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

Indianapolis Dealer Show

We just got back from the 2010 Indy Motorcycle Dealer show. Each year the motorcycle community rolls into Indianapolis to show off their latest products. This was BBR’s 9th year with its own booth. We did a few shows before that by setting up our bikes in the Maxxis Tires and White Bros. booths. There have been some memorable years for sure. 2001 and 2002 were big years for full sized 4-strokes. Honda and Yamaha were jumping on the bandwagon with new 450’s and all of the aftermarket companies were in a race to see who could come up with the best upgrade parts. We kind-of took the opposite approach. We had spent the previous five years stuffing big and small 4-stroke engines into 2-stroke chassis. We had the opportunity to work with many of the OEMs on pre-production and prototype 450’s so we knew what was coming down the road. We decided to focus our attention on the bikes we loved – mini-bikes. By 2004 the mini bike scene was in full swing and every vendor booth in Indy had some sort of pit bike, or pit bike part, to offer. Half of them had no idea what the parts fit. Few had ever even swung a leg over a mini bike before, but that didn’t stop them. Either way, those were my favorite years because there were people standing 50 deep to get a look at the latest BBR bike or part. In the later years, it was all about the Chinese knock-off junk. Those bikes and Indy stories are legend by now so let’s not relive them here. I did notice at this year’s show that the knock off companies have focused on the side by side market. Have fun with that, guys! The show was a little slow this year due to all the “end of the world” stuff going on right now but it is always great to see our industry friends and riders there.

Bob Hannah signing a vintage DG helmet at the 2010 Indy Dealer Show

Brent Brown hanging out with the Nitro Circus gang at the 2010 Indy Dealer Show

The Steak 'n Shake became our home-away-from-home but none of us were brave enough to try the Wisconsin Buttery Steakburger.

MiniMoto SX

It’s almost MiniMoto time. I can’t wait. It’s always a blast! If you haven’t ever raced MiniMoto before grab a bike and get yourself to Las Vegas (May 7th). If nothing else, just to say you did it. It’s full on demolition derby and everyone is going at least twice as fast as it looks from the stands. Any time you are lined up in front of 6,000 fans on a mini bike it’s a great day! The cheapest class is probably the 16’/150 class, or maybe the stock 50 class. Both of these classes the bikes have to stay (kind-of) stock so it keeps the cost down. Heck, I might even race one of the shop XR75’s this year. Derek Costella, Ryan Abrigo, Timmy Weigand, Victor Sheldon (along with the usual BBR race gang) will all be there. Come by and say “Hi” or bring a bike to race, and try to knock one of our guys off the top step!

Alright, I have a lot of bikes to build before MiniMoto, so I'd better get back to it! See you there!

Duane



Blast From the Past

The blast from the past comes from the July 2002 Dirt Bike magazine. The story covers the 2002 White Bros. Four Stroke World Championships. These races were always a blast because Lori at Glenn-Helen would let the BBR crew run the mini-bike part of the races (probably because she wanted nothing to do with this bunch of crazies). People would come from all corners of the country to give it a shot. We would advertise that everyone makes the main no matter what. Sometimes it meant that we had to run a two row or even three row start. Nobody seemed to care. When everyone started to line up, I would tell them, “If you think you have a shot at winning, line up on the front row. If not, find a place in the back”. At least everyone got a shot at the big money. We even did a thing called “Wacky Payback”. For “Wacky Payback” we took every rider’s number and put it into a hat. We had the top five fastest guys draw a number out of the hat, so the rider with that number got paid the same as the top-level rider drawing their name (no matter how they finished!). It was a lot of fun!

November Update

It’s been a crazy few months around here! From the introduction of the MM12P, to racing at the new Pacific Raceways track this summer, to prototyping parts for the new 2010 KLX 110, I haven’t had a minute to sit down and type a new blog. I guess I still don’t, but here we go anyway!

