Pits crew attire

[Sings4Speedway]

On 2/26/2024 at 10:47 AM, tyretrax said:

I've see a crew cab van with six in it drive in no problem.

But where does the issue lay? Friends, family, sponsors etc are fully allowed to travel with a rider and ought to be fully prepared to pay on arrival if the numbers exceed the permitted mechanic/guest allowance. Surely the issue rests with the club rather than those who travel with additional well wishers?

[Fortythirtyeight]

On 2/28/2024 at 5:22 PM, StevePark said:

I'm pretty sure it's a SCB/BSPL rule that all pit staff must wear hi-viz jackets/coats.

There is nothing in the rule book regarding any officials clothing , only the riders.

However, it is advisable in their specific job description, for those old enough to have been staff from several years ago when such a document was available.

[tyretrax]

9 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

But where does the issue lay? Friends, family, sponsors etc are fully allowed to travel with a rider and ought to be fully prepared to pay on arrival if the numbers exceed the permitted mechanic/guest allowance. Surely the issue rests with the club rather than those who travel with additional well wishers?

You're not wrong.

[ONTWOMINUTES]

How many spare items of pit crew clothing would be available? Some of these mechanics will be doing four or five meetings a week at some points in a busy season, wear and constantly washing would need to be accounted for . 

[ArthurRudge]

Used to regularly go in the pits at Long Eaton and Bradford as a nipper/teen/adult  

[IainB]

On 2/23/2024 at 4:05 PM, Hamish McRaker said:

Is it time for anyone working in the pits at a speedway meeting, to be required to conform to a dress code? Black seems to be the best, but instead of heavy metal bands tour t-shirts, plain polo shirts with "pits crew" on the back, plain black trousers or long shorts, and black shoes& socks (NO flip-flops allowed).

If BSPL could find a sponsor whose logo could be added, then it should be able to supply most of this kit (except shoes) free of charge via riders and promoters. 

This would help to portray a better image when matches are televised and to new spectators.

I notice a number of the mechanics on the Ippo side of the pits were wearing branded "Mechanic" shirts tonight at Brum.

[mikebv]

12 minutes ago, IainB said:

I notice a number of the mechanics on the Ippo side of the pits were wearing branded "Mechanic" shirts tonight at Brum.

But if they all dress the same I won't know which mechanic is which....

You could only tell them apart by their mechanicing styles....

Much better as it used to be...

25 year old Monsters Of Rock T shirt, dirty jeans at least one size too small, meaning plenty of arse crack on show when you are bent over sorting out the bike... 

We don't need progress...

[IainB]

Just now, mikebv said:

You could only tell them apart by their mechanicing styles....

You can only tell them apart by their arse cracks 🍑

[mikebv]

Just now, IainB said:

You can only tell them apart by their arse cracks 🍑

Red, Blue, White and Yellow....

[The White Knight]

2 hours ago, mikebv said:

Red, Blue, White and Yellow....

ENOUGH!!!! 😳

Please. 🤣

[NorthernBee]

On 2/29/2024 at 11:40 AM, Sings4Speedway said:

But where does the issue lay? Friends, family, sponsors etc are fully allowed to travel with a rider and ought to be fully prepared to pay on arrival if the numbers exceed the permitted mechanic/guest allowance. Surely the issue rests with the club rather than those who travel with additional well wishers?

I once travelled with a meeting official and we were waved into the stadium free of charge. Team manager fair enough, but me? I went and paid like everyone else. Later on in the pits (before bikes started and fans allowed in) I was chatting to an acquaintance who had also come in with a meeting official only they had not gone to pay like I did. They could well afford it and were boasting about getting in for free. I'm not looking for a pat on the back just making a point that some people are freeloaders and British Speedway needs to be stricter about their guest list! 

[Technik]

Len Silver was the man for restricting access. He would wait at the gate & point at the sign that stated 1 rider 1 mechanic 1 guest then he would count the number of spare heads. The rider would know nothing until he got his pay cheque with deductions for extra persons.

[Technik]

On 2/25/2024 at 6:40 PM, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Yes, you can’t just limit it with a rev limiter, it has to be made so the actual engine can only reach 10,000, then put the rev limiter on, a maximum lift on the cam is one way and is not to hard to police either, the effect on the racing would of no detriment, would it make it better ? Who knows, up till around 2010 it was around 10,000 but in the last 14 years it has gone up and although hardly anybody hits the current limiter except maybe at the start line but it’s those extra revs which are killing the tyres, despite what people think and how it appears speedway in real speed terms is no faster than it was 40 years ago, I posted about this last year, at Sheffield the fastest time of the season was the same time as Chris Morton in 1985,Ricky ashworth still holds the track record there from 2010,  the speed has increased on the straights but the speed has decreased slightly in the corners but the back wheel speed has increased significantly but the bike speed hasn’t , it seems the faster the track the more the speed stays the same, 

Todays engines rev far to high & just breed throttle jockeys. The days of the highly skilled riders that could use throttle control to make the machine work to its best are sadly lost.

It only seems a few years back that we were trying to make an engine rev to 10,000RPM & now they are in excess 0f 18,000RPM & we require a limiter at 13,500 which means nearly 30% of the engines capabilities are unavailable & yet they still rip a tyre to shreds in a couple of races. I think a limiter is a bad choice, it's just something else to go wrong or be by-passed.

