WHAT: Snow Quake TWO! It's Dirt Quake on ice with Sideburn and Deus Ex Machina.
Same fantastic track as last year. Similar format.
Then drive down to Milan for an exclusive party at Deus Café.

HOW TO RACE: If you would like to race email us a photo of your bike and some details and we'll send rules and regs. sideburnmag @ gmail.com
No DTX bikes, sorry.

WHERE: Ice Rosa Ring, Riva Valdobbia, Italy

WHEN: Thursday 19 January. The day before the start of the Motor Bike Expo show in Verona.
ENTRY FEE: €50 plus Italian day licence/insurance (price of licence etc to be confirmed)

Check out last year's fun below...

Snow Quake from Deus Italy on Vimeo.

Sideburn rub-on sticker in the wild, caught by MotoBast blog. G

FB Mondial were one of the great names of the immediate post-war grand prix racing scene. Owned by a couple of counts (no spelling mistake), the Fratelli Boselli (the brother Boselli and the FB in the name) inspired both MV Agusta and Soichiro Honda. Famously, Mr Honda approached FB Mondial to buy their 1957 world championship winning 125. Instead, he was given it and used it as the standard by which all Hondas would be made.

An Italian business tycoon made a disastrous effort to bring the name back in the late-90s with the Piega 1000, using Honda's RC51 engine. The story is yet more proof of the old adage, 'How do you made a small fortune from manufacturing motorcycles?' Start with a large one.

But Mondial are back, kind of. And they called their bike a what now?

'Hipster, for FB Mondial, represents its own comeback to the top, closed to the “hipster generation”, that born as Mondial in the 40’s and is coming back fashionable again in the last years. A word that always means a “way of being”, a “lifestyle” that wants to go over institutional standards of its times anticipating the future ones.'

Despite the name, the bike has some nice touches. I saw it some time ago at EICMA, and don't know if it's actually out there, but if it is and it is floating your barca, then get your Hipster here. G

These cheery fellas were understandably keen to join the Sideburn skull parade. Spotted in the basilica of Sant'Agostino in Rome (known mainly for its Caravaggio), they're from the 1740s and were skulpted (ahem, thank you) by Pietro Bracci from a design by Paolo Posi. Unusual to see such well-coiffed death's heads, and the wing feathers are pretty fine, too. MP

Plan B of Italy built some great bikes and I met Christian out at Verona in January. He sent this email ages ago and it got buried and missed. I know Christian has sold this bike now. Sorry for missing this email Christian!

I'm Christian from Italy and there is no need to say I love your work with the coolest and craziest sideways magazine around, so I'll go straight to the point. I build motorcycles here in Italy under the name of Plan B Motorcycles. Mostly cafè racers, but I'd like to present you my latest build, it's called "The Dirt-One" and it's based on a 1990 Aprila Pegaso 600. It's a so called "street tracker" or, in other words, a "daily rider" street bike in a tracker suit, with lights, indicators, number plate etc., but I think it turned out pretty clean and apart from the fu**ing useless 4 litre fuel tank. Really, really fun to ride :-D 
A lot of parts are hand made from aluminium sheets, it was lowered and a big amount of time was spent modifying the bike's geometry. I've attached a couple of pics. 
Grazie! 
Christian

The godfather of European Flat Track, Marco Belli, raced the Deus XJRX Yamaha XJR1300 at Snow Quake. And he flew on it. I got the holeshot in one heat race and he came past me like a 100bhp blizzard making me think, almost simultaneously, 'How is he riding that so quickly?' 'Why aren't I riding this more quickly?' and 'Jesus, those tyres look dangerous. Second place is fine this time.'

The special Pirelli tyres helped. A lot. The clip-ons didn't help. One bit. Marco Belli blew people's minds.

Marco also runs the Di Traverso flat track school in Italy. Fly in, ride the Yamaha SR400s on a beautifully prepared track, hang out at Deus Milan and neighbouring bike shop Officine Mermaid, then fly home. Perfect.

Thanks to Pirelli for helping make Snow Quake happen. A big report on the event is coming up in the next issue, due out in March. G

I'm lucky enough to ride past the Circus Maximus in Rome most days*. While it's little more now than a giant earthwork, the layout of what was Rome's biggest and oldest chariot racing track is still clear. There was seating for 150,000 spectators around the three-quarter-mile track, with its long, fast straights and notoriously tight bends.

