Introducing Hubert Bastie

Joining Travis and John Harrison as new blog contributors, is Frenchman Hubert Bastie. Hubert is a nurse/paramedic, a racer, a wildman, a DTRA and Dirt Quake regular (Super Mario, Marge Simpson, Ninja Turtle), even though he lives and works in Paris, France. He loves two-strokes and competes in various different types of amateur competition, and also rides on the road. Here's what he says about a recent race...

Two month ago my old mate Oliver told me about a race close to Paris (for once) called Ultracross. A mix between motocross and supercross. He was so enthusiastic to race it because there was a Enduro class. Yeah maybe... I looked at the website. Whaaaaat! There is a Vintage Class! I filled in my entry form in one second.

- Me: Oliver, I'm gonna race with you mate!

- Oliver: Sorry, I forgot that I have a job interview this day.

- Me: Ok. I'm gonna make it on my own.

Two weeks before the Ultracross - Driiiiing driiiiing 

-Me: Hello?

-a Girl: Hello Mister Bastié?

-Me: Yes.

- the girl: I call you about the Ultracross. Unfortunately we must cancel the Vintage Class cause you are the only one to enter, so do you have a modern bike?

-Me: Yes, but I want the ride my Husky, so let me ride with the fuel-injected ones.

Racing in France is a different thing. It's all about winning and having the biggest van with the biggest trailer and the biggest tent. Unfortunately I have no tent, no trailer and a small dirty van.

Nobody cares about my bike during tech inspection because they didn't understood how fun it is to ride a vintage compared to the modern ones.

Nobody cares about me till my first race. I start dead last. By the way, it is my first start on a real motocross starting gate. But I overtake 3 or 4 guys every lap. The commentator and the crowd start to focus on me. I became the little fun thing in a too serious race. Between the races I become the crowd favourite and people queue in line to ask me what year my bike is.

I make three strong races and got the 8th place out of 22. Overall. I was damn happy, but had nobody to share my happiness. Don't mess with a vintage bike!

On the way Back home I saw the Facebook page of the event. The report shows two photos : The first is the Pro Class winner and an other of me and my Husqvarna jumping the finish line.

Strange world.

HB89

Read about Hubert's Racewear, the kit he competes in, in Sideburn 25.

250 London Range Launched

Sideburn supporter 250 London have launched their own MX clothing range. This is the story in their own words.

250London is the brainchild of menswear designer, Adam Waite. An ex-Motocross racer, Adam also owns a successful London based Menswear store www.adamwaite.co.uk, and has had a passion for Motocross since he was a kid, when he used to ride his bike around the Welsh countryside. He's always been inspired by the good old days of Nylon and Malcolm Smith and JT Racing, the scream of the 2 stroke engines and the smell of the pre-mix fuel. A time when the clothes were fitted, colours were vibrant neons and pinks, bright blues and oranges, men had mullets, trucker caps and oodles of facial hair! 

With 250London, Adam is curating a cool selection of Vintage style Motocross accessories and wares. The main objective, alongside this, was to recreate the original race gear of the 70's & 80's! Think Nylon and Airtex jerseys, using the brave and bold colours of those decades, all under the 250London brand. 

For those old guys, ex racers, and style-conscious riders, who want 'the look' without having to buy second hand kit on auction sites, we've now produced our own collection, as an alternative and something a bit more unique. 

Have a look on the 250 London STORE at our brand new range of 250London Race Tops + Pants as well as Tee Shirts and Caps.

The Generationals - Reviver

Good video, inoffensive song...
So Cal stalwarts, Zeke and Eric E feature heavily as 'stunt doubles'.

Thanks to Hell on Wheels for the tip-off. G

Motocross Action, January 1991

Coste x Monark

See this man racing at Rye House this Sunday. Free to spectate.
Here's the story behind this short film from Dimitri...

I wanted to share with you the result of a nice day of riding in Normandy back in june. I've been asked by Herve Coutin the editor of the independent magazine "Bad To The Bone" to shoot a fashion story for its latest issue. he wanted off road riding and a vintage motorcycle. 

Fabrice Bazire, let me ride his beautiful Monark 500 GP for the day, and like every time I ride this Swedish beauty I had an amazing time. Herve Coutin shot in black & white film for the 10 page story. 

The day before, I was working on the edit of a short video with the tiny amount of footage I had from my JMB photoshoot, and Julien Faucher, the editor I was working on asked me if I could call him next time i go riding because he was interested into filming motorcycling. I then realized that i had to ride the following day. 

I gave him a ride to Normandy, he shot what he could while Herve was snapping photos, and he came back to me today with this cool video. I hope you like it even if there isn't any sideways action. just casual riding in the fields of Normandy.

