Sang Froid Go To Salem

This came in from Patrick, of the Sang-Froid Riding Club in Portland, a few weeks ago. Patrick makes the Broken Bone patch we sell...

Travis, Andrew and I loaded up the van in the snow on Sunday, headed south to Salem on Sunday morning. The 45-mile drive took a couple of hours in the snow. Figured we'd be sliding all day so why not on the way down, too? 

We road race at OMRRA with Andy DiBrino (below), he's a young go-faster with a number of class championships already under his belt. Andy's recently started flattracking, and doing well. Andy decided to teach a flat track school so we signed up. Run-what-you-brung, there were eight of us on-track, a mix of supermotos, proper flat-trackers, minibikes, and knobbied motocrossers. 

Rode all day at Salem's small track, working on line selection, starts, head position, and more. Andy did a great job and we are hoping to get back down there soon. Had a blast for just a few bucks, and enjoyed watching Brad Baker and Sammy Halbert, who were alternating on-track sessions with us. 

Some photos from Thomas Tran, Keith DiBrino and us. Hope all is well on your end! 
Patrick

Remember, if you want to try flat track without all the expense of buying a race bike, you can compete at Dirt Quake in the UK or USA this summer. G

Austin Vince in Portland!

Portland continues to prove to the world it is the greatest motorcycling city on earth.
This week our good friends at the Sang Froid Riding Club have arranged for Austin Vince to visit Portland to premiere his new film, Mondo Sahara. This Thursday!
It has special resonance, because two of the riders on the adventure were from the Oregon city.
It's only $5 to get in. You'd be as dumb as a rock-eating dog not to get along if you're in the vicinity. G

Sang-Froid Goldrush Ride in Eastern Oregon

An update from the mighty Sang-Froid Riding Club of Portland, Oregon. I had the pleasure of riding (and sinking a few) with these fellas back in February. It was the best Sunday's ride I've ever had, I think.

We missed you guys last weekend on our Goldrush ride to the twisty and car-less (not to mention cop-less) roads of Eastern Oregon. With the hope of tempting you to join next year.

That fine-looking TT [with twin lights, above) belongs to club member Travis Gardner. Would you believe we once used it to power a makeshift ski lift?  
Best, Courtney
Sang-Froid Riding Club

Portland in Rolling Stone, Italy

There's my and Micheal Schmidt's story on the Portland bike scene in this month's Rolling Stone Italia, on sale for the next few days. It features great people I met out there in like the SeeSee crew, Casey from G&H, Dirty Adam, everyone at Icon, Ginger at New Church Moto, the Sang Froid Riding Club, Bill from Canada, Norm Motorcycho... It's in the issue with the cartoon Ozzy on the cover. G

Hey UK, I bet you want a scarf now!

The last few, at a recession- and winter-busting special offer price of £10. Buy one before the Russians turn the gas off again.
Modelled above, by Danker of the Sang-Froid Riding Club, Portland. G

Photo: Michael Schmidt

Patrick's SacMile Road Trip

This is a short report from Patrick of the Sang Froid Riding Club on his trip from Portland to Sacramento for the GNC Mile race earlier this year. Patrick makes the Broke Bone patches we sell.

I just realized I never got back to you about the Sacramento Mile. That Mile was some of the best motorcycle racing I've ever seen, for a number of reasons. An extra $50 or so (not much) lets you go anywhere on the infield; you can stand at the entrance of turn one when the freight train roars by, get blasted with a mixture of dirt, rubber, and race fuel. 

The crowd was enthusiastic and the stands keep them grouped close, which amplifies the excitement. The last couple laps of the Expert main I was up in the stands, and we were on our feet, everyone cheering like crazy. Great stuff. The Pro main, where Shanya Texter won, was equally as impressive.

The pits are open too (all day if you have a pit pass, after the races otherwise), so you can walk up and shoot the bull with the tuners and riders. 

The track's also open for walking, both before and after the races. So in a nutshell - an absolute blast, I'd go to another in a heartbeat.

The ride down was outstanding too, the RC51 ran like a top and returned with a knackered rear tire - perfect excuse for big burnouts at the local bar at homecoming.

Below, The Broke Bone patch. The idea is you sew it on your riding kit where you've broken a bone in an accident. It's a badge of honour. Evel cleared us out, a while back, but we've restocked.

