy and have fun doing it.

For me the fun comes in when something breaks, It gives me a chance to study all the aftermarket bits and rebuild it better than it was. Sure its a pain but in some perverse way I love it.
Its a hobby after all

I dont see why this thread even had to be started. To each his own, everyone is different. Not everyone wants to go out and spend hundreds on a engine and buy all graphite parts and such just so they can race. But some people like doing that, it's the same things as WHY DO YOU OWN A MT AND NOT A ST OR SOME OTHER FORM OF RC. For some MT's are it for others there crappy, you dont have to like what everyone else likes. I happen to bash but use to race, now I got out of RC racing to help my buddy out with his racing. But you can go out and race an event and waste a ton of money and get no where. As with bashing you all really need is a rc truck and some fuel. No $400 engine's or anything like that just any old engine will do for bashing. Not eveyone is competitve as eveyone else, thats like asking why doesnt eveyone like hot dogs or why doesnt eveyone like mushrooms on there pizza and stuff like that.

I happen to have several hobbies that tend to keep my but out of trouble, I have bashing my RC, paintballing, working on my friends micro midgets(same thing as a sprint car just smaller) weight lifting among others and there all fun and serve there purpose.To each his own, bashers like to bash and racers like to race. Yeah some like to be the best, but some people dont need a trophy saying your #1 for today to tell them that they are the best either. To some trophies mean nothing, I have several trophies that say your #1 in this wrestling tournament and your #1 in this tournament from several different sports and there all in my closet collecting dust. A trophy saying your number one means nothing to me cause any one can be beaten by anyone on any specific day. So there for getting a small trophy doesnt mean a whole lot to me, I would be better off if they gave me a $30 gift certificate to the LHS which is what they did when we raced since the track was owned and operated by the LHS.

The point is that as long as you have fun, it's a hobby and to me bashing is fun. To some people yeah bashing is boring, but then to some racing is boring and pointless as you are tearing up your equipment and having to spend money to new engine's and everything like that. As long as there having fun then what does it matter what someone else does.

Thats my opinion.

Since the term bashing is often applied to anything that doesn't happen on a racetrack, it just depends on what you are talking about. It also depends on the people and surroundings. Sure organized racing is great fun, if you have a nice racetrack and friendly people to race with. Otherwise I prefer the no-rules freedom of bashing, and bashing can be plenty competitive if that's what floats your boat.

[link=http://lstvideos.com/03312007/lst_bash_mar31.wmv]It's all good, here's me bashing my LST racer yesterday... [/link]

Now if that aint fun Im not sure what is.

Nice vid 2D! Very well edited[sm=thumbup.gif]

rctruckracer: you said there are no 'measureable statistics' for bashing? how about... distance jumped? air time? stunts? maximum speed thru a certain point?the fastest from one point to another (yeah maybe thats called racing too)? there are so many things you could do ....
how about 'freestyle' points ala monster jam? trying not to roll over on a non-race tuned mt can be quite tricky...and having a limited time to do all the stuff you want would make you wish there was more time
one person could start first on a routine thru the area, the rest would copy and try to better him ,everyone else would then try to follow that... and the person who no one else can immitate would clearly be the winner....
one person could have their truck a few yards away from another truck, and the goal is for one truck to get close enough to the other, or if your willing to risk it, actually have contact between the two...
instead of investing in a track, you could instead pick up a couple of random things and improvise... if you find a ball, for instance , you could turn it into a sport... or if you find something thats easily broken, you could smash your trucks into it...once its crumbled to pieces, drive your trucks over it...

Last year I got a Hyper 8 and got into the race-only kind of mentality because I didn't want to break stuff on my buggy and frankly racing at a club level is much more fun that bashing by yourself.

Well a few guys at work got RCs and we've been bashing them a bit and it's been a ton of fun. I still would like to get something else to keep the wear off my racing buggy but whatever[&:]

Well ..... my view on a good driver is this.

The person knows what his truck can and cant do.

My view on skill level.

The track skill just depends on how fast you can go around a track. It takes quite a steady hand and a clear mind that is only focused on their truck and what is coming up ahead. The good driver rule comes into play here on this one also. If your truck cant make a triple jump and then the double you may want to take it easy over the first hump and then take the double double. You can measure skill at a track by lap times and all that but at the same time thats not all the skill there is to be made in this hobby. Skill to me is being able to take any truck with any setup and being able to take control and run the truck to what it is able to. Bashing you will discover these other skills with crazy stunts like backflips, double backflips, ect with back flips, front flips, car jumping, distance jumping and many other things. Like learning how to ride a wheelie for a few seconds or doing a stoppie. There are no clock times or rules to follow in bashing so its hard to measure yourself to someone else. Racing you have a computer telling you who the better person was. Two different playing fields ..... two different ways of telling who did better. In the end it comes down to the good driver and knowing what he can and cant do.

If, as a teenager I had had the chance to skate with Tony Hawk, I would have just been awed and just sat there and watched probably. You didn't need measurable criteria (fifteen years ago, in my case...) for it to be totally obvious that Tony Hawk was FAR FAR better than I was. Fiurthermore, I did see Tony Hawk and others BTW at a few contests - and just watching was a LOT of fun for me... Watching even the best RC going around a track I don't find particularly fun..

Maybe it would be the same with you and Adam Drake.

But the difference here is Adam Drake has a HECK of a lot of financial and technical support behind him - and the technical support side is expensive. This is why for ex it's so difficult for a newcomer without DEEP DEEP pockets to be competitive in Formula One, or practically any motor sport really...

Tony Hawk would have had a skateboard exactly like mine. And just hopped on it and had fun - while at the same time dazing and awing any other skaters there.

I've never done it but I'm sure racing costs a ton..

But anyway, this whole analogy is getting way off base. Yes, bashing can be expensive too. My LST2 is nowhere near bashworthy, and I've already spent €650 + $400(Euros to buy the truck, the dollars for stuff from Killer..)

Here's a link to a German group who does an organized "bashing" tour every year. Lots of cool pics of LST2's BTW...

www.driftfactory.de

And here's a couple clips of me participating at one of their events last year. When I showed up with my year-old, beat up old stock Savage 25 with weeds and dirt clumps falling out and a crapped out front diff, and an underpowered Lightning GT with a dorky body, I was feeling pretty unsure of myself next to all these sponsored guys with tuned LST2's, Kyosho ST-R's, way tuned up Savages, etc..

But in the end it was really really fun. They just handed me a Spektrum and said go for it.. Tons of spectators too - which was weird.. People were CLAPPING... How weird is that??

http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u...iftDaySavy.flv

http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u...riftDayLGT.flv

Anyway, as I said before, I WOULD try racing if I had the chance - I never said it was stupid or anything(at least not in this thread - maybe elsewhere as a ripost to somebody getting on my case...) But when the goal of your day is to shave half a second off a lap-time, I anyway wouldn't find that a heck of a lot of fun.. I'd probably be over trying a front-flip over the double or something like that............................. THAT would be fun..