Alright, it's party season, time for some off-topic. This clip appeals to my fondness for 1960s/70s Bollywood films, someone shapely in a miniskirt, nifty dance moves and driving instrumentals.

The clip is from the 1972 film Yaar Mera and, to quote a certain Britain's Got Talent deep space deviant, it ticks all the boxes. GI

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.

Sideburn's French ambassador, Hubert Bastie sent tells this great story about his family background...

Many of us, DTRA riders, are from a family of racers. The same for me.

My dad was born in 1950 in Paris. He rode Husqvarna, Ossa and Bultacos from 1973 to 1983. But I never saw him riding, not e even once (but last year he competed in a Super veteran race, after 33 years of not racing). Why? Because he just stopped everything when my brother came to the world.

What did he leave us from his racing years? Tons of bikes? Cool riding gear? Did he take us ride as youngsters? NO! Nothing!

He was just ok to help me to buy a trials bike, a Gas Gas 125, at 16, but I'd been focussed on a 1985 YZ since I was 12! For him motocross is baaaad and dangerous. That's so strange for a man who finished the seventh at first edition of Le Touquet, who won races in the French Enduro Championship.

Here is what he left:
3 helmets in the Garage, that became nice bird's nest.
One single Husqvarna Jersey.
Some trophies And a used Trelleborg tyre and tooooons of pictures...

I was really lucky when I turned 16, because I coerced my mum into getting me what I reckoned was the best moped of the lot, a Fantic Caballero. She wasn't best pleased when my O level results came through a while later, though.

There are thousands of people in the Sideburn universe with great stories to tell, and I've chosen a handful to supply stories and update the blog. One is Travis Newbold, Sideburn poet and test rider, another is John Harrison. We met John through his antics and style in the DTRA and the more I found out about him, the more I wanted him involved.

He says stuff like... 'I don't wear T-shirts or sweatshirts (or jeans). Haven't done since my early 30s.' John is 57 with grown-up children, and started dirt track racing earlier this year. You'll find out a lot more about him, starting now. Hope you enjoy his outlook as much as I do. G
'As we're rained off today I thought I 'd get going on my motorcycling history for you. I can't imagine how you would introduce this sort of thing but here you are. Stand by for following emails. All photos are my own unless stated. 

The picture above is of me as a 12 yr old on the first motorbike I ever rode. This would have been 1972. It is a BSA Beagle (surely the bike Snoopy rode in the recently blogged Peanuts cartoon) which was an early '60s, 75cc 4-stroke that they produced in a forlorn attempt to take the fight to the Italian and Japanese small, cheap bike competition. Pressed steel frame and forks, but this one had been converted into a Schoolboy Scrambler with tele forks, a high level pipe and a bobbed rear guard. One of my friends got it and we thought it was the bee's bollocks, particularly as we reckoned it was a dead ringer for a Husky with the red and white tank. We hadn't ridden motorbikes before, but could drive cars, so set about teaching ourselves. I'm amused that the only new item of clothing I'm wearing is my brand new Stadium Centurion X helmet, the rest - shirt, trousers and shoes are all hand-me-downs. 
We had a field at the back of our place that we got permission to ride in and soon we were all on the lookout for field bikes. Another friend found a 125 Bantam ( also 'converted' to schoolboy scrambler spec) which I think he paid a fiver for. It was barely worth it. This photo shows the two bikes pretending to race; in truth they both rarely ran at the same time, or we couldn't afford enough fuel fuel to keep them both going. The same scene must have been played out by lads all over the country learning to ride and fix field bikes. Hopefully it still is. 
JH 104R

Thanks to our friend Tom Baldwin for alerting us to this:

Spotted that the latest film review in Sideburn, "Psychomania," (one of my long time guilty favourites) has just been remastered for HD DVD, and will be released on the 19th September. To coincide with this, they're showing it at the BFI (British Film Institute)with a Q and A session with the lead actor, Nicky Henson. Find out more at BFI Flipside Psychomania.

