Dirt Track Heroes at he National Motorcycle Museum

This looks amazing. But it's at the National Motorcycle Museum, Iowa and we're not. There are a couple of bikes and memorabilia from riders on show that we've featured in Sideburn.

Whether you call it flat track or dirt track racing, it’s a thrilling form of motorcycle competition unique to America. Now Allstate Motorcycle Dirt Track Heroes presented by J&P Cycles brings together nearly 30 race bikes, over 20 sets of leathers and countless photos, paintings and prints. It’s been assembled to build a great exhibition in tribute to the #1 Plate Grand National Champions, tuners and other dirt track greats and many of the motorcycles they raced. Triumph 650′s, the Harley WR’s, KR750′s and XR750′s, BSA Gold Stars, and some fine short trackers like the Bultaco Astro are all in the mix. Rare #1 leathers King Kenny wore, Aldana’s “skeleton” design as well as leathers Daytona 200 winner Don Emde also wore when he raced the TransAtlantic Match races decades ago. Paintings by Scott Jacobs, prints by Harry Miller as well as photos from Camel Pro photographer Bert Shepard help give action to the exhibit.

1988 AMA Dirt Track Championship Highlights

This is brilliant. Make a cuppa, sit back and enjoy both parts. I just have. G
Read about Bubba Shobert and his Honda in Sideburn 9 and our interview with Scott Parker in Sideburn 8

Kit Kat

Since SB#2 we've had wonderful trophy queen stories in every issue with period photos from Dan Mahony. This sparkling Ektachrome in SB#9 is of Kit Kat who was a Camel girl. Interview with Bubba Shobert, as Scott Parker was too busy with the shampoo. BP

Bubba's Bike

'No huge plan led to Honda's 1980s domination of flat track, it just kind of happened...' Don Miller on the evolution of Bubba Shobert's RS750.
SB#9 is steeped history. Don also talks us through his own painstaking nut-and-bolt restoration of Mike Scott's basket-case. BP

Honda RS750

Larry Weiss Memorial Race- RS750 with Bubba from Johnny Lewis on Vimeo.

Don at Metro Racing has rebuilt/restored one of Honda's almost mythical RS750 flat trackers that won the GNC, first with Ricky Graham, then three times with Bubba Shobert, from 84-87.
Shobert is racing this bike at Harpursville, NY next weekend. It'll be something special. Got and support it. It'll be historic. G
PS The Johnny Lewis that made this video is the same one that's been scoring podiums in the GNC all year. He's our kind of racer - he dresses like the Cookie Monster and still wins. Don't believe us? Check here

Cuddebackville,NY

Rain didn't put off the AMA Vintage racer at Oakland Valley Raceway Park (OVRP), NY. Don from Metro Racing, Greaser Mike, Fumi and Hugh Mackie of Sixth Street Specials.
Next race at OVRP is June 24-25 and Bubba Shobert's going to be racing! G

Correction - Bubba and the boys are racing at Harpursville on the 24-25, not OVRP.

Bubba's RS750 by Metro Racing

From Don at Metro. Another post that got gobbled in the blogger meltdown.
UPDATE: Hey, it looks like Blogger restored the original post below.

Getting the RS750 ready for Bubba Shobert to ride at the Larry Weiss Memorial in NY State on June 24th&25th.

Metro Racing RS750

Don at Metro Racing builds a mean flat tracker (that's not him in the photo). Just check out the Castro Fiberglas Works Triumph in Sideburn 7. Not he's building the near mythical Honda RS750 for Bubba Shobert to race at the Larry Weiss Memorial race, Harpursville, NY on June 24/25. It will be something special. G

Cobra RS750 homage

This was sent to us by former Cycle World editor, David Edwards. It's got some rake on it, but I still like it. Thanks David.

Whoa, what's this, an RS750 Honda that someone has put on the street?! Great idea. Honda's works V-Twin flat-trackers were Harley-beaters back in the 1980s. Running the same bore x stroke dimensions as Milwaukee's venerable XR-750 but with overhead cams and four valves per pot, the Honda had an edge in outright horsepower. They also hired top guns Bubba Shobert and Ricky Graham to apply that power to the track, helped by a new single-shock chassis. Starting 1984, the RS750 reeled off four straight AMA championships.

Yeah, well, looks aside, that's not this RS750. Instead, this bike started off as a stock 2010-model Honda Shadow V-Twin – also known as the RS750. The model was new to Honda's lineup this year; more standard than cruiser, and with chain final drive instead of a shaft as used by the rest of the Shadows.

In the past 15 years, fabrication ace Berg has built some 30 bikes for Cobra as rolling calling cards for the company's line of exhaust pipes, chrome and billet accessories, and fuel-injection modules. Following the fashions of the day these have tended to be low riders, choppers or bob-jobs, but with choppers in particular as stale as last week's bagels, a different direction was called for. Between its model name and its ties back to the company's 1980s glory days, an RS750 street-tracker just seemed like a natural. Besides, who doesn't like a street-tracker?

Finished in a dead-nuts replication of the factory's red-white-and-blue paint scheme, the "Bubba Bike" is a convincing imitation. Of course, Berg is an old hand at these kind of clones. In 1996 he built an Indian-inspired "Super Chief" showbike for Cobra, based on a Kawasaki Vulcan. Reaction was so strong that Kawasaki shipped the bike off to Japan, where it was transformed in the production Drifter. Here's hoping history repeats itself, huh?

Bubba Shobert's Beef Jerky

Bubba Shobert has taken over the family Beef Jerky business. Get it here.