Building the hack part II

Hi all,

a few pictures again taken at an afternoon in the workshop. All swings and foot guards have been painted blue now and we continued with our building. The bike will be ready soon from now but we're not in hurry at all. I walked last weekend here in a park and the back of a park bench, almost completely hidden under the snow, was at the same level as my feet ;-). I was walking on top of almost one meter of snow and that in Helsinki.

Greetings, Stephan

 

 

Building the hack

Hi again,

Last Saturday I picked up the frame at Are Kaurit's workshop. Some minor repairs and changes plus a new white paint coat. The frame is in a good shape again, especially the tubes under the engine had suffered some damage due to rocks on the tracks.
One of the changes is the right foot protector, now 2 parallel replaceable tubes. This prevents excessive build up of dirt under the brake pedal like we had last season with the aluminium protector.

There's a lot of snow again this winter and we have time to build up the hack for the coming weeks.
Some pictures added, more will follow during our time we will spend in the workshop.

Greetings, Stephan

2011 Seasons conclusion

Hi all,

it's a long time since I've updated our blog but that didn't mean we've only been sitting on the sofa all that time. First the results of the 2011 season:

Finnish championship 5th position
Estonian championship 15th position
Estonian cup 12th position
Latvian championship 15th position
Latvian championship Veteran class 3rd position

All together we participated at 22 races including two world championship events. At the start of the season we had some technical problems and missed too many points there. We listed what went wrong and with the implemented improvements and better preparations for next season our goal is not only to finish all the races but also to improve our results.

2012 we'll be riding together again for an other season. Mikael has been training with driving the sidecar by himself but needs more time on the bike before he can participate in races. What did we do those 3 months? First we took 2 weekends off, did sleep long in the weekends and just be lazy (yes on the sofa). The intensive season of 22 races in 5 months was feeling mentally and fysically, not to mention financially.

Then we picked up training again and during these sessions we tested some changes to the carburetor. Mikael started to drive with his friend Marko. Well first I made many laps with Marko to get him used at the job as a passenger and then I swapped my role and was passenger for Mikael. I've never been so many laps doing that job and it's not easy to move quickly and ligth as a feather from side to side. Then after a while Mikael and Marko started to drive together.

I also tried the left hand sidecar of Jani  and Arto but that was unbelievable difficult to ride. Everything felt wrong, only one lap and quickly back to the paddock. Our training sessions ended at some moment when the gearbox started to give problems. The weather was getting worse and the clubs started to close the tracks. For this reason Mikael and Marko weren't able to spend more time with driving the sidecar. We decided to take the sidecar apart because the frame needed to be fixed and I also wanted to have some changes made. The rocks and stones had badly damaged the tubes under the engine and the left feet rest isn't much better. A new paint job and it's ready for the new season again. All in all the AYR frame has been very reliable during the season.

December the 9th I took the ferry to Tallinn and brougth first the frame to Are Kaurit, AYR manufacturer, to get it ready for next season. From there I continued to meet an Estonian team, Ivanov/Jalas and together we travelled to Latvia for the price ceremony of the Latvian championship. We had very bad weather during our trip and it took longer then expexted. The price ceremony was in Vecumnieki near Stelpe.

The Latvian federation had organized a big happening and there was a very relaxed atmosphere.
Unfortunately Mikael became ill the day before and had to miss all the fun.

For the moment we're waiting for the frame to be ready and are looking for rebuilding one engine to have a longer stroke. This is one of the changes we must make to be more competitive next season.

Untill the next post I would like to thank especially our sponsors for their support and hope they will stay on board and continue with helping us to achieve our goals next season.

Best regards,

Stephan

Porvoo field trip 17.09.2011

Hi all,

Last Saturday we went to Porvoo to spend the afternoon riding at a harvested field. This would have been a great opportunity for people interested in sidecar motocross to give it a try. The track was winding nicely around the field with a lot of smooth corners. In spite of some publicity only a small group arrived at location, less then 30 persons. We still had a good time and people tried the jobs of driver or passenger and rode different hacks.

Regards,
Stephan

Pictures from Porvoo

Pictures Gulbene, Latvia

Our thanks to Panu for taking these pictures

Gulbene, Latvia

Regards,
Stephan

Orimattila, final round for the Finnish Championship

Hi all,

this was the last race for the Finnish championship and also for this season. After 22 races it's good to stay at home again for the weekends (for a while). The whole week prior to the race it has been raining regularly. The track was very soft and heavy but ride-able. The Orimattila track is half sand, half clay. With reinforcements from Estonia and Sweden 12 teams arrived at the paddock. The exemption of the entry fee for foreign teams had attracted their interest. Maybe this example will be followed by other organizers next season and hopefully there will be no overlapping events as many as this year.

Back to the race; as expected with the short stroked Husaberg engine there's not much to prove when confronted with a soft and heavy track. 10th position in the training and one team crashed and was out of the race already.

