british sidecarcross champs 2009 - and more!

i hope to travel down to talsarn lampeter tomorrow and watch the opening round of the british sidecarcross championships. i may take in a couple more meetings but i look forwards with excitement to seeing husabergs again at the front.

for those that didn't see it, i watched the final round of thew championships last september near me here at diss, norfolk.

let's see what happens. i know that the millards are out again on a husaberg while the defending champion stuart brown will also be back out on the JBSracing tuned 700 to defend their title.

anyone going to any meeting i mention - please PM me or call 0795 1010 542.

regards

Taffy

oh boy! what a day!

we're not talking texas here dudes! i awoke at 5am and loaded the bike and had my sarnie's ready so off we jolly well went. i took three hours to gewt to worcester where i met benmoto501 and gave him his bike and received a 400 before i travelled on to darkest wales.

as the roads got more windy, the traffic got slower: i got more frystrated! i ended up driving the car in a rally driver style and could here the co-drivers words ringing in my ears: "left 5, tightens, don't cut, right 4 open into left 3 double....."

it even hailed as i got nearer and i nearly lost the car on the marbles and had to knock it right off, all along i had the dong, dong, dong of an empty trailer doing my head in!

i then took a one-mile single track road down to the circuit and paid a paltry £3 to stand the car in a mudfest! i mean 6" of mud was strewn everywhere and what i didn't know was that once i entered with my 2wd car i couldn't leave the road, so i went on deeper, and deeper, and deeper until came up to the back of the grid for the MX race happening next. oh dear! i think i'mgoing to get covered in a shower of sh... here!

so i whipped the trailer off and around sharpish before i crossed fingers and whipped the car around in the mud.

made it!

trailer re-hitched i parked just inside the gate and then took my life in my hands as i puddle jumped and worked my way through the outfits. i came acropss the millard team with their two immaculately prepared outfits and had a word. seemed that the hill was so steep and muddy in the first event (which i had just missed) that the track was blocked. this would have been fine in enduro world as we all have to cheat to keep going.

but they had all had a big row over it! oh dear! seconds later a rider came over to say that the meeting was cancelled and that the results of the first race would stand. these positions are to give everyone there staring positions in the next round. the millrads came some 17/20 with a missfire unfortunately.

stuart brown won on the husaberg and was by all accounts flying!. BB tells me that it's a relatively std motor that has some of his safety features in it to make it reliable. if this is true then the idea will be to thrash a safe but reliable standard motor i would think this season (we're talking 650 i think).

anyway, to me it now seems absurd that the first and second best outits run husaberg but nobody else is?

their loss right?

anyway, after much testing during which the millards have been sur la continenet, they reckon they're ready to go!

the next round is in 13 days.

anyway, as soon as the meeting was called off i met stuart for a quick word and then legged it so as not to get stuck behind any heavy duty trucks etc.

the 5 hour drive home went on forever, i had left in twighlight and come home in it. shatterd and with 540 miles under my belt!

regards

Taffy

regards

Taffy

http://picasaweb.google.com/Jonathonpan ... ossRound1#

there is an amazing photo here of three outfits going the wrong way on the track with stu brown bombing up the hill the RIGHT way!

also if you look in the first photo in this link it shows the millard outfit (No. 2) going over! husabergs aren't meant to work here!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ChrisHelm ... nPics2009#

regards

Taffy

stephan said:

Hi Taffy,

I had a look at the pictures (via www.sidecarcross.com) and it was very bad looking in Wales. We had 2 races last year in exactly the same circumstances, nobody can change the weather. We got stuck two times at an uphill and had to push the bike downwards, it didn't even roll anymore of it's own! Just nose deep in the mud with your clean outfit and a lot of work after the event. :moan:
Traveling to an event that long and arriving very late only to hear that the second heat has been canceled is really frustrating. The good part is that more races will follow, you'll have a second change.
At www.sidecarcross.com is a VMC-Husaberg outfit for sale. :wink:

Cheers,
Stephan

Click to expand...

yeh! and what are you looking at me like that for?!?!

is that what you fancy?