Japanese Kawasaki Tracker

From Martin of the Knoen Blog (who used to be in Japan, but is currently in South America)

Hey Gary, Thought you'd like this Kawasaki tracker with knobbies, not sure but I think it's a KH250, ridden this weekend at a VMX event here in Japan. 
Personally I quite like to have a front brake when I go MX riding, but I guess it adds a lot of excitement to do without! :) 
Great event btw, I've posted a bunch of pictures on my blog if you are interested.
All the best Martin

Knoen Blog

The Sideburn blog has been running since 2008 and is well over 4000 posts old. There were some good moto blogs before we started, but not tons. Then there were thousands, but recently the gadflies have flown over to facebook or instagram. We, through loyalty to and love of the blog format, have stuck with blogger, serving up at least one post every single day. So, we still love blogs and this one is a beauty, though it is very rarely updated. 

http://knoen.blogspot.co.uk - subtitled Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Time Wasted - is created by Martin P, a Swedish Sideburn reader living and working in Japan. He's employed as a designer for a major motorcycle company. He serves up event reports from classic and modern road racing and vintage scrambles. Go check it out.

And leave us a comment telling us, or reminding us, about really good blogs, please. G 

And I'm pretty sure Luigi is Martin P, the man behind the blog. Could it get any better?

Martin also designed this Bikenstein for Dirt Quake II. 

Wietstock Vintage MX

Sideburn stockist Single and Twin Motorcycles, Hamburg are involved in the organisation of this vintage motocross event. I've seen photos of the last one and it looks great.
It's 4 euro to get in.
Party on the Saturday night with a band.
The event is just outside Berlin - next weekend.
See more at the official site Wietstock Vintage MX. G

Purely Fortunate Chance

From Giuseppe in Italy.

I was in a pub in Helsinki, Finland when I found a copy of Sideburn 14, by a purely fortunate chance! It was very interesting to see the pictures of the story, "Inferno Fangoso" and I recognized immediately the track (Giavera del Montello, North East of Italy) and the time: it was April 1972. And I was there too! 
And the guy with the Maico 25cc N.5 was Alberto Angiolini, one of the best Italian motocross rider at that time. You can find attached two more pictures (black and white by my brother) of the event. 
Best regards, Giuseppe Gasparini

Husqvarna CR250 Unwrapped

Great little GIF animation from Deus of their Christmas give-away to one lucky customer. BP (Thanks to Driver Chris for re-sizing)

Yes Please

Motor Head: Behind the Scenes from Foam Magazine on Vimeo.

Fuji Rock

Evocative photos found at M&Ms Blog. Vintage scrambles and hillclimbing in Japan.
Read about the fantastic Japanese bike builder, M&M's in Sideburn 6. G

Big fins

I've been thinking a lot about twin shock scramblers lately, but I have no space in my life for another bike and I don't want to sell anything I've got. There's something about big-fin two-stroke and kerbstone-thick seats that get me going, though. Don't get me started on Scholl sandals and white socks... G
Colour photos from Derestricted. Don't know where the B&W is from. Or what model. CZ, right? The admirers look Eastern Bloc-ish, in a good way.

Telford Classic Dirt Bike Metal

Ariel Trials for real heroes
Mmmmm... Cheney TriumphCheney Yamaha
Brit engine (don't know what) in a Maico chassis.
Rudge 500 Trials, 4 valve heads, bitsa but well built, expensive at £5,000

Thanks to Simon for the photos and captions. G

TOP MEN, true heroes of international jet setting global adventurers Austin and Gerald Vince of Mondo Enduro and Terra Circa spectaculars, on display in the flesh, braving Arctic blizzard whiteout conditions besetting Telford International Centre... These chaps spreading the word about the most best value for money off-road adventure Old School Orienteering in the Pyrenees £200 take your own machine, check out AustinVince.com. Runs in June and then in Sept - the VINCE, the very interesting Navigation Challenge Event. Diamond Geezers. Simo

PS Austin should've been at Rollerburn, but got the wrong date, the dope. G

Dimitri at Catalina

OTW Collection: Dimitri Coste from Off The Wall TV on Vimeo.
A short film about the mighty Dimitri Coste racing at the Catalina GP. The Triumph in this film was featured (in an earlier guise) in Sideburn 5. Dimitri has shot a few stories for us and we have another lined up for issue 10.
The chap on the excellent black Harley JD (at 1:03) is Homer Knapp. Troy Critchlow took a wonderful set of photos of him and his bike for Sideburn 7.

And, finally, I found this video at Derestricted. G

We Love Animal Boat

Animal Boat don't make distinctions, they love all bikes. And they've been scrambling. We love Animal Boat. Read all about them in Sideburn 7. G

Catalina Race Results

Dimitri won his Premier Open Twin B Class. Felicitations!
From JC. Hilderbrand:
...."One of the most interesting racers, and certainly the best dressed, was Dimitri Coste. The Frenchman made the trek all the way from Europe to compete on his 1967 Triumph. Apparently something was lost in translation during the planning process and Coste mistakenly had a set of custom white leathers made up with the incorrect number. Considering the effort it took to get across the world for this event, race organizers gladly swapped numbers in order to ease the sting. The slender French rider overcame a few crashes, one that nearly took out two spectators, to win the Premier Open Twin B class."
Read about Dimitri and the Triumph he raced in Catalina in Sideburn 5.

The next sentence of the report then mentions another hero of ours...
"Another special rider is Homer Knapp. This grizzled motocross veteran raced a Harley-Davidson in the original Catalina GPs and he raced again today - on the same bike!" Duuuuuude. BP