BBR MM12P

The BBR MM12P Production Bike Sales have exceeded our expectations and they have been rolling out the door as fast as we can build them. It still takes us a lot of time to gather all of the parts from around the world, and hand assemble them, so make sure you are on the list if you want one. We are still making many of the parts here at our facility in Auburn, Washington. That’s one of the advantages of being a manufacturing company. We can step in at anytime and build a part for the MM12P or any other project we are working on. This is especially true if our suppliers are not coming through on time or the quality is not where it needs to be. Since we designed and drew every part on the MM12P bike we can just fire up the machines and spit out the parts we need. Of course, in this day and age, making parts in American is extremely expensive and it seems the government finds new ways (daily) to punish us for manufacturing in the U.S.- but we do it anyways. How can anyone survive all of the regulations, fines, inspections, city codes, taxes, health insurance, environmental regulations, safety classes, politically correct classes, safety charts, fire dept inspections, electrical inspections, county codes, and fire extinguisher inspections? Did I mention taxes that go up daily, flood insurance, earthquake insurance, shop vehicle insurance, employee insurance, business owner life insurance, liability insurance, OSHA…..I could go on. We just want to build cool bikes! We are happy that there still seems to be good demand for our full-blown BBR Fabricated Team Race Bikes. There are still a lot of people who just want the very best money can buy. Now, our MM12P allows us to capture the consumers who want BBR quality, but don’t mind if we manufacture some of the parts overseas. Anyway, the MM12P bikes have worked out great and the feed back has all been positive. The only way you won’t love this bike is if your buddy buys one and you bought something else!

MM12P's waiting to be crated

More exciting news….we are building ten (10) Limited Edition MM12LE Factory Team Bikes that will be available in the next two weeks. These bikes will be setup race-ready exactly as we will set up our 2010 Las Vegas BBR National Event bikes. They will have our BBR USA V-3 Frame Kit, Billet SuperComp Swingarm, Marzocchi 35mm Shivers, Elka SuperShock, Galfer Rotors, and all of the other very best BBR equipment. There will be three engine choices ranging from a 150cc Daytona, a DOHC 150cc, or a 4V KLX160cc.

The new MM12LE

Also, watch for our new complete SuperPro and Perimeter 10” Race Bikes. You’ll see more about them in the next couple of weeks too!

Local Racing

We did a bunch of mini bike racing this summer. We went down to Olympia, Washington and raced the WORCS week. It was a total blast. If you haven’t ever raced off-road you should give it a try. Picture an hour plus MX race through the woods. It is supper tight and knarly, but a total blast. You definitely get you’re money’s worth. I raced it on a BBR 150F and it really seemed like the right size bike for the woods. Even when they sent us through the EnduroCross course the bike worked out great. My son Carson raced the 65 expert class on his BBR 110 and had a blast. You can read about it right here. Carson spends every minute he can riding and the muddier and nastier it is the more he likes it. WORCS week was right up his alley. Also, a new SuperMoto track was built just down the road from BBR, this summer at Pacific Raceways in Kent. It is a state of the art Go-cart, Drifter-car, and Supermoto track. We raced there three or four times this summer. The turn out in the mini bike classes were pretty good with 10 – 15 guys at each round. If you haven’t ever raced Supermoto before you have got to give it a try. Once you learn how to slide it in it is a blast. The Mini-bike class rules are fairly easy too. All you really need is a catch can for the oil overflow and you are ready to race. Only about half of the guys even ran slicks. Just line up on your bike and go. This facility would be a great place for a mini-bike national event so we will see what we can do! Oakwood arena In Spanaway, Washington is set to start Nov.15. There is always a good turn out of mini-bikes with classes for kids and adults. The promoters are fixing the facility up with new lights, a new starting gate, and vender row. Grab you’re 50, 110, or 150 and we will see you there. Check it out here: Oakwood Northwest Areacross Series

2010 KLX110L

The new KLX110 walked through the door last week and it looks pretty good. There are now two KLX110s available; a standard version and a tall version with a manual clutch. Both bikes received electric starting and completely new body work. Most of the old KLX engine parts will bolt right on but the body work and suspension are another story. The swimgarm pivot bolt has been lowered to accommodate a longer shock (still horrible) which throws a wrench into installing any current swing arm kits. Also, the rear fender is part of the battery box which now sits in the middle of where any good aftermarket shock would need to go. The forks still feel like they don’t have any oil or dampening whatsoever in them. The L version (or tall bike) is pretty cool for adults. The back end is jacked up a couple of inches too tall, though. That makes the bike handle like a bad 70s vintage bike (or current knockoff bike). It is probably ok for riding around the pits with you’re favorite drink in one hand, just don’t try to rail a corner “Costella style” the way it sits. BBR will be all over this bike, and we already have tons of parts for it. Just keep checking back for more parts as we get them dialed in. Here are a few photos of the new bike:

Tank shrouds completely cover the tank and are connected to each other with plastic rivets.

