Hey UK, I bet you want a scarf now!

The last few, at a recession- and winter-busting special offer price of £10. Buy one before the Russians turn the gas off again.
Modelled above, by Danker of the Sang-Froid Riding Club, Portland. G

Photo: Michael Schmidt

Patch Club

I've just had the time of my life in Portland. What a place. Thanks to everyone I met out there. I'll have updates at some point. Anyway, this young fella, Thomas , came up to our stand at the One Motorcycle Show with his dad Danker (the first man in Portland to buy Sideburn, I think). Thomas got a patch and had sewn it on his jacket within 24-hours. A young man of action.
Get your own embroidered, silver-grey on black patch (for £3.50 plus post) here. G

Alley Sweeper 2012

From Danker in Portland, Oregon.

Well, you missed it and it was a good'un! Two solid weeks of rain and then the sun shone down on glorious muddy tracks. I've finally found the right right machine for the Urban Enduro. After riding smaller and smaller machines I've settled on a 1967 Honda Trail90. It has just the right amount of power and dirt cred for riding through unsuspecting people's back yards and riverside hobo encampments. Here's a vid  


It sounds like Dirt Quake is shaping up to be super sweet. We wish you guys the best of luck! Cheers, Danker, Sang-Froid Riding Club 

Gaining speed/confidence

From our friend Danker of the Sang Froid Riding Club, Oregon. What a trooper.

An update from the Pacific Northwest: Saturday was an excellent motorcycle day! A big group of us went up to Woodland, WA to race vintage motocross with the Hammer & Tongs guys. The track was awesome and the weather was perfect.
Then we all loaded up in the afternoon and drove to the Oregon State Fairgrounds for Indoor Flattrack Racing! We all ran our vintage mx bikes with knobbies, except for three friends who had raced a 100mile cross-country race in the high desert of Eastern Oregon--they ran their modern dirtbikes. Also, Travis brought out his RT360 that he's been building--hopefully he'll send you some pics soon--and beat an XR750!

Anyway, I had never done it before (except on a CT70, which kinda doesn't count) and got a slow start on the first race--but got in the groove, passed a couple of dudes and was gaining speed/confidence. UNTIL going through a corner, perhaps a little tighter than I had been, my foot hit something solid and twisted back against the footpeg of my DT250. POP! Look down and,
oh my--my boots pointing the wrong direction... Bummer, spiral fracture of the tib and a great big break on the fib.

Having never had the benefit of formal training--Chris Carr, where are you?--what was I doing wrong? Is it foot out, toes up? Toes down? The footpegs on the DT stick way out; are short pegs the way to go? I had a blast and want to run again--but definitely don't want a repeat. As I sit here eating painkillers, I'm thinking about getting one of those trophies!
Cheers, Dan

Danker!

From Travis in Portland

Here's Dan Kerr of SFRC here in Portland Oregon on his DT rockin a Sideburn sticker at the last vintage mx race!

Oregon: Where it's at

From our friend Danker in Portland, Oregon...

The Sang-Froid Riding Club is blowing-up the spring out here in the Pacific Northwest. We have a whole bunch of motorsickle stuff going on; we have our second annual Alley Sweeper 'Urban Enduro' coming up next weekend where we'll be exploring the ugly backside of gentrification as well as straight-up un-listed hobo encampments around Portland.

But the big news is SFRC is organizing and promoting a vintage dirtbike race of our own called the Old Vanport Motocross.
Vanport was once Oregon's second largest city. It was a primarily an African American Ship Builder's community from the war that was flooded out and destroyed in 1948--now Portland International Raceway is built on top of it. The race is part of a larger motorcycle extravaganza including AHRMA vintage road racing, scooter racing, stunts, trials riding etc-etc.
We're running vintage and evolution classes as well as age classes, an under 80cc class (adults only) and a run what you rode to the track license-plate and lights class. Should be sweet with most of the course over grassy natural terrain plus a couple of jumps just to keep things interesting. Should be good cheap racing and a nice contrast to high-dollar vintage racebikes flying
around the road coarse.
Thanks for doing what yer doing!
Cheers, DanKer, Sang-Froid Riding Club

Danker's Dirt Dog

Danker from Portland sends us stuff that turn into some of my favourite links. He's even got his own green label, below.
Why? He send us stuff like this video of budget vintage MX in the Pacific North West. The film was made, I think, by Thor Drake, one of the Smoking Seagulls who are about to be featured in SB5. Below is Danker's dirt dog.
Want to buy a Sideburn sticker like the one on Danker's tank for your beloved? We have red only. Click here

Woodland, Washington Vintage MX

From Danker in Portland, Oregon.

Hey Gary,
Thanks for issue #4, beautiful. You were looking for vintage MX? Just went out and did my first vintage MX today on my $75 DT250 at Woodland, Washington with the Hammer & Tongs series (great photo from their site below).
Had about 2" of rain and it was complete soup. Also it was Awesome--completely hair-ball!
I crashed in the first practice and stripped my counter-shaft in the first moto; pulled parts to get another bike going; still got a second place plaque; Result!
Patrick (of the Broken Bone Patches) rode the DT that he rode from the Portland, Oregon to Tennessee this summer (see the 555:Jackassery), to 1st place.
Lots of beautiful bikes; great racing and mud--a very good day.
Cheers, Dan, Sang Froid Riding Club

The 555: Jackassery

Remember the Alley Sweeper urban enduro up in Portland? Well Dan who told us about this got in touch to say...

Hello Gary,
I hope that all is good in ol' Blightey. I wanted to send you an up update of some jackassery that you might be interested in. I just returned from Denver, CO yesterday. I rode there on a 1974 cb200. The highest pass that we went over was 11,600 ft. (in the rain). We camped every night for free, usually off the kindness of strangers. I had to get off so that I could
resume parenting and paying the mortgage--but 9 of the core of 12 is heading on to Knoxville, TN. Should be a 3K mile plus trip when all is said and done next weekend.
The ride is called the 555, rules are:

- 1975 or older motorcycle
- Spend less than a total of $500 on the purchase, build and prep
- Total displacement of motorcycle cannot exceed 500cc
- No man left behind (even the guy on the really marginal DT)
- Stay off the freeways and keep to the backroads
- Knoxville, TN bound
The blog is here: motonw.com check it out.

Alley Sweeper Urban Enduro

Danker of the Sang-Froid Riding Club, Oregon led us to this fantastic event - the Alley Sweeper Urban Enduro. They created a route map of the overgrown alleys around Portland and rode a full day enduro. Love that idea. Everything from full-on enduro bikes to Honda Cubs took part. GI