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Sastre Kawasaki Twin

Feb 14

Sastre Kawasaki Twin

This stock frame Kawasaki ER-6n, just showed up on instagram. It was built by Pep Sastre, one of the top technicians at Kawasaki Spain, for, we hope, his son Ferran to race. I say hope, because Ferran is an absolute demon racer. He competed in the DTRA for the last couple of years, coming close to winning the title in 2019, and has also raced as an amateur in America, where he won big races. The bike was hashtagged as a hooligan, but as a 650 Twin it's too small for most hool

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.

'I Won Fisher's AFT Bike!'

Jan 6, 2020

'I Won Fisher's AFT Bike!'

We featured Paul Hartman's Racewear and his supercool Triumph Bonneville hooligan racer in Sideburn 38 and saw he had a new firebreathing bike so asked for the story on it. This is what he told us... Kind of a crazy deal, and sometimes I still don't believe it. I won this bike in a raffle that Davis Fisher did to raise some money. Last summer Davis announced on his Instagram that he was going to sell raffle tickets for his Kawasaki 700 Twin AFT racer. Tickets were $50 and h

And It Blew My Mind

Sep 20, 2019

And It Blew My Mind

It's hard not to be overwhelmed by the amount of 'content' swilling around the motorcycle universe. A friend sent me a link to a video that was 12 minutes long the other day. I looked at the still screengrab, the running time and decided I'm never going to watch it. 12 minutes! Perhaps it's because Icon have advertised in Sideburn since the very early days of the magazine. Perhaps it's because I really like Amanda who writes the unerringly sassy and perfectly pitched press re

Screw you, Kawasaki?

Mar 13, 2019

Screw you, Kawasaki?

Photo @bsmith.4 On Tuesday, just two days before the start of the 2019 season, Bryan Smith's Howerton Motorsports Crosley Kawasaki broke cover. However, if you didn't know the history of the bike, or the architecture of modern Japanese twins inside-out you were unlikely to know it was a Kawasaki. This is a development of the bike Bryan Smith won the title on in 2016, the last before Indian entered American Flat Track and not only came with a great bike, but also cleverly nul

Howerton Kawasaki Chassis

Feb 9, 2019

Howerton Kawasaki Chassis

I was looking for something else when I came across up an old email from AFT team owner/engineering master, Ricky Howerton. Attached was this image of Bryan Smith's championship winning chassis for his Kawasaki twin, that he sent when we featured the bike in SB23. For the 2018 season Howerton moved with Bryan Smith to be the crew chief of the official Indian team, but after two years with Indian, they've decided to run with the Kawasaki again for the 2019 season, which is cur

Smith On Kawasaki for 2019

Oct 8, 2018

Smith On Kawasaki for 2019

American Flat Track hosted its end of season awards night in New York last night and the big news announcement was that Bryan Smith will be back on a Kawasaki for the 2019 season. The 2016 champion sewed up his one and only championship win on the Howerton Motorsports Kawasaki at the final race of the old AMA Pro Racing era, before it was rebranded as AFT. He narrowly beat Jared Mees (who, at the time, was racing a Harley XR750) at the Santa Rosa Mile after the pair went into

Springfield Mile Tech Log Nerd Out

Sep 7, 2018

Springfield Mile Tech Log Nerd Out

As an accredited journalist who has reported on AFT flat track, I'm on a mailing list for much of AFT's less publicised emails, the real backroom stuff. I'm not implying I have special access, I don't beyond what any other journalist would have, but I do look at most of it when many probably don't. When the email with the rather dry title, 'AFT Tech Log for Springfield Mile II' came through I was especially interested. I watched much of the racing, on Fanschoice, because Spri

Cute

Oval Super Battle

Jul 6, 2018

Oval Super Battle

Our friend, Guzzi nerd and sometime contributor Andrew Gray sent a link to this intriguing clip. It shows two Suzuki superbikes (they could be 600s, but I'm pretty sure they're 1000s), two supermotos and one AutoRace grasshopper, probably a Suzuki or Kawasaki 600 single, start on three different lines of a very widely spaced grid. Who is your money on? They're racing on a banked, tarmac Autorace (Oto Resu) course in Japan. The sport of Autorace was featured in Sideburn 2, and

