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 hellish environment for old bikes, the wet, the salt, the spray from other bikes.
Read about all the prep in the next issue of Sideburn, but here are some photos and captions from today's race.
There were loads of bikes I hadn't seen before. This very clean CZ/Jawa ridden by a Guy Martin fan...
This KTM 690 something or other. Brakeless, like my bike...
Andy's KLX250, that won the 250 road bike class...
The Honda 250 Superdream with a 1996 Vauxhall Astra estate that looked like it was held together with gaffer tape...
Neat little Yam 2-stroke that had a few mechanical issues...
And this, the most inappropriate bike on the beach today, which also happened to be in my unlimited road bike class. It was one of the Street 750s race at DirtQuake and was being raced by Kane from the Bike Social website. I'm not sure if Kane, or the guys who'd prepped it, had been to the beach before, but as soon as I saw the liquid-cooled Street Rod I knew it would be a tough day for them. The tyres kind of look like they might work. They don't.
A front mudguard is a really good idea on the beach.
Plus, it still had belt-drive, not a chain conversion. After a couple heats the sand gets really churned up, and the flung up sand built up on the rear sprocket teeth and made the belt jump off causing a nasty looking collision that, fortunately, everyone walked away from.
Like a wit said on Sideburn's instagram, someone forgot the bike's name. Looked nice though...
This is what the track looks like. The front row of bikes are behind the elastic cord that snaps back to release the bikes. The caravan on the left is halfway down the straight.
Loads of DTRA racers ride on the beach. A whole Greenfield crew (who picked up loads of trophies between them), Brad Hardman, Tom Neave was on a brand new Husqvarna 450 and kicked ass. Anthony 'Co-Built' Brown was 2nd in 250 MX, Leah was third in a packed 450 MX class and I got third in the unlimited road bike.
Next race in 5 November.