Sideburn 35

#35 £6

Sideburn is published four times a year

by Inman Ink Ltd Editor: Gary Inman Deputy editor: Mick Phillips Art editor: Kar Lee Entertainments officer: Dave Skooter Farm Poet/Test rider: Travis Newbold For advertising/commercial enquiries please email: sideburnmag@gmail.com ©2018 Sideburn magazine ISSN 2040-8927 None of this magazine can be reproduced without publisher’s consent

sideburnmag@gmail.com Sideburn 35 was conceived, delivered and put up for adoption in October and November of 2018. It wouldn’t have happened without these fine folks donating their creative juices: Ollie Porter; Steph Bolam; Chris Parsons; all at Rebels Alliance; David Death Spray; Laura Marsh; Joy Lewis; Hayden Roberts; Giselle at AFT; Scott Hunter; David Lloyd; Caylee Hankins; all at Krazy Horse; Brent Armbruster; Viet Nguyen; Brandon Robinson; all at Deus Portal of Possibilities; David Lloyd; Paige at Fuller Moto; Gemma at VC London; all at Royal Enfield; Ed Subias; Scott of Fuel Café; Wilbur and Jeremy Skipp; Paul France; Ryan Quickfall; Tom Bing; Carl CFM; Madison at powerHouse Books; Jamel Shabazz; Mike Fordham; Lenny Schuurmans; Heath and Erika at RRCF; all at the DTRA; Wes at MotoSafari; Yve Assad; David Aldana; Mike Fisher; Donzilla; Charlie Fisher; Jon at Brapp Snapps; David Hoenig; Kevin Atherton; Scott Toepfer; all at W&W Cycles; all at Krazy Horse and our incredibly loyal and wonderful advertisers. Please support those who support the scene.

Cover: Steph Bolam by Ollie Porter.

Make-up by Laura Marsh using Illamasqua

SIDEBURN 36 will be published in spring 2019. To subscribe go to sideburn.bigcartel.com

@sideburnmag sideburnmag sideburnmagazine.com

Johnny Lewis in disguise on the Fuller Moto Pro Street Tracker, read more on P32

3

PARTS AND ACCESSORIES FOR HARLEY-DAVIDSON MOTORCYCLES SINCE 1979

A BIKER’S WORK IS NEVER DONE

Pick of the month Öhlins Shock Absorbers Get it at wwag.com

6 ROUGH

25 OUT

32

36

Rebels Alliance SR500 cover bike uncovered

Lloyd Brothers’ AFT Ducati Hypermotard

Ducati framer

Motorcycle and street culture in 1980s NYC

DIAMOND

OF THE BOX

A TIME ARRABBIATA BEFORE Street-legal AFT CRACK

46

INTERCEPTOR

Road testing Royal Enfield’s 650 twin

52 THE

59

Bare bones French CRF450 cyber-whippet

Inexhaustible American’s photography portfolio

WASP’S STING

ED SUBIAS

70

RIVER RAT CYCLE FAB RACING So you want to be an AFT privateer? Read this first

78

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Illustration: Lucky Luke’s Parts Supply

What is it with South Africa and bike adventures?

84

ASTRO

The enduring appeal of Bultaco’s short track flick knife

#35

90

WILBUR

And his XR75…

97

THE (BEARDED) CRAZY CAT LADY

Travis builds a big-bore Yamaha XS650 motorcrosser

103

BACKFLASH IN BLACK AND GREY Does a motorcycle tattoo have a back story? Course it does

Regulars

16 Interview: Brandon Robinson 22 Get Schooled: Be a race mechanic 104 Project Bike: Hooligan Sportster 106 Racewear: Joy Lewis 108 Event: Swank Rally, Italy 111 Sideburn merchandise 112 Death Spray Inspiration Deep Dive 114 Trophy Queen

5

Rebels Alliance 24-carat custom Words: Gary Inman Photos: Ollie Porter Model: Steph Bolam Makeup: Laura Marsh using Illamasqua Headline logo: Rebels Alliance

> 7

‘Y

OU PUT AN order in for your carb and they make it for you.’ Rebels Alliance chief mechanic, Jappa, is explaining about the Yoshimura Mikuni TMR-MJN37 fitted to the recently finished Yamaha SR500. ‘You have to wait a few weeks for it to be delivered.’

The red carb top is the giveaway, to the point we’ve seen some numpties painting the tops of their lesser carbs to try to pass them off as MJNs. MJNs? Multiple Jet Nozzle, of course.

Yoshimura’s development of the old gas giver.

‘It’s as close to fuel injection as a carb can be, without any of the wiring,’ Jappa tells me. ‘It’s the star of the star. It makes miracles.’

Why am I getting so hooked up on a carburettor? Because it’s indicative of the quality of thought and work that’s gone into this formerly bent and corroded Yamaha 500 track bike. The carb cost more than the whole donor machine.

I circle around the Yamaha and know that the East London shop built it as an example of

>

what they can do, but also realising that they built it to sell. It prompts a recurring thought: how much can you ask for a modified 20-yearold Yamaha single, however amazing it (and its carburettor) is, and why can something with a V-twin engine command so much more? The Rebels Alliance brains trust is struggling to put a price on the bike when we photograph it. They know how much it should be, with the investment of time and their own money, but they’re also realistic enough to know, well, it’s a Yamaha 500 single.

If the tone of the last paragraph is excreting any negativity, it’s meant to do the opposite.

The bike is a jewel, built to wheelie the length of Brick Lane. The failing, if there is one, is that Rebels Alliance haven’t balanced their enthusiasm against their bottom line. This is, possibly, where they went wrong.

The fuel tank gives the bike its name, Rough Diamond. It was designed using a CAD

Appendix

(left) Twin-port slash-cut exhaust exits through the deconstructed tail. Shocks are

by YSS (right) That carb, plus big-bore engine and new hydraulic rear brake hardware (the SR500 came with a cableoperated drum)

1. Because V = Pi x r2 x h – where r is radius (half the bore) and h is the stroke.

programme, then a buck was machined from a Galapagos tortoise-sized chunk of marine plywood, that Rebels Alliance had made by bonding together sections of the thickest ply sheet they could get their hands on, to create a block deep enough to machine into. Then Jappa cut the triangular sections from sheet steel, placed them in the buck and TIG-braze tacked them from the inside. Next he removed it from the buck, seam-welded the outer joints and ground and polished the welds.

Rebels Alliance chief is pop/street artist D*Face, D for short. He and Jappa work on the design of their custom bikes – D concentrating on the styling, initially with rough sketches, then on the Mac with Illustrator and CAD, while Jappa, a Honda and Suzuki honourslevel mechanic and electrics wizard, ensures the finished bike will work as it should.

Originally, each panel of the multi-faceted tank was going to be painted a different

colour, but it looked so good bare that Rebels decided to change the colour scheme from ‘riot of’ to ‘absence of’. A big decision for someone who loves colour and paint as much as D*Face.

The front frame loop remains pretty stock, just cleaned up. The rear end is all new. The seat pan seems to hover above the rails and is upholstered with leather sausages. The gusset near the swingarm is cut with one of D’s recurring motifs, a cartoon wing that’s usually seen on his character called D*Dog, a sphere with triangular eyes and, yes, wings.

The wing also reappears on the metal tank badges, mashed into a lightning bolt.

Everything else has been beefed up or stripped down. The rear light is now just three pinprick LEDs in the rear loop. The rear frame section looks minimal, but there are solid slugs welded into the tubes to strengthen it in key areas. The exhaust diameter has

(left) Amazing tank, one-off triple clamps, Motogadget speedo in the bar clamp... (right) New take on the old front number board.

Rebels rewired the LED light bar so it has dip and main beams for road legality

increased until it’s similar to a waterpark pool slide and exits through the roof of the sculptural tail section. The straight section, running past the cylinder, holds a small baffle to take the edge off the noise and create some back pressure.

The front end has Suzuki GSX-R750 forks and radial brakes in one-off billet Rebels Alliance triple clamps. Jappa found Cognito Moto, in the USA, who make a hub designed specifically to work with stock GSX-R discs and forks, but will lace to a 36- or 40-hole rim.

Genius idea. Rebels chose a 19, then wrapped it with a Maxxis flat-track tyre.

I know what you’re thinking, twin-disc SR500… But the engine has had it knackers tuned off (and London has plenty of potential to be a hellish dangerous place to brapp a motorcycle). The bore’s gone from 87 to 96mm, taking it to a high-compression 608cc by my reckoning.1

>

The intake has been enlarged, there are bigger valves, stronger valve springs, bigger retainers, a forged piston and reworked combustion area. There’s also an uprated oil pump with a double feed to the cam, from Germany’s Yamaha specialist, Keido.

As if those front brakes weren’t enough, the rear drum has been replaced with a Honda CRF450 hub and disc, again laced to a 19, as much for looks as anything. The master cylinder is parallel with the lower frame rail.

There are details upon details. One-off brass fuel and oil filler caps engraved with Rebels Alliance logos. Motogadget switches with wiring hidden in the bars. The battery and coil box hugs the rear wheel, hung under that alloy MotoLanna swingarm.

Is this the last word in singlecylinder street trackers? A statement bike before we all go electric?

As a line in the sand, Rough Diamond shows where Rebels Alliance are dateline: October 2018, London, UK. Where they go next is yet to be decided, but they’re as excited by the potential of electric motorcycles as we are.

This Yamaha shows what can be created in that small workshop, behind the curtain from their retail store and coffee counter. If you should find yourself out Shoreditch way and wander into the shop to buy yourself a T-shirt or one of Rebels’ handpainted old leather jackets, and you smell burning paint, hear the crackle of a TIG welder or the harsh howl of an angle grinder, it’s because they build their bikes right there. Just don’t ask them for a quick decision on how much they should charge for them.

>

Who? What? When? Why? Where?

Brandon Robinson Interview: Gary Inman Illustrations: Viet Nguyen

Multiple GNC race winner and factory Harley rider, but Brandon, what was your first ever race?

That was at Motorama in Harrisburg, PA, back in February of 1995. I was four years old lining up on a Yamaha PW50 wearing blue jeans and some Power Ranger gloves. It was a pretty big indoor event where our district used to kick off the season. I’m pretty sure I got lapped!

How come you started racing?

My dad was the one who got me started. He always rode growing up, but had to work on the family farm.

It wasn’t until he was 18 and out of the house that he was able to race. I came along a couple years later, then BAM! He threw me on a bike when I was three and I’ve never stopped riding since.

When did you turn pro?

For the 2007 season, in what was known as the Pro Sport class back then. My first pro race was in Savannah, GA, where I had a racelong battle with Chad Cose, and I ended up second.

What has been your most memorable win so far?

Easy, my first Springfield Mile win of the ‘back-to-back’. It was a rare back-to-back weekend in Springfield, where the spring Mile [held in May] rained out so we did a double-header in the fall. Luckily, everything went my way that weekend, fast qualified both days, won my heats both days, dash for cashed both days and won both main events. It was the perfect storm. I was riding the TJ Burnett

Farms C&J Kawasaki EX650. The tank looked like a mail box, but she handled like a dream. We were so much better than everyone through the corners all weekend and that’s what led to our success. The first day I broke the draft, winning by a straightaway. The second day it was a drafting battle to the end. I was a young buck, 23 years old, living the dream.

It was extra special since my immediate family was in attendance and TJ Burnett Farms was based out of Illinois. The thing that stood out to me most was not just winning, but the way we won, breaking the draft and winning by a straightaway at the granddaddy of all flat track races. Something I’ll never forget!

We’ve followed your career since you were an amateur and came to race in England (and featured in Sideburn 1). You’ve had some almost unbelievable crashes. What does it take to come back from those wrecks?

Man, it’s tough. I’ve gone through some of the most gnarly crashes in our sport and some very tough injuries, but have always bounced back. It wasn’t easy though, the big Indy one affected me for a couple years until I was both physically and mentally back to where I needed to be. That was a crazy crash. I’m not really sure who or what caused it, but Henry Wiles and Jethro Halbert were the first two guys down. I was on the third row for the main so I had a lot of traffic in front of me.

I remember bikes and riders just cartwheeling in front of me. I was following Shaun Russell through the

melee until a bike came bouncing through the air and cleaned Shaun right off his bike. Unfortunately, I had nowhere to go and ran clean over him. At that point I was pretty out of control, went over the bars and slammed into the air fence. The air fences are meant to be hit from the side to absorb impact, but in my case I landed on top of it as my bike hit the side of the air fence. It basically moon-bounced me up in the air. As I was flying I remember bracing myself to bounce off the catch fence, but that never happened. It felt like forever after I cleared the fence just floating in the air, then all of a sudden I stopped instantly and dropped. Apparently, I hit the light pole outside of the track and just dropped from that point on the curbing in the access road. I was north of 15ft in the air when I hit the light pole. I crushed my hip, hip socket, broke my pelvis and lower back, resulting in two surgeries, 21 screws, three plates, and two weeks in the hospital.

It took a lot of people pushing me, helping me and believing in me to make that comeback possible, along with the sheer will to want to come back. It was funny, because my first podium actually came at the same place that almost took my life. If there is one thing on my bucket list it would be if we ever race at the Indy Mile again, I want to win that more than anything to put those demons behind me, to conquer it.

