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

Yamaha XS650 for Sale

Texas Chris Jenner is selling his street legal DTRA racer.  The bike is located in Yorkshire. £5500.
Here's the info...

1976 Yamaha XS650 Flat Tracker, Street legal, DTRA Thunderbike race bike. 
-Motor rebuilt in February, kick start only, all electric starter parts removed 
-Aluminium, box section Radian swing arm conversion 
-Frame and swing arm powder coated 
-Fibreglass tank and seat unit 
-Morad, Akront high shoulder aluminium 19 inch rims 
-Maxxis DTR-1 flat track tyres (DTRA and road legal) 
-Single wall TT style pipes 
-Custom made, solid mount, aluminium riser bushings by Survivor Customs 
-PMA Stator conversion 
-New Boyer Bransden ignition, coils, battery and regulator this summer 
-small ‘shark fin’ chain guard and lanyard kill switch (as per DTRA race regs). 
-LED taillight and headlights set in front plate. 

 Overall, it’s a super clean bike, and starts (1st or 2nd kick), runs and rides and races great. It’s fully compliant and race ready for Dirt Track Riders Association flat track racing. Just take the front brake off and the taillight/number plate (the taillight/number plate is built onto a little removable sub-frame bracket, comes off as one with 4 bolts). For the road, it’s just had its MOT in August, passed with only 1 advisory, headstock was a little loose (it's adjusted now).

Contact him through thebikeshed.cc

Yamaha XS650 Big Bore For Sale

eBay hound Kev H has found another tracker on UK eBay, this time an XS650 with a 750 big bore. At first I thought it was a race bike, but it has a front brake on the other side and those are 18in rims (with VanVan K180s). Those tyres are fine for the road and make sense. They're ok for the track, but really you want 19in with proper race rubber if you want to compete.

See it at Yamaha XS650 Street Tracker. G

Sideburn 25: Pre-Order

Sideburn has reached 25 and to celebrate we've slapped on a silver foil logo on a full-fat 116 pages.
Sideburn 25 is now available for pre-order, and will be sent out soon or close to 20 June. Anything you order at the same time as issue 25 will be sent out together on the same day.

Cover star: Mark 'The Rusty Butcher' Atkins

BIKES: Mule Triumph Bonneville; Asterisk Harley XG750; Yamaha XS650 budget desert racers; BSA B50MX short tracker; 1991 Harley Sportster Hooligan racer; One Down Four Up SR500 & DT400

EVENTS: Country Mile Race; Yorkshire Ride-Out

HOW TO: Perfect your body English with Chris Carr

PEOPLE: Matt 'Arctic Monkey' Helders; Nuke-Leah Tokelove; Hank Scott; Dimitri Coste; Rusty Butcher

PORTFOLIO: The photography of Preston Burroughs

ADVENTURE: Royal Enfield Himalayan tested in the mountains

Plus the regular blueprints, poetry, trophy queens, interviews and wonderful illustrations...

Order yours from Sideburn.bigcartel.com

 

Texas Chris Jenner

Back in May we organised a Yorkshire Ride Out with HebTroCo. Among a bunch of great bikes was a very neat very neat, street trackered XS650 built by and belonging to 'Texas' Chris Jenner and American living in the UK. Nothing particularly unusual, there were a few good looking street trackers among the mix. What was interesting was I knew Chris was heading to dirt track practice at Greenfield the next day on the very same bike.

Chris is a graduate of the University of Dirt Quake, yet another rider who has undertaken their first motorcycle race at Dirt Quake, only to be seduced by the action and atmosphere and then bought or built a bike to race more seriously.

Chris took off the front brake and light overnight in preparation for the practice. These aircooled Yamaha twins are solid machines, but it didn't stop Chris, a BMX rider, launching it off the Greenfield TT jump and even crossing it up in mid-air, looking like a 21st Century Kenny Roberts. Great photo by James Boddy.

