2010 sidecarX Husabergs UK and GPs

well things are taking shape for next season.

Stu Brown the 6/7 times british champ appears to have done little in way of preparation for next season. normally a sponsor would come through but he waits to see so it could be another season on this one.

The millards though have been mad keen as they practice often and have been to dunkirk twice recently as well as picking up a new chassis this week from a new dutch manufacturer. The cheif fabricator has left willemsen's and started out on his own. he calls himself will holmes technical (WHT) and the millards are getting a package of chassis and spares and will be off to italy to test in the spring along with other sidecarx teams.

rumours abound of a big motor being prepared by someone in the bowels of the UK somewhere but as yet unconfirmed. but surely with the millards training so hard a great season (reliability accepted) must be on the cards. the millards have major backing and the time, energy and inclination to do it.

my man, mark kinge is still getting his zloties ready for the new season but a new chassis from said WHT awaits him if he should start again. if? ahaa! mark has split from passenger of one season kev foyle and is looking to secure a top passenger. so his season waits on whether another rider gets going again or not?

meantime, the old outfits of millard and kinge have gone to british runner ben blythe and a young 17 year old named etheridge. normally we'd say; "so?" but young etheridge is the son of 8 times british championship winner mark who dominated the scene before stu brown! along with steve france coming down south from oooop north there will be 5 instead of 3 husabergs on the BC grid in britian next season.

i have at least one more engine to go out so there will also be another one joining young etheridge (he has his mother's name so this will actually be different) on the clubman's grid for the season.

worries with the husabergs at the moment centre around the cracked crankcases at the rear. teams don't seem to be to sure what to do about it but i'm requesting that they go to thinner front engine mounting plates and also bore the hole in the cases for the SA pin by 1mm.

anyway, there is a BRITISH GP for the first time in 14 years at langridge in surrey near petersfield on sunday 18th april so i hope UHE 's UK boys will come and give them a cheer!

regards

Taffy

yeh but is it the 18th? and is it even a GP? is anything actually really happening at all!

quite right, i do like to do things from memory - fatal sometimes...

regards

Taffy

RE: And here the pictures of the Millard outfit

yes that was added to their site since yesterday stephan and the site has only been live on the sidecarMX forum since yesterday. the outfit looks great. note it already has a JBSracing type oil cooler fitted.

to have all this done before christmas is very promising. remember these boys aren't just racing, they want to win the world title one-day!

regards

Taffy

well what is the latest jooce on the sidecarX scene here in the UK?

well as said, the country awaits it's first GP for some 17 or so years on 18th april at langrish in hampshire.

My man, Mark Kinge hasn't had the hoped for passenger come through and has decided to retire leaving me without a test rider. a real shame as mark had a wonderful ride at the tail end of last year but things got financially out of control.

The millards have been in dunkirk at weekends training and are presently off to sweden for winter ski training to get them fit for a week or two before they fly down to italy for just under three weeks warm weather training. Their new outfit built by WHT of Holland is doing well and so it should as the man who made it made their last chassis whilst working for willemsen racing.

Their principle sponsor approached a well known big bore specialist here in the UK over the winter looking for more power. It was agreed to special bearing mods and a big bore kit. word has it that after two rides bearing deposits have been found in the oil and the engine was swapped out mid-test.

Stu brown, british champ for 7 times and a GP winner at the last round last year seems to have hit sponsor trouble. His usual Husaberg Sponsor who buys a new chassis each year has not been forthcoming (it's thought) but he is said to be trying a new chassis that he has been sponsored by the manufacturer with. In the meantime, his old sponsor, who resides in northern ireland may be the one who has bought two engines from HTM the N.I. main dealer. HTM have taken two brand new engines from supermotos and sold them to 'someone'. could it be that brownie gets these or am i miles out? we shall see!

steve france from 'ooop north' has as we knew registered to race 'darn sarf' and takes his 644 '04 to the track with the southern softies this season. he is now sponsored by DCR and i think fancy is going to be quick.... real quick. absolutely no word as to whether he has gone on a diet but if it were to change the man's character i'd say leave it out!

the two teams that got the old kinge and millard units are training hard. Ben Blythe loves it and says that it far more useable than his 700 zabel. How much better? "everywhere, it's all usable" he said.

Chris Etheridges son has been really busy and out every weekend. he loves the 644 ('04) i built for them and as i told the millards - it is infact a better motor. whilst in dunkirk the millards had apparently, tested the etheridge machine and were VERY impressed with a standard motor. power from the very bottom and no need to rev it. this will be the perfect motor for a 17-year-old lad. wrong gear, wrong part of the track - that motor will make him look good!

there is very little word on the northern AMCA riders even though it's choca with Husabergs. Steve France - as said - is travelling down and the others will continue. Tom Mann has ordered a second engine from me as he finally sorted his reliability problems.

the season gets under way in about 5 weeks with a British round on the last weekend of march and the first GP in Holland a week later.

In the meantime I have a motor coming together and no rider that i wish to sponsor with it at present. I insist on someone who is interested; that they must at least practice with a rev counter and at present they think that revcounters are for girls.

So I'm buying an Aprilia RS125 chassis in order to further develop the engine. work in hand:
large inlet manifolds
a huge lectron carb
a high lift race cam
gas flowed heads and valves
HC pistons

ALL THE ABOVE IS CONJECTURE RUMOUR, TITTLE-TATTLE, BACK-BITING AND CHIT-CHAT AND IS IN NO WAY MEANT TO BE FACTUAL. THAT'S A JOKE OK?

regards

Taffy

the first round of the British Sidecarcross Championship was held today at Canada Heights.

for the first time in two years (April 16 2008) a Husaberg didn't win one of the races - but did the other two.

the three race programme was held on the deep wet sandy hills of Swanley in Kent and all the teams had to fight the steering as the outfits bucked and fought their way around the circuit.

