July 2010

Alright – It’s been awhile. Crazy as always around here. We survived Mini-Moto again in Vegas, raced the Northwest Mini-bike national and are getting ready for Washougal this weekend.

MiniMoto SX 2010

Mini Moto was a blast as always. It is a lot of work, and I am glad when it is over every year, but we learn a bunch preparing and testing for it. This year was no different. We had the usual suspects on our team this year with a few new ones thrown in to keep it fresh. My son Carson brought a bunch of his buddies with him this year to race the kids class so it was fun to see how excited they were all weekend. When you are ten years old it’s hard to not have fun at a motorcycle race in Vegas! Costella, Gosselaar, and Abrigo were fast as always. Derek came out on top for the umpteenth year and won the World Final. When Derek wants to go fast on a mini-bike there is no one that can touch him. The funny part is that he never looks that fast in practice or even in the qualifiers but man when it counts he can lay it down. He even asked before the World Final “…is this the one I need to win?” He is one funny guy. Watch for Derek to be one of the stars on the TV show Thrillbillies on Fuel TV next season.

There was an electric bike vs. gas bike race this year that was kind of fun. It pitted the best of the electric bikes against bone stock TTR125s, KLX140s, CRF150Fs, etc. The gas bikes didn’t have much of a chance with the top ten electric bike guys being former national and Supercross champions but it was cool to see how far the electric bikes have come. When someone comes up with a good battery, one of these days, it will be on! Until then it will just be a side show. I can’t wait for that technology though. Just picture flipping a switch to change the power curve instead of changing cams, pipes, pistons etc. And better yet, picture not having to deal with the neighbor lady and environmental wackos over noise. I am sure they will still find a way to butt into your business but that will be a great day when noise isn’t an issue! 

Complete MiniMoto results are here.  You can view several videos about MiniMoto on our Videos page, too.  Finally, be sure to check out a highlights video at Fuel TV.  We'll try to keep you posted on when the complete race will air on Fuel TV.

BBR bikes ready to race at MiniMoto SX 2010

BBR kids laughing it up in the pits

BBR's Derek Costella spanking the competition in the MiniMoto SX World Final

Northwest MiniBike National 2010

The 5th annual Northwest Minibike National went off a few weeks ago and as always was a great one. It is held at the scenic Mountain View MX Park in Oregon. The promoters do a great job organizing the event and they keep it really fun. The dirt is red clay so it packs down as hard as cement and makes for some great racing. The turnout was really good this year and all of the classes were pretty full. Mini-Moto SX girls class champion Erika Short showed up and showed the boys how it was done. She borrowed Carson’s mud riding KLX 110 practice bike and won the Womens class and the highly competitive 12” stock class. This girl can ride! The other big winners were Eric Turner in the $ class, Mitch Trotter in the 10” class, Cody Hoburg in the 30+, Mike Finny in the 40+, and Carson Brown in the kid’s classes. Put this race on the calendar for next year. It’s worth the drive.

BBR's Duane Brown (#6) races a 1978 XR75 in the Vet Class

BBR's Carson Brown on his way to a Youth 12" class win

Mitch Trotter (#45) in Vet Class

10 inch Youth Class staging

Washougal MX 2010

The Washougal MX national is this weekend. The track is only 180 miles from BBR so we have had a lot of fun there over the years. Not to date myself but me and Chris were even at the first national there in 1980 when we were just kids. Bob Hannah, Mike Bell, and Chuck Sun were bigger than life to us (although the bikes were cooler to us than anything). My favorite year there was 1997. We had built the Husaberg powered, perimeter framed, 4-stroke and had Honda R&D test rider Rich Taylor lined up to test the bike. In practice Rich burned up three ignitions and never got in one clean lap. He had kind of decided not to race the bike at that point but we talked him into giving it one more shot. Chuck Sun was the Husaberg rep at the time and we begged one more ignition off of him. We bolted it on and drilled a huge hole in the bottom of the ignition cover to vent it. With our fingers crossed and deals made with Jesus we coaxed Rich back onto the bike. He lined up and pulled the biggest holeshot I have ever seen and whipped the bike completely sideways off of the infamous Chuck Sun infield jump. That was a huge thrill for three brothers working out of their garage against all of the factories. Looking back we were too naive to know better. Anyway, Rich went on to finish on the podium both motos and opened every door in the motorcycle industry for us. I can’t wait for this weekend!

BBR's Husaburg powered bike sits in AMA tech impound at Washougal 1997

Blast From the Past

This week’s "Blast From the Past" comes from Mark Kariya over at 4-stroke Dirt Bikes magazine. It was the Dec. 1998 issue. Mark did a few special issues back in the 90s when the 4-strokes were really taking off. At the time we were still working out of our backyard shop. Those were some great times. We were tucked back into the woods on three acres in a residential neighborhood. We had a clapped out old bulldozer and built some of the craziest tracks you ever saw. We would ride all day and machine parts all night. Just enough to keep the bills paid so we could get back to riding. It was pretty cool because it felt like we were hidden from the rest of the world. Our own little MX paradise.

(Click cover for story)

Keep in touch - Duane