Be Prepared

Insisting that children salute adults is pushing discipline too far in my opinion. Even dressing them up in uniform seems suspect, so it's odd that I seem have nostalgia for Baden Powell, founder of the world-wide scout movement. I'm an ex-soldier of both the Cubs and Scouts. My tree climbing, whittling, map reading, woggle weaving and knot tiring skill I owe to regimented Thursday afternoons. The other day at my Mum's house, I came across my old belt. It's now been put back into service (without the saluting), with 34", extra long girth, blank belt from German eBay - the Germans love dressing up in leather and have specialist traders in all related products. BP

Paul Baleta: Update

Our friend and fellow DTRA racer, Paul Baleta is out at the TT ready to practice and race on two bikes, at his debut TT. He's competed in the Manx before, the amateur TT held on the same course, but this is a step up. If you would like to support him with a donation or buy a T-shirt or cap, you can find out more here. G

GM Speedway Restoration

Italian GM-powered racer, from Geoff who previously sent us a photo of his Jawa speedway bike. The Bad Boy Club and Oakley stickers root this in the 90s. Bad Boy Club ironic comeback, anyone?

My ex-Shawn Moran 1990 PJ / GM 
I've just put the period correct stickers on Shooey's old PJ Framed GM so thought I'd send you a photo of it.  
Cheers Geoff

It's back. If you don't know real road racing, as in, racing on closed public roads, you need to take a look. If you do know it, the TT needs no introduction.

Practice starts on Saturday evening with first qualifying sessions on Monday and the opening race, the six-lap Superbike, gets things started in earnest on Saturday 6 June.

Friend of Sideburn, Guy Martin, will be racing in the two Superbike races (ie, Superbike and Senior TT), Superstock and both Supersport 600 races. There's a stack of TV coverage on ITV4, plus live coverage of qualifying and races on Manx TT Radio, which is a brilliant way to soak up the atmosphere (complete with ads for local chip shops and builders' merchants) while you're spannering in the shed/shirking in the hammock/wrestling naked on the hearth rug. MP

Dirt Quake USA: On the horizon

Dirt Quake USA is coming up fast!
June 20-21
Castle Rock, WA.
For more info, go to our Dirt Quake USA page.

It could not happen without these great supporters.

See See Motorcycles  http://www.seeseemotorcycles.com

and

Harley-Davidson www.harley-davidson.com

Plus

Icon One Thousand  www.icon1000.com

Mt. St. Helens MC https://www.facebook.com/pages/MT-St-Helens-MC/132268364039

Lowbrow Customs http://www.lowbrowcustoms.com

Moto Factory PDX http://motofactorypdx.com

Fox Shocks http://www.ridefox.com

Red Clouds Collective http://redcloudscollective.com

W&W Cycles  http://www.wwag.com/

Motothenw.com  http://www.motothenw.com

Stump Town Coffee http://stumptowncoffee.com

Cycle Zombies http://cyclezombies.com

Hop Valley Brewing http://hopvalleybrewing.com

100% goggles http://www.ride100percent.com

Kamp Grizzly  http://kampgrizzly.com

If you like the look of this poster you can buy a high quality version directly from http://www.seeseemotorcycles.com

Super Tabs

From Dimitri C.

UK C&J Rotax Racer for Sale UPDATE - SOLD

SOLD (to a UK racer.)
One of our friends built this as a spare bike, but has decided to sell it.
Absolutely pukka C and J monoshock chassis with an electric start, late-model 604 Rotax engine for sale.
Alloy tank (not fibreglass)
Nickel plated chassis
Penske shock
Barracuda pipe
Great spec
Ready to race.
Suitable for DTRA rookie, restricted or pro and Thunderbike (you can race two classes on this bike in the DTRA series. Entries are just £65 in total for two classes. For that you get a minimum of six heats, plus two finals if you qualify).

More pictures here

Located in Oxfordshire, UK.
£4950

I'd say, don't think about converting it to a road bike, it's too lairy and demands and deserves to be raced. G

Springfield Mile: Main

Guy x Sideburn collab shirt

Guy Martin has been a supporter of Sideburn since day one and we're very happy to announce a collaboration T-shirt with him.