Front fender and number plate are a crazy molded shape. They will not interchange with the old style fender and numberplate due to the crazy lower tripleclamp shape.

Rear fender is pointed and is molded in one piece with the battery box (see below picture). This will not interchange with the old style fender and sidepanels.

Subframe tube bends out for the battery on the left side.

Flywheel cover is new with a sight hole and a hole to turn the flywheel.

This picture shows the giant lower steering bearing. The bottom bearing is tapered, but the top is still loose balls. This also shows the funky lower tripleclamp.

This is the manual clutch cover. Note that the new 4-speed is "1 down 3 up" shift pattern.

Kawasaki also added a lower chain roller.

Blast From the Past

This months blast from the past comes from the guys over at Mini-Moto mag 2005. Chris Gosselaar is on the cover on his way to winning the premier 110 class at Mini-Moto. This was one of my favorite years in Vegas and favorite races ever. At the time we were on an absolute mission to win Mini-Moto. The amount of testing and R&D we put into the race was unbelievable. I am still tired 5 years later from this race! This was at the peak of the Mini scene and you had every mini-bike company and most of the factories pouring huge amounts of time and money into this race. Chris Gosselaar was at his peak on big bikes running top five at every Supercross and his skills on a mini-bike were incredible to say the least. The only way he would lose is if we didn’t build a bike that was as good as he was. At the time everyone was running stock KLX frames, 138 motor kits, drum brakes etc.. We hooked up with Chris a few times a year to race 150s at various events so we would try a few parts out here and there when we would see him. It was clear early on that there wasn’t a single part on the stock 110 that he couldn’t break in a mater of minutes. We still joke that he even broke the stock gas cap. Good thing his dad (Mike Gosselaar ) is the world's best mechanic! Anyway - we started from scratch. We built a perimeter frame completely from scratch knowing that it would be the only way to get the bike to handle at the speeds Chris was going to go. It took months of testing, but man I felt great about that prototype frame and swing arm combo when it was done. I knew we had leap frogged a couple of years ahead of what anyone else was doing at the time. The next step was to make the engine as good as the chassis. A 138cc wasn’t going to do it. Chris was holding that engine wide open and flicking it around like a toy. We needed big horse power! We ended up machining a 150f Honda piston to fit in and basically created the first 160 kit. We tried some strokers but as always they wouldn’t rev so we knew that "12000 rpm Chris" would hate them. We tried a bunch of cam grinds, pipe sizes, carb sizes, etc until we came up with the magic indoor type of power. Once the bike was dialed all we had to do was get Chris on it and fine tune it. The Langetown 150 race was coming up so we figured Chris could ride a few practice laps there before the 150 race. He jumped on the bike and was instantly turning faster lap times on the small track than on his 150! He even asked us if he could race the 110 instead of the 150. I knew right there we had the winning combo. A few weeks later we headed to Vegas with the bike. Chris pretty much dominated every race he was in that night on the 110. It made the incredible amount of work, everyone put in at BBR, all pay off. Thanks Chris and everyone at BBR


Keep in touch and we will see you at the races!

Duane

MiniMoto SX 2009

We survived MiniMoto, raced the Mountain View N.W. mini bike national, and are moving ahead on the MM12P.

MiniMoto SX 2009

The MiniMoto SX was a blast as always – I think. Like I always say, anytime you are racing mini bikes in a stadium in front of 7000 people it’s a good time no matter what! The whole J-Law thing was as crazy as we knew it would be. J-Law is kind of like politics in America right now - split right down the middle with passion on both sides! Half the crowd loved him and cheered on his every psychotic move and the other half wanted to hang him and run him out of town. What a crazy night! When the race was over J-Law rode to his truck, got in and waited for the crowd to disperse, and drove off. We haven’t heard a word from him since. Bottom line is people stood in line for two hours to buy tickets, selling the stadium out (plus 500 standing room only tickets), in a crappy economy, to watch the craziness unfold. Jason kept everyone in the crowd standing on their feet, and many of the riders laying in the dirt. The end result was simple, though, he ensured that the number crunchers will STILL PUT THE RACE ON NEXT YEAR. Hey, if nothing else, it will always be remembered as that year Jason Lawrence raced! Now that me, and the whole BBR crew, are out of therapy we can get back to what we love; building bikes and testing…