What’s your favourite track and why?

Definitely the Springfield Mile, I think mainly just because it’s such

>

17

a bad-ass track to ride with a ton of history and prestige.

What’s the best bike you’ve ever raced?

As a professional, the Kennedy Racing H-D XR750s built by Brent Armbruster back in 2016. Those bikes were second to none. We had multiple C&J and J&M chassis.

The J&M chassis was always my favourite for some reason, I was just more comfortable on them.

And the worst bike?

I guess my own personal twins when I first turned pro. Not that the bikes were bad, one was an ex-Babe DeMay-built H-D XR750 in a C&J lowboy chassis and my other was in a J&M chassis, but racing back then was on my parents’ budget where we did the best with what we had.

We wouldn’t have the prettiest bikes or the fastest, but my dad always made sure they would allow me to compete. For that I’m thankful, my parents did everything they could to get me to this point.

Who is the greatest flat track racer of all time?

The GOAT has to be Scotty Parker.

What’s the best thing about being a pro flat tracker?

Winning races, knowing on that day you’re the most bad ass mofo in the world at what you do.

And the worst thing?

How dangerous it really is and the possibility of getting hurt bad.

Seeing friends get hurt or even worse. It can be a really tough pill to swallow.

Going into 2019, what ingredients does a rider need to be AFT champion?

A good team and crew that communicates, good equipment, funding, and as a rider you need to be physically and mentally on top of your game week in, week out, no excuses.

Since signing to ride the factory Harley XG750R, you’ve gone from

a regular podium contender to a rider no one would expect to finish in the top three. How difficult has that been to deal with?

Going from a regular podium contender and, heck, even being in title contention, to where I’m at now has been a big blow mentally.

It really hit me hard back in early 2017 when I felt like I was hitting my prime at the end of 2016. I felt like I was really becoming a well-rounded rider on all types of tracks and surfaces and believed that I would be a serious contender moving forward. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and I really had to take a long look in the mirror and tell myself to do the best with what I had. Mentally, it was defeating showing up not being able to win like I thought I should have been able to.

Your goals change from winning to developing and getting better. With the right programme, I know I’ve still got it.

If you could go back in time, would you advise the 2016 Brandon not to sign for Harley?

Man, that’s a tough question.

Honestly, I don’t think so. Everyone at H-D and Vance & Hines has been great to me, the prestige of riding for the factory is awesome and getting paid to race motorcycles for a living is tough to turn down.

What’s stopping the Harley XG from being a serious contender?

It’s crazy, because when you ride the XG, or during testing, you think, Man this bike is pretty good, it handles well, feels good, but when you get out there on the track with the FTR you realise how off it really is. We’ve done a ton of work and changed just about everything possible. If it wasn’t for the FTR I think the XG could compete for podiums against every other production-based street bike motor, like the Kawasaki or Yamaha.

American flat track is going through quite a transformation, but how have the riders benefitted?

AFT has been on the fast track the last couple years and it’s really been awesome to be a part of the growth.

A lot of things have changed, most I like, some I don’t, but the fact is the sport is getting bigger and as riders we are seeing more money. There is more of a chance at making a career out of it than when I first turned pro.

If you had a magic wand, what would you change?

I would go back and make sure the sport never fell off the map in the first place. It’s such a unique and exciting form of motorcycle racing and it’s finally starting to get the recognition it deserves.

What’s next for you?

Who knows? All I know is, I’ll be racing for a while yet, hopefully returning to the winning form I’ve shown in the past.

S T R E E T

AIRFLITE™ RUBATONE BLACK

S T Y L E

R E D E F I N E D

AIRFLITE™ QUICKSILVER

A V A I L A B L E N O W AT R I D E I C O N . C O M

AIRFLITE™ GLOSS WHITE

AAI IRRFFLLI ITTEE™™ QQUUI ICCKKSSI ILLVVEERR

Spanner like a pro TO AVOID THE STINGING, embarrassment-tinged disappointment of a mechanical DNF and the wasted time and money that comes with the push of shame, you need to keep your race bike prepared. So many racers turn up with a bike that wasn’t running properly at the previous race, that they haven’t laid a spanner on since. These racers must believe in the Magic Van, a hauler with the mystical powers to mend poorly prepared machines. So we decided to ask an expert AFT mechanic for advice on all our behalves.

Brent Armbruster was a pro flat track racer, national number #73, between 1994 and 2002, making several GNC Grand National main events. As a mechanic, he won the 2009 and 2012 championships with Jared Mees, then started with Brandon Robinson, moving teams with him, joining the official Harley-Davidson Vance & Hines team in 2017. As Brent says, ‘Although it isn’t a prerequisite to being a mechanic, being a racer first is an asset.’

THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB

You need the tools necessary to set up the bike and change or fix all areas of it, but you need to know what to take to the track. My toolbox consists of one set of American [Imperial] and one set of metric Allen wrenches; one set of American and one set of metric T-handle Allens; American open-ended wrenches from ¼ to 1¼in; metric open-ended wrenches 6mm to 26mm; Phillips and flat screwdrivers in all sizes; clutchremoving tools; American sockets ¼ to 1½ in; metric sockets 6mm to 36mm; a 3/8in ratchet; ½in ratchet; ½in breaker bar; rubber mallet and knock-off wrench to remove sprockets; files and sandpaper; needle-nosed pliers; lockwire pliers and cutters; tyre gauge; air nozzle and a sparkplug wrench.

To help in the pits I have an electric impact wrench and a plastic table to put the parts on. It also helps to have a carpet or tarp under the bike so you don’t lose nuts or bolts that might be dropped. A magnetic tray is handy, too.

PERFECT PREPARATION

A mechanic needs to make sure that all preparation is completed before they show up to race day. You cannot leave anything to chance on the day of the race. Prior to races I inspect the clutch, change the oil, adjust valves and clean the air filters. Always practise changing gearing and wheels, because this is a necessity on race day.

I come with the bike prepared for the type of track we are racing on. I then watch practice, observing rider and bike, to make any changes for the race. You’ve heard racers say that everything just ‘clicked’ on a race day when they won, mechanics have these days as well, when we show up with the bike well-prepared, everything is running well and not many changes are needed.

RELATIONSHIP GOALS

It’s important for the mechanic and rider to have a good relationship. The rider needs to trust that the mechanic knows what they’re doing. It’s just as important for the mechanic to have faith in the rider. Sometimes mechanics have to tell the riders things they don’t want to hear. If they have a good relationship they can have good dialogue.

CHECK, PLEASE!

Chain tension should be checked every time the bike leaves the pit area. Each bike is different, and the tension will vary depending on the bike and the track. The rougher the track, the looser the chain needs to be. I use a piece of nylon in the rear sprocket and roll the wheel back, then tighten everything up. The nylon between the chain and sprocket keeps the adjuster blocks taut as you tighten the axle.

The rider’s safety is partly in the mechanic’s hands. I tighten things before race day and double-check once I get to the track. If I need to change things, I make sure I have everything tightened. I also look over the bike while it’s in staging to make sure that none of the bolts have backed out and that everything is secure. I run through a checklist in my mind to ensure I’ve covered all my bases. I start from the front of the bike to the rear ensuring all nuts are tightened.

If I ever make a mistake that costs a rider a finish, I take full blame and assure the rider that it will not happen again.

ACCELERATION OBSERVATION

Watch the rider during practice to check for acceleration and deceleration, how the suspension is working, and make sure the rider seems comfortable by observing the way they’re riding. When the rider comes in it’s important to communicate with them and make the necessary changes.

With acceleration and deceleration, a lot is related to the rear sprocket. Too big a sprocket gives too much engine breaking into the corner and makes the bike skid sideways.

If it isn’t big enough, the rider won’t have the acceleration they need. Gearing plays a big part in motorcycle set-up.

Some mechanics have the ability to watch the rider and determine what needs to be changed to ensure the bike is at maximum performance. If I were employing a mechanic I would look for these traits as well as being a good listener and someone who is focused and determined.

BE READY FOR THE WORST

On race day mechanics must be ready to deal with things that break and be quick to change or fix them before the heat, semi or final. We must also react to changing track conditions and the motorcycle’s set-up.

When conditions change throughout the day and it gets slippery, I lower the tyre pressure to make the contact patch adhere to the track better. When the track is dry and slippery I increase shock length to give it more swingarm angle for more traction. If a blue groove develops, I raise tyre pressure to ensure it doesn’t squirm. When we go to a cushion track that’s rough and rutted, I soften the shock and quicken the rebound. With faster rebound, the rear tyre will stay in contact with the track. On a cushion track, I push the triple clamps out using the cam inserts, which makes the bike looser in the rear, so the rider can steer the rear with the throttle. On a blue groove track we pull the triple clamps in to make the wheels stay in line and two-track more.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Immediately after the race I always spray the bike down with WD-40 so it doesn’t corrode. Within days of the race I wash the bike, change the tyres, clean the air filter, change the oil, change the gearing, complete routine maintenance and prepare the bike for the next race.

Words: Brent Armbruster in conversation with Gary Inman Illustration: Ryan Quickfall

23

L

LOYD BROTHERS RACING have never followed the herd. When the flat track

world rode XR750s they built an Aprilia twin. When Kawasakis were the thing they were developing their Ducati project, and now that just about every pro flat tracker would give their little fingers for an Indian FTR750, they plough on with their Italian twin. David, one of the Lloyd Brothers, brings us up to date with this superb privateer team’s story

Outside the box Words: David Lloyd Photos: Scott Hunter/AFT

> 25

HISTORY

My brother Michael and I build homes for a living. We have been very successful in our business together for over 20 years, based on the fact that we both believe in the philosophy that we either do it right or don’t do it at all.

We are committed to that philosophy with Lloyd Brothers Motorsports. We always build the bike 100% to the best of our ability for performance and safety.

As team owners, we raced Aprilia Millepowered bikes for a few years and we learned a lot, because we really had no clue when we started. Our best finish on the Aprilia was in 2008, second at the Lima, Ohio Half-Mile .017 seconds behind Joe Kopp after leading 24.75 of 25 laps. Henry Wiles was on board and he was held up by a lapped rider in turn four heading to the finish line, allowing Kopp to strike. Wiles and Kopp were half a track in front of third place.

The first Ducati flat track bike that we built was in 2009, with Larry Pegram. Larry and I raced together and have been friends since we were 14 years old. Larry had a two-valve Hypermotard for a personal rider when he was a Ducati-sponsored Superbike racer here in the States. He said that the power delivery felt like it would be really good on a flat track. Michael, Larry and I went down to the local Ducati dealer with a tape measure and realised that the GT1000 would be a good place to start. We bought a crashed bike off eBay and modified the stock chassis as a proof of concept. We tested at the DuQuoin Mile the day after the Amateur Nationals, hacksawing frame supports out of the chassis between each session to get the frame to flex better.

Every time Larry came off of the track he’d say, ‘Cut out another support.’ We got pretty nervous, but each time we loosened the frame up, Larry went faster and smoother.

Our first race with that bike was the fall Springfield Mile in 2009. In front of smirking onlookers, we unloaded this Frankensteinlooking bike and Larry proceeded to put it in the main event straight out of the heat race!

No one in the paddock could remember the last time that a stock-framed street bike had made a Twins main event in the series. It was probably over four decades earlier.

EVOLUTION

Our Ducati evolved every season. The stock frame of 2009 was replaced by our first custom frame in 2010. While the geometry was satisfactory, the designed flex in the frame was something that took us some time

‘Larry would say, “Cut out another support.”

We got pretty nervous, but each time we loosened the frame up, he went faster’

to correct, season to season. The bikes were built around 1000cc and 1100cc two-valve engines, which we used from 2010 through 2016, then we were forced to park this size of air-cooled motors due to rule changes. We had a 796 air-cooled, two-valve engine built and bolted it into one of our existing frames. What was amazing is that the frame had worked very well with the 1100 but was a woundup spring with the 796 engine. Less torque and horsepower made the bike ill-handling until we modified the power delivery. Power delivery affects the chassis so much that we are now really starting over with the use of the liquid-cooled engines, which required a new chassis. Â VMC Frames in north-east Ohio worked with us on our first Ducati frames, at that time I lived in Ohio. After moving to Atlanta, GA in 2013, I was introduced to the very talented fabrication team at Fuller Moto. They were excited to be involved in fabricating our chassis. Location was key and I was able to provide the measurements of what I wanted and they made it a reality to exact tolerances.

While the engine mounts are in the same location as the air-cooled engines, everything else is different.

The heads are much larger, the intake ports are in different locations... In previous seasons the chassis was a little too flexible in areas, so we stiffened it up.

CURRENT STATEÂ

In 2017 we built up two bikes around 939cc liquid-cooled Hypermotard [four-valve] engines that we sourced on eBay as a new proof of concept, and competed at four races.

JR Addison rode the bike for the very first time at the spring Springfield Mile and missed the main event by a few spots. We offered JR to stay on for a few more races, but he decided to stick to his Kawasaki. Johnny Lewis called us on the way home from that Springfield race and we put together a deal for him to ride at the Lexington Mile, Lima Half-Mile and Springfield Mile fall race.