The DTRA Greenfield TT is on this weekend. Spectator entry is free, but car parking is £5. There is a bar on site, camping, and two days of racing.
Aim for Greenfield Farm, Alford, Lincolnshire, LN13 0EB.

A report of the Yorkshire Ride-out will be in Sideburn 25, coming very soon. G

Vintage DTRA Project For Sale

UPDATE: Sold. Let's hope to someone who is going to race it.

Thanks to Kev for sending us the link to this Yamaha XS650 for sale on UK eBay. Looks like it has potential to be a Vintage DTRA race bike. It's on 19s. Buy it now for £1750.

Please note this sale is nothing to do with us and we know nothing about the history of this bike, so buyer beware. G

Death Spray XS650 on eBay

Rare opportunity to own a bike painted by Death Spray Customs. This bike featured in Sideburn 4 (a long time ago), in a different form. It's not the artist who is selling the bike.

Go to Death Spray XS650 to virtually kick its tyre.

Thanks to Tom B for the link. G

Shell Thuet

© Mike Stuhler

A lovely shot of the great Shell Thuet in 1975 at Syracuse with an XS Yamaha he'd prepped for Hank Scott. Read about Thuet's work with the 650 twins in the latest issue of Sideburn magazine, as part of the ongoing blueprints series. And see more superb Mike Stuhler photos and info at the magnificent Stu's Shots R Us. MP

Spoke And Stringer

Kristian Crews' Spoke And Stringer, one of our Bristol stockist finally has his own cafe shop after a run of pop-ups. Down on the waterfront opposite the SS Great Britain. Propper coffee, and chilies in the chocolate Brownies YUM! The pintxos tapas menu is especially impressive. BP

DTRA Round 1: This Sunday

The first round of the 2015 DTRA season is this Sunday, Leicester Speedway (head to Beaumont Leys, find the big Morrisons or use LE4 IDS, and follow your nose).

Spectators go free!

Huge Entry 
31 rookies; 24 Thunderbikes; 17 pros; 11 vintage, plus restricted (riders who are between rookie and pro), juniors and minibikes.

Here are some photos from the Scunthorpe practice eight days ago. G

My own Wood Rotax has had a refresh for 2015. New rings, new valve guides, secondhand Racefit Ti pipe. Death Spray paint! Same loose nut on the handlebars.

One of my favourite bikes in the series (except for its hideous front mudguard). Isaac's twin-cam Rotax with a liquid-cooled head. Can't remember which chassis it is, C&J I think. Imported from the US last year.

Tom, colour-coordinated. We have a handful of these Sideburn logo zip hoodies left.

John Boddy and the Triumph bitsa. Read more about this bike in Sideburn 18.

John's brother, James and his Ariel, first time out, few teething problems. I don't see it on the entry list for Leicester, but I look forward to seeing it again.

James and his XS650, straight into the Rookies.

Two of Survivor Customs crew chat with Geoff Co-Built. 32 is Murph, sitting; 35 is Mike Hill, checked shirt. Along with Ryan Quickfall they are all entering the Rookies on modified CCMs this year.
Mike did all the conversion work, making the exhausts, shortening swingers, twin shocking rear ends,  the whole shebang. Survivor Customs is based in Middlesbrough and looks like a good place to have a road bike converted into the Thunderbike. Mike is already well up to speed on his.

Mike Hill on his self-built Survivor Rotax. He had practiced at Redcar the day before, and came for another full day at Scunthorpe. Tank logo was handpainted by Ryan Quickfall. Behind is Ian Cramp on his own self-built CCM.

Happy Survivor crew heading back north.

See you at Leicester!

Peaty's Bonanza Snaps

Thanks to all those who came by the Sideburn stand to say hello last Sunday.

Kevin Radical spinning 90s classics Bently Rhythm Ace and ilk.

My show favourite, Richard Baybutt's (work-in-progress) gravity bike.

Grey skies and illness did not keep the punters away. BP

XS Stunner

Lovely Shell XS750 (not to be confused with the factory shaft-drive triple monster), Star Racer framer, built by Jim Speer. BP

Dave and Gene

Super-evocative photo. Photographer unknown.

