Sideburn 32 - OUT NOW

Sideburn 32 is the greatest issue of Sideburn ever created. A thudding wodge of motorcycle stimulation and illumination that crackles with fun and good ideas.

It's perhaps our most diverse issue ever. Obviously the 116 pages of thick, gloss paper is crammed with motorcycles, but they range from pro flat tracker, through backwoods backflip 450s and ice racing Yamaha XSR900s to heavyweight street trackers, plus a dose of long distance adventure touring on dinky 125s in a FREE 16-page supplement created in conjunction with Tom Bing. There's also art, architecture, poetry and racing advice. We couldn't pack another atom of goodness into it.

COVER: Yamaha XS650 Framer with Lucia Aucott

BIKES: Yamaha XS650 Framer; See See Harley-Davidson XL1200 Roadster Street Tracker; OMT Garage Yamaha XSR900 SnowQuake racer; BSA Hornet; Honda CRF450 hillclimber; Honda 650 sand racer 

PEOPLE: Jeffrey Carver; Oliver Brindley; Lucia Aucott; Skip Aksland; Lynn Griffis

HOW TO: Win a Hooligan Championship

PORTFOLIO: The art of Sami Graystone

MOVIE: Akira

SHOP: Deus Ex Machina, Milan

EVENTS: Nine Years of Portland One Moto Show; Travis at the Land’s End Hillclimb

ADVENTURE: LA-Barstow-Vegas on classic Brits; Chile to San Francisco surf safari on Honda XR150s

PAGES: 116 + 16-page supplement

Charlotte Half-Mile: Tomorrow

I'm pretty busy, so this is taken straight from the press release. Watch the race for free on fanschoice.tv . Chris Carr is part of the commentary team and he's always good value for money...

Last year's Charlotte Half-Mile winner, Bryan Smith, pilot of the No. 42 Crosley Radio Kawasaki Ninja 650, heads into this year's event with a 13-point lead in the GNC1 point standings. Smith ripped off three consecutive wins in the month of May and is well within striking distance of capturing his first GNC1 championship. The Michigan native finished fourth in the Round 8 contest at Lima, which was impressive considering his strength is typically reserved for Mile circuits. If Smith wants to earn his first championship, he's going to need to continue to find success on the shorter courses, as only two of the remaining six races in 2016 are Miles.

Another hurdle that Smith is going to need to overcome goes by the name Jared Mees. X Games Gold Medalist Mees stole the X Games crown from Smith this year, and aims to recoup from last year's mechanical issue at Charlotte to take the crown in North Carolina too. Mees is the reigning GNC1 champion and has won the ultimate title three of the last four years. Sitting just 13 points back of Smith in the standings, and entering Charlotte fresh off three-straight races where he finished second or better, Mees has proven that he's more than capable of running Smith down and capturing his fourth GNC1 championship in the last half decade. The No. 1 Las Vegas Harley-Davidson XR750 pilot was poised to earn the Charlotte Half-Mile win a year ago before a bike malfunction on the last lap of the main event forced him from the race and gave Smith the victory.

 Entering Charlotte third in the point standings is Sammy Halbert, who is changing teams mid-season and arrives at Charlotte as the rider of the No. 69 Wiebler's Harley-Davidson. Halbert is coming off his worst performance of the season, 13th at the previous round in Lima and is aggressively looking to get back to the front this weekend. Replacing Halbert on the No. 23 BriggsAuto.com Harley-Davidson is Jeffrey Carver, Jr.