Oregon Got it Going On

The more I hear about Portland, Oregon, the more I want to visit the place. Travis from the Sang Froid Riding Club got in touch with this update...

Not sure if Danker hit you up yet but here's the flyer for the next Alley Sweeper urban enduro! Should be pretty fun and muddy.
Also heres a link to my good friend Brent Wick's website. He's the one that has done the One Motorcycle Show artwork for See See and other SFRC rides. The homepage drawing is the 360 Yamaha I just finished.

Keep her sideways! T

Buy Brent's artwork

Gaining speed/confidence

From our friend Danker of the Sang Froid Riding Club, Oregon. What a trooper.

An update from the Pacific Northwest: Saturday was an excellent motorcycle day! A big group of us went up to Woodland, WA to race vintage motocross with the Hammer & Tongs guys. The track was awesome and the weather was perfect.
Then we all loaded up in the afternoon and drove to the Oregon State Fairgrounds for Indoor Flattrack Racing! We all ran our vintage mx bikes with knobbies, except for three friends who had raced a 100mile cross-country race in the high desert of Eastern Oregon--they ran their modern dirtbikes. Also, Travis brought out his RT360 that he's been building--hopefully he'll send you some pics soon--and beat an XR750!

Anyway, I had never done it before (except on a CT70, which kinda doesn't count) and got a slow start on the first race--but got in the groove, passed a couple of dudes and was gaining speed/confidence. UNTIL going through a corner, perhaps a little tighter than I had been, my foot hit something solid and twisted back against the footpeg of my DT250. POP! Look down and,
oh my--my boots pointing the wrong direction... Bummer, spiral fracture of the tib and a great big break on the fib.

Having never had the benefit of formal training--Chris Carr, where are you?--what was I doing wrong? Is it foot out, toes up? Toes down? The footpegs on the DT stick way out; are short pegs the way to go? I had a blast and want to run again--but definitely don't want a repeat. As I sit here eating painkillers, I'm thinking about getting one of those trophies!
Cheers, Dan

Oregon: Where it's at

From our friend Danker in Portland, Oregon...

The Sang-Froid Riding Club is blowing-up the spring out here in the Pacific Northwest. We have a whole bunch of motorsickle stuff going on; we have our second annual Alley Sweeper 'Urban Enduro' coming up next weekend where we'll be exploring the ugly backside of gentrification as well as straight-up un-listed hobo encampments around Portland.

But the big news is SFRC is organizing and promoting a vintage dirtbike race of our own called the Old Vanport Motocross.
Vanport was once Oregon's second largest city. It was a primarily an African American Ship Builder's community from the war that was flooded out and destroyed in 1948--now Portland International Raceway is built on top of it. The race is part of a larger motorcycle extravaganza including AHRMA vintage road racing, scooter racing, stunts, trials riding etc-etc.
We're running vintage and evolution classes as well as age classes, an under 80cc class (adults only) and a run what you rode to the track license-plate and lights class. Should be sweet with most of the course over grassy natural terrain plus a couple of jumps just to keep things interesting. Should be good cheap racing and a nice contrast to high-dollar vintage racebikes flying
around the road coarse.
Thanks for doing what yer doing!
Cheers, DanKer, Sang-Froid Riding Club

Woodland, Washington Vintage MX

From Danker in Portland, Oregon.

Hey Gary,
Thanks for issue #4, beautiful. You were looking for vintage MX? Just went out and did my first vintage MX today on my $75 DT250 at Woodland, Washington with the Hammer & Tongs series (great photo from their site below).
Had about 2" of rain and it was complete soup. Also it was Awesome--completely hair-ball!
I crashed in the first practice and stripped my counter-shaft in the first moto; pulled parts to get another bike going; still got a second place plaque; Result!
Patrick (of the Broken Bone Patches) rode the DT that he rode from the Portland, Oregon to Tennessee this summer (see the 555:Jackassery), to 1st place.
Lots of beautiful bikes; great racing and mud--a very good day.
Cheers, Dan, Sang Froid Riding Club

Alley Sweeper Urban Enduro

Danker of the Sang-Froid Riding Club, Oregon led us to this fantastic event - the Alley Sweeper Urban Enduro. They created a route map of the overgrown alleys around Portland and rode a full day enduro. Love that idea. Everything from full-on enduro bikes to Honda Cubs took part. GI