Aussie Dirt Track Champ - Troy Bayliss

From Paul Dawson in Australia

Not sure if you are aware but just thought I'd take the time to inform that Troy Bayliss (#21) recently picked up his first Australian titles, Troy is obviously somewhat famous for wining 3 World Superbike championships but up until the beginning of this month he'd never won an Australian championship. 

Firstly he won 3 Australian Dirt track titles at the Old Bar track at Taree in NSW, this is the track where he grew up racing. Taree is an oil track which makes the surface more like tar, it's dirt with oil mixed in and rolled flat. He picked up the 250, 450 and Open class trophies against some of the best dirt-track racers in the country, including Ex-AMA flat-tracker Michael Kirkness. Race report here

The Following weekend he raced supermoto at the Whitsunday raceway in Queensland and came away with 2 Australian titles in the 450 (S2) and 250 (S3) class, competing against some multiple time Australian champions.

Bike Shed Show Reportage

Nice photography of the Bike Shed show here by French photographer David Marvier. BP

BMW Supermotard

This Japanese homebrew BMW (once upon a time 1990s R80GS) supermotard, found on Seb's Ze Last Chance Garage du 78 blog, is an utter friggin mess. But I Love it! I still have the 17" trolley wheels and WhitePower USD forks from my CCM which were meant to be going onto eBAy, but now I'm inspired to try and match this daftness. Looks like a BSA B50 trials tank. BP

Bicycle Motard

Overkill but I still like it.
DSC UPDATE: Photo by Motoyan in Tokyo. BP

Miss Hyde

Spaniard Osiyuyu's looney tunes 2006 KTM 950. more info at El Solitario. Fantastic photo by Kristina Fender.BP

SWM and Fantic at EICMA

The SWM Silver Track prototype flat tracker. It had the Sideburn sticker on it before I arrived.
Footpegs. Beartrap for rubber sole. Rubber peg for steel shoe.
Teeny little engine. It's a 300cc Gas Gas two-stroke.
I'd never seen this before. A log of settings on the shock's piggyback.

Below: Riccardo, the Fantic and SWM designer.
Wonderful Caballero on the Fantic stand. I'd love a Euro bike of this era. Anyone got one going cheap.

These are three detail shots (above and below) of a modern Fantic factory-supported supermoto racer. Love the detail on that brake lever. The foam behind is to stop big stones falling in the gap between lever and pedal and fouling the lever.
I'd never seen this on a modern bike, an extra brace below the quite modest bottom yoke.
On the same bike. Check this out for a front end. Tubeless spoke rims, twin discs and calipers cast into the fork bottoms.

Frisky - Amman Valley Report 5)

(sorry this one slipped through the net & should have been posted ages ago) - Happy days eh?! well the honeymoon night might be fun but I foresee high maintenance costs.
Drogo is an opportunist like the man in the photo - except he's built from pipe-cleaners:And although he mail-ordered the bride above, the one that turned up was more like this:This is of course all elaborate simile.
Drogo just needed to borrow a bike to race - his first ever, at Amman Valley. I would have liked to see him ride his pretty XS650 street tracker in anger, but understandably he didn't want to see it mullered in battle having just finished off so tidily.
Steve Red Max' supermotard converted Vertemati was available and delivered forthwith (in a torrential downpour). Saturday was rained-off and all the races squeezed into the Sunday schedule. So luckily the wet suit wasn't needed.With a conveniently placed camper van to jump off, it started without to much agro.More frisky than either of the afore mentioned two creatures, he was certainly giving himself a challenge. She didn't like sun bathing in the pits waiting to go out on track either, and overheated a little (nothing that a shot of vodka in the radiator couldn't sort out), but she did perform - and so did he. A valiant 5th (out of 9) in the novice class - and beat the dastardly Jamie. BPphoto Steven Baldock

DR650 gets Deus treatment

From Dan in Wisconsin...

First off I want to say that I dig your blog big time! It does a good job of keeping me distracted at work.
My favorites on the blog are the "readers rides" so I thought I would share my DR650's current incarnation. Just got done doing a CBR250RR wheel conversion. Also has a tail section and upsweep pipe from the lovely folks and Deus. My friends and I laugh a lot at the fact that 99% of the custom parts on the bike come from Australia. It might be cheaper if I just move there! I still have a few bugs to work out but its coming along. It's likely to never be done getting monkeyed around with!
Also heres a link to a little montage of its progression.
Killin It blog
Cheers and keep up the good work guys!!
Dan

Foggy

Carl Fogarty backs in his R30 Rotax CCM.
Nice piece written on King Carl by GI here. BP

How Low Can You Go?