Dave Aldana, Gene Romero and an unknown (to us) Yamaha XS jockey, lining up for the Peoria TT.
Romero running drum front brake while the privateer has a single disc and Aldana has twin.
Romero keeping faith with a Jet helmet rather than a full-face Star.
Aldana on a Trackmaster Norton (I'm pretty sure).

Thanks to Roger F for forwarding it. G

Can You Kick It?

Once upon a time I lived and slept in German army surplus boots, but these days I'm more liable to rock Birkenstocks, or sloppy Vans, mildly hip but very uncomfortable for my fragile instep when kicking a bike over (my XS in this case). A lot of greying BMXers are now (or have already) tuned to motorcycles and this is quite an overly trendy mod but I still like it.

1) select BMX pedal of preferred heritage - this GT one is rather heavy and bulky even after I drilled out the reflectors, and opened up the holes to match the other cut-outs on top.

2) prise out the plastic end cap to reveal the securing double-nut. Dissemble the pedal being careful not to loose any of the ball bearings.

3) Having cut off the end of the original kickstart with its rubber foot grip, weld the pedal bolt to the remainder. Be careful not to get any weld splatter on the bearing radius. NB if you were to weld with the pedal still complete you would fry the bearing grease and melt any plastic sealing rings.

4) Reassemble, packing your ball bearings with fresh grease. Taa-daar. BP

Kev's XS650

From long-time Sideburn supporter, Kev in Derbyshire with his neat Yam.

Just a quick message to say thank you so much for organising such a brilliant Dirt Quake. We thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait till next year, brilliant! 
And just a couple of pics of my new Yam xs650 ,love it!! Please keep up the good work and can't wait for Sideburn 18. 
Cheers p.s just doing a spot of advertising for Benchdonkees. Nice chap is Andy.

Yambits

Fannying about in the back of your car trying to assemble a new set of forks is not where you want to be on race day. The fitting of my freshly re-hardchromed 6" over XS650 chopper forks should have been a doddle. (the XS wouldn't fit in the Berlingo whole + Mrs + 2 kids, so I used the previous short set to manoeuvre the bike to the car and had not yet had the refurbished stanchions on the bike).
When my normally calm, lateral thinking engineer's brain went into melt-down, I cried out for the help of See See Thor, and then XS650 race veteran Travis (photo above). But they were as foxed as me, why the fork caps would not screw down - it's normal to to have to exert considerable pressure to engage the thread, to stop the caps becoming dangerous projectiles, but these bastids were being ridiculously stubborn.
I had replaced the rusty pipe sections that had previously been used to fill out the space above the springs, with new PVC pipe of the same length (151mm). Apart from a set of new Hagon progressive fork springs (same length as the old shot ones), nothing else had changed....

Thor and Travis were both busy preparing their own bikes - The Sideburn Enfield, and Skooter Farm Dave's GS chop, so had to dash.
Then, a guardian angle in the shape of a hairy biker, Rod, racing his even more hairy, rusty springer Triumph also in the chopper class, came to my salvation. He noticed that the spring top was slightly mushroomed where it had been cut and flattened in its manufacture. The new springs were getting caught inside the stanchions at the top, so not dropping down as low as they should.

Thank fud I had my Dremel in my tool kit, second thank fud, there was just enough beef on the minuscule disc to grind down both tops.

Fast forward a year and I haven't done anything to the bike. I knew the fork travel still wasn't good and wanted to investigate Before the big day next Saturday. So I've just rebuilt them twice more over with a few tweaks.
The old fork tops - the 3-position pre-load adjusters, were properly shagged. But not all parts for the XS are readily available. After a bit of cross-referencing I figured YZ250 caps which also have a 28mm fine-pitch thread might just marry. These repro beauties are from the very friendly and efficient Yambits in North Yorkshire.

The lower oil seal retaining rib needs to be filed down a little (it still does its job). And an Nth has to come off the top section. But it fits!

Bangtidy. BP