Chariots raced anti-clockwise with horses harnessed four abreast and the laps were counted down by huge, gilded tilting dolphins - of course. This clip from Ben Hur strikes me as being, in many ways, pretty authentic, for a Hollywood product. Ah, what it would have been to be in the stands with a bag of wolf's nipple chips and a skin of rough plonk. MP

*Perhaps I should explain. While Sideburn is based in England, our deputy editor, Mick, lives in the Italian capital. GI

Words: Gary Inman
Photos: Marco Renieri / Deus Ex Machina

It’s a mild May Sunday, in the middle of Milan. The Deus Portal of Possibilities is packed with the owners, builders and fans for the 2015 Deus Bike Build-Off. As the editor of Sideburn magazine, I’ve been asked to be one of the 2015 judges.

In a brief lull in the proceedings, Deus’s Alessandro Rossi, leans over to me, and asks ‘Could we make a Dirt Quake in Italy?’ I pull a face. Then reply, Why don’t we organise something different? Why not… I think for a minute, Snow Quake?

Over the next few months Alessandro shakes trees. The godfather of European flat track and founder of the Di Traverso flat track school, Marco Belli works with Luca and Giulio of Deus Milano and the Deus Café to find a suitable track and Pirelli come on board as a sponsor.

Eight months later, I’m struggling to pull an old lady’s fake fur coat over my armoured leather jacket, my hands still cut and nicked from replacing dirt track tyres with sharply studded rubber. It is -8 Celsius in the makeshift paddock of the Ice Rosa Ring race track, situated in a deep Italian valley, surrounded by jagged peaks, including the famous Monte Rosa, the second highest mountain in the Alps.

Thirty racers from all over Europe are trying to convince their motorcycles to start. A few of the infernal internal combustion engines comply, most find a reason they’d rather not, at least not right now. Two hours later a rare Borile, brought from England, is still being kicked. There is a 65-year-old Harley WL raced by fashion designer Nick Ashley, a fuel-injected MV Agusta 800 and just about every two-wheeler on the spectrum from Piaggio Ciao to Honda chopper. All that links the machinery is the studs and screws in their tyres and the adventurous stripe running through their owners.

It’s clear that few people know what they’re doing, including the race organisers – me in their number. Motorcycle ice racing experience is thin on the ground in Europe. Snow Quake is an experiment with invited riders, we’ll make it up as we go along.

There were loose plans for classes, which bikes and specifications should be grouped together, then even those were junked – just race who you want. No one really cares who wins or loses. We only demand that no one dies. Please.

Like every race, each rider is having their own private battle, some with their choice of tyres and the curving Ice Rosa Track, others with a competitor in front, or just behind.

Incredibly, two riders Mauro from Classic Co in Madrid, Spain and Marco Belli chose to race Yamaha XJR1300s. Mauro is on El Solitario’s BBW that he tuned, Marco is riding a Deus four-cylinder with clip-ons on vicious Pirelli spikes. Julian from Deus Venice flew in from California, via Berlin, desperate not to miss the event. He rode a rare Kenny Roberts Rotax, prepared, and delivered, for the ice track by Geoff of Co-Built in England. With other racers coming from France, Switzerland, Corsica, the UK and Germany it was an international event.

Practice stretches for longer than normal to allow people to acclimatise, before three rounds of heats and a final. The slapdash attitude towards the organisation stretches to lap scoring. It is decided that the first three riders in each heat will score points and they can mark their position on a white board. It’s the honesty principle. No one’s going to say they won if they didn’t. It works, here at least, with this group.

After six hours on the ice, it’s time for the 12-rider final. Young English flat tracker George Pickering is on pole, with Marco Belli, Filolocio on Triumph Bonneville and former WSB, World Supermoto and current World Endurance rider, Giovanni Bussei also on the front row. El Solitario’s David Borras also makes the final on his Triumph ‘Sal del Diablo’.