Johnny qualified as high as sixth place and ultimately finished with two ninthplace finishes and an 11th place in those three races. The motor was basically stock with much smaller throttle bodies fitted to adhere to the rules. Feedback was that the chassis was solid, but it was apparent that the power was not sufficient... We got pulled pretty badly at the second half

of the straight. Significant motor development would be needed.

In 2018 we were strongly encouraged by AFT to utilise the 821cc Hypermotard/Monster engine as we were informed that the rules would be changed in the coming season to lower max limits in the class to below 850cc. We pulled out the 939 engines and bolted in 821 engines. Again, starting over. It appears now that in 2019 we can increase our capacity up to 900cc.

CHOICE

The power curve of the Ducati is very linear already, which is good for flat track.

Rotational mass is added to the flywheel and we have to do some cylinder-head work to make smaller throttle bodies function. For us, cams are an issue as most notable cam manufacturers will not tackle custom desmo cams. We retrofit cams from another model to help add lift and duration. Cam timing is very tight on the stock motors, so we open that up

as well to help add top-end power. Other than that, everything else is stock.

There is a lot of potential in this package. We had solid finishes on the two-valve motors and have had very little actual track time on the four-valvers. With such limited track time, we have made many main events and finished well. We’ve only scratched the surface of what the Ducati flat track bike is capable of and the motors have proven to be bulletproof.

POTENTIAL

What people don’t realise, because we only race at six or so races a year with the Ducati, is that we have finished main events with one win and four second-place finishes. We were top five at 47% of those races and we were top seven at 75%. We are very proud of that.

To get the potential out, it will take a bigger effort than I can do out of the small garage attached to my house. I need help; financial and technical. We need to develop and test a lot before going to the track. With only three four-lap qualifiers, a ten-lap heat and a main event, we don’t get enough track time on race day to figure anything out. You need to be ready when you unload at these races. The bar has been raised by the Indian. Not so much technically, but because it was completely developed over the year prior to competing, then Indian hired the top three riders in the series and dominated. The balance of the riders now believe that they need an Indian to win and, in fact, they have good reason as other racers have also shined on the ‘off the shelf’ motorcycle. I think that thought process will change again next season when Smith wins races on his Kawasaki.

Stevie Bonsey on the comeback trail, at the final AFT race of 2018, after his early season horror crash

>

COMPETITION

Michael and I originally started with the Aprilia and then the Ducati because the only bikes on the track were Harleys. We love the XR750, but we wanted to help the sport by attracting other brands. I think we helped jump start that initiative. Unfortunately, we are basically now back to a one-brand series with Indian. That is what drives us to want to think outside the box and build a bike that can challenge the establishment to make the sport a better place. Unfortunately, we are at the point where it just will not be successful for us if we can’t afford to put in the major effort that the Ducati deserves to bring it to the front.

From a marketing and financial position, Indian’s involvement in flat track has been a saviour. From purely a competition side, it has been a double-edged sword. It has made it much easier for a certain number of riders to purchase a limited-run motorcycle that is fully capable of running at the front right out of the box. This reduces barriers of entry to racers and teams who have sufficient funding to purchase a bike but are not capable of building and developing a competitive bike from the ground up.

On the other side, it has been discouraging for teams that are running mass-produced, street-legal engines.

We have nothing against the FTR750 (even though there are none currently available) it’s just that when the entire field is on the same motorcycle – most with the same paint job – it is not healthy for the sport. What is the challenge in racing one of those? Personally, I really enjoy building and developing the bikes, but it would help the sport if riders and teams could choose or buy a complete race bike from many different manufacturers.

Indian started with a clean sheet of paper with no barriers other than AFT’s maximum engine capacity and minimum weight.

My understanding was that allowing the purpose-built engine would be a two-year deal until Indian produced a street motor that could be used, at which point they would have to then work around the compromises of a street engine. I don’t think there is any going back now.

There are always compromises being worked around when you take a street motor and build it into a racer. The Ducati is probably the most egregious, as packaging a 90-degree engine is more difficult than a narrower V or parallel twin. That said, Indian can be beat.

AFT did what they needed to do to move the

sport into a growth pattern in the market outside of the paddock. Indian’s involvement and financial support was a crucial part of that progress. The Harley-Davidson vs Indian rivalry was key. Indian did way better than anyone expected right from the start. It is not AFT or Indian’s fault that the Harley hasn’t progressed as quickly as the Indian. For the good of the series, H-D need to get competitive in short order and other manufacturers need to step up to challenge.

I don’t think Indian have scared off any other manufacturers. I believe it is more a matter of financials and market position.

Harley and Indian only race in flat track in the USA and it is a key part of their heritage and fits with their customer demographic.

Motorcycle sales in the USA are quite low (with exceptions, including Ducati, who keep having record years here). Japanese and European manufactures are currently involved in other forms of motorcycle racing throughout the world.

AFT has done a great job in creating visibility for the sport. Somehow we need to get the manufacturers to see that properly supporting teams in AFT is a better deal than they may think it is.

FUTURE

Joe Kopp won the Yavapai Downs Mile in 2010, but without a full commitment our Ducati will not win again. With financial backing, technical development, testing and a top rider, the Ducati can definitely challenge the Indian FTR750 for wins and podiums.

Anyone who pays attention to how little track time our 821 has had and how it has performed would agree that there is potential.

The budget to run a professional team (professional means everyone is getting paid appropriately and overheads and depreciation are figured) would be a minimum of $600,000.

Those involved at top levels of motor sport will say that isn’t nearly enough, however, it can be done for that. The father/son teams working through the night after their day jobs and spending every dime they have will say that is way too much.

After so many years of being a part-time effort, one thing that I can guarantee is that we will not be continuing unless we can do it 100% all in… a full testing and racing programme with a team capable of making progress to the front.

If the appropriate funding became available in time to prepare properly and hire a top rider, we would be all in.

It might look like half the frame is missing, but flat trackers need to flex

‘The Ducati can definitely challenge the FTR for wins and podiums’

Arrabbiata Master builders Fuller Moto put angry AFT Ducatis on the road Words: Gary Inman Photos: Nick Rico/Fuller Moto

N

OTHING BLOWS MY skirt up quite like a race bike put on the road. As Jeff Wright of FTWCo put it, ‘You can’t fake race.’ Custom bikes can take all forms, each with their own functions, compromises and fanatics, but it’s hard to argue with true race breeding. It doesn’t necessarily make for a great road bike, but the credibility is incomparable.

And here we have breeding. While Lloyd Brothers worked with respected custom bike builder Fuller Moto of Atlanta, Georgia to develop and produce their current AFT Twin chassis, Bryan Fuller took the opportunity to create a road version, the Pro Street Tracker. It isn’t simply the racer with electric start and lights though.

Fuller explains, ‘We made subtle enhancements to the race chassis ergonomics for the Pro Street Tracker to include an increase of three degrees to the rake, 1in (2.5cm) stretch to the chassis, and swingarm modifications to slightly lengthen the wheelbase.’

There are two main reasons for this. Flat track race bikes are as twitchy and nervous as the only pilchard at a penguin party. Increasing the rake and wheelbase reduces the bike’s desire to shake its head and react badly to rough roads. The increases were also designed to allow the use of stock Ducati triple clamps, when the race bike has adjustable-offset clamps that would put up the price of a road build.

This chassis was developed for the air-cooled motors Lloyd Brothers were using at the time, although the team has now moved to liquid-cooled engines. Most would agree that the air-cooled lump makes for a more classically handsome tracker, mainly because there is no need to mount a radiator.

Fuller will make you a 4130 chromoly frame, rolling chassis or complete bike. What are you waiting for?

AFT Pro Twins racer Johnny Lewis proves bar end indicators don’t affect handling

33

PP HH OO TO TO : :D D RR EW E WMM AA RR T IT N IN

SSS YS YY D Y DDD••••BBB A B AA LA LILILI• I•••LLA LA LAA ••••M M M M LLN LN LN N••••TTK TK TK O K O O O DDD ED EU EU EU SU SS CS CC UC UU SU SS TS TO TO TO M O M M S M SS .S .C.C.C OC OO M O M M M

Jamel Shabazz took his camera onto the streets of mid-’70s New York and documented the birth and growth of hip-hop over a decade, capturing a bikeloving culture then free of the destructive drug to come

A Time Before Crack Words: Mike Fordham Photos: Jamel Shabazz

Three mates, crepesoled Clarks and a box fresh Suzuki TS185 two-stroke.

Brooklyn, 1983

> 37

T

HE ARCHIVE OF 20TH century youth tribes has been recoded to high art. Styleinsider insider signs – once harbingers of mainstream moral panic, album covers and your gran’s nightmares – are cultural totems. Greasers on English iron become coffee-bar archetypes. Terrace tykes become cult pundits. Street style at its root is nothing less than culture written on the body – the manifestation of a mechanism you can analyse, trace, understand. When it disengages from history it is something else entirely. The packaging process began in the 1980s with the advent of style mags like The Face and i-D. Tied to the ever-present and a hijacked algorithm that hooks the youth on the Thursday drop1 – things in street style have changed.

This is why from today’s perspective Jamel Shabazz’s photographs of 1970s and 1980s New York look almost ethnographic. Shabazz was raised in a middle-class family in Brooklyn and inspired by his father’s collection of photo books. He came to creative consciousness when the city was in the middle one of its most turbulently creative convulsions.

‘I consider myself to be a documentarian of diverse cultures…’ he says. ‘But it just so happened that I began taking photographs, and getting to grips with what photography can do, at the time when hip-hop was becoming truly popular.’ In documenting the selfstyled nuances adopted by characters on the corners and on the kerbs from Bedford-Stuyvesant all the way uptown to The Bronx, Shabazz helped create hip-hop’s visual vernacular.

‘My involvement with hip-hop stems from me being around at its very inception,’ he says. ‘One of the first groups I ever saw perform was the Disco Enforcers in 1975. They came out of the Red Hook housing projects in South Brooklyn. They used to jam in the park during the summer, hooking up their equipment to a lamp post in Coffey Park. They’d play for hours, drawing hundreds of people. It was the first time we ever heard anyone rhyming to a beat. I was mesmerised.’

His contemporaries shared that fascination. As the decade progressed, New York City went over the edge and into bankruptcy and the unruly worlds of punk and disco began to occupy spaces in Manhattan vacated by manufacturing. The thread between Dave Mancuso’s loft parties, Paradise Garage and the New York Dolls downtown were the hip-hop happenings that fell into Shabazz’s viewfinder out in the boroughs.

They drew from the same straitened circumstances, they shared the same improvised roots. This trinity created an aesthetic that would define the future of popular culture. Shabazz’s body of work is one of the

Appendix

1. When high-end streetwear brands like Supreme and street fashion shops release a new product. They don’t abide by the long-established seasonal collections, but have new products ‘dropping’ all year round.

KLR600 rider looks like he’s walked out of a 2018 Portland coffee shop. Honda MB5 brightens a street of beaten up Pontiacs.

Brooklyn 1983

>>

definitive documents of that fertile moment, and just before crack cocaine became the rock in the stream.

There’s a widespread theory that it was the CIA who flooded the streets of NYC with crack cocaine in the ’80s in a clandestine operation that funded America’s covert wars in Central America. ‘When it came out in the 1960s that the US Army had been experimenting on its soldiers by giving them LSD, no one believed it,’ says Shabazz. ‘Now, after 50 years, the truth is coming to light. I believe that with regards to crack, the truth will also come to light.’

These images, drawn from the photographer’s 2005 book A Time Before Crack, date from a period when NYC’s hip-hop community was yet to be defined by a violent negative that would reach its full expression with Biggie and his Glock-toting bredren. The look took crisp cues that recall Trenchtown rather than the Sugar Hill of our fantasy, and was put together with gear garnered from downtown flea markets, where cheap Japanese bikes sufficed in lieu of Lincoln Continentals and sun-roofed Cadillacs. In the work towards the end of the ’70s, the odd Cortez or Puma sneaks in there along with a simple Adidas trackie. In the earliest stuff there’s not a rope chain to be seen.

‘Back then most teenagers didn’t have cars,’ says the photographer, ‘and jewellery represented power.

Crack brought around the whole bling culture, bling became a sign of power and that’s what people wanted to have…’

Hip-hop, now of course a global, Janus-headed behemoth, remains in thrall to the gangster context that swept aside the hands-in-the-air expansiveness that Shabazz documented. And the strength in the images resides ultimately in the photographer’s cool distancing from his subject. There’s a lesson there for the user-generated excess that’s turning our idea of ‘scenes’ on its head.

‘I was invited to a B-Boy festival in South Korea in 2008,’ he says. ‘There were people from all over the world, looking more or less the same, busting the same moves, wearing the same sneakers. In the 1970s and 1980s in NYC you could tell where someone was from by the clothes they wore. This is when I realised the influence that hip-hop has had.’