The Marting camp specified the T-shirt, a heavyweight, snug-fitting, 100% Combed Cotton Interlock 240g / 7.2oz. Fair Wear Foundation product.

The front has the Chris Watson illustration of Guy on his Pikes Peak class-winning Martek Turbo. On the back is a small Sideburn logo and Guy Martin skull and spanners on the nape of the neck.

Every order for the T-shirt from us also get the front design as a colour vinyl sticker.

£20 plus post. Go to Sideburn webshop.

Stomach-churning (in a good way)

Cameron Airshow 2014 from Aero Media Group on Vimeo.
This is the most nuts video I've seen in ages. It being the Cameron Air Show in Missouri, it is mainly planes, but a bit of motorcycle too.
Stomach-churning in a good way.

Thanks to Roger F for forwarding... G

Redmax Sportster Street Tracker

One of the many neat street tracker built by the Redmaxspeedshop in the UK over the last few years.
Check out the big range of tracker bodywork and parts they have. G

Springfield Mile: This Weekend

After what seems like six months since the season opener at the Daytona double-header in March, the AMA Grand National Championship gets back under way at Springfield, Illinois this weekend. Here are some of the keys changes for 2015:

• Former #1 Jake Johnson has moved from Ramspur Lloyd Brothers to Hart Racing Kawasaki.
• Troy Bayliss and Johnny Lewis are on the Lloyd Brothers Ducati Scrambler 1000.
• Mikey Martin has moved from Triumph to Weirbach Kawasaki.
• Brandon Robinson is on the Bonneville Performance Castrol Triumph.
• 2013 Rookie of the Year Jake Shoemaker on the Bonneville Performance Triumph.
• Cory Texter is racing the new Yamaha USA 'factory' FZ-07-powered parallel twin.
• Two-time Daytona 200 winner (and winner of the 2015 race) Danny Eslick is racing an XR750 at Springfield.
• Nichole Mees (nee Cheza) has announced this will be her last full twins season.
• Sammy Halbert has teamed up with legendary tuner Johnny Goad. 
• Henry Wiles is with Zanotti (Coolbeth's teammate).
• Top contenders Mees, Coolbeth, Brad Baker and Smith all stay with the same teams.

Plus the AMA will still work with Fanschoice.tv to deliver live feeds of all the races and now they have Chris Carr giving expert analysis. The presenting team have back-up from Dani Medin, a former snowmobile racer with FHM-cover-friendly looks. At first I thought, come on, really? Then she started asking questions from a complete novice's perspective that made Chris Carr explain just why things happen the way they happen. Even if I knew some (not all) of the answers, Carr puts so much meat on the bones of what could be simple answers, it made it a great section in what could easily have been a boring wait for the racing to start. 

The Fan's Choice coverage is still not what you'd call high budget, but this year is a massive leap forward. It's stripped down and informative and the best blanket coverage the sport has ever had.

And because it's America you can hardly notice the subliminal advertising they have Chris Carr doing in some of the links (see above). But this is a buyer's market and flat track needs the coverage, so if Chris comes on dressed as Colonel Sanders and talks about a finger-lickin' move Stevie Bonsey put on Chad Cose, I'll still lap it up. G

UPDATE: Chris Carr will be selling Sideburn current and back issues in the pits at Peoria's All Star race and the All-Star race at Springfield on Sunday. Go buy a few.

Stevie Gee at Deus Harajuku in Japan!

The original Tequila Mockingbird and Sideburn collaborator, Stevie Gee is over in Japan right now, doing his thing. The show opens tomorrow. Details below...

Stevie Gee art exhibition SUPERDREAM launch party at #DeusExMachinaHarajuku from Thursday May 21 at 8:00PM. A first time visit to Japan by the UK artist known for his memorable Deus artwork. 

イギリスで活躍するDeusアーティスト、スティービー・ジーがDeus原宿店でのエキシビジョンのために初来日。 初日の5/21（木）にはローンチパーティも開催。

To commemorate the London-born artist's first Japanese show we spent a couple of days digging through the Sideburn vaults to find any remnants of the Sideburn 15 Stevie Gee cover that had crawled into a crevice in a vain attempt to save itself. We found a handful.
The cover by shot by Sam Christmas and features the Kawasaki Z200 built by Sideburn and CFM, and painted by Stevie Gee. The story is a beauty and the back cover of this memorable issue features fellow UK artist Essy May, who is now, officially, ripping up trees on the London art scene.
Move quickly to get yours at sideburn.bigcartel.com. G

El Solitario: War

W A R from El Solitario on Vimeo.
Straight outta Galicia...