DTRA Sideburn Vintage Class of 2018 Preview: Pt. 1

Apr 2, 2018

DTRA Sideburn Vintage Class of 2018 Preview: Pt. 1

With less than a week to go there is only only thing on everybody's mind. It isn't Trump's next announcement or what The Duchess of Cambridge had for breakfast. From Middlesborough to Memphis I know everybody is thinking about the DTRA Sideburn Vintage Class, which is shaping up to be another fun year for riders and spectators alike. As the class covers bikes from the 1940's to the 70's there will be a hugely interesting and varied selection of machinery on track from hand-sh

Kawasaki DTX For Sale in the UK

Travis On Law-Breaking

Mar 12, 2018

Travis On Law-Breaking

When Sideburn poet, Travis writes... 'When I was young I landed myself 86 hours of court-appointed therapy. This would have been a total bummer had it not been that my therapist was a rather interesting and intelligent man of psychology...' You want to read on, correct? Luckily you can. Just go to our latest Sideburn Story 'Don't Break More Thank One Law At A Time'. The story is accompanied by beautiful shots by Jon Wallace/Brapp Snapps. #TravisNewbold #Twostroke #Kawasaki #B

Airtech

Jan 29, 2018

Airtech

Loving the aero fork guards being modelled by Kayl Kolkman's C&J Kawasaki twin. I doubt they'd be allowed in AFT competition as they'd be construed as additional streamlining, which is banned. Airtech have an interesting range of fibreglass parts on their website. Kayl is a regular AFT Twins racer and one of the hottest So Cal flat trackers. He was the cover star of Sideburn 14 (which we have about three back issues left). #KaylKolkman #Airtech #CandJ #Kawasaki

Mablethorpe 22-10-17

Oct 22, 2017

Mablethorpe 22-10-17

After missing the first Mablethorpe Sand Race race of the season, because I was watching AFT racing in California (yeah, boo, hoo), I had repeated days at CFM, Sleaford to get my bike ready for round 2. Carl CFM has been a beach race champion and helped me prepare the bike and pointed out a bunch of things I had to concentrate on to try make my 600 Honda more reliable (that's it above, after a couple of heats, the tail pipe already the colour of the beach). The beach is a hel

MRS Oficina Kawasaki Z650

Sep 14, 2017

MRS Oficina Kawasaki Z650

MRS Oficina have created this stunning Z650 street tracker for Kawasaki France. I've seen lots of MRS's work in Cafe Racer magazine, and at the Bike Shed Show, and the transformation they carried out on Kawasaki's 'neither fish nor fowl, target-misser' Vulcan S was pretty incredible. The Z650 is an old name for a new bike. You might have heard about Euro 4 and how it is affecting new bike design. It is heavy and it's killed off a bunch of bikes, for the good of the planet it

King Henry XIII

Aug 14, 2017

King Henry XIII

He did it. Henry Wiles won his 13th straight Peoria TT yesterday. The track was reprofiled for the flying twins. Peoria was the third TT of the 2017 AFT season. The Daytona opener was nothing like I hoped or imagined it would be (read all about it in Sideburn 29). Under two weeks ago was the Buffalo Chip TT, part of the Sturgis Bike Week, which did have a proper jump and a more technical track (though this official video below doesn't show the jump). Briar Bauman scored his s

GNC History for Sale

May 4, 2017

GNC History for Sale

I'd be very surprised if this bike wasn't a good investment for the future. There's not a lot I can add to the blurb, but surely this bike is a shoe-in for a berth at somewhere like the Barber Museum. The rich, I keep hearing, are getting richer, so there will be more collectors as time goes on. When fossil fuel burners are outlawed (it's coming), bikes with history will be in demand. You can read about Bryan Smith and his era-defining Kawasakis in Sideburn 7; The radical ski

Brilliant Brindley

Mar 17, 2017

Brilliant Brindley

Teenaged Brit, Oliver Brindley became the highest placed European finisher ever* in GNC flat track main last night, when he finished fourth in the Daytona TT Singles race. Ollie's previous career hight point was the Superfinal at the Superprestigio, but a few demoralising DNFs at high profile races had piled the pressure on his young shoulders. Fortunately, his family are the coolest, most laidback supporters of him and had faith that it would come good. That faith was repaid

Icon 1000 Dethgrip

Mar 13, 2017

Icon 1000 Dethgrip

Icon have done it again, with a super high production value short film to promote their latest Icon 1000 gear. The film features their latest build, Dethgrip, a Kawasaki Vulcan 650, yes really. Dead billy takes on some of our friends from The Speed Merchant crew. It's the bike featured in Sideburn 28. Watch the film, buy SB28 magazine, check out Icon 1000. I've been racing in their leathers for the last few years and their AirFrame Pro helmet for over a season. I really trust

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