Hope it's of interest to you, and perhaps to other Sideburn readers? 
All the best, Tom


READ ABOUT PSYCHOMANIA IN SIDEBURN 25.

When I was too young to ride on the road, I had posters on my bedroom wall of Harley's SX and SS250s, and I was mad for 'em. I still think they look great and we have a soft spot for them on this blog, given that Garrett B's street-tracked SX was the subject of our very first post, eight-and-a-half years ago.

By the time I was old enough for a road bike, the law had changed and 250s with L-plates disappeared in a blue-grey fug of lost hope. But even at that tender age, I'd have had no trouble telling a 1000cc four-stroke V-twin from a two-stroke single, though the AMF-era marketing geeks hoped otherwise.

"If you can't tell it from our big bikes, see your AMF Harley-Davidson dealer," they say. Why? Did they have in-house opticians back then? MP

Dave Bevan delivers another superb essay on a less-than-superb movie. In Sideburn 24 he discussed Stone, for Sideburn 25 he had turned his attention to British B-movie, Psychotronic.
Acquaint yourself with this biker/amphibian/occult Seventies schlock by buying Sideburn 25 for just £6 plus post. G

The next round of the 2016 DTRA race series is the Greenfield TT, next weekend. TT racing is dirt track's nod to going right and leaving the ground. To the best of my knowledge, TT races only ever have one jump per lap. They're contested by flat track bikes, usually with slightly more compliant suspension and front brakes. There have been TT races in the UK, when the national series was organised by Short Track UK, but this is the first DTRA TT. It's also the first all dirt TT. Previous races have had concrete sections when the course turned onto the infield of King's Lynn speedway track, with a dirt jump.

As a very amateur racer, I'm not a massive fan of the TT format as I've never been much of a jumper, but there was a small scale practice at the Greenfield track earlier in the year, and running a few laps over the jump gave me more confidence for the upcoming race. I think the racing is going to be wild and action-packed, especially as this year, most classes are running without a front brake.

It's free to spectate, and it's a two-day meeting at:
Greenfield Farm
Greenfield
Alford
LN13 0EB

Anthony Brown, big cheese of the DTRA, sent a link to this clip through to get us excited about TT racing and it is wonderful. Evel Knievel is the guest pundit and while he does get some good info over, when asked about TT racing, he compares Ascot TT with the Isle of Man TT. Perhaps he'd only heard of the Isle of Man TT, not actually seen it. I don't have to tell you the two couldn't be more different.

This 100-lapper is dominated by Rick Hocking. He must have been the big favourite, because he was interviewed before the race, with the clips inserted into the coverage. I saw Hocking race at Vegas in 2010, also on a Yamaha 500, like he using in this race, then I was in the hotel hot tub with him (it was a big outdoor hot tub, not that awkward). I wish I'd seen this clip before that impromptu meeting. And it's too late to ask him about it now as, sadly, he took his own life a year later, in early 2011.

Another fact, the late Paul Bostrom (incorrectly captioned Bostrum in this Wide World Of Sports footage) is running third for part of the race. He was the uncle of former superbike racers Ben and and Eric Bostrom. G

From Roger F...

A facebook grab, The Rebcor helmet riders are Steve Freeman, Gary Scott, Ted Boody and Hank Scott.
Roger

Gary Scott held the number one plate for one season, so this must have been shot in early 1976.

Ted Boody has a letter after his number showing this is his rookie season, and he has yet to start a season having made an expert main. Boody is a name that pops up often, but I didn't know a lot about him, so I did some reading up at the AMA Hall of Fame site.

In 1976, Boody made a successful rookie debut on the national circuit. He scored his first AMA national points in May of 1976 at the Oklahoma City Half-Mile, where he finished second. He earned his first AMA national win in June of that year at the indoor Short Track held in the Pontiac (Michigan) Silverdome. At the time, he was the youngest rider, at 17, to win an AMA national. 

He won a national in his rookie season and still wasn't rookie of the year, that went to Steve Eklund (who was profiled in issue 13).

