New shirts and sticker set

Hello,

it's some time ago that I've updated our blog but better late than never. Because we have some new names from companies supporting us for the new season, it was time to order new shirts and stickers. The start number will be as last year, # 155, and the basic layout we also kept the same.

Crescom (Server Hosting) merged with Cygate (Network Services) and we are very happy that Cygate  continues with supporting us. A new logo of course and a different shade of yellow fitting to the Cygate logo.
Other new names are Multicom (Storage and Backup Solutions) who jumped on board with us and Laakeri-Center, a bearing company and not difficult to see the picture ;-).

Soon more!
Greetings,
Stephan

Finnish Spring II

Hi all,

the first laps of 2012 are reality! We were last Saturday and Sunday at the Vantaa track riding for the first time this year. It was very cold and at some places the track was still frozen.

It felt like we've never ridden the hack before. How is it possible that after the long Winter everything seems to be forgotten?

As usual with a maiden-trip we had our technical problems too. I had to fix an incorrect position of the carburetor’s return spring and the head gasket was leaking. At the end a cooling tube got punctured and that was Saturday's result.

We went back to the workshop and took the cylinder head of. Because this engine has a copper gasket we could reuse it after glowing it with a torch.
Only no matches and again a trip to a gas station.

Sunday we were back on the track and now our riding was going much better. Only the head gasket was still leaking. 4 laps and then back in the paddock to let the engine cool down and refill the cooling system.

And Monday? Well, look at the pictures of the trip to my work that morning. For now we have time again to work at the bike for a while.

Greetings,
Stephan

Finnish Spring

Hi,

we're almost ready with building the sidecar for the coming season. For now we will use the old plastic parts until we receive the new plastics with the new sticker sets. We planned already to be out on the track next weekend but looks like we'll have to wait a little while yet.
Here some pics taken this morning ;-)

Best regards,
Stephan

Race calendar 2012

Hi all,

the Estonian federation has published it's final race calender for 2012 (what's final, changes do always occur ;-)). Together with Finland and Latvia there are 17 races on the list. No cup races in Estonia this year but 6 championship races like Latvia (2 races less than the previous year). Finland 3 races (1 less) but Raahe and Stelpe in the same weekend, hmmm....

The start of the new season will be interesting, 5 races in 9 days. Well, don't they usually say that before ships were made from wood and men from steel? Sidecar motocross is the dinosaur of the motocross scene, thus from the wooden ship and men of steel area. Let's hope.

The race calendar for 2012 you'll find under its own tab.

Greetings, Stephan

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