regards

Taffy

ok off to swanley in kent for the 2nd round in the morning. will see how the top two outfits get on in stuart brown and the millard bros.

regards

Taffy

hey what a great day at a brilliant track! after talsarn and trhe chaos of south wales a month ago, today we had beautiful sunshine and 3/3 husaberg wins again!

stuart brown was dominant in all three events which were 20 mins plus a lap. in the first he was through after half a lap from john lynn who was CCM mounted. he won by some 30-40 seconds and with ease. in this race the millards appeared to stall out of second and let lynn back by and they never competed again. also on a borrowed millard outfit was #5 mark fishe. he was running 5th or so but suddenly the bike halted with something not nice iin the bottom end going.

in the second event brown took a lap before getting past lynn and disappeared again. millard was all over lynn but pulled back for an easy third. fishe went back to his XR650 based motor (taken to 700) and afterwards i asked him what he thought of the two and the 580KTM ihe ran as a 600 last season. " the KTM was quick, the hoda has masses of bottom end but falls into all the ruts due to the weight of the engine, the husaberg has good top end".

the last one was a cracker though with the millards baulking brown into the hairpin bend at the top of the hill, brown left the first corner in sixth and along with millard moved through to 3rd and 4th before millard stalled and brown went through. lynn had got away but brown was like a cat playing with a mouse. e-a-s-y!!!

meanwhile millard went mental and went from 19th to 3rd with a brilliant drive!

so that means that brown has won all 4 races held in this 2009 season. husabergs reign supreme!

millard is lucky though that the engine in his second outfit went for another rider and not for himself.

they are at frome in somerset this coming easter sunday at a place named asham wood.

regards

Taffy

ok just an update

last weekend stuart brown won all three races on his 700 husaberg at frome, somerset. i wasn't there so it's a case of reading the results. the millards, had a roll and got baulked for a poor race 1 result while race 2 brought them side-by-side with john lynn but alas they couldn't get by again. race three saw them fall and rollover at the first corner where another certain husaberg outfit duly rode over the rider as he lay there!

the second outfit that the millards had been using and belongs to team sponsor chris was loaned out last week to mark kinge as previously mentioned. mark ran to 5th in the british title results last year on a 580 katuumm and started this year with a not so quick honda XR650. after a broken engine last week, this week he eventually pulled through on the berkshire cycles 628husaberg to 4th in his third ride.

after the engine was put back in it ran fluffy at the bottom and as a last resort they tried a certain wizard tuners carb and apparently it was so quick that he got the holeshot and when side-by-side with john lynn = blasted him on the 80M straight.

suddenly, the meister is a teeny bit in demand and it appears a team sponsor to possibly both teams! so another kit has been dispatched to the kinge team in anticipation of it breathing permanent life into the kinge motor!

so now we have three husaberg outfits out there being ridden by britian's 1st, 2nd and 5th best outfits.

more great results must surely follow! brown has now won the last two races of last season (after his chain snapped with a handsome lead in the first race of that day) the first 7 of this season. the man rocks FFS!!!!

interesting notes about the brown outfit?
well, it sounds deep and heavy! so i think that yes, it's a 700 but its also something else like a cam maybe?

visually, the ignition cover has two breathers from it to keep the ignition bits cool.

then we have the radiators - he has three with two Katoom style down the frame tube and one in the outfit.

finally, he has an oil cooler that is like a finned tube - very different.

one would gather that the ethos here is to make the outfit super reliable and wait for the others to catch them up. in the mean time perhaps there is development but maybe in another engine. the championship is going back to macclesfield already!

i have a sidecar outfit in the workshop and i'm doing a copy of my carb: 42mm, air horn with belmouth inside, with pipercross filter, then my jetting kit. i don't think the owner has any idea what he's going to get!

regards

Taffy

photos are courtesy of [email protected] so thanks!