Clockwise from left: EZ Rider minibike and Puma Suedes. Note the spring on the steering stem offering some front suspension; Brooklyn 1980 winter urban survival wear; before crack and before sportswear proliferated sheepskin and Wallabees ruled. These are high school lads also in 1980s Brooklyn

>

Beigewatch. Ever fans of colour-coded streetwear, Sideburn salutes this 1984 NYC sartoralist

A Time Before Crack was first published by powerHouse Books in 2005

PROVEN PERFORMANCE //

Engine / Exhaust / Cams / Intake / Big Bore kit

www.sscycle.com

Strip Stripititdown. down.Your Yourlife, life,and andyour yourbike. bike.The Thenew newScout Scout®® ®® Bobber Bobberfrom fromIndian IndianMotorcycle Motorcycle gives givesyou youmore moreof of what whatyou youneed needand andnothing nothingthat thatyou youdon’t. don’t.The TheScout Scout®® Bobber Bobbertakes takesaaminimalist minimalistapproach approachto toaggressive aggressive street streetstyle, style,proving provingthat thatless lessisistruly trulymore. more.AAslammed slammed stance, stance,chopped choppedfenders, fenders,blacked-out blacked-outstyling stylingand and 100 100barely-tamed barely-tamedhorsepower horsepowermake makethis thisbike bikemore more of ofaatool toolthan thanan anextravagance. extravagance.Build Buildyour yourown ownatat indianmotorcycle.com indianmotorcycle.com

©2017 ©2017 Indian Indian Motorcycle Motorcycle International, International, LLC. LLC. Always Always wear wear your your helmet. helmet.

Never Never drink drink and and ride. ride. ©2017 ©2017 Indian Indian Motorcycle Motorcycle International, International, LLC. LLC. Always Always wear wear your your helmet. helmet.

Never Never drink drink and and ride. ride.

ROYAL ENFIELD INTERCEPTOR 650 Underpowered? Underbraked?

Underpriced. The Interceptor could be the best value new bike of 2019

Words: Gary Inman Photos: Royal Enfield

T

HE SMARTPHONE CURRENTLY in your pocket tenderly trying to irradiate your reproductive organs is more powerful than all the computing resources NASA had on hand to land Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins on the lunar surface.1 I think about this a lot. What do we actually need to succeed?

As I’m writing this, the new Triumph Scrambler 1200 XE has just been presented to the world. This retro-styled member of the Bonneville family has been built with, it seems, real off-road chops. What struck me the most was that it boasts ‘class-leading, state-of-the-art rider-focused technology’ including five (FIVE?!) different riding modes and an optional accessory Bluetooth network module that couples the bike’s handlebar controls with the rider’s smartphone via a Google-designed interface so owners can make calls on the move, listen to streamed music and use the TFT2 dash for ‘turn-by-turn’ navigation. And there’s a button on the handlebars to control the bike’s in-built GoPro camera system. Really.

But this story isn’t about the Triumph Scrambler 1200. It’s concerned with the Royal Enfield 650 Interceptor, and I’m making the comparison because the Enfield doesn’t even have an LCD clock in its twin

47

>

238 164 h – 63 – 55

Appendix

55 Ducati

63 Triumph

164 BMW

238 KTM

243 Harley-Davidson

850 Royal Enfield

dials. The Interceptor, like its café racer 650 a proper pull, but I can deal with that. There twin sibling, the Continental GT, is as basic is a handy amount of ground clearance, with as a 2019 middleweight twin can be and still a lean angle of 37 degrees, say RE. It was a leap international bureaucracy’s increasingly real effort to get the footrest blobs to grind tall hurdles. It does the bare minimum with with 70kg (11-stone) me on board. Paul Young the bare minimum. Bosch ABS? Yes. Euro 4 3 managed though. compliant? Jah. Bluetooth-enabled? Nein.

The engine is completely new and was a joint The specification isn’t riveting reading. design project between Enfield’s UKTC, home 202kg and 47bhp from a 650cc twin. Hello? to nearly 150 staff, and their R&D department 1967 has called and wants its performance in Chennai, India. Despite being air cooled, figures back. I read pre-launch proclamations with an auxiliary oil cooler, it is Euro 4 that RE were not chasing performance approved and, with only minor adjustments, but instead building ‘easy-going fun’ into RE say it will be Euro 5 compatible too. It has their all-new twins, and the cynic in me a single overhead camshaft, four valves per wondered if this was simply an excuse from a cylinder and a 270-degree firing order that manufacturer taking its desire to stay true to gives a good exhaust tone and a degree of its 1950s roots a little too literally. engine character. The fuelling and throttle Then I got to ride it and, somehow, none response were totally glitch free on the preof the ‘meh’ spec list mattered any more. It production test bikes. I hope the production was a complete shock to climb off the 650 bikes are as good and don’t need to be tweaked after the first two hours and be buzzing. I to hit emissions targets. was part of a group being led by DTRA racing That motor is a big lump of alloy, but has regular, former MotoGP privateer and British well shaped and polished crankcase covers. champion road racer, Paul Young. He’s one of I’m pretty sure weight reduction was not the Royal Enfield’s test riders and, without fuss primary design criterion. or bravado, set a pace through the redwood Our test route took in tight and winding forests that tore the group apart. Sure, he roads, hillside hairpins, fast and straight knew the bike and skinny, tubed 18in Pirelli sections of the Pacific Coast Highway and Phantom tyres inside out, and he’d ridden sweepers that I took at 95mph. At times the 1000 the road a few times, so he was willing to engine had no more to give, but it didn’t feel carve through blind bends faster than all over-stressed, as if the tune is determined but one or two of us, but, more to ensure the engine runs for importantly, he showed what 100,000 miles. The twins have Global sales the bike was40capable of, all six-speed ’boxes, the first in the 800 2017 47bhp of it. It turns out Royal firm’s 101-year history, but I was Enfield can engineer fun into regularly riding in fifth, because a motorcycle whose statistics the torque is so flat it’s hard to are the data equivalent of determine what gear you’re in.

600 methadone. And I’m struggling The changes felt smooth. to work out how they’ve done it.

Royal Enfield’s reputation for The chassis was developed in reliability doesn’t rival that Enfield’s UK Technology Centre of Honda, but it seems to be (UKTC) in conjunction with 400 improving. Historically, build British frame experts Harris quality was also questionable, but Performance, who Royal Enfield is now also less of a concern. All 30 from the founders in acquired bikes are made in state-of-the-art 200 2015. And it really works. factories built within the last six HART The suspension is basic, but years, but perceptions take a long LOBAL SALES only felt out of its depth when time to change.

The bike’s designers talk of ycles (x 1000)being pushed hard on bad roads.

That single front brake disc global models, ones that are 0 Motorcycles (x 1000) isn’t the best; the lever needs identical in all markets. This is Davidson – 243

1 According to Popular Mechanics 2 Thin film transistor, a type of LCD flat screen. 3 In force throughout Europe since 1 Jan 2017, all new production bikes must comply. They severely limit the CO and NOx exhaust emissions, plus evaporation of fuel vapour from tanks. Bike must run self-diagnostics and pass the test at specific mileage limits. The by-products are more fuel-efficient bikes and huge leaps in fuel injection feel and accuracy.

Overweight, oldfashioned, lacking brute strength, but can still bring a smile to your face. The bike’s not bad either

Royal Enfield can engineer fun into a motorcycle whose statistics are the data equivalent of methadone

>

not unusual in the automotive world, but it becomes a crucial point when writing about a Royal Enfield, because the vast majority of RE’s sales are in their home market where motorcyclists have different wants and desires to ‘Western’ riders.

I’ve spent a few weeks riding in India, where Enfield sold the vast majority of the 850,000 bikes they shifted last year, and when you park an interesting machine anywhere busy it is engulfed by men and boys. In my experience, these guys never ask how fast the bike goes or how much power it makes, they just want to know the fuel consumption figure.

When I’ve shrugged they’ve looked at me like I was an idiot (how did they know?). So Royal Enfield don’t choose to build a 47bhp twin because they can’t built a 70bhp one, they build it because the core market doesn’t want or need 70bhp.4 And they’re hoping plenty outside India don’t need it either. For new riders, the 650s are A2-licence suitable.

Talking of new riders, the bike is no lightweight, but is well balanced, making town riding very easy and the clutch is slipper style, so the lever is light. The seat height is 804mm (31.6in). I’m 1.75m (5ft 9in) and could easily get both feet on the floor. The lasting impression was of riding a brand new tenyear-old retro. And that’s much more fun than it sounds. I’d recommend it as a first ‘big’ bike.

Sideburn readers might be interested by how easy it will be to modify. There are factory options, including an S&S-developed slip-on exhaust, and the twins don’t have the tricky CAN bus wiring systems that make other modern bikes so difficult to personalise. And, because of that modest spec, there is room for owners to improve things and feel they’re making a real difference.

Appendix

4 The launch test didn’t give an opportunity to test the fuel economy, but Royal Enfield claim 70mpg. Not at the speed Paul Young rides his.

At the end of the two-day SPECIFICATION test the various groups Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 of riders converged at the (Continental GT 650) hotel. As they did, I’ve never Engine: 8v parallel twin, SOHC, oil/ heard so many journalists air cooled, 648cc on a launch wonder out loud Bore x stroke 78 x 67.8mm Compression ratio 9.5:1 about buying a bike. That’s Max power (claimed) not because it’s the greatest 47bhp@7250rpm thing they’ve ever ridden, Max torque (claimed) but because of the value for 38lb.ft@5250rpm Transmission six-speed gearbox, money it offers. At time of slipper clutch, chain drive writing, only the US prices Frame steel tube double cradle had been announced, and Front suspension 41mm nonthey start at $5799 for adjustable forks Rear suspension twin shocks, the Interceptor and $5999 preload adjustable for the Continental. It was Brakes single 320mm front disc, openly stated that European two-piston ByBre caliper; 240mm prices would be similar, so rear disc, two-piston caliper; Bosch ABS that might mean less than Wheels/tyres tube-type wire €5500/£5000 for a brand spoked/Pirelli Phantom SportComp, new twin. At that price the 100/90 18 front, 130/70 18 rear only twins it’s competing Rake/trail 24°/106mm (105mm) Wheelbase 1400mm (1398mm) with are used bikes. So while Kerb weight (claimed, without fuel) the equipment level is just 202kg (198kg) about as basic as a Euro Fuel capacity 13.7 litres (12.5 litres) 4-compliant 650 twin can be, they have been manufactured to survive years of hardcore abuse on roads and trails most people would never consider taking a modern retro on to.

Royal Enfield had to do something special in an effort to continue growing outside their homeland. Making a 650 twin that’s this capable and that price, they have.

The

wasｅ’s Words: Gary Inman Photos: Caylee Hankins Illustration: Ryan Quickfall

sting

Look not, my friend, at the size of the beast before you, but instead be aware of the might your eyes cannot see

I

’VE READ, HELL, LET’S be honest, I’ve also trotted out more times than I can remember the old cliché about bikes having everything nonessential stripped off them to reveal the pure essence of a motorcycle. Minimalism appeals to lots of custom bike builders, right up until they have to actually ride their creations anywhere and realise some of that nonessential stuff the factory fitted is pretty useful. Been there, done that.

But race bikes are different. Especially flat track race bikes. The sport’s determinedly antiquated rules encourage a less-is-more attitude that would make a Jesuit monk raise his eyebrows. And flat track’s rulemakers enforce parsimonious specifications more rigorously than just about any other race series.

American Flat Track and the AMA actively discourage leaps-and-bounds development.

Section 4 of the current American Flat Track rulebook begins: ‘AFT Twins motorcycles must meet the following requirements... Twin-cylinder motorcycles must maintain the traditional appearance of a flat-track twin-cylinder motorcycle.

Machines must not be constructed to resemble Motocross or Supermoto motorcycles.’

> 53

'MANU JOUAN’S CRF450 RACE BIKE WAS INSPIRED

BY THE SHORT AND STOCKY SILHOUETTE THAT AFT’S RULES DEMAND' Not only that, AFT Twins class bikes must use steel frames, not even alloy is permitted. Tyre tech dates back to the 1970s.

Then Subsection 3:10 states: ‘Fairings/Bodywork or other devices solely designed for the purpose of decreasing wind resistance are not permitted on the front or rear of the motorcycle, with the following exceptions: ‘With the exception of a seat/tail section or number plate, no bodywork is permitted to the rear of a plane drawn vertically through the rear wheel axle.

‘Seat/tail section cannot be wider than 450mm (17.7in) and cannot extend further to the rear than a vertical line at the rear edge of the rear tire.

‘Seat/tail section cannot be more than 200mm (7.8in) in height, measured from the seat base.’

See what I mean? Even speedway bikes, perhaps the ultimate in minimal two-wheelers, have added front mudguards and rear roost deflectors.

But flat track’s neo-Luddism has become its strength. The sport continued, if not flourished, with minimal factory backing for decades, kept alive by privateers and industry enthusiasts (including Harley-Davidson and some of its dealers) and now flat track is enjoying another moment in the sun, almost directly as a result of barely changing – visually in particular – for 50 years or more.

Manu Jouan’s CRF450 race bike was inspired by the short and stocky silhouette that AFT’s rules demand, but it was built without having to comply with them.

In fact, it couldn’t race in American Flat Track, because regs in the Singles class, for which this bike would otherwise be eligible, don’t allow modification to frame or bodywork.

