Flat Out Friday: The Bikes

I flew out to Flat Out Friday in Milwaukee, earlier this month. The race was debuted on the Friday before the Mama Tried Custom show in February this year. A crowd of 7000 turned up to the inaugural event making it bigger than many AMA Pro National races. The organisers were buoyed by the success and decided to organise another race, in October, not tied into the show.

It was a risk, but there was a massive entry, hometown company Harley-Davidson partnered the event and livestreamed it online, through their facebook, with Dirt Quake racer Chris Wiggins and US mover/shaker Leticia Cline anchoring the very professional looking coverage.

With no show in town, the crowd was down on the Mama Tried weekend, but there was still a strong 3000 or so locals, which is nearly double what the US Superprestigio attracted in Las Vegas 11 months before.

The track was a tight syrup track, concrete with sticky, sugary syrup from Dr Pepper sprayed and left to go dry. It was just big enough for good racing even on heavyweight bikes.

Above is one of the organisers bikes, Scott from Fuel Cafe's Harley WL45, hopped up by JRs Cycle Products. It lacked some ground clearance on the tight track and he went down in a shower of sparks. He wasn't the only one to crash due to decking out.

There was a huge field of hooligans, the regular Californians came out en masse, but were joined by plenty of mid-westerners. The Noise Cycles team had three riders.

While The Speed Merchant team brought from out from So Cal.

This fella, one of the Fealy family, rode his Trackmaster twin so hard to win the vintage class. It was a joy to watch.

There was a strong and eclectic brakeless class, with a bunch of Aermacchi Harleys battling with older heavier WL45s and Ducati bevel singles.

 This old boy on a BSA single looked the business, and raced even though he had trouble walking!

 One of a couple of neat Bevel singles. This one is brakeless and rigid. 

 So is this one!

There was a boonie bike class that was great entertainment. Not all of them looked this
Heath-Robinson.

One of five or six mint Astros that entered. 

Thanks to the Mikes at Harley-Davidson and Scott and Beth for all the hospitality.

Wisconsin really loves flat track. G

Teen lust

When I was too young to ride on the road, I had posters on my bedroom wall of Harley's SX and SS250s, and I was mad for 'em. I still think they look great and we have a soft spot for them on this blog, given that Garrett B's street-tracked SX was the subject of our very first post, eight-and-a-half years ago.

By the time I was old enough for a road bike, the law had changed and 250s with L-plates disappeared in a blue-grey fug of lost hope. But even at that tender age, I'd have had no trouble telling a 1000cc four-stroke V-twin from a two-stroke single, though the AMF-era marketing geeks hoped otherwise.

"If you can't tell it from our big bikes, see your AMF Harley-Davidson dealer," they say. Why? Did they have in-house opticians back then? MP

Garrett B: A special place in our hearts

Found this photo of Garrett B over on Travis's 747 Rider blog.

Long time Sideburn blog readers might remember Garrett has a special place in our hearts, because his gorgeous Aermacchi was the subject of our very first blog back in March 2008 (we started the blog after the mag, how very old-fashioned, eh?).

Since then and now we have made 4928 posts. If you look on the sidebar on the right and scroll to the bottom you will see we have added a list of all the labels we semi-religously use to link posts from the SEVEN years of this blog. Only enter the tangled web if you have two hours to lose.

Garrett and his son and daughter all race on the Colorado flat tracks. In this photo Garrett is wearing the very first T-shirt design we made, the Dick shirt. G

UPDATE: Following our own label trail reminded me I'd already posted this photo. It works!

Rapido

I wonder if mighty Harley-Davidson could ever bring themselves to produce another badge engineered tiddler like this Aermacchi Rapido in this day and age? BP

Spaghetti Western

Paint job for an Aermacchi by Chris Watson. BP

UPDATE: There's a nice Dirt Quake ride home report on Chris's blog.

Sponsored Rider

Garrett Brittenham, who has a special place in the Sideburn Universe because his Aermacchi was the subject of the first ever post on this blog (nearly four years ago), has been sponsored by FTWCo, who also have a special place in our hearts.
FTWCO are incredible. Jeff and Brad design and screenprint (in-house) cool T-shirts and sweatshirts, then plough the money back into making exclusive riding kit for amateur racers who contact them asking to be supported. FTWCo aren't trying to sponsor famous racers or racers they think are going to hit it big, just club racers doing it for the love of the sport. What a brilliant thing to do.

Garrett joins Geoff and Anthony Co-Built and Travis 747 as riders we know on the roster. There are plenty more. Anyway, buy an FTWCo shirt so they can keep sponsoring racers (I do). G

Tachtastic

Years before the internet could resolve such matters, I knew this high-energy French barman working in London...
He did boggling juggling tricks mixing exotic cocktails in fashionable Soho clubs. His act and lifestyle was chemically enhanced and he burnt brightly. One minute he would be loaded and on a roll, the next, out of a job again having overstepped the mark. Anyway one day I bumped into him in Portobello Market with a desperately pathetic collection of things he was selling for his cause, laid out on the pavement (when most traders can stretch to a trestle table). One of the things he had was a motorcycle exhaust guard with a DC Comics-style eagle on it. I joked "Ha! that looks likes its come off one of those Aermacchi-Harley trials bikes, it's probably worth a lot of money to somebody". BP

Dick Mann Spotting

Garrett, wearing Dick Mann, with his Aermacchi
Travis, 747, chasing down the leader.
This is from Travis, one of our favourite Sideburn friends, about Garrett, one of our favourite Sideburn friends...

