BLOG | sideburn

Sideburn Sahara 2022 Dates

5 days ago

Sideburn Sahara 2022 Dates

Following on from the amazing response we received for our two tours scheduled for December this year – sold out in 24 hours of being announced - we will be partnering with Moto Aventures again and running two more Sideburn Sahara adventures in March 2022. If you're anything like us and now sure what day it is, nevermind what year, that's 11 months from now. As before one will be our well-loved Women Only (for the fourth year running) and the other our Open for all to join.

KTM AFT 2021

Feb 23

KTM AFT 2021

Plenty of announcements are coming out of AFT HQ at the moment as the 2021 season nears. The most recent is the launch of the 2021 KTM AFT Singles team. Young Australian, Max Whale, joins Shayna Texter-Bauman (as the recently married racer has chosen to be known as). That means the team is back to a two-rider squad after a season of having just Shayna, who fell below her normal high standards in 2020, finishing 12th in the standings. Conversely, privateer Whale was second in

Sideburn Morocco 2021

Feb 1

Sideburn Morocco 2021

We have partnered with Moto Aventures again to run TWO Sideburn Morocco Tours in December 2021. One is Women-only, the other is open to all. There are just ten places available on each trip. IMPORTANT: Moto Aventures realise there is still uncertainty in the travel world so, for these trips there will be NO UPFRONT PAYMENT REQUIRED TO SECURE YOUR TOUR PLACE until seven working days before the tour date*. If during those seven days between paying and travelling the tour has to

SOLD: KTM 950 Hooligan

Jan 23

SOLD: KTM 950 Hooligan

Patrick in Germany is selling his KTM hooligan. Contact him by email pe at blickfang.de (we write it like that to avoid 'bots picking up the address and spamming him) or via instagram @braap_ape Below are details he shared. Still photos: Marc Holstein @marc.holstein Christine Gabler @myeyesbychristine Year: 2005 950 ccm 98 hp Price: 5950,00 Euro Cologne / Germany Colour: Honda Fighting Red Pro Taper Flat Track Handlebars 19 inch rims white powdercoated black spockes Dunlop DT

The SB42 Cover

Nov 13, 2020

The SB42 Cover

Sideburn 43 lands next week, so finally I've made the time to write the background story to the cover shoot for the current issue - Sideburn 42. The idea for the shoot came about when I googled the name of a village we photographed our tribute to the 100-year-old Harley-Davidson piglet photo (read the story of that photoshoot here). Photos of a nearby abandoned church came up on the internet search. It was abandoned and looked incredible, too good not to use at some point. Th

KTM: Project Flat Track

Nov 11, 2020

KTM: Project Flat Track

We have a Secret Blend KTM 500 from Sydney, Australia in our STORIES section, owned and built by a KTM rally race engineer, Michael Carusi. He says... 'I’ve created a best-of-both-worlds flat tracker. The engine is a secret blend of SXF and EXC-F parts to produce a brand new powerplant that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. The forks and shock are WP factory items that aren’t available to the general public.' Check out the SECRET BLEND KTM 500 Photo: MachinesthatDream

The Freedom Principle

Oct 14, 2020

The Freedom Principle

I helped, in a small way, to put together this neat film made for the website, Influx. Influx is a automotive culture website financed by Adrian Flux insurance. Adrian Flux have been big supporters of Sideburn and the early days of Dirt Quake, and their motorcycle division, Bikesure, still regularly advertise in Sideburn. They're also sponsors of the King's Lynn track the DTRA raced at on Sunday, so their heart and sponsorship money is certainly in the right place as far as w

Andy DiBrino: Hoolighana

Oct 6, 2020

Andy DiBrino: Hoolighana

The film's title is a play on the title of the internet-breaking Ken Block Gymkhana/Hoonigan films, mixed with Andy DiBrino's own two National Superhooligan titles. It's also a big clue to the content. DiBrino mixes his bike skills with his newly developed car drifting skills in an energy drink-sponsored, six-minute screech-a-thon. The bike stuff fires me up more than the car stuff, especially the snail shell trail between to the pop cans, but it doesn't stop me wishing I cou

Redcar Dirt Track & Speedway Snaps

Oct 2, 2020

Redcar Dirt Track & Speedway Snaps

Because every DTRA race event has been cancelled this year, and I couldn't/didn't want to travel out of the country to race, this year's dirt track riding had been limited to a couple of practice days at Greenfield. When the DTRA's Amman Valley round was cancelled at the last minute (due to you know what) a few UK riders committed to going to Krowdrace at Parchim in East Germany. I was told about the chance to race a lot closer to home, at a small meeting shared with a speedw

Breakfast of Champions

Aug 12, 2020

Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions. I'd read and repeated, the saying for years. British F1 star James Hunt famously had a patch on his racing overalls proudly claiming it was 'Sex'. Kurt Vonnegut wrote a book of the same name, but it was actually US breakfast cereal, Wheaties, who coined the phrase. To hammer home the link between sporting success and a first meal of the day consisting of wholegrain flakes, the makers of the cereal emblazoned their orange box with a photo of an athlete.