Manu’s worlds collided when he started building this bike. He grew up racing motocross and, after a time working in the family motorcycle and car business in the Brittany region of France, began a custom bike firm under the name of Sur Les Chapeaux De Roues1 that he set up with his friend, Yann Collet, but now runs on his own. The final piece of the jigsaw was getting interested in the blossoming European flat track scene.

The result of these experiences is almost a caricature of moto minimalism. It’s a cartoon bike,

drawn by an eight-year-old who forgot to sketch half the components a motorcycle needs to operate.

Sur Les Chapeaux De Roues (SLCDR) build a diverse output of bikes, sometimes starting with an air-cooled Guzzi or even a flat-four Gold Wing. My favourite is Projet Z, a stunning Kawasaki Z1000 that looks like a 1980s factory concept. The basis of the SLCDR flat tracker is a 2010 Honda CRF450, not a bike known for being handicapped with weighty, frivolous doo-dads.

Manu created a new subframe from chromoly tubing, then hand-formed steel bodywork with an English wheel, mallet and sand bag. His old partner used to make most of the bodywork, so this was Manu’s first solo project. The new metalwork is fixed using all the original mounting lugs, so no new lugs were needed and Honda’s plastics and subframe can bolt straight back on. The original seat has been shortened and narrowed. ‘I want to offer the bodywork and subframe as a kit,’ says Manu.

The front suspension has been dropped 70mm and the rear 50mm (2.75in and 1.95in). 19in rims are laced to stock hubs and fitted with Mitas race rubber.

The water pump has been modified for a new outlet to suit the curved radiator from a Yamaha TMAX, the 500cc, 100mph super scooter. The rad has had its inlet and outlets modified to operate in its new twisted-90-degrees orientation.

The low, stainless steel exhaust was also fabricated

by Manu and terminates with a Spark silencer that

hangs off a neat but sparse triangulated bracket. The chassis is powder coated and has stick-on protectors to stop the rider’s Alpinestars from rubbing through the black surface; the engine casings have crash covers and silicone hoses. The airbox has been lost, replaced by a cone filter.

Honda, who have kept much of the new custom scene at arm’s length for years before recently dipping a toe in the water, were so impressed by the SLCDR CRF450 that they made it part of their Wheels and Waves display and put Jean-Michel Bayle 2 on for a few laps at the 2018 El Rollo, in turn putting a big smile on Manu’s face. Manu also raced the CRF at El Rollo and also came to Greenfield, England, for the DTRA round.

What is clear is the bike was built to survive hardcore, turn ’n’ burn short-track action. It could be pushed out of the back off a hovering Chinook and be ridden away. It’s the Dalai Lama’s dirt bike. A branch whittled to a matchstick. It's the wasp’s sting. surleschapeauxderoues.com

Appendix

1. Sur Les Chapeaux De Roues is an old-fashioned French saying for being at full throttle. Literally ‘on the hats of the wheels’. No, me neither. 2. J-M Bayle is arguably France’s premier motorcycle hero, having won everything worth winning in motocross, he switched to grand prix road racing, first in 250s, then for Kenny Roberts’ 500 team. He qualified on pole in both classes, but never finished on the podium. He won the Bol d’Or and Le Mans world endurance races before retiring injured in 2002.

>>

Mate! Mate! Half your bike is missi...

Oh, hang on a sec.

Manu Jouan and his CR450-based cyber-whippet

Ed Subias Another of our favourite photographers describes his career in words and images Interview: Gary Inman

> 59

I

f one person has made me re-evaluate what it is possible to accomplish in a working day it’s Ed Subias. While I’m, say, at an event making notes, conducting an interview and perhaps posting the odd Instagram snap, Ed is at the same event doing all that plus shooting magazine-quality stills and a highlights video, that he edits and captions on his phone to post the same day. And it’s not a shonky iPhone effort, it has proper professional production values. He’ll sometimes do that while competing at the same event, and if not, he’s ridden there with his kit on his back.

Born and raised in Southern California, Ed outlines his background: ‘From the age of ten all I did was ride my BMX bike at local jumps and ride dirt bikes every weekend in the desert with my dad. During my high school years I got heavily into racing motocross. It got to be a little too intense for me as my dad wanted me to be more serious and get to a professional level. He felt my results weren’t good enough for the effort and money he was putting in. I just liked riding my dirt bike.’

Ed remembers the day things changed forever at a big regional race. ‘We drove home without speaking a word and I didn’t ride a dirt bike again for another seven years or so.

It put a huge strain on our relationship that took a handful of years to mend.’

Without the weekends of racing, Ed drifted.

‘I did what a lot of young adults do trying to find their way in life, lots of stupid stuff and getting into some mischievous trouble here and there with no real direction. While bouncing around from one dead-end job to another I picked up my first street-legal motorcycle, a 1968 Triumph Bonneville that re-sparked my passion for motorcycle riding.

I had no idea it would become such a money pit, but I loved every minute working on it and riding it. I can vividly remember my first ride… the glorious sound of those twin cylinders burning fuel as I shifted through the gears.’

Bikes came first, but two wheels and photography, at least an appreciation of it, have always overlapped in Ed’s life.

‘My interest in photography was started by ripping pages out of BMX and motocross magazines and taping them to my bedroom wall when I was kid. I thought it was amazing that a photo could trigger emotions and ideas.

I first picked up a camera in high school during my motocross racing days. Race days can be long, so to combat boredom I started snapping some pics at the races with my dad’s

(previous page) Kyle Ives wowing the crowd while riding the wall of death in Milwaukee (top) Troy Hoff getting loose on one of the numerous dirt roads that go from the desert to the mountains in Southern California (bottom) Snow monkeys in the mountains near Nagano, Japan.

I went to the Mooneyes Hot Rod and Custom Show and then took three trains, two buses and a long hike to visit these monkeys.

There are no fences or cages, they just roam around the hills and natural hot springs and will grab things out of your hand if you’re not careful

old 35mm SLR film camera. That sparked the whole photography thing for me. I attended a local college for a few years and took some photography classes, but I failed two different courses, partly because I didn’t follow the curriculum and partly because sometimes I just left in the middle of a lesson because I got bored and wanted to ride my BMX. I continued taking photos though. I would take a camera with me when my friends and I would ride our bikes in the hills, skateparks and streets.

That’s when I started honing my skills and really understanding photography.’

Some of Ed’s friends were sponsored and he found he could sell some of his shots to those sponsors, but a career taking photos was still a dream.

‘I was driving a forklift for a company that made baseball equipment. I loaded pallets full of baseballs onto shipping trucks, eight hours a day. This had gone on for a couple of years, until one day I showed up for work, hopped on the forklift and started planning out the day’s work when my boss came up to me yelling and complaining about something. I’d had enough, so without even looking at him, I got off my forklift, walked out to the parking lot and drove off. I was done. I didn’t even tell them I quit, I just left.’

Next Ed landed a job working at a photo lab that processed film from various titles, including BMX and motocross magazines. He would process slide film for these clients and began to learn what professional photography looked like from viewing the whole shoot, not just the one published photo from a roll.

‘I worked the night shift, so I was able to go on photo missions during the day with my BMX buddies or hit up the local motocross tracks. Another lucky break was when a childhood friend got a job working as a graphic designer on a motocross magazine.’

It was Ed’s ‘in’. He started getting more photos published, built up a portfolio and that led to a job as staff photographer for a BMX bicycle company. Meanwhile, he was still freelancing in the motocross world, travelling to cover events, before another twist in the career trajectory.

‘I thought it was amazing that a photo could trigger emotions and ideas’

>

Hooligan racer JJ Flairty spraying some limestone on the half-mile track in Elkhorn, Wisconsin

>

‘My roommate at the time, Jeff G Holt, was working in the mountain-bike industry but was building some choppers in the garage. He ended up getting a job with Street Chopper magazine and always had crazy motorcycles coming and going. That piqued my interest in the V-twin world and I bought a used HarleyDavidson Sportster that I beat up riding on fire roads and doing hooligan things before the whole Hooligan thing happened. From there I did freelance work for Street Chopper and its cousin, Hot Bike magazine. A few years later I ended up getting a job on them.’

It was around this time we met Ed, but he was always bigger than the staff job he had.

While many editorial staff are committed to the job, they don’t always do much more than the minimum. Ed always looked, to me at least, to be doing the maximum. Of course, I only got snippets of his working life, there’s a chance he could’ve been a disaster in the office, but if I’d been in a position to, I’d have given him a job in a heartbeat. After a few years at the V-twin magazines a new boss was installed into middle management.

‘In the first meeting we had with him one of his first questions to us was, “How many companies make Harley-Davidsons?” This guy thought it was a type of bike instead of a motorcycle brand. Right then I knew we were screwed. It only got worse from there.’

Job cuts followed, including Ed’s, but before long he was offered a role for an agency on a Harley-Davidson account, meaning a move from California to Wisconsin.

‘I had a desk at Harley-Davidson headquarters and worked with members of the H-D marketing department, but my bosses were the agency. Long story short, it didn’t work out. It wasn’t any one thing or anything horrible, sometimes things just aren’t meant to be or a great fit. The H-D personnel recommended me to the agency and they were bummed to see me go, but understood and we’re still friends.’

The move to the Midwest, after a lifetime in SoCal, wasn’t a waste of time.

‘I grew to love Milwaukee and the people in a short amount of time. The motorcycle community and culture here is amazing. The passion they have for riding, building and racing is contagious. Also, about half of the American Flat Track series races are within a day’s drive from here.

I have travelled the country extensively for the past ten years and Milwaukee was actually on my shortlist of places for possible relocation should an opportunity arise. It’s

(top) A group of riders explore the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway that spans 469 miles through Virginia and North Carolina (right) Blast off at the Appalachian Moto Jam snow hillclimb in Monticello, NY (far right) Mikey Virus airing out his Sportster at the Rusty Butcher Trackercross in Riverside, CA

Ed’s kit

‘I learned to get the most out of minimal gear’

First and foremost I try to keep it to the bare minimum so I can carry it all in a smaller backpack while I am riding or working an event.

I hate lugging around a 60lb backpack all day.

I use one camera to shoot stills and video to make things easier and cut down on gear.

I carry one Canon EOS 5D MkIII camera body and three Canon lenses: 16-35mm F2.8; 50mm F1.2; 70-200 F2.8 and their lens hoods. I also take a Rode Pro microphone and a DJI Mavic Air drone. A few spare batteries and that’s it. In the past, I have had gimbal rigs for the DSLR and higher-end/ bigger drones, but I ended up having way too much gear to carry all the time. I learned how to get the most out of minimal gear for my specific needs. I rarely change it up at all now. One of the minor changes I will make will be the backpack I carry it all in. I might put it all in a roomier backpack where I can fit a few days’ clothes to avoid a check-in bag on trips. Another change would be the addition of a GoPro for some on-bike footage, but I don’t include it most of the time because that’s another battery charger and batteries and accessories to take up room. This set-up is perfect for my needs at the moment. ES

>

‘I grew to love Milwaukee and the

‘Social media has made the masses more aware of what a good photo is’ quite a change from Southern California, but, really, the only thing I actually miss is the Mexican food.’

Ed is very active on Instagram and has views on how it’s affected his career.

‘Instagram and the iPhone have definitely devalued the profession. Everyone with a phone is a ‘photographer’ now and has an easy and readily available platform to showcase their work via social media. Companies can just literally grab a photo for free off social media to promote their products instead of hiring a professional to shoot for them, but the legitimate companies and media outlets understand the old saying “You get what you pay for”.’

However, it’s not necessarily all negative.

Ed continues, ‘I believe iPhones have actually spawned creativity. Social media has made the masses more aware of what a good photo is, and they’re more accustomed to a higher quality of photo.

‘Taking photos, editing and learning is a big part of everyone’s day-to-day life now due to social media. In turn, pro photographers have to be a little bit more creative to stay ahead of all the iPhone users. In the end, I think professional photography always comes down to good work, desire and hustle. Nowadays you have to use social media to your advantage.

And package your work a little different. It’s just about evolving with the times.’

Like nearly every pro photographer, Ed is rolling with the punches, not willing, or able, to give up the career he loves, despite the everyday challenges.

‘I manage the social media for a couple companies within the motorcycle industry and one outside the industry. That has been going well for me and I’m in the process of picking up more clients. The goal is to morph this into an actual advertising agency. Two things I will never stop doing: racing flat track whenever I get the chance and generally promoting how awesome motorcycles are, however I can.’

Tank shifters go full throttle at The Race Of Gentlemen in Pismo Beach, CA Riders are: (L-R) Mike Davis, Atsushi ‘Sushi’ Yahui and Grant Peterson

DOT • ECE

DOT • ECE

Flat Black

Gloss Sea Foam

Flat Black

Gloss Hazard Orange

Flat Titanium

Gloss Copper

Flat Titanium

Pacific Blue

Brite Silver MF

DICE Flames

Gloss White

Sierra Green

Gloss Vintage White

Gloss Garnet

Gloss Vintage White

Flat Red

Gloss Black

Gloss Coyote Tan

Gloss Black

Gloss Storm Grey

New for 2019: Gloss Sea Foam

Gringo and Gringo S helmets are now ECE compliant.

