November Update

It’s been a crazy few months around here! From the introduction of the MM12P, to racing at the new Pacific Raceways track this summer, to prototyping parts for the new 2010 KLX 110, I haven’t had a minute to sit down and type a new blog. I guess I still don’t, but here we go anyway!

BBR MM12P

The BBR MM12P Production Bike Sales have exceeded our expectations and they have been rolling out the door as fast as we can build them. It still takes us a lot of time to gather all of the parts from around the world, and hand assemble them, so make sure you are on the list if you want one. We are still making many of the parts here at our facility in Auburn, Washington. That’s one of the advantages of being a manufacturing company. We can step in at anytime and build a part for the MM12P or any other project we are working on. This is especially true if our suppliers are not coming through on time or the quality is not where it needs to be. Since we designed and drew every part on the MM12P bike we can just fire up the machines and spit out the parts we need. Of course, in this day and age, making parts in American is extremely expensive and it seems the government finds new ways (daily) to punish us for manufacturing in the U.S.- but we do it anyways. How can anyone survive all of the regulations, fines, inspections, city codes, taxes, health insurance, environmental regulations, safety classes, politically correct classes, safety charts, fire dept inspections, electrical inspections, county codes, and fire extinguisher inspections? Did I mention taxes that go up daily, flood insurance, earthquake insurance, shop vehicle insurance, employee insurance, business owner life insurance, liability insurance, OSHA…..I could go on. We just want to build cool bikes! We are happy that there still seems to be good demand for our full-blown BBR Fabricated Team Race Bikes. There are still a lot of people who just want the very best money can buy. Now, our MM12P allows us to capture the consumers who want BBR quality, but don’t mind if we manufacture some of the parts overseas. Anyway, the MM12P bikes have worked out great and the feed back has all been positive. The only way you won’t love this bike is if your buddy buys one and you bought something else!

MM12P's waiting to be crated

More exciting news….we are building ten (10) Limited Edition MM12LE Factory Team Bikes that will be available in the next two weeks. These bikes will be setup race-ready exactly as we will set up our 2010 Las Vegas BBR National Event bikes. They will have our BBR USA V-3 Frame Kit, Billet SuperComp Swingarm, Marzocchi 35mm Shivers, Elka SuperShock, Galfer Rotors, and all of the other very best BBR equipment. There will be three engine choices ranging from a 150cc Daytona, a DOHC 150cc, or a 4V KLX160cc.

The new MM12LE

Also, watch for our new complete SuperPro and Perimeter 10” Race Bikes. You’ll see more about them in the next couple of weeks too!

Local Racing

We did a bunch of mini bike racing this summer. We went down to Olympia, Washington and raced the WORCS week. It was a total blast. If you haven’t ever raced off-road you should give it a try. Picture an hour plus MX race through the woods. It is supper tight and knarly, but a total blast. You definitely get you’re money’s worth. I raced it on a BBR 150F and it really seemed like the right size bike for the woods. Even when they sent us through the EnduroCross course the bike worked out great. My son Carson raced the 65 expert class on his BBR 110 and had a blast. You can read about it right here. Carson spends every minute he can riding and the muddier and nastier it is the more he likes it. WORCS week was right up his alley. Also, a new SuperMoto track was built just down the road from BBR, this summer at Pacific Raceways in Kent. It is a state of the art Go-cart, Drifter-car, and Supermoto track. We raced there three or four times this summer. The turn out in the mini bike classes were pretty good with 10 – 15 guys at each round. If you haven’t ever raced Supermoto before you have got to give it a try. Once you learn how to slide it in it is a blast. The Mini-bike class rules are fairly easy too. All you really need is a catch can for the oil overflow and you are ready to race. Only about half of the guys even ran slicks. Just line up on your bike and go. This facility would be a great place for a mini-bike national event so we will see what we can do! Oakwood arena In Spanaway, Washington is set to start Nov.15. There is always a good turn out of mini-bikes with classes for kids and adults. The promoters are fixing the facility up with new lights, a new starting gate, and vender row. Grab you’re 50, 110, or 150 and we will see you there. Check it out here: Oakwood Northwest Areacross Series

