Trackmaster Triumph on UK eBay

Another found by eBay hound Kev H. This bike is mixed in with a number of other Brit bikes all in the same eBay listing. Below is what the advert says (thoughut I've corrected some of the typos). This sale is nothing to do with Sideburn. We don't know the seller or the bike. Buyer beware and all that.

 Triumph Trackmaster flat track racer with 500 Daytona race engine £6000. All of them need work varying degrees and parts then mot and register very easy to do we the deed of title from America and NOVA tax paid forms. Please contact me for details we are in Exeter Devon

The Real Intellectuals Flat Tracker

This gorgeous CB400-powered framer flat tracker was built by The Real Intellectuals in Greece with lots of help from Bandisca, Romania and caferacer.gr. Both The Real Intellectuals and Bandisca stock Sideburn.
See more photos and read the story over at the new Sideburn blog.

The new Sideburn blog is mirroring this one until Jan 1, 2017, then it'll take over. G

Bottpower to Race Pikes Peak with Travis

Sideburn is proud to have brokered a deal to put our staff poet, track tester and roving ambassador, Travis Newbold on  a very special version of Bottpower's XR1 to compete at Pikes Peak in 2017 (subject to entry being accepted, see below).

The Spanish company's XR1R will use an engine from the track-only Buell XBRR. Only 56 of this fully-faired, Daytona-focussed racers were built, during the time of Harley's ownership of Buell, and two have been loaned to the team by their customers. The engine will be in Bott's own titanium spine chassis. The styling of the bike will be very similar to the XR1R (above). I hope there is room for 747 on the side number plate.

The main sponsor for the Bottpower Pikes Peak project are our friends at Kriega, the British-based innovative moto-luggage firm who have advertised in Sideburn since issue 1, and who we featured in Sideburn 21.

Entries for the motorcycle and ATV classes at Pikes Peak have been slashed in recent years (perhaps as a result of two deaths in two years), so the team's official entry is being considered. Fingers crossed.

Travis has won his class in previous years and came second in 2015 on the Buell-powered Ronin. he was only beaten by an HRC-backed Honda America Fireblade.

You can read more about Pikes Peak in a story written by Guy Martin in Sideburn 18. We only have two of these issues left.

Keep up with the Bottpower Pike Peak project at the Bottpower blog. G

The Stansfield Effect

The latest instalment from Sideburn ambassador, John Harrison.

I first encountered Sideburn mate and perennial Dirt Quaker Pete Stansfield at the 2011 Hotrod Hayride, where he had ventured south to run his Triumph sprint/drag bike at the 1/8th mile Detonator Drags at Dunsfold in Surrey. He told me it was the first time the bike had been out since 1972.

I was racing my Harley 45 and drew Pete in my first race. Needless to say, he had blasted across the finish line before I completed my first (hand) gear change. The pic shows him warming the motor prior to changing to race plugs. I think he was running on methanol. I remember being impressed by his bib 'n' brace leathers and suffering severe tyre envy over that historic M&H slick. Yes that is a Dakota in the background and yes, the legend is true, it did race down the runway against Chief Detonator Langley Gifford in his 1940s period-correct '32 Roadster Hotrod, which was a lump-in-the-throat sight as they both thundered away into the late afternoon sun before the Dakota lifted off and banked hard right. Could it be the same plane that overflew Dirt Quake IV?

Pete also brought his sweet, hardtail pre-unit when it was in reverse-head incarnation. It has since seen Dirt Quake action, though in a different guise.

He raced Dirt Quake this year on a bone stock, low-mileage CCM flat tracker in the Street Scrambler class (I thought the stars on my leathers were neat, but Pete's were big 'n' GOLD)...

...while his daughter, Ellis, raced his stock ('cept for whitewall tyres) Suzuki B120 Loanaladyaracer.

Joe Motocross Hits The Spot

We had no idea that Snoopy/Joe Motocross would strike such a chord with people, but we've had loads of great feedback. One of my favourite responses is from Bob Metz, in Minnesota.

It's been a while. After seeing Snoopy I just had to send a pic. Shortly after stuffing my 750 Triumph Trackmaster through the fence my daughter colored this picture! It was 1978. It has hung on the wall of my shop since. 
Until later, John Metz

Sideburn 27 includes a feature written by Russ Gater of clothing brand TSPTR. Russ discusses the impact of Peanuts on the morale of US troops in Vietnam, on equal rights for women and on the popularisation of motocross and minibike racing across the US. It's fascinating.

Reader Harley R, in the Isle of Man, loved the feature and wrote this...

Thanks Guys, that really was a great read! 

I found the Charlie Brown/ Joe Motocross piece particularly interesting as Peanuts was an integral part of my formative years and its increasing political awareness mirrored my own first steps into the big, bad world. I was too young to appreciate all the Vietnam/ WW1 parallels (living in the wrong country probably didn’t help) but those increasingly cynical/ surreal cartoons, and my parents’ increasing dislike for what had once been a “fun” daily strip, made a huge impact on me. Nearly fifty years later I can still remember every word from those comics – I just have to see the first frame and my memory fills in the rest. 
Thanks again. Harley

See for yourself what all the fuss is about BUY SIDEBURN 27. G

The Desert of Death

If you're going to pedal 330 miles through the Taklaman Desert, known by the locals as the Desert of Death, without stopping for more than a pee and the odd snack, on a single speed, you might as well do it in a Dirt Quake T-shirt, right? Cheers Guy.

Free post on Dirt Quake shirts. Limited sizes. While stocks last. Get yours HERE.

We have a couple left in kids sizes too.

Watch the three-part Our Guy In China on 4OD (if you're in the UK).

Fixing Flat Track: The Michael Lock Interview

Sideburn’s editor, Gary Inman, interviewed Michael Lock, the CEO of American Flat Track, about his plans for fixing pro flat track. The interview lasted nearly 90 minutes, and was way too long to fit in Sideburn 27, but what was left over was too good to leave on the shelf, so we decided to publish the full thing on our new website - www.sideburnmagazine.com. It will be of interest to anyone with a love of, or investment in, flat track.

There is the opportunity to leave a comment below. We're looking forward to hearing what you think.

Hot Wheels Road Trip

So good.
Spotted on Church of Choppers.

Don Galloway Is Faster Than You*

I met Canadian Don Galloway when I was banging bars with him at Santa Rosa while we were racing Roland Sands' Indian Scout Superhooligans.

Dan was also racing his neat 'little' Panther Honda (not this one, another one...). I'd noticed him the night before kicking everyone's ass. I was so impressed and intrigued by his bike I had Preston Burroughs shoot it there and then for Sideburn 27.

Not too long after that race, Don competed in Florida and Georgia (he lives in Canada, remember, 6.5 hours drive north of the US border) and cleared up. Read about him and his giant-killing, big-bore Honda XL350 in Sideburn 27.

This is what happens when another rider's foot peg gets in your front spokes.

The amount of fuel an XL480 consumes in 4 laps of a 1/2 mile. 

 * probably

Help Hubert Win!

Sideburn ambassador and Dirt Quake hero, Hubert Bastie has been included in a photo comp run by 100% goggles, with this photo.

Perhaps you're sick of being asked to vote for strangely-coloured people, but if you're on facebook, please give him your support. Not sure what he'll win, but he doesn't win very often so it would be appreciated.

Here's the link. G