My opinion is to limit the bore size which will increase the stroke to achieve 500cc & massivly reduce the RPM back to a level where the motor will work efficently at lower revs & provide a much smoother working band for the riders

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

On 4/8/2025 at 8:21 AM, NorthernBee said:

I once travelled with a meeting official and we were waved into the stadium free of charge. Team manager fair enough, but me? I went and paid like everyone else. Later on in the pits (before bikes started and fans allowed in) I was chatting to an acquaintance who had also come in with a meeting official only they had not gone to pay like I did. They could well afford it and were boasting about getting in for free. I'm not looking for a pat on the back just making a point that some people are freeloaders and British Speedway needs to be stricter about their guest list! 

I made the point about freeloaders years back and took a lot of stick for it, which is fine but the issue still remains, as an ex rider and various other jobs within the sport I still pay to watch speedway and have no problem with that, I’m just a fan now irrespective of the past but unfortunately there are a good number of ex riders, mechanics, tuners, sponsors and various others who don’t pay and moan like hell when they are asked to pay, if the sport was attracting 1000s every week it wouldn’t be such an issue but it’s not but these selfish (imo) people don’t really care for the future of the sport only that they can have a nights entertainment for free. I’ll get of my soapbox now 😜 and yes all mechanics should have team shirts provided by the club, the club buys a job lot of all sizes and takes them home to wash and brings them back, leaves them in the changing rooms and mechanics pick one wear it and leave it in changing rooms at end of meeting to be washed again, it’s not a great expense and it’s not going to bring fans back to speedway but it’s another little thing and a lot of little things make a difference, optics matter to people looking in on the sport 

[IainB]

35 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

all mechanics should have team shirts provided by the club, the club buys a job lot of all sizes and takes them home to wash and brings them back, leaves them in the changing rooms and mechanics pick one wear it and leave it in changing rooms at end of meeting to be washed again, it’s not a great expense and it’s not going to bring fans back to speedway but it’s another little thing and a lot of little things make a difference, optics matter to people looking in on the sport 

Many of the Ippo mechanics were wearing uniform tops on Monday night with the Tru7 logo on the front & Premiership logo on the back... didn't see any in the Brum side of the pits, that's not to say there weren't. I assume all teams will be kitted out for the first TNT meetings.

Edited April 9 by IainB

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

13 minutes ago, IainB said:

Many of the Ippo mechanics were wearing uniform tops on Monday night with the Tru7 logo on the front & Premiership logo on the back... didn't see any in the Brum side of the pits, that's not to say there weren't. I assume all teams will be kitted out for the first TNT meetings.

At the belle vue v Ipswich match on BSN, Danny kings mechanic is working on his bike being watched by the tv audience and his top has Redcar bears in big letters across his back, I’m not having a go at Danny or his mechanic but it looks ridiculous for a team sport to the casual/potential viewer to have a guy working for a team and have another team on his attire, it’s the little things 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

16 hours ago, Technik said:

Todays engines rev far to high & just breed throttle jockeys. The days of the highly skilled riders that could use throttle control to make the machine work to its best are sadly lost.

It only seems a few years back that we were trying to make an engine rev to 10,000RPM & now they are in excess 0f 18,000RPM & we require a limiter at 13,500 which means nearly 30% of the engines capabilities are unavailable & yet they still rip a tyre to shreds in a couple of races. I think a limiter is a bad choice, it's just something else to go wrong or be by-passed.

My opinion is to limit the bore size which will increase the stroke to achieve 500cc & massivly reduce the RPM back to a level where the motor will work efficently at lower revs & provide a much smoother working band for the riders

The modern engine can only reach  around 14,000 revs max without a limiter but once in motion because of the drag between tyre and track only reaches around 11,000 revs, quite a bit less on a grippy track, very few hit the limiter after the start but in my opinion it should be limited to 10,000 revs, overall bike speed will still be the same but the benefits tyres/tracks /engine wear and even noise level would be beneficial to the sport 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

I made this point before but people within the sport won’t accept the fact that we are going no faster today than 40 years ago, at Sheffield (a fast track) last week josh Pickering had the fastest time all night of 61.3, with an engine doing 11,000+ revs,in 1985 Hans Nielsen went round the same track in 61.4 with an engine doing around 9500 revs 

[Dave Jones]

25 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

I made this point before but people within the sport won’t accept the fact that we are going no faster today than 40 years ago, at Sheffield (a fast track) last week josh Pickering had the fastest time all night of 61.3, with an engine doing 11,000+ revs,in 1985 Hans Nielsen went round the same track in 61.4 with an engine doing around 9500 revs 

Well there's an old adage that states that " you can twist numbers around in order make your point".  The track record at Sheffied is currently under 59 seconds,& that was set in May24, which suggests bikes do go faster these days.

Hans would have been a long way behind in that race with his 61.4😃

[Triple.H.]

3 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

Well there's an old adage that states that " you can twist numbers around in order make your point".  The track record at Sheffied is currently under 59 seconds,& that was set in May24, which suggests bikes do go faster these days.

Hans would have been a long way behind in that race with his 61.4😃

Hans Nielsen would have probably been in front, so attempting to pass him would slow you down