W W W. B I LT W E L L I N C . C O M @ B I LT W E L L

Broken bikes, broken dreams and being just plain broke. Privateers in AFT have it tough Words: Heath Reed Photos: Erika Tumey (stills/workshop) Grover Webb (action)

> 71

H

EART RATES RACING, hands twitching, green lights on and clutch is slipping. It’s the 2018 American Flat Track Lima HalfMile and we just ran 29th fastest in the AFT Twins qualifying session one on the RRCF Kawasaki.

Unbeknown to us we had a clutch on its way out. We make some adjustments and head out for session two.

One lap in and Itchy is pushing the motorcycle across the infield for a DNF. Back in the paddock, I rummage through tubs of parts as I’m sure I have a good used clutch pack. In a mad rush we have the bike on its side performing a clutch swap. AFT officials are on the horn making the last call for our group to staging.

We get the bike fired up but it’s creeping forward with the clutch pulled in. We kill it, make adjustments on the cable, but when trying to restart its struggling to crank. It finally fires, we make it to staging and they call for track prep and tell us to shut the bikes down.

Moments later they call ‘Fire ’em up!’ and again the Kawasaki struggles to crank over and will not fire. We have to scratch on the final qualifier.

Back in the paddock, we find that most of the steel discs from the replacement clutch are warped, adding to the stack height of the pack and not fully releasing the clutch. Using a straight edge, we pick out the best of the steel discs from both clutches and get things in order. Fortunately for us, some of 2018’s rider entries for AFT Twins have been low and this is one of those days, so we’re able to transfer to the heat. Green light and a storm of limestone roost in the air. Itchy gets a nice start and is running in P8, but by the third lap the bike is coasting again onto the infield, the crankshaft having decided to part ways with itself.

‘Put her in the van boys. That’s a wrap.’

SO YOU WANT TO BE A PRIVATEER IN AMERICAN FLAT TRACK?

River Rat Cycle Fabrication Racing formed in Davenport, Iowa at the start of the 2013 AMA Pro Flat Track season with me as team owner/tuner/builder.

I’d spent many years helping other AMA Pro teams and riders, but, not having a real say in their teams, I started craving independence and felt I could do a better job. I started putting money away and planning my escape. After three years I had what I felt would be enough to get a team going with a decent first season’s budget. Boy, did I have a rude awakening. I enlisted up-and-coming Pro Singles young gun, Michael ‘Itchy’ Bickerton, who, for the previous two seasons, had stellar races with many top-five finishes and a careerbest third-place finish at the 2012 Springfield Mile.

We started the 2013 season racing in Pro Singles, then the organisers announced the introduction of a Basic Twins class for the Singles riders at halfmiles and miles for the 2014 season. Not wanting to be left in the dust, we started switching gears and developing a twin for the new class. It was no secret at the time that the Kawasaki 650R was becoming a

competitive force in the sport after years of testing and development by the best in the series. Plus you could pick up a complete, wrecked donor bike for $500.

It was a no-brainer. So I exhausted RRCF Racing’s 2014 budget building a Basic Twins framer, but then it was announced there would only be four Basic Twins races for 2014. Now wait a minute, I’m a privateer on a shoestring budget and I broke the shoestring developing this twin that will only have four races?

There was no regard for the impact on privateer teams who’d made this investment.

We didn’t have a 450 developed for the Singles or any funds left to do so, our whole programme had morphed for the Twins series. Itchy and I knew we needed another season or two in the Singles for both of us to hone our skills before we jumped in with a pack of wolves, but effectively we had no choice. This change forced us to move into the Expert class (now call AFT Twins) before we were fully ready.

So, we had a twin built for a Basic class with stock power pushing it and needed to pump up the volume on this girl. We chose to start out the Expert season with stock power, we knew we had some dry, slick half-miles on the first leg of the series and, anyways, we didn’t have any money to build a beast. I scraped up some funds and purchased another engine off eBay and sent it to Mach Modified in New York to start a full-on race build (oh boy, this is where the money disappears!). In the meantime, we had a couple of decent runs early on with stock power and a notable Knoxville Half-Mile, missing the main event by two positions. Folks, Expert Twins is a tough crowd.

Being a privateer in AFT is a struggle, it’s a challenge, it’s a test of your will, dedication and, most of all, a test of your mental capacity. You get off from the day job and work into the wee hours in the race shop on bikes and equipment, every night of the week. Then squeeze in some marketing and sponsorship duties.

You load the van on Thursday night, drive eight to 14 hours average, feeling confident that after your week’s labour you have a machine you’re proud to roll into staging and line up with the factory teams.

You arrive at the track, qualify and race all day and night, often to be deflated by the day’s performance, and drive another eight to 14 hours home, beating yourself up, replaying the what ifs, the what could have beens. Then it’s up for work on Monday morning and hit repeat. It is not glamorous. There is no plush hauler, no six-figure budget, no full crew sharing race day duties or race week prep.

How many bad days at the track can your handle, mentally? As a privateer, the odds are against you and I’ve learned to expect more bad days than good.

But I hearing ‘A bad day at the track is better than a good day at work’. It sounds good, but doesn’t ease the pain. I feel embarrassed at times, walking through the paddock or returning to work and being asked

‘We do as much as we can inhouse, making most parts for the bike: exhaust systems, gas tanks, battery boxes, frame mods, wheel work, and the most tedious task, building our wiring harnesses’

Heath Reed gets down to his favourite job of loom building (midnight oil not shown). For privateer teams such as RRCF, subbing out work is rarely an option and Heath has now added engine building to his wide repertoire

how the races went, seeing comments from followers on social sites. Wouldn’t it be great for once to say, ‘Man, we gave ’em hell, the bike was on a rail and we finished the day with a top five.’ But then I remind myself how lucky I am to have the opportunity to be a privateer team owner in American Flat Track, making the decisions and choices for my own team.

Competing with the best in the world. Mixing it up with the Harley-Davidson and Indian factory teams.

Making it onto the TV screen. How many people in the world live their lives with this opportunity? Not many. Reminding myself of this helps me recover my confidence after a bad day at the track.

As a privateer, I would say our number one challenge is our shoestring budget. The majority of team expenses comes out of our own pockets. Being at the bottom of the food chain in AFT, good monetary sponsorship is almost non-existent. Although a couple privateer teams do have some factory backing, most, like us, do not. We have a few product sponsors that offer us deep discounts and maybe a few freebies.

We are very fortunate to have a handful of friends and long-time supporters that give some financial contributions that help keep us going to the next race.

Thank you folks!

Being low budget, you have to be wise and cut costs where you can. Using a take-out clutch that seemed good at the time was a mistake, and it won’t happen again. But I will sort through a pile of used tyres, looking for a good back up or occasionally a race-day tyre because I have had to buy a can of fuel for racing and have a 600-mile-plus round trip in the van. At the end of the season our bodywork is beat up, because we had no spares budgeted for accidents and incidents.

But bent handlebars are no problem, Itchy prefers them that way. I’ve actually had to put a bend in new bars to his liking in the past.

We do as much as we can in-house, making most parts for the bike: exhaust systems, gas tanks, battery boxes, frame mods, wheel work, and the most tedious task, making our wiring harnesses. Now I’m building the engines, too. These things can be a challenge, but I find it rewarding when I watch my machine running the front stretch at Springfield, seeing all my work in motion. As owner of a privateer team I shoulder

SPECIFICATION

Engine Kawasaki 650R parallel twin, highly modified to 750cc; CP-Carrillo pistons and conrods, custom crankshaft and camshafts Chassis C&J frame with modifications by RRCF Racing Forks Honda F4i, custom built by Boughner Racing with Traxxion Dynamics valving Rear shock Penske (Boughner custom) Gas tank Handmade in aluminium by RRCF Racing Tail section Airtech Streamlining Exhaust RRCF Racing Electrics RRCF Racing harness with Racing Unlimited flashed/tuned OEM ECU Battery Braille Battery Cables and accessories Motion Pro Brackets/hangers/mounts RRCF Racing SPONSORS Motion Pro; CP-Carrillo; Mach Modified; Braille Battery; Wake Brewing; Crawford Brewing Equipment; Bi Moto Fab; Royce Taylor Racing; DWG Racing; Southard Ent; DCT Precision; Chops

HEART RATES RACING, HANDS TWITCHING, LIGHT GOES GREEN AND WE ARE RACING!

Jump back to RRCF Racing’s first outing of the 2018 AFT season, Texas Half-Mile in April. Could today be the day? It’s been a long off season and we are pumped. Let’s do this! Green light’s on and the wick is twisted and Itchy is looking good on the #280 RRCF Kawi. 19th fastest in qualifying and off to the heats and BAM! He comes P8 for a transfer to the semi.

Man, this semi is stacked: Smith, Halbert, Johnson, Lewis, Mees and Bauman. Once again the light goes green and we’re getting it, holding our own. Whoa!

Bonsey has his jet pack on and is flying through the air. Look out Itchy! Whew... Barely got through that mess and the red light comes on. My heart is pounding. There’s a single-file restart with RRCF sitting in sixth. Boy, we’re in a battle now. Light goes green and they’re off… But, riders down and another red flag. I am on a crazy rollercoaster of emotion with uncontrollable pacing.

‘Alright Itchy,’ I tell him, ‘all we have to do is finish ninth or better and we transfer to the main. You’re restarting in sixth and your only worries behind you are Halbert and Eslick, all you have to do is hold them off for a handful of laps.’

And he did just that with a P7 finish and we made our very first national main event and earned a national number!

It’s time to line up for the 25-lap main event. Light goes green and the race is on. Three laps in and we’re fading quickly to the point where Itchy is toward the back, making laps at a slow pace, staying out of everybody’s way. We went on to finish our very first national main event in the P17 spot and come to find out Itchy lost the brakes on lap three, but you know what? I wasn’t even bothered, because we had just made dreams come true! facebook.com/rrcfracing @riverratcyclefab

30

the majority of the duties but my rider pitches in and carries more than most too. Whereas the top teams have a full crew with different duties such as team owner, crew chief, mechanic(s), suspension specialist, media/marketing representative...

Speaking of marketing, privateers get a lack of exposure, making it hard to reach potential sponsors.

Thank God for social media. It’s been an amazing tool for us. AFT is lax at giving exposure to their grassroots privateers and don’t help us show the value in companies partnering with us. But they say, ‘Don’t forget to tag AFT in all your social media post. It helps us grow and helps us grow you.’ But, if you’re not a member of the weekly top ten it doesn’t seem to matter how much you tag them, chances are they won’t reciprocate the love. This may seem petty, but we need help growing our product as well.

We spend the same amount of money on entry fees and yearly credentials as the top dogs. Our equipment looks professional, our team shirts meet requirements (yes, there are team shirt requirements in the AFT rulebook), we have sponsors, we have a nice-size fanbase and put butts in the stands, as do many other privateer teams and riders. So why are we treated like stepchildren? We work as hard as the top teams just on a smaller scale, my rider puts his life in danger, as do the rest. We pay to race their series and put money in their pockets. Remember all the privateers that have built the sport and kept it alive. Take the vans out of the paddock and the majority of the race field is gone. Maybe that’s what they’re working towards.

RRCF Final Qualification

GNC/AFT Pro Twin race participation vs qualification for 18-rider main events

28 starts

1 final

where the wild things are

AFTER AN EXHAUSTING day wrestling a KTM through northern Namibia, I arrived at a GPS waypoint plotted weeks before in the comfort of my living room. Sat on the bike, I was mesmerised by rays of light bouncing off Brandberg mountain as they shot into my retinas like golden thunderbolts. The local Damara tribe call this Dâures, burning mountain. Perhaps due to exhaustion and the visual stimulation in desolate Damaraland, an idea came to me… Moto Safari was born.

I’ve ridden many parts of Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East, constantly on the lookout for the next adventure.

Moto Safari was a natural progression. I’m passionate about the outdoors, but disdainful of many guided tours, so a Moto Safari journey is certainly not conventional.

I want to bend minds with the routes, scenery, culture and wildlife of each region.

These photos are highlights of our In Dust We Trust tour of South Africa’s best trails with photos from the riders themselves. www.instagram.com/motosafari Words: Wesley Hannam Photos @janikalheit @teganbarr @byroncoetsee @york.st

The crew leave Sutherland via the famous Swartberg mountain and a challenging 50km rock-strewn pass to spend the night in a mysterious valley known as ‘Die Hell’ or ‘The Hell’ in English

> 79

1 The infamous 250km stretch of ravine scattered with boulders through the Baboon Valley served up a plethora of river crossings. Here the river has claimed another victim and the boys haul the mighty Africa Twin back to dry land

2 Riders catch a glimpse of golden hour as we continue the descent of rocky switchbacks 3 A Moto Safari mug looks very much at home on the famous Tin Cup Tree in Die Hell

4 Adam gets the Africa Twin airborne

1

5 making essential repairs outside ronnie’s sex shop 6 Tegan and Wesley scramble through the tight hairpins of Prince Alfred’s pass with brakes firmly covered in anticipation of the occasional elephant still known to roam this section of the Knysna forest 7 Moto Safari lives up to its name as we get up close and personal with the big five. Riders enjoy a day out of the saddle while soaking in the luxury at the designated Moto Safari game lodge

4

3 5

2

6

7

In 2019 Moto Safari is touring Vietnam, India, South Africa, Namibia, Mongolia and Iceland.