I was thinking, why haven't we interviewed Ted Boody? Then read this...

Ascot Park was the site of both Boody’s final AMA national victory, and his tragic death three years later. On May 7, 1988, Boody crashed in a freak accident on the final lap of the national. He died from the injuries. 

A sad end to the research. If anyone can put us in touch with Gary or Hank Scott I'd be grateful. G

This is an extract from Dave Bevan's essay on the 1974 Australian biker movie, Stone, written exclusively for Sideburn 24.

The film opens with surely the weirdest (only?) didgeridoo-flecked space-jazz-swamp rock ever to grace a soundtrack, and what would be, if not for the acid mind-melt score laid over the top, a tranquil scene of a politician addressing a crowd toting placards baring environmentalist slogans and ’70s hippie goodwill. 

The relative peace is destroyed by the four-cylinder thunder and whine of sixteen brand-spanking Kawasaki Z1s with psychedelic customised fairings and paint jobs.

Read another 1630 words of this memorable article in Sideburn 24. Stone is often mentioned in relation to Mad Max, and while there are similarities, there are more differences. I've been meaning to watch it for years and finally got around to it while making the last issue. It's well worth £10 from Amazon.

We cover a lot of dirt track related stuff, but it's not all we do. Road trips, custom street trackers, adventure riding, Pikes Peak stuff and the odd (very odd) essay about bike films too, from Once a Jolly Swagman to On Any Sunday. G

This never happens when I pop in to have the stains taken out of my velveteen loin cloths. Apologies for my continuing obsession with Monica Vitti, here paired with Claudia Cardinale in Qui Comincia l'Avventura (1975), released as Lucky Girls elsewhere. MP

Harley, you're right, and here's why:

This time, the hapless perma-nerd Guido might have blown it for good. Anyone familiar with the shenanigans of this pair over the years will know that Sue has tried everything but imprisonment and assault to get into Guido's... affections, but the bloke just can't see the wood for the trees. It's a lesson to us all.

With apologies to original authors and journalists Guido Bettiol and Vic Willoughby, and artist George Domenech. MP

More Italian psych-pop, this time from the band I Rogers performing 'Cristina' (1970) and backed by footage from the film 'Noi Donne Siamo Fatte Cosi' (Us Women Are Made This Way). I'd pay good money to have my ears pulled by a wall of death-riding Monica Vitti. MP

Great old clip, posted by Superbike Planet, of early-1970s indoor short track on concrete. Nixon, Mashburn and Brelsford are all interviewed. The track looks like ice, definitely no Coke syrup down to make that more tacky. I'm pretty sure it's 1971, or late 1970. A bit of digging showed that Jim Odom won it (the rider from the Trophy Queen page of Sideburn 10).

As the presenter explains, the series also went to the famous Madison Square Gardens for the NY round in January 1971. A reported 17,000 turned up, on a Monday night!, the iconic venue sold out and spectators were turned away, according to an AMA report from the time. I wonder how many will go to the first US Superprestigio in Vegas on November 20-21? Two who will be there are Ben and me. Travis the poet too! Whose coming?

Click the 'Carpet Shoes' label below for more post about indoor concrete short track, or the 'indoors' label for more indoor short track in general.

Thanks to Roger for bringing it to our attention. G

Keith Code Kawazaki Z-1, leads Wes Cooley also Kwack, Steve McLaughln BMW, Reg Pridmore BMW. AMA Superbike Riverside National 1976.
Mr Code, Grand Master Jedi, looks like he has piles, proving Chris Carr's philosophy of you don't need to look like you're going fast to be a race winner. BP

© Mike Stuhler

A lovely shot of the great Shell Thuet in 1975 at Syracuse with an XS Yamaha he'd prepped for Hank Scott. Read about Thuet's work with the 650 twins in the latest issue of Sideburn magazine, as part of the ongoing blueprints series. And see more superb Mike Stuhler photos and info at the magnificent Stu's Shots R Us. MP

From Dimitri C.