Winter Riding

I have been riding more than ever the last couple of months. My kids are ten and thirteen now so they are at that perfect age where they want to ride and race all the time. I just hope I can keep up with their hectic pace. The magazines like to use them to test ride the bikes and other kid related gear because they will run full tanks of gas through the bikes without stopping, and then beg for more. When I first had kids I just assumed that they wouldn’t want to ride. Isn’t that the way it works? Your kids don’t want anything to do with the things they can have easily, or that the parents are into? Guess my kids didn’t get that memo. I think they, and all of their friends, might be in to it more than I am - and that is not easy! I even find myself cringing after we have ridden all day and they want to put the headlights on so they can keep going at night. Oh well - at least the neighbors and their kids are all into it now too.

My son Carson and I flew down to Dirt Rider magazine a few weeks ago to help out with the 85cc shootout. Carson had never ridden a two stroke before. I always had this dream that he would be part of the first generation of kids that wouldn’t have to ride the ear piercing, ring sticking, nightmare jetting, neighbor yelling, two smoker. Technology hasn’t quite made it there yet. I figured by now the factories would all have 4-stroke, automatic, fuel injected, cheap, and EASY TO WORK ON bikes. Or better yet, electric bikes where you just flip a switch to change the power curve. I’ll keep on dreaming. Anyway, we had a blast riding the bikes. It was fun dicing with Carson and Jimmy Lewis - while someone else worked on the bikes for a change. The 85’s haven’t changed much over the years but it does seem like they run better than when I used to do the shootouts with my nephew Jeremiah (ten years ago). I was afraid Carson would want a 2-stroke now that he had eaten the forbidden (at BBR) fruit. But when asked if he liked two strokes he announced, “No!” He said you can only take one line on them; the outside with the throttle held wide open. He really is my kid!

Carson Brown with Jimmy Lewis

We are in the dead of winter up here in the Northwest so it is mud riding season. There is even a track called, “Mudslingers”. It only holds five races a year – all in the winter and it never fails to rain like crazy at every one of them. If you want to have the happiest kids in the world – take them to a mud race! This track absolutely packs the place out. They have full gates for every class. At the last race we went to at Mud-Slingers, I was standing on the starting line with all the other insane mini-parents and it was raining so hard you couldn’t even see the first corner. All the parents looked like they were having the most miserable day of there lives but the kids, on the other hand, were high-five’n, laughing, throwing mud balls, and chasing each other around. They were having even more fun out on the track. All you could see was white teeth from their big smiles as they circled around in the mud. Even the parents have to laugh when they see that. My kids are still asking when the next mud race will be.

Jen Brown at Mudslingers 2010

Luckily there are some indoor tracks up here in the Northwest. The main one we have been hitting this winter is Oakwood Arena. It is perfect for the little four-strokes and we have had a full class of 50’s, 110’s and 150’s pretty much every week. BBR is going to sponsor the last race there on March 21 so break out your mini bike and come hang out with us. We are even going to provide trophies for everyone (Obama style – it doesn’t matter how you finish!) in the mini 4-stroke classes. See you there!

Blast from the Past

The Blast from the Past comes from the July 2000 issue of Dirt Rider magazine. Ken Faught, Karl Kramer, and Rich Taylor worked on the story. The test was on a prototype RM 400 that we built with Yoshimura and Suzuki. We took a DRZ400 and an RM 250 and put them together. The hardest part of the project was getting it to feel like an RM250 when you sat on it and when you were riding it. I made a couple of aluminum tanks, subframes, and air boxes until it had that magic feeling. Yoshimura built the motor and I remember it had a super trick titanium crank in it. That engine was worth a small fortune. I remember they wanted us to insure it for $40,000 when we would ship it back and forth! Our buddy Rich Taylor was the head development rider over at Suzuki R&D so he was the test rider on this bike also. We took Rich and the bike to a few 4-stroke Nationals which were huge at the time. We wanted to make sure the bike rode as good as it looked. It did. Rich podiumed a few of them and I think he may have even won a moto or two against the fasted four-stroke racers in the world. The thing I remember most about this bike was when we raced it at the White Bros. Four-Stroke World Championships. All of the Suzuki and Yoshimura guys were out there working on the bike and were dead serious about Rich winning on it. Our work was done on it so we were more interested in having Rich race our new perimeter framed TTR 125 for us in the 150 class. I don’t remember anyone else being too excited about Rich racing that little bike. I think Suzuki and Yosh’ even told him he couldn’t. In true Rich Taylor fashion he jumped on the TTR at the last second – with no practice - and won the 150 class for us. The Brown Brothers might be the only guys in the world who cared more about the 150’s than the 450’s! Play bikes are our passion and are more fun for us. On that day, the big bikes and all of the seriousness felt more like a job. Thanks Rich for keeping our priorities straight!

Click image for story
Keep in touch - Duane