Some might find this release anachronistic, but for ESMC this film constitutes a milestone and we can’t but celebrate. Countless tough decisions, bruised prides and forgotten regrets set it above the rest. It was 18 months ago, when we engaged in the realization of our most ambitious visual adventure. Best hopes were in place but thy justice is not for the novice. Three cameras, in hands of good spirited cubs, frantically lost in a mare magnum of drunks and freaks. Little survival chance our crew had, if not steered by the whip of the always immaculate but merciless “Peliqueiros". Said to be the oldest documented carnival on the planet, "O Entroido de Laza" with os “Peliqueiros" at the helm is one of the wildest, darkest and most beautiful ceremonies we ever had the chance to watch. The “Peliqueiro", totem and tabu of the Lazan Carnival, pushes the villagers with their runs and whips to an ancestral catharsis worth fighting for. It is said that by such, they open a bridge between our world and the next, incarnating the dead they purify the pagans, becoming sacred, untouchables! They are the real stars of this piece and they behaved as such from start to end. 18 months took us to be able to release something we could live with. Endless nights, and not few fights, trying to organize hours of powerful as f*ck and beyond the fantastic, all screwed up footage. 

Only one minute eighteen seconds survived the burn, blood and tears but will certainly leave no one in state of indifference. To them, and to those that gave us their precious time we shout fist in the air: Let there be the light!@#$ 
Direction - Roto Day

Roland Sands Design x Victory Project156

Andy Hornsby of UK-based American-V magazine sent us this screen grab. Check out the sticker on the bottom of Roland Sands' design tablet, near his talented right hand.

Roland is working with motorcycle manufacturer Victory to build a bike to race at next month's Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Cycle World road tester Don Canet will race it. He did very well in his debut year, 2014, on a Ducati Multistrada.

Sideburn's poet, Travis Newbold is racing the official Ronin Pikes Peak entry.

If you want to know more about Pikes Peak or the Ronin, buy Sideburn 18 and 19. We have a story on Guy Martin's 2014 Pikes Peak race on his own Martek Turbo in Sideburn 18 and a story on my visit to Ronin HQ in Denver and road test of the Ronin in Sideburn 19. Buy now and get a free limited edition Sideburn Guy Martin sticker drawn by Chris Watson. G

Trackmaster Titan

Trackmaster-framed Suzuki Titan 500s are rare beasts, perhaps only two or three were ever made. This is one shot 'in the day' at the San Jose Mile. We found another of the two-stroke twins, with its original racer and owner, at Springfield last year. See the bike and read the story in Sideburn 20. G

DTRA Round 2 and TransAtlantic

Two days of dirt track at the MCN Festival, Peterborough this weekend.

Saturday
9.15-11.00 - Rookie and Youth
12.15-12.45 - Transatlantic with Schwantz and Aldana
2.30-3.00 - Transatlantic with Schwantz and Aldana
4.00- 5.45 - Restricted and Pro

Sunday
9.15-11.00 - Vintage and Youth
12.15-12.45 - Transatlantic with Schwantz and Aldana
2.30-3.00 - Transatlantic with Schwantz and Aldana
4.00- 5.45 - Thunderbike, Minibike, Dash for Cash

Deus Milano Bike Build-Off 1

Sorry for the delay in following up last week's Deus Milan Bike Build-Off post. We're flat-out here. Anyway, here are some of the bikes. Above, trackerised air-cooled Duke. Rough and ready for action. White fork legs though? No, grazie.

CZ lowrider with fantastic paint. Killswitch was a guitar style jack plug.

Another Ducati tracker, this one on 17in wets. Inspiration seems to be equal parts Lego, Lloyd Brothers and Petardo.