Or Long?! Sadly missed a chance to practice at Rye House yesterday, but decided to have a concerted fiddle to make-up. The neglect is embarrassing (that's not rust on the chain its red clay from my last outing). Meant to give my conversion project some lovin' over the winter but it didn't happen. CCM added a long swing arm to their Supermotard to give it better road manners, but it's not ideal for hooking it up on the dirt. What's more the way the WP monoshock is mounted with a fat brace just in front of the rear tyre means this swing arm can't really be shortend.As for the ride height (ignoring the sky scraping rear sub-frame), The WP shock is 34cm between the eyes so taking it off and using a trolley-jack I lowered the bike to see what it could be dropped to. Anybody know what shorter shock might fit? At 32cm (as in the top photo) both swing-arm and engine are a similar angle of dangle to Guy's new CoBuilt - but consequently the front forks have increased rake which aint good. BP

Halbert Brothers update

Sammy Halbert (7), Jethro Halbert (69)

It's always great to hear from the Halberts. Sammy sent this...

Hi Gary,
Hope all is well with you, for an update on what I have been up to my blog can be found here.
Here are a couple cool photo's of the Halbert Bros. Racing team. I have been meaning to send you material for your blog.
Do you have any plans to come to the States anytime soon?
The top two photos are Dave Hoenig's, the one of us racing is from the Springfield mile, and the other is a podium we shared at a fair race in Decatur, IL.
It hasn't really slowed down for me yet, we had another local indoor short track this weekend then a few weeks to get ready for Vegas.
We're all digging the shirts. I know when I wear them I talk to a couple people about your blog and magazine so it should definitely be helping to raise awareness for Sideburn!
As for the Twin (Sammy is building a non-Harley twin to ensure he has the right bike for every track), I am hoping to have it ready for the Daytona Bike week races we usually do every year before the Daytona ST. The first one is usually the last day of FEB in Savannah, GA with a couple more half miles in Barberville, FL. I am sure we will be able to get you some good photos.
Take care,
Sammy

Below: Winning the Florida Supermoto Race at Tallahassee; Riding a Triumph 675 in a trackday at Jennings. Sammy's hoping to do some road racing in WERA events.

Bristol Brew

In 1988 when I did my CBT in Bristol, most of the bikers (including the instructors that taught me) were riding Suzuki "GS Thou" chops and wearing DP combat jackets and DMs. 22 years later the fashion hasn't changed much, but the bikes are more creative.1970s Triumph TR? main frame loop original oil-in-frame, but oil now stored in Moon tank. Rolling gear, swingarm, forks KTM Duke. Harley XR750 style seat hump. BP

Danuvia

Hungarian. Part supermotard, part cafe racer, part street tracker.This is the man that built it.This is the art he hangs on his wall.This is what his factory made previously.Don't fuck about on an eastern European bikers forum with Google Translate as your only friend (like we already tried), employ a native to go deep cover and find out what's what. Put the kettle on and read about it in SB#6. BP

Vintage Supermoto

From Daniel in Chicago... We like new bikes, really like them, but we love it when old bikes show them a thing or two. GI

Seeing how Ben popped the cherry on his CCM, I figured I'd share my first vintage supermoto experience.
This is my '79 XT500 street tracker that I worked on all winter here in Chicago.
It's set up for flat track but I haven't made it to an FT oval yet. Most of my buddies ride supermoto so I skipped visiting the Springfield TT and took it to an SM track day last Saturday to scrub the rubber a bit.It turned out to be a great decision - the Goodyears hooked up well and my 31-year old bike was able to keep up with some of the more modern machinery.
Next step - a dirt oval. I can't wait.
Cheers~Daniel
P.S. Here's a short vid of me following my buddy Eddie:

Saucy Bum Nice Tits

Another cute Super Motard > Street Tracker conjured up by Speed Junkies Giannis and his pencil - Death to Photoshop! BP