Sideburn 34: Out Now

We venture into the deserts of California, Mexico and South Africa to test the mettle of our contributors. Old bikes are ridden not hidden, and inappropriate machinery is raced through 1000 miles of wilderness  proving the adage that it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

SB34 also features McQueen's very own Huskie; a new regular column from Death Spray Custom, an interview with the toughest woman in flat track; follows a group of female high school students building a budget race bike and serves up an LSD-fueled report from Wheels and Waves El Rollo race. Yes, really.

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COVER: Hayden Roberts and his Triumph TR6 desert sled
BIKES: Triumph TR6 desert sled; Harley Sportster 883 Baja racer; Steve McQueen's On Any Sunday Husqvarna 400 Cross; High School project Honda CB160 flat tracker; Survivor Customs CCM Rotax racers;
PEOPLE: Sandriana Shipman; John Harrison; Chuck Joyner
INTERVIEW: Johnny Lewis
HOW TO: Build Your Own Flat Track
BLUEPRINT: Jawa 500 DT Type 890
SHOP: Rebels Alliance
EVENTS: X Games; Wheels and Waves; Sons of Speed banked oval racing; Vancouver Flat Track, Pemberton, BC;
ADVENTURE: 1000 miles through Baja on a Sportster; deep into South Africa on Royal Enfield 500s;
PAGES: 116

BUY SIDEBURN 34

BUY SIDEBURN 34

X Games Flat Track Main

Flat track (sponsored and facilitated by Harley-Davidson) was the opening sport of last week's X Games in Austin, Texas. If you don't know much about the X Games, it is  extreme sports Olympics, a made for TV spectacular and hugely popular.
Motorcycles are often featured, but normally supercross, freestyle and step-up (high jump for 450s). This is a first for flat track and is, I've heard, a four-year deal. I was in Sacramento at the GNC race a few days before the X Games and the whole of the sport was very excited about the opportunity.
The track was built for the event, as rough as a rhino's rump, and about 3/8 of a mile in length. Heavy rains the week before was blamed for the track's poor condition.
The start used an MX-style dropping metal gate, like the Superprestigio does. The heavy twins didn't seem to like it.
One of the most impressive things from a spectating amateur racer's point of view (mine) was how quickly fallen riders got off the track. It was as if a sniper was in the crowd and the TV producers told the riders that if they held up the banjo-string-tight TV schedule they'd get a dum-dum in the back of the head.

There was just one class of invited riders, 24 pros (including Daytona 200 winner, Danny Eslick), trying to qualify for a 12-rider main. This video the main and there are very few surprises in the line-up - this is the line-up, by the way, not the result.

Jared Mees             HD
Kenny Coolbeth     HD
Bryan Smith           Kaw
Mikey Martin         Tri
Johnny Lewis         Duc
Sammy Halbert      Kaw
Briar Bauman         Kaw
Brad Baker             HD
Jake Johnson          HD
Doug Lawrence      HD
Brandon Robinson  Tri
Mick Kirkness        HD

Enjoy the 20-lapper. Make sure you watch right to the flag... G

Flat Track at the X Games TONIGHT

Many of the top GNC riders, and a few crossover guests, like current road racer and two-time Daytona 200 winner Danny Eslick, will contest the first ever X Games flat track race in Austin, Texas tonight. 24 riders are aiming to qualify for a 12-rider main.

Riders will start from a motocross-style gate (like at the Superprestigio) on a track built at the Circuit of the Americas. We spoke to Sammy Halbert at the weekend and he said he had been told it's a 3/8-mile, and when he saw an overhead photo he thought it had very tight corners.

The whole of US dirt track is buzzing about this opportunity to put their sport and skills in front of a major TV audience. For those who don't know, X Games is the Olympic games of extreme sports and is run by the TV network ESPN. It is a made for TV sporting event and serves up some incredible moments.


But while this is a fantastic opportunity, it has given some people the opportunity to be negative about the AMA and what they're doing for the sport. I interview quite a lot of the pro racers and all of them want pro flat track to be on TV. That's obvious. who wouldn't? But some race fans are bashing the AMA for not having the sport on TV on a race-by-race basis. I was included in a reply to an email reminding people the X Games was on that said:

'Great for flat track. It just shows how far AMA has fallen down that they can't get decent TV exposure for anything but arenacross. So many good races are never seen anymore.'

It struck me as quite a blinkered view, so I wrote this reply and thought I'd share it here.

Every sport in the world thinks it deserves to be on TV, but it's not an easy deal to pull off. 
This doesn't prove the AMA has fallen down at all, in my opinion. The truth is flat track is a niche within the already minority sport of motorcycle racing. 

Try writing a pitch to a TV executive on how you'd sell dirt track to their TV company. It's not easy. It's not a world championship. It's contested by bikes that don't relate to street bikes. It has little manufacturer support (except Harley). It is slower than superbikes or GPs. It is less exciting, to a couch potato, than a flying 450 at a supercross event. To non-aficianados it doesn't have a lot going for it. 

The X Games deal is a lot easier, because
A: The sport hasn't been on TV for years, so it's a novelty.

B: Harley Davidson have thrown their weight behind it, to try sell bikes to a new audience. 

C: The X Games needs to reinvent itself every few years. They experimented with Supermoto a few years ago. It didn't save that sport. 

D: Street motorcycles are gaining popularity with the opinion-formers of the X Games generation (the hip crowd). Flat trackers can crossover with this crowd. 

E: The sport is blue collar and 'extreme' like the street sports X Games is built on. 

F: It's a one-off annual event, so no one has to wonder if an audience would follow a whole season of the sport. It'll be wild for one night, then the masses will move on. Hopefully a few people will fall in love with the sport and start following it on fanschoice.tv or at their local GNC race. 

I'm not saying the AMA are doing a good or bad job with regard to TV, but just because someone is putting the sport on TV for one night a year doesn't mean someone is doing a terrible job, because they don't have the whole season televised. 

American viewers can watch Harley-Davidson Flat Track Racing on ESPN's live coverage of the X Games on Thursday, June 4 at 8:30 p.m. ET (5:30 p.m. PT).

British viewers with ESPN or BT Sport packages can see it from, I think, 12.30 to 2.30am in the early hours of Friday morning. G

Harley 750 Street + Vance & Hines = X Games Flat Track?

This is exciting on a couple of levels. Harley are pushing both their new, entry-level Street 750 (built, at least in part, in their new Indian factory) and also putting flat track in front of a new audience, while commissioning a handsome race bike from one of the most respected tuning houses in the USA.

1. Harley are really pushing to get flat track included in X Games (the Olympics of extreme sports). Having rally involved didn't do a lot of the WRC, but it couldn't help but raise profile, attract sponsors and pay some of the riders a little more. It would be a great spectacle too.
I'm sure supermoto was involved a few years ago and it didn't help that sport in the long-term, but flat track has more history, is more American, is due a comeback. It feels like the right time.

2. These bikes aren't XR750s, they're flat track versions of the new liquid-cooled 750 Street. The bikes were prepped by long-established, multi-faceted tuning house and race team (drag, road, whatever) - Vance & Hines.
Only the engine remains, but that doesn't mean a bike with a similar look couldn't be created further down the line. Certain sections look like the XR1200R (a bike I thought was a massive missed opportunity). XR750R anyone?
There is a current XR750 in one of these photos and it doesn't jump out. Vance & Hines have done a great job with this concept. G

This is the 750 Street 750 in the foreground (looking like a cross between an XLCR, a V-Rod and a 2014 'club' bike).