Husabergs on the grid belonged to reigning and 8-times British Champion Stu Brown, then runners up Dan Millard, Steve France, Ben Blythe and the Turner Brothers were along as well for a rare visit from ooop north.

Race 1
The Millards outfit cut out at the top of the steep start climb and had to fight their way through, Browny had a team stall at the second corner and there was nothing they could do but wait, so both Husaberg outfits were well down and had to fight their way through. Luckily the 20 minutes + 2 gave them the time to come through to second and the Millard's had a steamy ride for third with water spewing from the rad cap. Blythe was 8th after an excellent start and then had a puncture, and France 5th. The race was won by out-of-retirement Scott Wilkinson on a Zabel 700.

Race 2
Browny had the holeshot and disappeared with the Millards close behind. Francy was on fire fighting his way through a lot traffic to 5th again while Ben Blythe had a 9th. France was catching third and fourth as they all bunched up but it was with three laps to go that he remembered that he chose pies over a slim physique and 'decided' to hold station.

but panic set in in the Millard camp as they heard rattles from their motor. so they decided to pull it out and fitted one of mine. luckily it has been reliable so far as well as quick and has now clocked 6 hours of racing up. they keep swapping it out and the 'other' motors go wrong and it gets put back in!

Race 3
The Millards got the holeshot and led for a lap before guess who took over for another walk away win. Francy again pulled through and met with his bete noir in Richard Jenkinson on the Zabel. mindful that he'd hounded Jenks in all three races at Lyng last October: Francy was not going to shadow him yet again... with just two corners to go Jenks stalled it with Francy wedged outside the outfit against a sand bank and unbelievably had to wait for Jenks to start his outfit and get going again! anyway, 5th again was good with Blythe taking about 11th.

The main riders head off to Holland for next Sunday's Oldebroek GP followed by Lyng in Norfolk and the British again before on the 18th the British GP at Petersfield, Hants.

Husabergs rule here again. and now i know what the tune of the Millards bike was in the last one i know that there is the possibility that Browny is telling the truth when he says he IS NOT running a big motor. the winning margin COULD be (IMHO) down to the talent of the 8 -times British Champ. that also means that it was probably a standard husaberg that won the last GP leg of last season in that case... not bad!

regards

Taffy

browny has the 20mm wide 62226 i believe in a steel cup in the left case. this allows him to continue using the balancer assembly. millards were running standard cheap ball all season. my motor runs special roller mains. the millards have 5-6 motors: two are 700s and there are troubles with them but NOT related to the JBS work but other stuff. the other two motors i can't speak for but i think they are cheap ball.

regards

Taffy

a great days racing at Lyng in North Norfolk today for Husabergs.

Stu Brown won all three races in great style, he led two races off the line

and in the middle race took his time to overtake young alfie hyde and the millard bros. the millards kept them at bay for 6 laps but unfortunately a back marker stalled across the front of them on the steepest climb on the track.

the millards got crossed up and brown was through.

browny has a unique way of cornering, he runs the bike against the berm all the way round and deliberatley understeers, when he comes out the corner he uses the power to straighten the outfit so he never works too hard.
the millards should have had a second in race one but their harsh style saw the clutch go literally in one corner. second going in and then no drive coming out. this was put right with a new pack for the next two heats.

steve france had a troubled day

with a startline pile-up in races 1 & 3 that i saw and he must have had another in his other race because he had to fight his way through in each one. I then found the above photo. I also saw them on their side on the final lap of one race with the passenger 30 yards away at the foot of the hill.

ben blythe lost his passenger before the meeting and had to take it easy with his replacement.

france had a magnificant result at the dutch GP and he, the millards and brown will all be at next weekends british GP at Langrish. So will i and hoping for husaberg and british good fortune.

regards

Taffy

what am i doing wrong? can't get the photos up like i used to?

regards

Taffy

not all actually. there are about 3 outfits in the Uk that run traditional forks. you just have to see the yokes on them! we have 22mm of offset. they have about 80mm. I have a sidecar in the workshop here now and if i turn the steering as it sits still, the wheel just turns and the whole bike doesn't move left or right.

this means that the tyre contact point is directly in line with an imaginary line straight through the steering stem to the floor. with solos, the tyre touches the floor about an inch behind this imaginary contact point and therefore explains why, when you go from lock to lock stood still that the bike moves from left to right in body!

these boys have steering dampers as the steering has no trail - the front wheel doesn't naturally want to straighten - a little like a speedway bike.

the problem they have is that there is that much stress on the legs when cornering that they simply fail to have enough bushing area and the seals pop after a race, they don't even 'pop' they simply deposit all the oil out. so a lot of them ride without fork oil.

regards

Taffy

here's a photo of france, he has just come up the steepest of steep slopes (same place as the millards were at when they were sideways).


this guy is all action - really!

opk this one is just simply the two young millards realing that 'daddy monster' brown aint goin away!



anything else you want is here: http://www.sidecarcross.eu/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=10

regards

Taffy

i just had too add these....jesus H did francy have a bad day at the office or what! (the answer isn't 'what')



the cameraman has walked around to take these photos. it means that they couldn't drop the outfit onto its wheels till it was safe. this isn't a crash...it's a jigsaw!



well I hope you enjoyed this write up on husaberg but more i suppose than anything sidecarcross misfortunes!!!

regards

Taffy