Loved this little Yam. It was really in the spirit of the competition: doing the most with the least. Tractor front tyre on the rear isn't going to win him a GP, but I bet it could do burn-outs till the tank ran dry. Owner had fabbed up a little underslung monoschock. Seat subframe was a single, central tube, with the tail light mounted in it. Loved the fishtail pipe mounted parallel to the road.
It ended up winning the competition.

 Latecomer on a V50.

 Styling. Do your own thing.

 Dagger Cycles neat Yamaha SRX.

 Monkey dripping in Japanese bolt-ons.

 

Federico from 2 Right Hands paint/ Dildo Society (don't ask) in Parma. Such a neat bike. Airbrushed painted, no stickers. If you're looking for a painter in Italy, look no further. 

2 Right Hands also painted this late model Yam XS. Neat Bandit behind it. Didn't get a better photo of the Suzuki though. Dumbo.

 Neat Honda 650 scrambler. Owner is pointing at tank.

This beast turned up. The Africa Twin Dakar rep wasn't what the organisers were looking for in terms of a Deus Build-Off bike, but it was still an eye-catcher.

More to follow when I get another half-an-hour. Don't hold your breath. G

The Real Intellectuals, Athens, Greece

Athens is finally civilised as The Real Intellectuals now stocks Sideburn.

If your shop would like to, drop us an email for the best prices.

Click the green SIDEBURN STOCKISTS label below to see posts about many of our stockists. They're cool places. G

Dick Emery Driving Test

A dose of Dick Emery a day keeps the Doctor away. BP

The Real Mad Max heir

Lots of people are getting very excited about Mad Max: Fury Road, opening all over the world this week. I'm not, read why here. I'll still go and see it though.

If you share my skepticism then track down this minimal, dystopian, lone 'hero', Australia-after-a-global-meltdown, kind of road movie, The Rover. It's now out on DVD.

It stars him from Neighbours (sorry Mr Pearce, but I'm of a generation that means for whom you will always be that. Still a fine a actor, though) and him from Twilight (sorry Mr Pattinson, I've never seen any of them) and has lots in common with the original Mad Max.

And if you're a fan of the early Mad Max films you really need to read our two-part celebration of the original film in Sideburn 17. Our very own Mick Phillips interviewed many of the main players, including the Toecutter and the director, George Miller. And cult director Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid and Nancy) wrote an essay on the movie that was illustrated by Raid71.

And you can get all that for £5 plus post? We must be as crazy as the Nightrider! G

One-Off Wednesday: Sideburn 19 Biltwell Edition

SOLD OUT
We have very limited quantities of Sideburn 19 with the special cover we made for the mighty Biltwell of Temecula, California. These are just a few samples we had sent here.

The magazine is identical to Sideburn 19, only the cover is different, so this is only for the completist or collector.

Go to One-Off Wednesday to buy.

P.C. Hipsta

Following on from the Dan Walsh-prompted 'We've reached Peak Hipster' post, a Sideburn reader (who will remain anonymous, unless he wants to 'out' himself) has come up with a whole a series of funny strips playing on the single photo.

Here are a couple. See more at P.C. Hipsta

Dirt Quake IV Camping

This is only for the DIRT QUAKE IV in the UK (not the USA event).
Sideburn doesn't have the manpower or time to run camping for Dirt Quake, so another group, headed by a veteran of all the previous Dirt Quakes, has stepped up to run it independently of Sideburn.

Dirt Quake racers, spectators and DTRA racers welcome.
Tents, vans, campers, caravans.

This camping is not run by Sideburn but it is by people we trust, so please don't ask us any questions about it before or on the day, we don't know the answers.
Have a look on the poster first, and if you still don't know email:

tracksidetrailertrash2015@gmail.com


FOR ALL OTHER DIRT QUAKE INFO - GO TO DIRT QUAKE IV INFORMATION

The Full Fat

So, if the Suzuki Boulevard V-twin from Sideburn 20 wasn't mad enough, the owner, Bill decided to fit a few hundred ice screws into the tyres...

Then strap it using a rope under a helicopter...

Fly it over beautiful Canada...



And place it on a frozen lake for some ice riding. I suppose you've got to have a hobby.
Read all about this bike in Sideburn 20. G

Thanks to Motorcycho Norm for the tip-off.