Ray Stadia

However,as we know, in this country, sexual activity by an adult with a young person under 16 is treated very severely and does not allow for special circumstances. Although it's not black or white, in terms of whether it is an offence, it is. If you are a male age 16 to say 21, I can see how you could easily fall into a bad situation, if you are either told lies or just assume. But over 21, I am sure you have a good idea yourself. Mind you, a lot of young men these days go for the cougars and MILFS! (so I am told!)

Very true TWK, but you are virtually treated as though you are guilty. But I take your point.

Not strictly true.....in certain cases you are jailed until your court trial, i.e. on remand.

In this country, aren't they both treated the same? Might be different in Sweden?

I notice on Facebook and perhaps it has already been mentioned, but Trevor Hedge is a distributor of the Gerhard engine. Trevor Hedge is also a tuner. Does it mean this engine is no more 'out of the box/crate' than a GM?

With the backwheel virtually spinning all the way round the track, I can imagine with modern machinery it would be hazardous. However, what about a hardstanding starting platform that is removed on tapes up?

Well 'Windy' is not me, even though people who know me, might claim to the contrary!

Email done!

The BSF and the red highlight, doesn't mix.....like oil and water.

You can please some of the people some of the time..............

Assuming you are right, what has changed over the closed season to make speedway safer? Or could it be good luck, thus far?

I think it affects Slough Speedway's attendances.

If speedway riders were employed by the club, similar to a footballer, you could have the kind of control as you mention above, but riders are self employed. All the club are offering is a 'platform' for the rider to operate on. However, you could perhaps have a set up where each club has a relationship with one tuner and all club riders have to use his services, but whatever the riders do for GPs and overseas riding is not the club's business. The sport could insist that riders have no more than 2 bikes including engines for league use. Each club has a spare bike and at least one spare engine (some might do anyway). In addition, the sport lays down restrictions on how far tuning should go and perhaps a ceiling on tuning/servicing cost. Whether this idea would reduce costs enough, I am not sure.

I have now read the article in the Speedway Star on Mr Johns and it was an interesting article. However, it didn't really address the issue of reducing costs, apart from Mr Johns saying he wasn't as expensive as other tuners, his engines are reliable and he would prefer to see rev limiters. However, he did suggest that riders who have tried rev limiters, most couldn't get on with them. Also, he admitted most of his riders didn't ride in the UK. Whatever other countries feel about the cost of speedway is their issue, we are concerned with the UK, therefore, perhaps his views will be biased. The article didn't really offer any hope of reducing costs from the tuners point of view, in my opinion. It will be interesting to see if any changes are made in the future.

Thank you.

Not sure how cold Assen gets, but I can imagine they have to have an artificial ice track, but maybe many countries do, especially with so called global warming?

I have tried Google, but can't see anything on there.....Is Assen not going to hold any more ice speedway or is it just the big events?

Maybe the answer is, to leave speedway as it stands, to it's own destiny. If speedway dies, it will eventually be resurrected and perhaps the resurrected version will be without the current failings. Unfortunately though, I would predict a resurrected version would be amateur and likely to be individual meetings and probably held on 'tracks in a field'. At least it would be relatively cheap for all concerned.

I know Sommelier has answered, but there is a Wikipedia under Desaxe. I hadn't heard of it either, the Wiki is very descriptive. However, not sure I fully understand it after reading it!

All that work is bound to be expensive, if you have a tuner do the work. The trouble with speedway engines is there is a mystery about how to work on them and the reason is, if you obtain a so called manual for a speedway engine and I have a JAP, Weslake and Jawa manual, they tell you nothing, apart from setting the points and the tappets! And yet, they are very very simple. They are no more complicated than a lawnmower engine, but the tuning industry wants riders to believe they are. Any rider could pull their engine apart and put it back together, especially if they are shown once. Much of what is mentioned above by Humphrey, could be handled by most riders with a bit of confidence.

Things may have changed today, but I do remember years ago, that it was a big deal if a rider bought 1 or 2 new engines. Also, very often, early season poor performance was blamed on a new engine and the rider would switch back to an older engine. At the end of the day, it has been said for many seasons that rider costs needs to come down for the long term survival of the sport, but like most things in life, it is kicked around and booted into the long grass. The only way, in my opinion, is somehow have everyone on board with reducing costs and then gradually introduce change, without causing too much financial loss for all concerned.

Moto X uses petrol and holds more fuel than a speedway bike. I haven't heard of any fire problems in Moto X. I would think a lot of the reason for using methanol is 'we always have'. I believe methanol is more explosive, in terms of power and the pistons are very high compression. I think they have to be high compression to get the stuff to ignite. Using petrol over methanol, surely won't save any money, will it?

I know you haven't the time or the inclination to discuss your post, but cold starting for instance, is not start the engine and then rev the guts out of it, they gradually increase the revs to get the engine warm. And even when warm, I haven't witnessed, personally, full throttle revving in the pits. I agree on the start line, the riders generally give it some wellie, but that is not, usually, for very long. And are there many start line blow ups? Probably, most blow ups are caused because the engine has been so stressed to the limit by the tuner, that is the trade off, unreliability. Which is where a cheaper less stressed alternative would be good for the riders pocket. Whether it would make a big difference, who knows.

I suppose the counter argument to the above, is you are theoretically going from something superior to something inferior.

I am not sure what is meant by a 'standardised engine', but if we assume it is an engine that is governed to a certain power output, either due to being literally governed or the engine's construction, e.g. 'all engines are 2 valves', then surely, an interim solution would be to govern old/pre-standardised engines. I am sure many will say it isn't possible. Assuming it is possible, it will mean all pre-standardised engines can be used, so long as they are compliant with the new power output limit. Just a view!