The four-lapper ends with Pickering ahead of Bussei and a heroic Belli. The podium is carved out of snow, the trophies look like ice. Then the real race starts – to pack up vans and head the two hours back to Milan for the party at the aptly named Deus Portal of Possibilities, where we daydream about following this unforgettable day.
Marco Belli was something else on this beast, Deus Milan's own XJR1300 custom. He had the most aggressive tyres, made by event sponsor Pirelli, but he also had clip-ons! He wasn't even the only XJR1300 there. El Solitario brought their awesome BBW.
The podium: 1. George 'Greenfield' Pickering. 2. Giovanni Bussei. 3. Marco Belli
British winner on a borrowed bike, with borrowed tyres. Does that constitute team work?

Thanks to all the racers, Deus Ex Machina, Marco Belli's Di Traverso School and Pirelli Moto Tyres.

See more photos at the Deus Ex Machina blog

VIBA Motor of France brought one of their limited edition LARA800 Scramblers to Snow Quake. It's based on a modern MV Agusta 800 liquid-cooled triple and they allowed Dirt Quake veteran Pierre-Alexandre Treust race it on their own handmade ice tyres (Treust was Toy Story's Woody on a full fat BMW airhead Boxer at DQIV. You can see him in this post).

The day didn't start well for the €32,300 (plus tax) exclus-crambler. The top of the lightweight battery cracked, perhaps due to the frigid temperatures, and shorted. But VIBA boss, Yann, had packed a spare (very professional). Once they got going, and Pierre got his eye in, the bike ran well and the pilot was brave, on a bike with not much steering lock. For those who don't know, you really want a lot of steering lock on a bike you're trying to powerslide. If a bike doesn't have much lock, the forks hit the lock stops before the back end has stopped over-steering and then it wants to highside and there's not much a rider can do about that. Especially on ice.

The way people rode heavy street bikes on the Ice Rosa Ring was an real eye-opener. Legends, the lot of them.

More Snow Quake reports from other racers coming over the next few days. 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:

Just heard that the French company Viba are bringing their MV Brutale 800-base special - Lara 800, to race at Snow Quake in Italy on 21 January. This is going to look wild on the ice.

Snow Quake is our first experiment at an ice race and would only be possible with our partners at Deus Milano and Pirelli. G

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

The biggest and most important show in motorcycling, EICMA, is going on in Milan this week. Ducati have got in early, with an Apple-style product launch on stage in a theatre setting.

Marco Belli (above, #6) threw a sliding celebration and Sideburn contributor Peter Guld was invited along...

Unless you're a pensioner, looking for a relaxing weekend, it’s a normally not a good idea to travel to Misano Adriatico, one week before the Misano MotoGP race. This year was an exception. Italian flat track legend, Marco Belli invited me for a party that he organised to say a big thank you, to his partners, who were involved in his Di Traverso Flat Track School.

The list of the partners is impressive, companies like Deus Milano, Riders Magazine, Yamaha Italia, MotoShop Parma, Dainese, Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli... There was no question, if the Italian holds a party, it will be different. Belli invited his long term friend Graziano Rossi, the father of Valentino, and many other Italian and European flat track riders and race car drivers. Later in the afternoon Loris Reggiani, former-GP star, arrived at the event, and didn’t hesitate before jumping in a car. Drivers gave lucky passengers rides around the track in muscle cars. People could put their name down and, of course, the longest list was next to the name Rossi, but Graziano was happy with it, because it meant he could spend time in a car, not in the sun. 
Belli and Signor Rossi planned car vs. bike races, but it was postponed, so the biggest surprise just came when the flat track ace, after few practice laps in a cross-car, showed up in a big BMW and raced against Graziano and his Audi R8. 

The fans shouted like it was the last lap of MotoGP race when these two mad Italians produced the hardest car race of the event. 

It’s cliche, but true: If you are going to an event where a guy whose name is Rossi is involved, it will be something special. After the event, during the night, a blonde lady was driving a go kart, prepared with dirt tyres, pretty fast. She was in shadow, but seems to be like a pro, and she was sliding crossed with full throttle. I realised it was Graziano’s daughter, Clara Rossi (below). 

At the end of the great event no one was in doubt that Marco Belli said thanks to his partners with style.


Words and photos: Peter Guld

Belli in a buggy

Belli, Rossi, Reggiani




 Graziano on his bike...

And in his car.