this is browny p****ing off again on the JBSracing husaberg 628 (yeh right!)
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sixfourph ... 6044891282

this is marke kinge on his unfamiliar husaberg 628. bog stock except a jetting kit.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sixfourph ... 5848317858

stuart brown, der meister, seen here on the left of centre:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sixfourph ... 0538779842

the millards;
note the strange way the wheels appear to be underneath the outfit!
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sixfourph ... 0046459362

there are some brill photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Jonathonpan ... ossRound3#

regards

Taffmeister

the UK off-road scene is split into two governing bodies: the larger 'ACU' and the smaller 'AMCA'. so today i went to airfield farm, market harborough to watch round 2 of the AMCA championships. a mere 60 mles for me compared to the other trips i do it was a snitch and an ideal opportunity to see this whoop of gori....i mean a whoop of sidecar racers!

i arrived at the perfect moment to watch the first of three heats and as it transpired i'd watched #3 jamie stevens and scott grahame ('06 628) chase the katoom of #100 simon bradford and the pair were being hauled in by steven france and lee machin ('04 644). steven caught and overtook #3 and then chased #100 bradford and was all over him like a badly fitting coat but came second with stevens third.


ed & chris turner (37 - husey 628), jamie stevens & scott grahame (3 - husey 628), 6 - the soon to crash tony grahame (honglo), 100 - simon bradford 580 katoom, 101 - stuart lines 580 katoom (3 x 4ths), steve france (der pie eater) & lee machin(2 - 644 husey). these were the 6 top outfits of the 3rd and last race

it was clear that france loved lugging the old 644 whereas everyone bar none was revving theirs! (katooms and all) his broadslide style was superb and a joy to watch. defo the rider of the day and just think how good he could be if he didn't eat ALL THE PIES!

a trip into the paddock to say "hello" whilst holding the programme brought me upon 5 outfits eventually, but before that i had a look around one of the 580 katooms that came 1-2-1 and 4-4-4. and so then i then met husey mounted jason turner (#37) who has started running a 628 this season, new chassis, 2008 engine, his 1st and 2nd race results were 10th whilst later after a superb ride he got a 5th - quite an effort!

next to him was the aforementioned steve france. steve is a "rit ol nurtherner!" he'd heard of me through steve bann who lives around the corner from him in glossop. they run just one old 2004 engine and can't save their pennies quick enough. if i backed anyone, the glossop pie eater would be my man! again a first season 4T rider and had his 2T sat next to him "just in case!" - no faith these guys, reputation, reputation!

next, was jamie stevens team (#3) and they are in their 2nd or 3rd season of husa-heaven! both he and steve talked of problems they have had to go through regards reliability.


tony grahame (6 japanese thing) being tilted over by the eventual winner simon bradford(100 - 580 katoom) while steve france/lee machin (2) and jamie stevens/scott grahame(3) on husabergs get clean away!

so far though everyone thought that the husaberg engine was the biz and unreliability wasn't an issue rather that that would be a suprise not an expectation!

i then met stephen griffiths (#7) again after the second race. earlier i'd offered jetting advice and he was to have a 15th and 13th initially. stalling and poor starting for 15th, i watched the 13th close up, he got cut up by a rider making up lost ground and stalled it and the electrics were dead. so he walked to a safe spot, kicked it into life and got that 13th. so when i met him he was the only one having troubles. flooding at low revs he said so i went straight to his carb and pulled all 5 breathers up. yep! some were blocked, so i split the ends "the enduro way" and he got a 7th in the last. grinning like a crazy welshman!


stephen evans/ian griffin with their distinctive muffy ears! you can't see the grin as 15th & 13th become 7th in the last event

lastly, i met the 5th husey rider, a budget rider who along with his family ran the meeting and the club "midland social" so tom mann was a busy man! he runs an '01 or '02 engine and is a good solid club rider. but to watch him start the outfit was something else!

imagine this scene: outfit on rollers driven by the vans rear axle. the eldest son had the window of the van closed, dad has his helmet on and can't be heard, arms wave everywhere as son revs up when he should stop and stops when he should be revving up! in the meantime there is dad, another son and a another lad all loading the rear wheel yet it still won't start! smoke is billowing everywhere, the motor won't turn, the whole of the underside of the van is a wall of smoke, suddenly;
crobba! crobba!