Yo G.
How goes it? Hope all is mighty fine.
I met Garrett at the local races in Erie at IMI last weekend. Seen him on the Sideblog before and of course upon meeting him I could tell by his character and bike he is the real deal. (who else reads Sideburn?)
Good times at the track as usual. Much. Newbold 747

Here's the thing - Garrett is wearing one of Sideburn's mythical Dick shirts, the first we ever did. We always say we're not going to reprint any of our old designs, but I love that shirt (and lots of others, including Crazy Dave that sold out in a blink). It seems a bit daft not to reprint it. Or is that some sort of betrayal? Will owners of the original be miffed we reprinted? I haven't discussed this with Ben, just thinking out loud. G

Garrett Smokes (most of) them!

From Garrett in Colorado.

What's up GI?
If all goes well, I'll be taking a second shot at flat track this Saturday. Worked the bike over a bit: new Works shocks, Davey Durelle re-valved, shortened, and re-sprung forks, new plug, adjusted timing, and went to a larger rear sprocket.
Hope to get lapped by fewer people this time!
Garrett

I didn't post it in time, because he followed it up with...

No pics yet, but a couple youtubes:
1st heat:

Main:

I know my style sucks, but what can ya do?
And Barry of the Shawn Murray-tanked Sportster, winning a great battle in
Hooligans:

What the hell came second? An FZR600? Respect! G

Garrett's Debut

We told you Garret was going to race his Aermacchi in this post. Well. this is what he had to say.

My first flat track race is in the books! What a blast!
The vintage class was chock full of TT500s, as I expected, so I was for sure outgunned in that respect, plus the riders were dang good! My first heat, a fouled plug ended my race right off the starting line. There was a huge pile up in corner 2 that took out most of the group, so I guess it's good I missed that.
Now in the main I really learned a few things. Most importantly, is that my bike is NOT set up well for racing. It bounced and bucked and twisted, and was generally a huge handful to keep on any kind of line. Could not hook up at all. So I guess I'm going to have to talk to someone who knows suspension a lot better than I do, and spend a couple bucks on new shocks and a new rear tire. Probably go up a couple teeth on the rear sprocket so I can grab another gear and maybe keep myself from getting lapped!
Here's a video of my debacle. Dig that awesome start!
On the plus side, my friend Barry took 2nd in Hooligans on his Sportster (below)!
Anyway, thanks Sideburn and Jason for the inspiration. This 44 year-old is hooked!
Garrett

Full Circle

3 years and 26 days since our first SBlog post on Garrett's H-D Aermacchi SX250. He's just about to throw himself at racing proper. The inspiration turns full circle. BP

Ok man! I Finally got my back-issues of Sideburn, and to say I'm inspired would be an understatement! Most inspiring to me is Jason's story in #5. Awesome.
Season's less than 2 weeks away here. Can't wait.
-Garrett

UPDATE: Garrett has previously dipped his toe in the race pool with a bit of Hooligan class dirt track racing.

AMA Vintage Nationals

From Rob in Canada

Hi Gary,
You don''t know me but my name is Rob. I bought a couple of mags and a shirt a year or so ago. Anyhow, your mag sparked my interest in flat track. There are no tracks here in Canada, that I know of, so I went to the AMA vintage nationals this past weekend in NY. That guy Greaser Mike was there, couldn't miss the sparkly leathers.
I took a few photos of some of the bikes, and thought you might like them. I am not a pro photog, so please excuse the quality.
I shrunk them down to be easier to mail.
The photo with the two riders, the guy in front is 75 years old. He won a race both nights.
Enjoy, Rob

Thanks Rob. Incidentally, the two 25 bikes are raced by Donzilla of Metro Racing.

Flyin' the colours

Garrett B has a special place in Sideburn history. His Aermacchi Harley was the subject of the first ever Sideburn blog post. He gets in touch about once every six months, even though, he says, 'The blog is part of his daily routine'. This is his latest email.

'Just took a crappy cellphone pic of my sporty tracker flyin' the Sideburn colors. Improves the looks of the el-cheapo battery!' Garrett B, Colorado

We're selling these stickers now.

More Beezumph 2

This shot's by Adrian B. That's his shadow right there look. The rest are by SB's GI.




Not all dirt trackers, but all neat.

Sideburn blog lives!

As if we didn't have enough to do we've decided to start a Sideburn blog. People are sending us good stuff all the time and we're up to no good ourselves most days. We can't save it all for the next issue, so we're going to feed stuff up here.

Like this bike. Sideburn reader Garrett B's 1976 Harley/ Aermacchi SX250.

Ring-ding! And nearly finished.