The Morocco 8

Mar 31, 2020

The Morocco 8

Anya Violet was one of ten women (plus Caylee Hankins, our rep) from around the world who signed up for Sideburn's second Women-only Morocco trip (run for us by Moto Aventures). The start of the trip coincided with the first inklings of the kind of shutdowns we'd heard about happening in China reaching us in Europe, the USA and beyond. In the end only seven, plus Caylee decided to travel, and it became an unforgettable adventure for them. Anya has written a fantastic monster

Nathalie in the Sunshine State

Mar 28, 2020

Nathalie in the Sunshine State

Earlier this year, UK racer and friend of the mag, Nathalie Legrand spent a week at Johnny Lewis' Moto Anatomy school in Florida. She supplied a diary of the intense week. After a couple of months going to practice with my KTM 250, that George Pickering set up for me, I realised that if I wanted to be safer on the track and take on good habits, I needed some help. It can be overwhelming to hear different tips from different people when you start a new sport and you end up bei

What the hell did I sign up for?

Jan 4, 2020

What the hell did I sign up for?

Paul Leeson went on the recent Sideburn Morocco adventure trip and shared these mutterings and photos, with additional quotes from some of the other riders. It was dark and miserable back in February 2019 when I saw a shout out from Sideburn on Instagram for a trip to Morocco in conjunction with Moto Aventures. As with a previous Sideburn trip I went on to the Himalayas back in 2016 I signed up immediately with no thought to the trip or risks and imagining myself as a Dakar g

Skooter Farm Racing: Early Days UK Flat Track MEGAPOST

Dec 3, 2019

Skooter Farm Racing: Early Days UK Flat Track MEGAPOST

After listening to the ‘Off the Groove’ podcast with Gary Inman, I was inspired to have a dig through my photo archive and find some shots that help illustrate the story and the times. I can’t put exact dates on any of these images but I’d say they are all before the existence of Sideburn Magazine or perhaps, in some cases around the time of the magazine’s birth. Probably 2005-2007 unless stated otherwise. (above) Rider parade at Peterborough. Completely candid shot of the Sk

Sideburn Morocco Women Riders Q&A

Oct 30, 2019

Sideburn Morocco Women Riders Q&A

Earlier this year, riders from around the world were brought together on Sideburn’s first ever women-only Morocco adventure. We have another coming up in March 2020, so we thought we'd share the experiences of the first group. The ten riders were quizzed with three tour-related questions about their experience, namely: What brought you on the trip? What part did you enjoy the most? Which section did you find most challenging? With most of of the group relaxing around the swi

Former Chris Carr KTM 450 Evo Racer For Sale

Oct 30, 2019

Former Chris Carr KTM 450 Evo Racer For Sale

Pete Boast is selling this rare bird ready to race. We spoke to Pete (the Godfather of UK Flat Track) about this bike earlier in the year and he explained it was a EVO, a stepping stone between the 450cc frame of the turn of the century and the DTX bikes of the present. The bike has a modified KTM frame, changed to feel like a built from scratch framer. It has a J&M swingarm. I've seen Boastie race it a few times and it certainly goes well with him in on it. Not sure why he's

Inman Column: Bullshit Detector

Oct 4, 2019

Inman Column: Bullshit Detector

I've written a bi-monthly column for French magazine, Cafe Racer magazine for about ten years. I've posted a couple before. If you click the Inman Column link you can see them. Here's a recent one. I sometimes wonder if this column should be renamed Bullshit Detector, because it seems not a week passes, in the motorcycle world, without me wanting to highlight some clownish marketing decision or pompous narcissist ‘independent’ who is confusing the joy and relative simplicity

Sideburn 20: Back in Stock

Oct 3, 2019

Sideburn 20: Back in Stock

We found a few of these that we put in a box because they were slight seconds, either because they had very slightly bent corners or bent spines. This issue has been sold out a while, so there might be people out there who want them and don't mind about a bit of 'shelf-soiling.' This issue was originally released in 2015 BUY SIDEBURN 20 This is what's in it: COVER STAR: Drake McElroy and Honda CRF450 BIKES: Baer Racing KTM 1000 GNC racer; Honda CRF450 cafe motard; Maico Mega

SB38 PRE-ORDER

Sep 4, 2019

SB38 PRE-ORDER

The magazine won't land until next week, but we're putting it up on pre-order now if you want to get in now and be sent out with the first wave. ORDER SIDEBURN 38 Some issues of Sideburn include dashes of film, art, adventure or leftfield moto culture with a core of flat track. Others are pure flat tracker and street tracker. Sideburn 38 is the latter. Page after page after page of dirt track racing with a dash of jawdropping street tracker in the middle. COVER: Koolt Yamaha

AFT Super Twins: The Proposal

Jul 7, 2019

AFT Super Twins: The Proposal

At a recent American Flat Track (AFT) advisory group meeting* a radical change for the future of the sport was tabled and discussed. The idea is for the current Twins class to be renamed Super Twins and to be a 'closed shop' for 16 'star' riders, who will have guaranteed entry to the main at every round. The idea is to promote a roster of stars the series can promote and then guarantee (barring injury), that if a fan turns up to see Brandon Robinson, that he's going to be in

1

2 3 4 5