out of the smoke and mist comes man and machine! you just had to be there. tomorrow morning tom will be ordering new tyres -for the transit LOL!!!

tom finished the 2nd event in 9th and i went up to him confident that i could help him get it started. but it didn't matter what i said: he'd tried it so i could do no more!

in the last event of the day husabergs finished 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th as well as i believe 10th for tom. superb!

a great day out and later i got to hear from the rider i now sponsor 'mark kinge' who had done a club meeting at salisbury and had a 3rd and 1st. he's made up as they say round these parts.

regards

Taffy

last weekend i went testing with the two outfits i'm provisionally sponsoring for this season. i went to a meadow near bracknell on saturday where i met up with dan and joe millard who are the british #2s and mark kinge who is the british#5.

the idea was to set the jetting across the meadow and then get out on the track and see if it transformed out there.

as me of you know i have had to become a little more interospective recently now i have to make my living and it also seems fair that if these good people want to do well, and me to be part of it the least i should responsibly do is not to spill the beans on what we have done. so minute detail will be lacking but most of you are smart enough to know what i set about doing when i jetted these outfits.

both went out and we lowered the MJ considerably and they just got quicker and quicker across that paddock. they ended up slipping into 6th gear 50 yards earlier than in their first run and so they were delighted.

out on the track the bikes were hurled around with abondone and mark is loving every minute of his new sponsorship and has now put up his hongo outfit as part of that commitment. anyway, halfway through the day mark complained of a dreadful bottom end bog and we are presently trying to get rid of it. he has had it all along so i don't feel too bad and anyway the millards are fine so....

anyway, they are off to switzerland wednesday evening for the swiss sidecarx gp. max effort by mark as he tries everything to cure the problem.

dan did say at one point in a lovely west country accent which i shall try and repeat in script: "when oy oy open the throttle, the backend cum rowend!" to which his principle sponsor said; " well you better learn to have three positions for the throttle then! closed and open and also somewhere inbetween!" LOL!!!

anyway, i'll keep you all posted on their progress for the season. they are both running 628s with at least 2 spare engines.

regards

Taffy

awilksch said:

Hey taffy, I just finished a very boring work training session, which provided a bit of time for me to think about bikes.

In the sidecar outfits you are working with, it is fairly common that they use enlarged radiators mounted on the front spoiler on the outfit, and they often run oil coolers right? how much oil pressure is generated from the berg engine? could it push a far higher capacity of oil, say 2 litres or more to a position say under the headstem? and the ultimate question - in your opinion, is there a link between oil volume / temp and engine failure such as main or CB bearing failure?

Azza.

Click to expand...

according to lineaweaver the oil pressure was 15psi at 3,000rpm? this is quite low if all else i know about is the early bevel 'v' twin ducatis coz they had 35psi.

i read a tests as a a kid done by cycle world (1981 with the new ducati pantah on test) and it said that 11 out of 12 coolers raised the temperature of the bike. only the lockhart with a thermostate lowered it.

stuart brown - the UK's #1 and 6 times british champion uses a big round tube with about 5 fins on it. so this is more of a 'dissipator' i think. i think all the people who use them haven't really done their homework but then who can afford the R & D?

ben ballard says this his oil cooler drops the temp 20d celcius coz the strips on top indicate it's so. trouble is: how hard is the rest of the engine working to get the oil out there?

i like the idea of greater capacity though: double the oil - half the mileage it works.....

there is IMHO a great deal of underused capacuty in the water cooling system. however, although coolant is part of the problem i think the oil is under the most pressure to fail...

on these outfits they also fit double breathers out of the ignition cover.

regards

Taffy

i'd love to see a photo of that rad? were iseki using it as an oil radiator or coolant/water?

regards

Taffy

there is a 4-page photo shoot and small but simple write-up on the husaberg outfit of 6-times british champ stuart brown in the june edition of superbike magazine. as a roadbike mag it will be obvious to you to say that it treats anyone reading it as a numpty!

if anyone in the UK wants to scan and put up they can have the write up from me to do....

supply your address in a PM to me.

regards

Taffy