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John Davis In This Weeks Star


oldtimer

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Great to see Mr Castagna at the F.I.M leading a 1 man crusade to improve safety. To quote Bradley Wilson Dean in this weeks Speedway Star "I've ridden with an old silencer and I know what they are like.With the old silencer the bike doesn't stop in that sort of situation.With the new ones you hit some grip and the engines die and you lift. That's why they are so dangerous". In trying to improve safety you are largely trying to rectify a situation that you and you alone created yourself.

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ODD that because that was exactly the complaint with the old silencer. Honestly haven't heard riders complaining about the new silencers this year. Perhaps he got hold of the wrong one!

Rider or Silencer?

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I had the uprights v laydown discussion with an ex. NL heat leader this week.

 

It does seem to me that apart from the lubrication level and the down draught carb, the only obvious diffence between the two engine layouts is the primary pipe length (and that may not be the case, I haven't actually measured them both).

 

If the above is true, there is no reason on earth why an upright could not rev as high as a laydown surely?

 

Are laydowns revving higher merely because they have had a great many more years development since the demise of the upright?

 

If that is the case (and I believe it is) then there is no real argument for returning to uprights is there?

 

As for ex. rider committees formulating reforms to machinery, I seem to remember Jim McMillan was supposed to be evaluating rev limiters nearly two years ago, but I don't recall hearing anything about the outcome of that?

 

Tuners are coming in for some flack in this thread, I assume this includes simple engine builders?

Peter Johns told me two years ago that in his opinion many engines required rebuilding because of poor filtration causing wear, poor throttle control causing wear and simple silly riding.

We have all seen riders "spinning" an engine up on the start line, opening and closing the throttle rapidly, why?

We have all seen riders doing the same exiting turns in an effort to gain traction. Peter Johns told me that most riders regard the throttle as a switch, open or closed, they have no idea of cranial traction control at all.

 

Fashion dictates the equipment choice of many riders and leading edge fashion is always expensive, but what really matters to a rider (did they but know it) is the size of their pay cheque compared to the size of their bills.

 

They do not need huge vans, elaborate sign writing, £35 filler caps, dazzling guards, gold chains or zebra stripe kevlars.

They need to get to meetings at the lowest possible cost and leave with an intact, durable bike and a good wage.

If they score well, their team is successful and spectators like to watch successful teams and this assures the future of the club and future work for the rider.

Racing down the motorway at 90mph, 25 mpg in a dazzling sign written pantechnicon loaded with four bikes is not the way forward for a decent bank balance.

Edited by oldsparky
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Are laydowns revving higher merely because they have had a great many more years development since the demise of the upright?

 

The laydowns rev higher because the stroke has been shortened/piston widened from the first laydowns that came in mid 90's. The same can surely be done for an upright engine. Just that it apparently never was...

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Yes, sod 1985, wasn't speedway in a mess compared to now?.............

 

It's not a question of pretending but trying to get the sport back in a sane, sustainable state. I'd prefer we learned from past successes rather than blindly heading for the cliff edge muttering 'time's moved on'.

 

A cheap shot.

Because clearly a successful business model is to look at what was successful 30 years ago, and try to replicate it no?. Speedway's issue is precisely that it is too much like 1985, not too different.

 

and let's face it in 1985 there were lots of complaints about the state of speedway: Falling attendances, rising costs, too many mediocre foreigners, not enough young Brits coming through, poor weather, badly prepared tracks, increasing rivals for the entertainment pound etc. Any of those sound familiar? England had just one rider in the world final, their best riders were either injured, banned or refusing to race for England due to argument with the team manager. The British league had shrunk from 16 teams the previous season to 11 that season. Wembley , white city and Blackbird Rd had recently gone, the Shay was about to, Hyde Rds demise not far away. There has been a significant number of deaths on British tracks within the preceding few years.

Of ocurse, there were no serious competitors to the BL, so the top riders (bar some of the yanks) all raced there - people can whinge about Sky, GPs or playoffs, but what really made the difference to the UK was when the Polish league started and riders could earn better money elsewhere.

Speedway could learn a lot from cricket, darts, rugby, where succesful marketing and some alteration to the product managed to transform the sports into something attractive for modern audiences.

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Because clearly a successful business model is to look at what was successful 30 years ago, and try to replicate it no?. Speedway's issue is precisely that it is too much like 1985, not too different.

 

and let's face it in 1985 there were lots of complaints about the state of speedway: Falling attendances, rising costs, too many mediocre foreigners, not enough young Brits coming through, poor weather, badly prepared tracks, increasing rivals for the entertainment pound etc. Any of those sound familiar? England had just one rider in the world final, their best riders were either injured, banned or refusing to race for England due to argument with the team manager. The British league had shrunk from 16 teams the previous season to 11 that season. Wembley , white city and Blackbird Rd had recently gone, the Shay was about to, Hyde Rds demise not far away. There has been a significant number of deaths on British tracks within the preceding few years.

Of ocurse, there were no serious competitors to the BL, so the top riders (bar some of the yanks) all raced there - people can whinge about Sky, GPs or playoffs, but what really made the difference to the UK was when the Polish league started and riders could earn better money elsewhere.

Speedway could learn a lot from cricket, darts, rugby, where succesful marketing and some alteration to the product managed to transform the sports into something attractive for modern audiences.

Oldace and me liking the same Post - what is the World coming to? :shock: :shock: :shock:;):blink:

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ODD that because that was exactly the complaint with the old silencer. Honestly haven't heard riders complaining about the new silencers this year. Perhaps he got hold of the wrong one!

He is in fact referring to the old silencers from 2010, which are still legal in New Zealand where he has learnt his trade. The old style silencers are straight through and allow the bike to expel exhaust gas freely which lets the bike power through the dirt a lot easier. The newest exhaust systems do in fact have a 25mm hole in the "silencer" but they are expensive and I can only assume that he is still on the 2011 exhausts which don't have any hole in the actual silencer. It was good to see that Bradley returned to Rye house after that speedway star interview, and that terrible crash, and won 4 of his 5 races last Saturday.

Who's he?

Top of the NL averages multiple times this season, #1 for Eastbourne.

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