South Africa is next, on 21-30 March 2019. Email hello@motosafari.co for info

Astro

The Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, GA rang with the sizzling zing of two-strokes earlier this year when AFT hosted a special Bultaco Astro invitational race at the Atlanta Short Track round.

Held for the benefit of the charity AMA Rookies Class Of ’79 and Friends, top photographer Yve Assad went along to record it and we spoke to some Astro racers about this iconic machine

Words: David Aldana, Mike Fisher, Don Miller, Charlie Roberts Photos: Yve Assad

THE ASTRONAUTS

David Aldana Racing legend, and still a vintage racing stalwart in his late 60s Mike Fisher UK amateur racer who sewed up the 2018 British DTRA Vintage title on a Championframed Bultaco Charlie Roberts Former pro racer who founded the charity AMA Rookies Class Of ’79 and Friends, which raises funds for injured flat track racers Don Miller All-round Mr Flat Track, founder of Metro Racing, Astro owner

85

>

> What’s it like to hear a whole grid of them racing? Electric! From the beginning in the mid-to-late ’70s, you’d regularly see heats and finals full of them.

I always relate their sound to a sizzle. Wide open, getting it, they just sizzle! It’s a clean sound that you can differentiate from the other two-strokes. DM > Now when I ride one I’m impressed at how well they handle, and the ease of rideability.

I’m reminded of how a bike would feel if the chain broke. They freewheel much more than the four-stroke motors. I find myself tracking the bike into the turns more, using the front tyre more to turn rather than the rear end. That could be due to my age now.

I use the brake more than the compression release, too, because the brakes today are way better than the old Hurst Airheart we had back then. DA

> Not only do I remember the first Astro I saw, I still have a picture I took of it. It was at Quakertown Speedway, PA, spring of 1975. I was 13, already had a strong love for the brand and was around flat track due to my older brothers.

Rob ‘Scarecrow’ Smith showed up with the new Astro and I was hooked. Everything about it was just right and the paint scheme was to die for. It was a true purpose-built bike that anyone could get their hands on. It took me eight or nine years to get my own Astro and I still have it today, over 30 years later. DM

>

> The first time I saw an Astro was in August 1975 Cycle World magazine – the Bultaco simplicity, the chequer paint, the action shots from Ascot. The first I saw in the flesh was Derek Brindley’s at Peterborough in 2015. I bought my first Bultaco, an Alpina, in 1976 and built a race bike in the late ’70s for speed hillclimbs held on farms and stately home driveways in the UK. I first saw On Any Sunday around 1977 at Southampton and District MCC on 8mm, so the pieces were there only to come together many years later. MF GOOD FOLKS The AMA Pro Flat Track Rookies Class Of ’79 and Friends benefits from these events through the auctioning of the riders’ front number plates, which are autographed, as well as merchandise sales at each event. All profits go to injured riders. Go to amaft79.com for more info.

> You could pick one up fresh out of the crate, race it and win.

As well, you could add your two-stroke tuning knowledge to gain a bit on the competition.

They worked as well for a beginner as they did for the seasoned pro.

And you gotta admit, the overall appearance of them was just flat out sexy. DM > Common modifications are wide triple clamps to run Dunlop-spec tyres. I also run a later reed-valve top end. I like a decompressor, good for two-wheeling in on faster surfaces and for line changing in turns to avoid an incident, and a modern rear disc if you’re going to use it for moderating power delivery on the exit of turns. And a pile of rear sprockets. Most of all I enjoy the buzz of hitting 9000rpm before turning in. MF

> I remember seeing my first Astro at the Houston Astrodome. Ronnie Rall rode it on the outside, looking very stylish. Then Mike Kidd had a lot of success on the chequerboard Bultaco. My first ride was for a guy named Ken McGuire. They usually had some type of quarter-mile dirt track around the national road races back then. I rode them and had some good wins on it in the mid-’70s. DA

> At the Woodstock event, 16 former stars of American flat track were all riding Bultaco Astros at a National Championship event for the first time since 1984. The crowd loved it and we are expanding our partnership in 2019. I was leading the event and well on my way to victory when the engine failed, throwing me to the track at over 100mph. CR

> They’re an icon for a combination of reasons: firstly, being in the right place at the right time.

America was smack dab in the middle of the motorcycle craze.

Pretty much, you saw them wherever you went. Bultaco would just about put a dealership anywhere you wanted to. Griff’s Bultaco in New Jersey was local to me and in one of the bays of a gas station. Deal’s Bultaco in Morrisville, PA was in a garage next to a hot dog stand. DM > The Astro was well ahead of its time. This bike’s design is 44 years old, and they’re almost as fast as the new watercooled four-stroke 450cc bikes in the AFT Singles class. The fact that the invitational was raced by former stars who are all 50-plus makes it even more impressive. CR

Words: Wilbur Skipp Photos: Paul France, Skipp family

> XX

>>

The (Bearded)

Crazy Cat Lady Travis is feline good about the XS650 MXer, especially as it’s now a fire-breathing 780...

Words: Travis Newbold Photos: Jon Wallace/ Brapp Snapps

> 97

MOTORCYCLES. THEY COME and they go. Like many people, I get emotionally attached to them. I always tell people that I am not a horse trader and buying and selling bikes is not what I do, but running a repair shop, building bikes from what is left lying around, and constantly surrounding myself with likeminded others, mean that I end up with more than my fair share of bikes. But, like a crazy cat lady or a stable for abandoned horses, I have to be careful. I can only keep so many of them healthy.

This is an old XS650 given to me, like so many bikes: ‘Here Newbold, I know you can do something righteous with this.’ The rusted, locked-up and given-up-on Yamaha was the sixth or seventh in such state I have been given the keys to.

I made it my ‘home shed’ project. I stripped it and

This is Travis’ idea of giving an old motor an easy retirement

began collecting various motocross parts for it at my local motorcycle salvage yard: 1970s YZ front end and rear wheel, a twin-shock Suzuki RM swingarm and other bits I had collected awaiting such a patient in need of resuscitation and organ transplantation. The ‘home shed’ project got kicked when we sold our home on the outskirts of Denver to move well out of the city. The Yamaha got transferred to my former shop while I was winding things up for the move. The motor was totally gone through. I mean full crazy build. I do what I can with what I have, but when I build a race engine I take nothing but the best and yes, it can get expensive, but nothing costs more than the heartbreak dealt out by a blown-up powerplant.

The engine was the climax of what I have learned from years of building XS race engines. And fresh.

So I put it in my old trusty flat tracker replacing an engine that was so strung out it had started blowing oil through the old case castings like a drunk puking into a handful of Subway napkins. That old lump was ready for an easy life as a motocrosser, someplace

other than the constant redline on every flat track’s straightaway.

It was ten years ago that I found the flat tracker’s original engine in the back seat of a van in a junkyard. I ported the head and welded up the camshaft. More recently, I overbored the big-bore jugs. Now it’s something like 780cc. I fitted some open exhausts, 34mm roundslides and an Accel H-D ignition coil. I removed the rotor from the crank, making it total loss ignition and now it revs as quickly as a modern MX bike. Despite removing a boat load of iron associated with the electric start, it is still one of the heaviest engines you’ll find outside of a HarleyDavidson shop.

So that’s story on this motocross XS650/780. I finished it just in time for the weekend of the last vintage motocross of the season here in Colorado.

And guess what… The big ol’ girl got the holeshot and won her first moto against early-’80s production motocross bikes. Then we did it again in the second moto. Not bad for a crazy cat lady on a 1970s cruiser someone gave up for junk.

>

‘It had started blowing oil through the case castings like a drunk puking into a handful of Subway napkins’

A glimpse into the lives of Lennard Schuurmans’ tattoo flash characters

Djonnie Words & illustration: @tattoolenny

DJONNIE HATED IT so much when he got the cramps in his anus from trying too hard. He knew it would take some time before he would feel comfortable balancing his grandfather’s razor-sharp potato knife on the tip of his tongue while doing onehanded peace-sign wheelies on his two-stroke dirt bike in front of the neighbourhood kids. They were more interested in the hand grenade that exploded around the corner at the Egyptian snack joint. The black smoke smelled like French fries and adana kebab and looked like a dancing black cobra in the blue sky. Thirty minutes later, when the place was burned down, you could hear the sirens in the background.

Things were changing, he could feel it.

103

PROJECT BIKES Carnage? What carnage? The 2018 DTRA Hooligan season was fun

W

E’VE WRITTEN QUITE a lot about hooligan bikes since the sub-species mutated into being on the dusty short tracks of Southern California. Perhaps we’ve helped its rise, but also predicted its eventual demise, and while we’ve shown the best riders, events and bikes, maybe we’ve not done enough to explain just why it’s so popular with riders. It’s counterintuitive, but these heavyweights are such fun to race.

Since the previous update in SB33, I’ve competed in five Hooligan races, three on the Sideburn #13 Harley and two on the Krazy Horse Indian Scout. In order, this is how they went: Directly after

a second place at Hell’s Race, that took place at Lelystad Dirt Track in the Netherlands, I slid out of a solid position when I lost the back end and lowsided at Peterborough.

Fortunately, none of my fellow hooligans lived up to their names by ploughing into me, but having already missed the first round of the series, because of a family holiday, any hopes of a decent championship finish – by that I mean top five – were gone.

Day two at Peterborough was more successful, coming in fifth in the 12-rider final, behind Lee Kirkpatrick (#152 Indian), Grant Martin (Harley), Gary Birtwistle (Ducati) and Max Hunt (Ducati).

Words: Gary Inman Photos: Tom Bing (action), Gary Inman (parts)

Leah Tokelove was all over me in the race, but her Scout felt it had been over-revved and its ECU went into limp mode, limiting the power. I was in front of her when it happened, but I don’t think I would’ve been for long. She’d come second the day before.

Lee, Gary B and Grant all ride their hooligans like 450 DTX bikes, climbing over them, using loads of body English, spinning them up.

Leah is super-aggressive, but she doesn’t move about as much. Max Hunt, a Dakar Rally finisher new to flat track, is brave and accurate, and helped, no doubt, by the lower weight and better manoeuvrability of his Scrambler compared to the

Some say you need a screw loose to race the Hooligan class. A stray from the rotor wrecked stator windings, replaced with Accel Lectric

American twins. My riding style?

Bump on a log. And I’ve taken to copying Grant Martin’s straightbacked upright stance from the starts, to get more weight over the rear for traction. I look like a vicar on a Honda Melody when I’m waiting for the lights to change, but my starts are pretty good.

Then it was over to El Rollo at Wheels and Waves as a guest of Indian to race a Krazy Horse Scout.

The track was little, and sketchy.

There was a huge crash, where a couple of other Indian riders took each other out, I made the final, but did nothing special. Leah won it.

The final DTRA hooligan round of the year was DirtQuake at Arena Essex. The track is small and tight, or should I say was, because it’s been sold for development.

A brand new Indian Scout was

on the line for the winner of the DTRA Hooligan Championship and the two riders who had the best chance of winning it, Birtwistle and Martin, were tense. Kirkpatrick also had a chance. I felt the impressive prize changed the mood of the class from fun on big road bikes to something more cutthroat and pressured, but others, including Mr DTRA, Anthony Brown, disagreed. I don’t want to discourage sponsorship, and Indian have been great, but I’m not sure a winner-takes-all £10,000 bike is what an amateur series needs.

Perhaps my tune would be different if I was winning brand new bikes.

Still, I was having fun racing my Sportster. I’d made a plate to lower the right footpeg, copying what I’d seen US Hooligan and fast amateur 450 rider Rob Bush had done to his Harley. The peg is now level with the bottom frame rail, the rules don’t allow it to go any lower.

But not all was well in Sideburnville. After the first DirtQuake Hooligan heat race I noticed a noise like a socket set in a tumble dryer when I cut the engine.

The bike was running well, but the noise was worrying. I invited a few people to listen to it. Their faces curdled when they did. An engine expert was convinced it was the big-end or drive-side bearing. It sounded expensive. On hearing that diagnosis I should’ve put the bike in the van and watched the rest of the racing, but I was having too much fun. If it was that bad, how much worse could I make it with a couple of short heats and a final?

I made the final, cringing at the noise the engine would make when I turned it off. If the Sportster had been fitted with a radio, I’d have turned it to 11 to mask the torture I was inflicting.

In the final, Martin and Birtwistle were battling, with Martin in winit-or-bin-it mode when he slid off and out of contention. Gary B knew he just had to stay on to be champ and took the win comfortably. I came in another fifth, behind Leah this time, delighted the bike hadn’t grenaded.

Back home it was time to see what was up. I took the bike to CFM, where I go to do my serious spannering (in case I get stuck and can ask Carl for help). ‘Start it,’ he told me before I drained the primary drive oil. It wouldn’t start.

It’s never done that, even after a night in minus 20 on the way to Snow Quake. ‘I bet it’s the stator,’ he said.

An hour later I had the heavy rotor in my hand. The front primary sprocket is bolted to it with four countersunk screws.