2010 KLX110L

The new KLX110 walked through the door last week and it looks pretty good. There are now two KLX110s available; a standard version and a tall version with a manual clutch. Both bikes received electric starting and completely new body work. Most of the old KLX engine parts will bolt right on but the body work and suspension are another story. The swimgarm pivot bolt has been lowered to accommodate a longer shock (still horrible) which throws a wrench into installing any current swing arm kits. Also, the rear fender is part of the battery box which now sits in the middle of where any good aftermarket shock would need to go. The forks still feel like they don’t have any oil or dampening whatsoever in them. The L version (or tall bike) is pretty cool for adults. The back end is jacked up a couple of inches too tall, though. That makes the bike handle like a bad 70s vintage bike (or current knockoff bike). It is probably ok for riding around the pits with you’re favorite drink in one hand, just don’t try to rail a corner “Costella style” the way it sits. BBR will be all over this bike, and we already have tons of parts for it. Just keep checking back for more parts as we get them dialed in. Here are a few photos of the new bike:

Tank shrouds completely cover the tank and are connected to each other with plastic rivets.

Front fender and number plate are a crazy molded shape. They will not interchange with the old style fender and numberplate due to the crazy lower tripleclamp shape.

Rear fender is pointed and is molded in one piece with the battery box (see below picture). This will not interchange with the old style fender and sidepanels.

Subframe tube bends out for the battery on the left side.

Flywheel cover is new with a sight hole and a hole to turn the flywheel.

This picture shows the giant lower steering bearing. The bottom bearing is tapered, but the top is still loose balls. This also shows the funky lower tripleclamp.

This is the manual clutch cover. Note that the new 4-speed is "1 down 3 up" shift pattern.

Kawasaki also added a lower chain roller.

Blast From the Past

This months blast from the past comes from the guys over at Mini-Moto mag 2005. Chris Gosselaar is on the cover on his way to winning the premier 110 class at Mini-Moto. This was one of my favorite years in Vegas and favorite races ever. At the time we were on an absolute mission to win Mini-Moto. The amount of testing and R&D we put into the race was unbelievable. I am still tired 5 years later from this race! This was at the peak of the Mini scene and you had every mini-bike company and most of the factories pouring huge amounts of time and money into this race. Chris Gosselaar was at his peak on big bikes running top five at every Supercross and his skills on a mini-bike were incredible to say the least. The only way he would lose is if we didn’t build a bike that was as good as he was. At the time everyone was running stock KLX frames, 138 motor kits, drum brakes etc.. We hooked up with Chris a few times a year to race 150s at various events so we would try a few parts out here and there when we would see him. It was clear early on that there wasn’t a single part on the stock 110 that he couldn’t break in a mater of minutes. We still joke that he even broke the stock gas cap. Good thing his dad (Mike Gosselaar ) is the world's best mechanic! Anyway - we started from scratch. We built a perimeter frame completely from scratch knowing that it would be the only way to get the bike to handle at the speeds Chris was going to go. It took months of testing, but man I felt great about that prototype frame and swing arm combo when it was done. I knew we had leap frogged a couple of years ahead of what anyone else was doing at the time. The next step was to make the engine as good as the chassis. A 138cc wasn’t going to do it. Chris was holding that engine wide open and flicking it around like a toy. We needed big horse power! We ended up machining a 150f Honda piston to fit in and basically created the first 160 kit. We tried some strokers but as always they wouldn’t rev so we knew that "12000 rpm Chris" would hate them. We tried a bunch of cam grinds, pipe sizes, carb sizes, etc until we came up with the magic indoor type of power. Once the bike was dialed all we had to do was get Chris on it and fine tune it. The Langetown 150 race was coming up so we figured Chris could ride a few practice laps there before the 150 race. He jumped on the bike and was instantly turning faster lap times on the small track than on his 150! He even asked us if he could race the 110 instead of the 150. I knew right there we had the winning combo. A few weeks later we headed to Vegas with the bike. Chris pretty much dominated every race he was in that night on the 110. It made the incredible amount of work, everyone put in at BBR, all pay off. Thanks Chris and everyone at BBR


Keep in touch and we will see you at the races!

Duane