Sideburn 30

Another milestone reached. Issue 30! And our regular readers tell us it keeps getting better. That's the idea. This another fat 116-page issue squeezed, like blood from a stone, out of Sideburn's Lincolnshire HQ.

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COVER STAR: Manon Hache; Co-Built Rotax and Chris Piascick art
BIKES: Bottpower XR1R Pikes Peak special; budget Yamaha FZ-07 framer; monoshock H-D Sportster; Wedge BMW 310; Honda 650 Mablethorpe Sand Racer
EVENTS: Travis at Pikes Peak; The Springfield Mile; Pendine Speed Trials; DirtQuake VI
HOW TO: Use your brake to go faster by Johnny Lewis
PEOPLE: Marco Belli; Sean Flynn and Dana Stone
PORTFOLIO: The photography of Kristina Fender
MOVIE: Godspeed! You Black Emperor
ADVENTURE: Across frozen Mongolia on Enfield 500 combinations
PAGES: 116

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Bottpower to Race Pikes Peak with Travis

Sideburn is proud to have brokered a deal to put our staff poet, track tester and roving ambassador, Travis Newbold on  a very special version of Bottpower's XR1 to compete at Pikes Peak in 2017 (subject to entry being accepted, see below).

The Spanish company's XR1R will use an engine from the track-only Buell XBRR. Only 56 of this fully-faired, Daytona-focussed racers were built, during the time of Harley's ownership of Buell, and two have been loaned to the team by their customers. The engine will be in Bott's own titanium spine chassis. The styling of the bike will be very similar to the XR1R (above). I hope there is room for 747 on the side number plate.

The main sponsor for the Bottpower Pikes Peak project are our friends at Kriega, the British-based innovative moto-luggage firm who have advertised in Sideburn since issue 1, and who we featured in Sideburn 21.

Entries for the motorcycle and ATV classes at Pikes Peak have been slashed in recent years (perhaps as a result of two deaths in two years), so the team's official entry is being considered. Fingers crossed.

Travis has won his class in previous years and came second in 2015 on the Buell-powered Ronin. he was only beaten by an HRC-backed Honda America Fireblade.

You can read more about Pikes Peak in a story written by Guy Martin in Sideburn 18. We only have two of these issues left.

Keep up with the Bottpower Pike Peak project at the Bottpower blog. G

BOTT XR1R

We have been big fans of Spanish company Bottpower since we first saw their computer modelled concept in 2011 and we were the first magazine in the world to featured their first production bike, back in Sideburn 13, 2013. Now they've developed their niche furhter with this titanium framed, XR1R. Bottpower are MotoGP level engineers, working in Moto2, World Endurance and top Superbike series'. This Found David Sanchez says about their new flagship.

The BOTT XR1R is a special version of our BOTT XR1. The XR1 is a street bike, while the XR1R is a bike that we are developing to use only on the track.

We see it as a big supermoto bike, which feels at home on twisty tracks. This XR1R unit is a Bottpower laboratory bike, that we are using to test and develop new solutions for our bikes and customers.

We have a very good customer who ordered us a BOTT XC1 cafe racer with titanium frame and racing electronics and one of the targets of the XR1R is to develop those components, so the BOTT XR1R has a titanium frame and also an EFI Euro4 ECU which allows to use adjustable traction control, launch control and 3 different engine maps.

I have been working for 10 years as data engineer in different championships and categories, so for us to add a data acquisition system was a mandatory step to make a good development work. With this bike we will measure things that we do not measure normally, like the stress in different points of the frame using extensometry gauges.

We have a testing program for this year with several tests on different tracks. We will also organize a test in which some journalists and some of our best customers will test the bike.

And as culmination of this project, we are working to race with the BOTT XR1R in next year Pikes Peak race. In principle we won’t be able to use the titanium frame because it is not allowed by the technical rules, so we will need to look for another solution (probably an evolution of our XR1 steel frame). Our target with this bike in race configuration is to achieve a power to weight ratio better than 1:1. This is, more than 150 HP and less than 150 kgs.

Bottpower is a very small company with very limited resources, so in this case the first challenge for Pikes Peak will be to find the necessary sponsors and supporters to complete the budget. We plan to explain the whole process in a very detailed way on our blog, so we invite everybody to follow us in this great adventure!

BOTT XR1R Technical specifications

Engine
Air/oil cooled 1203cc Buell Thunderstorm V-Twin, 1203 cm3.
Fuel system: 49 mm downdraft DDFI II fuel injection
Gearbox: 5-speed
Clutch: Wet, multi-plate, compensated
Final Drive: Belt
Electronics: EFI Euro4
ECU

Chassis
Titanium central Spine Bottpower frame, with vibration isolation system
Front Suspension: Showa inverted fork from a Buell 1125
Rear Suspension: Öhlins shock absorber
Front Brake: 8 pistons ZTL2 type brake, 375 mm stainless steel floating rotor
Rear Brake: 240 mm stainless steel rotor, single piston floating caliper
Tyres: Slicks, Front 120/70xZR17 and Rear 190/55xZR17
The bike has a top fuel tank and 2 secondary fuel tanks.
Original Buell fuel pump located in the left secondary fuel tank.

Dimensions 
Wheelbase: 52in / 1321 mm
Seat Height: 30.1 in / 765 mm
Ground Clearance: 4.3 in / 109 mm
Weight: Not declared yet.
Fuel Capacity: 13 liters.

www.bottpower.com
http://twitter.com/bottpower
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bottpower-Project/117279678290426

Bottpower XR-1

Take a heavyweight Buell Sirloin. Chop off the boney and fatty bits. Hammer it with a wooden steak mallet until tender. Eat raw.
For Sideburn #13 Spaniard David Sánchez serves us up his tasty XR-1. Photos Kristina Fender. BP

Bottpower XR-1

Saw this bike on Hell for Leather. It's a concept by the Spanish Bottpower outfit. It's powered by a Buell engine. They even call it an XR. I wonder what the motor company will have to say about that (especially as we're told they paid Storz a lot of money to buy the XR1200 tag). GI

'The BOTT XR-1 is a bike based on a Buell, who acts as a donor of wheels, suspensions, brakes, engine and swingarm. The intention is to create a motorbike with flattrack aesthetics, based on the Harley XR 750 racers. To build this bike we had to design a central spine chassis. We will give more details about this chassis in following posts.
'The idea about building this bike is from Ramón Bellosta, the guy who asked us to build this chassis. I think it is a very good idea because the BOTT XR-1 will be very funny to ride. The Harley XR1200 is the most similar thing you can find on the market, but while the Harley weights 250 kgs and has 85 HP, the BOTT XR-1 will weight 170 kgs, will have more than 100 HP, and it will have much more agressive geometries, so it will be a much more agile bike.
'Ramón will finish the bike following his taste, but in Bottpower we couldn’t avoid to make some renders to explore the aesthetic possibilities of this concept. It is very probable that we continue making renders during the following weeks, testing different ideas.
'If the project stirs up enough interest we will think about making a kit, so anybody interested could be able to build a BOTT XR-1 starting from a Buell.'