Except there were only three. The torque of the primary chain on the sprocket had elongated the holes that the three remaining screws were fastened through. The clatter was the backlash and the loose sprocket when the engine was turned off. The lost screw had been fired into the stator and mashed some of the wires, explaining the lack of charge.

I ordered a replacement Accel Lectric stator and rotor from W&W Cycles, and fitted it in a morning.

The battery was dead, so I got another from Krazy Horse.

Looking over the results, I can cherry pick the second at Hells Race, third on the Krazy Horse 1200 Scout at the Greenfield nonchampionship race (behind Hunt and Tokelove) at the final regular DTRA round and those couple of solid finishes. Nothing special, but I’m used to that. Now the Sportster is ready for another season…

DTRA HOOLIGAN TITLE 2018 1 Gary Birtwistle (Ducati) 74pts 2 Grant Martin (H-D) 62pts 3 Lee Kirkpatrick (Indian) 60pts

CONTACTS AND THANKS

DTRA (race organisation) dirttrackriders.co.uk DirtQuake (race event) dirtquake.com Greenfield Dirt Track (racetrack) greenfielddirttrack.co.uk Krazy Horse (Indian hooligan gurus) krazyhorse.co.uk W&W (Harley parts) wwag.com

105

Racewear

Trusted: Joy has featured in BMW Motorrad ad campaigns, is married to SB34 cover star Hayden Roberts and lives for bikes. Here’s the gear she takes to the track 1 How to Ride and Win!

my numbers. They’re great about keeping old suits on the track. I also had a custom Bates suit made and spent a day in the archives picking out styling, stitch details and protection.

Highly recommend!

2 Atwyld Convoy armoured shirt, Deploy armoured leggings

After the dog peed on my last race helmet I started using my dirt-bike helmet at the track and love it. This one is comfortable, super lightweight and full of vents.

Something to pass the time before practice, this one was written by Bud Ekins, Feets Minert and Co in the early ’60s. It does give some great tips on how to ride and prep a [now] vintage bike.

Fitted with back, elbow, shoulder, hip and knee armour. The D30 inserts are flexible and contour to your body, but harden on impact in a crash. I adjust the armour inserts to whatever set of leathers I wear.

3 Rams MC jersey

On race day, our practice starts midday when it’s super hot, so I run practice in a jersey and save my leather jacket for when the sun goes down and the heats start. The Rams MC were one of the first desert racing clubs – this is a hand-me-down from one of the original members.

4 San Pellegrino

Photos: Hayden Roberts, Scott Toepfer

Why be flat when you can sparkle?

5 Tools

Racing old bikes inevitably takes some tools. Trackside, I’ve never needed more than a crescent wrench or zip ties, but try to be prepared for whatever could happen. Not pictured: my trusty mechanic/husband.

6 Bates leathers

Lucky for me, the racers of the ’60s/’70s seemed to be my size, so I’ve pulled together quite the collection.

I’ve taken my old suits to Dana at Bates for refurbishing and adding

7 Atywyld x Lab helmet

8 Sideburn x A Piece of Chic scarf

Silk and printed with flat-track tyre tread – it’s my favourite way to doll up my race kit.

9 Von Zipper goggles

I have a million pairs of these and swap lenses from dark to clear for day practice and night racing. Also, stripes.

10 Speedfreak Garments gloves

Designed and handmade in Japan

by Masatoshi Matsuoka. He makes amazing, beautiful, vintage-inspired racewear.

11 Duct tape

Holds my steel shoe on and comes in handy for quick repairs – broken boot buckle, clutch perch, ripped seat…

12 Steel shoe

My first race bike was a shitty old Yamaha in need of a lot of work. I paid more to make it race ready than I did for the bike – the guy who did the work was so excited to see me out on the track (or felt sorry for me spending all

Name Joy Lewis Age 36 Job Director of Retail, Patagonia Hometown Santa Paula, CA Bikes – road 1965 Triumph TR6SR 1967 Triumph Bonneville 1967 Triumph Bonneville TT Special 1968 Triumph Mountain Cub 1969 Triumph T100C (also raced) 1989 BMW R100GS 2017 BMW RnineT Scrambler Bikes – track 1965 Triumph Tiger Cub 1970 Yamaha DT1 2005 Honda XR80

that money) he gifted me his old race shoe. Like Cinderella’s slipper, it fitted my boot perfectly.

13 EVS Web Pro knee brace

An accident a couple years ago left me with a bad knee and ankle – the screws in my ankle hold that together well enough but the carbon-fibre, hinged brace keeps my knee from doing bad things. I did a slight modification to remove the knee pad so the brace would work with my leggings/leathers.

14 Alpinestars Super Victory boots

Modern boot with an early ’70s look.

15 Kodiak the Podengo

I try to never leave home without the pit pup.

1 7

2

8

6

9

10

3

11

13 4

12

14 5

15

EVENT

EXTREME NOISE TERROR

One of the key ingredients in a Swank Rally is the location. Volandia hosted the latest edition and it’s a massive and peculiar thrill to hear the roar of a departing plane drowning out your own bike on full throttle.

Swank Rally Terminal 1, Malpensa, Italy

Intro: Mick Phillips Captions: Silvia Colombo Photos: Marco Renieri, Francio Ferrari, Marco Campelli Let’s face it, whether we admit it or not, we all like a good swank. It’s been proven that swanking relieves stress, lowers blood pressure and gives you a hearty appetite for beer and chips. Some are happy swanking alone, some swank with a friend or two, and which one of us hasn’t thought of a nifty swank in a churchyard, perhaps showing off to the bridesmaids at a family wedding?

Our mates at Deus Ex Machina in Milan are shameless swankers and do it in style. They’ve swanked among the steel skeletons of disused industrial landscapes, up to their knees in mud in deepest Basque country and, back in January, despite the grave risk of frostbitten extremities, they could even be found swanking furiously on ice in the Italian Alps.

The latest Swank Rally took place amid helicopters and aeroplanes at Volandia, the aviation museum that overlooks Terminal One of Malpensa international airport, north-west of Milan. (Mainly) vintage dirt bikes and the frankly inappropriate tackled the off-road course among hangars, fighters and bombers. You can bet those guys and gals swanked till they could swank no more, swanking long into the night to the rhythm of hard-pumping rock ’n’ roll. Swankers, we salute you.

Next stops, Bali and California.

FOOTBALL CRAZY

Riders collected their race packs from inside an aeroplane plane that made history – the official Italian Republic DC9. The Italian football team were flown home from Spain in style in this plane after winning the

DETAILS, DETAILS

The secret of the Swank Rally’s success lies in the details.

The race numbers marked on armbands echo those used in regular competition in decades past. After the first six editions, a photo book was created to tell the story of the Deus Swank Rally through the most evocative images.

THE GREAT AND THE GOOD

As the Swank Rally’s fame spreads, it draws in not only motorcycle fans but biking luminaries too, such as David El Solitario (pictured) and enduro hero Stephane Peterhansel.

info

Deus Ex Machina deuscustoms.com GONE GLOBAL

Born in Italy, the Swank Rally has become popular all around the world, with riders arriving at Volandia from Spain, Belgium... even Hong Kong.

Volandia Park and Aviation Museum volandia.it

IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT THE WINNING

The awards were held in a hangar surrounded by WWII airplanes.

Adelio Lorenzin, on the podium with his son, is one of the most frequent participants in the Swank Rally.

CAKE WALK

Not just for old iron, Volandia also saw some high-tech interlopers: Cake Kalk electric motorcycles, over from Sweden with a point to prove. Plenty of riders took the chance to experience the eerie thrill of a silent engine that surprised everyone with its power and responsiveness.

WHO RUN THE WORLD?

Donne e motori, gioie e dolori , so goes the Italian saying, meaning women and cars, joys and sorrows.

But at Deus Swank Rallies we’re proud to see a high female turnout every time, bringing plenty of riding skills and enthusiasm... and no sorrows whatsoever.

LEGEND

On the right, Claudio Terruzzi, enduro champion with several Dakar and Six Days wins under his belt and a real Swank Rally aficionado. He hosted the Legends edition in Montecampione back in April on the same weekend as this year’s Nations Trophy.

YOU’RE WELCOME

Yamaha, KTM, Hercules, BMW, Gilera, Cagiva, Husqvarna, BSA and plenty more marques were represented, a bit like retracing motorcycling history from the ’60s to the late ’90s. To take part in the Swank Rally you just need a motorcycle built before the 2000s and to dress in gear consistent with the bike.

1982 World Cup. During the flight, Italy’s president, Sandro Pertini, was pictured playing cards with members of the squad, with the 18 carat gold trophy sat at the head of the table. Google it.

VIVA LA FAMIGLIA!

Maybe he comes back because he always manages to snatch a first or second place in each edition.

However, for the majority, the Deus Swank Rally is not just about racing and competition but friends, passion and fun.

At any Swank Rally, out-of-theordinary bikes are the order of the day. The Tiozzo family has paraded an unrivalled pack of bikes at each edition. Plenty of times father and son have competed together in a sidecar, but this time the most extravagant vehicle was this custom scooter. The Tiozzos are the flesh and blood proof of how a passion can span the generations: from the grandfather (pictured) to his young granddaughter Viola, they all raced at Volandia.

UNSCHEDULED STOP

OK, so the competition is one thing, but not so important that you can’t take time out for a photo opportunity with the stuff of boyhood dreams. Sami Panseri couldn’t resist.

109

Flat Track T-shirt

Available in black, green and white. ÂŁ18 While stocks last Order limited-edition T-shirts, sweatshirts, patches, badges, magazines, subscriptions, art prints, socks and more

Shipped worldwide

Visit Sideburn.bigcartel.com

111

ADULTS ONLY

Delving into the the deepest recesses of artist Death Spray Custom’s inspiration from the internet folder and pulling out some gems.

This issue, grown up stuff

Hooters Honda CRF450 & Durex Suzuki Jamie Whitham is the original #69. A Yorkshireman with a strange, craned-neck stance, hustling outgunned GSX-F and GSX-Rs in powder blue Durex livery around the provincial circuits of Great Britain.

The power of sponsorship is clear. Should I require a contraceptive, I would choose Durex. Mainly because of the Suzuki tie up 30 years ago.

It’s strange how sponsorship of male-dominated sport has been shy of its audience.

Hooters restaurants in the USA are by no means

an adult brand. But as a youngster watching TT Superbike on Grandstand, Hooters was one of those mysterious, exotic, far-off brands like MTV, etched in the consiousness of an impressionable youth via ’80s film and TV. So when they sponsored a supercross team a few years back, the team instantly had a new follower in me. The magic combination of a playful brand and serious sport meant they stood for something a bit more than the sum of their parts.

Should I require Bacon Wrapped Wings, Big Dipper fries and Dessert Shooters, I would choose Hooters.

Above: Mr Sheene and the perfect sponsor team up with British soft porn magazine Men Only Right: Penthouse had a very active sponsor programme in the ’70s & ’80s Below: The glamour of British motorsport and Whitham’s Suzukis. Note perfectly basic 69 AGV lid

113

>>

From: Kevin Atherton To: sideburnmag@gmail.com Date: 7 November 2018 Subject: Eldora Speedway 1996 SB: Kevin, we came across this superb shot of you from 1996, what can you tell us about it?

KA: Well... Eldora was an absolute honour to race at, not only as a legendary track, but like one of the fastest half-miles I ever raced on. It was like a ‘Thrill Ride’. I often think that’s what it must feel like on the space shuttle at launch!

15

15 35

SB: You’d been with the TCR team for a couple of years at that point, correct? Always on an XR? 23 KA: Yes. After the Harley factory deal, I raced for Dallas H-D 15 for a couple seasons, then on to TCR. We had 40 a great team, with Tom Cummings and Will Davis as my team-mates. Nicky Hayden also raced with us for his rookie year. We all rode XR750 Harley-Davidsons.

SB: Bet it felt good to beat your old team mate Scott Parker in this race.

30 KA: To tell you the truth, to beat any one of the greats: Scotty Parker, Graham, Carr, Springsteen – or a few others – is on the top of any Grand National racer’s list of accomplishments!

17

10

Eldora Speedway 1996 5 Fear of

n decapitatio 5% 15

30

Finish line boobs 30%

Big cheque 15%

SB: Tell us more about riding Eldora.

Colonel Sanders on the mike 23%

KA: Super fast. I like BIG mile Childlike glee tracks, and real fast half-miles. So 27% 27 I already knew I was going to like that place when I got there. It was high-banked, so you really shot off the corners hard. It also always helps when you can pull off a GNC win!

SB: And how about those trophy girls? You’ve spent so much time on podiums you must have known them by name.

KA: I am pretty sure the blonde went with me after the race.

Oh heck, maybe they both did. I remember some kind of naked wrestling match went on as a celebration after that win :) SB: What other memories does this photo bring back?

KA: The biggest thing I can tell you about Eldora Speedway is, you had to be a real racer there, you had to be committed every lap, hit your marks, ride faster than everyone else, and maybe a little craziness helped as well.

Ciao for now, and thanks for the memory. Those were great times! Kevin ‘Cupcake’ Atherton #23

23

Photo: David Hoenig

115

www.sideburnmagazine.com