Before the first start the organization cleaned the worst mud from the track and that helped a lot.The start was as expected, we just followed the others in the first corners. The positive thing of arriving with a little delay is that you can avoid the first corner pile-up and pick up a few places. But in this soft sand and clay it's not taking very long before the faster teams start to re-pass. We ended up behind the Swedish team and started to push for a pass. They used a fat two-stroke Zabel and at every straight they made a gap we were able to close in the corners but didn't get the opportunity to finalize it. After the first lap the rear brake pedal was blocked by mud and didn't operate anymore. Then after 2 laps we started to hear a strange metallic noise that became more and more frequent the next laps. And after four laps a tube from the cooling system popped off. That was the end of our part in this heat. Luckily it happened on the starting straight, short walk back to the paddock.
We pushed the hack back to the paddock and found that Pöllänen/Lehtinen were also there with a boiling engine. When we checked the sidecar we noticed that the rear sprocket was completely worn out and the chain had jumped causing the metallic noise we heard. The wet sand had shortened the sprocket's life remarkably.

The second start was a repetition of the first. 2 teams got technical problems in the first lap and we held the last position during the whole heat. There was never a real change to close the gap with the teams in front of us. I decided to save the engine and just finish the race. Behind Pöllänen/Lehtinen we ended at the ninth position. In the total standing we dropped one position and the fifth spot is the result of our efforts this year. 2 DNF's did cost us points but also a problem was that all the races this year in Finland took place on muddy and heavy tracks where our engine wasn't the best choice.

For now we continue with training sessions and Mikael starts to drive by himself with a friend of him. I'm going to have a good beer and intend to test some other team's equipment. Next Saturday we've planned to have a test day on a farming field in Porvoo. Hopefully we'll see some new faces interested to give sidecar motocross a try.

Regards,
Stephan

Results Orimattila 10.09.2011 (sv = sidecars)
trip Orimattila 10.09.2011

Gulbene, Latvian Championship 04.09

Hello again,

This was the eight and last race of the Latvian championship series. At Saturday we took the 10:30 ferry to Tallinn. Panu was travelling with us and let's hope his pictures succeeded. The team of Aronen/Mantila had left earlier that week to Denmark for the Slagelse GP. Because we weren't in a hurry we crossed the Estonian/Latvian border at Mõisaküla, a little bit of sightseeing trip. We had dinner in Park Hotel Bruzis, Smiltene. We've been there before and the restaurant serves good food.

It started to get dark when we continued for the last 100 kilometers to our hotel for the night. I had booked a hotel based on location and price, you know our budget is always pressed and the choice this time was hotel Grasu Pils located near Cesvaine.

Finding this hotel in the dark somewhere in the countryside was not easy. Luckily Panu had his navigator with him and even with it's help we were in doubt when following gravel roads deeper and deeper in the dark countryside. But then in the middle of nowhere there it was... suits us good. A manor from the 17th century. In Latvia and Estonia you can have a wonderfull holiday travelling around especially when you like history and architecture.
Driving trough the place Cesvaine we passed the local palace, yes a palace! Unfortunately we didn't had time to have a better look at the surroundings and these buildings. It was sidecar motocross for what we came for.
The next morning it was only a short trip to the Gulbene track but there were many dark and low rain clouds with now and then deep fog over the road. We've been before in Gulbene and the race was canceled halfway due to the bad conditions.

Arriving at the paddock we were happy to see that the track was okay. Well watered of course but no deep mud like 2 years ago. The sun broke trough and it was warming up slowly. The Gulbene track is mainly based on reddish clay, traditional for Latvia, and a few corners with deep sand. There's a steep climb in the mid section of the track. Only 12 teams had found their way to Gulbene. We achieved the 10th position in the training.

The starting area was still very soft and we ended up in the back of the pack. We passed quickly Vâpa/Macs but then we weren't able to pass Ivanov/Jalas. Lap after lap we tried to cut the corners and pass them from the inside line but they kept the door closed.  In the last part of the heat a Latvian team got stuck in front of us for a little moment and we used this situation to get aside but the Latvian passenger was running in front of us to his waiting driver and I had to shut of. After that we didn't get a change to pass whatever we tried. It was a good race only I would have liked to make the pass we intended, 10th position for us.

For the start of the second heat I did choose a different place behind the gate because the surface was a little bit harder there. This helped and our start was much better now. Halfway a Latvian team passed us and we had Ivanov/Jalas behind us. At lap 6 they passed us at the sandy part of the track. We just didn't had the power to get a good drive out of a corner with deep soft sand. The next corner they had the inside line and that was it. Again 10th position for us.

After the race we had a little party with cake and champaign to celebrate the new Veteran class champions, Vâpa/Macs. In the final standings for the Latvian championship we ended at the 15th position and for the veteran championship we became third. To bad we had to skip 2 races because of overlapping events in Finland. This plus 2 DNF's at the first 2 races in Latvia made our changes at a better end result very difficult. On our way back we stopped once more in Smiltene at Park Hotel Bruzis for dinner. Our hotel was in Valmiera from where we continued the next morning to Tallinn.

Regards,
Stephan

Trip Gulbene 3-5.9.2011
Results Gulbene (bv = sidecars)