MM12P

The MM12P is moving along great. No big snags so far, but we are picky, so it takes time to do it right. We did have some riders on the MM12P doing some real world testing at MiniMoto SX. Adam Booth showed up and raced one with no practice and finished about 7th in the 12 inch amateur class. Look for a story in an up coming issue of Dirt Bike Magazine. Amateur star (and all around great kid) Jason Anderson raced one in the 12 inch youth mod class. He crashed in the first turn of the main but flew on the bike and definitely had podium speed. The guys from Dirt Rider also rode the MM12P bike at Mini Moto so look for an article there also. We can’t wait to get the bikes in everyone’s hands. You are going to love them!

Super Moto in the Pacific Northwest

A new Super Moto track is going in at Pacific Raceway in Kent, Washington. The owners are sparing no expense to make sure it is one of the premier go cart and Super Moto tracks in the country. The grand opening is this Saturday June 20th. Derek Costella, fresh off his big win at the Vegas Super Moto national, is going to be on hand. Derek is going to spin some laps on his BBR super-moto mini bikes which will make it worth the drive all by itself. Derek will also be signing autographs at the BBR truck. Swing by and say Hi. For more information check out the Pacific GP website: http://www.pacificgp.com/

Mini Racing in the Northwest

The Mountain View N.W. Mini bike national went off this past weekend in Sandy Oregon. If you have never been to this legendary track, in Sandy Oregon, you have to check it out. It is located in a farming community with neighbors all around. It is a mini-bike rider’s dream. The track is made out of red clay, without a rock in it, and winds up and down through the woods. This is one of the best tracks I have ever ridden on. The turn out was small but a great time was had by all! See you there next year. Check out the track’s website here: http://www.mtnviewmx.com/

MTV Teen Cribs

The MTV link is up to the Teen Cribs show we did this winter. The response has been great. MTV has a huge hit on their hands with Nitro Circus so they are trying to do anything MX related. When they gave us a call we jumped at the chance to give Mini-Bikes some world wide coverage. Check it out here (click the image below to open MTV's website in new window):


Blast from the Past

This week’s blast from the past comes from our buddies Donn Maeda and Garth Milan over at Transworld MX. This was the May 2003 issue. They did a story on the beginnings of BBR Motorsports. Thanks guys! Click the image for the full story:

Alright – Keep in touch and thanks for helping us live the dream! - Duane

Into the Storm...

Wow – It has been the busiest few months ever at BBR. From the Indy Trade Show, to the testing and introduction of our new MM12P Production Race Bike, to dealing with the Lead Ban issues, to filming for the MTV Teen Cribs, to building and testing bikes for Mini Moto, and of course…working with J-Law on his upcoming Mini-Moto appearance in Las Vegas. I actually found a couple of minutes to type this before flying out to Vegas to walk into the storm that is Mini Moto.

Indy Dealer Show


First, lets go clear back to the Indy trade show in February. BBR unveiled the MM12P Production bike to all of the dealers there - where it received a great reception. The dealers are more than ready for a quality bike of this size and price point. I can’t wait to deliver the first round to them this summer. There was a noticeable absence of Chinese knockoff bikes at this year’s show. As a mater of fact, I don’t remember seeing one Honda knock-off 50, or even a BBR knock-off bike for that matter (other than the usual Chinese manufacturers). It was kind-of lonely without anyone to pick on! Anyway, good riddance to them all. Despite the poor economy, all the top name motorcycle parts companies had booths and floor traffic was up from last year. That’s good news for the motorcycle industry.

Big Government

Next on the list is the Lead Ban. The government stepped in and banned all toys with lead contents above 600 parts per million. This ban targeted at kids twelve years of age and under, and unfortunately was written with a very broad scope. The whole mess stems from the Chinese manufacturers who decided to use led paint in a bunch of toys (and dog food and medication). Everyone was excited to stop the contaminated toys from coming into the country and a bill was signed into law very quickly. The only problem was that it included every toy targeted at the twelve and under crowd. Baseballs, books, handmade clothing, and our beloved CRF50s and KLX110s. The dealers, who were already dealing with down sales, took another hit because the youth market is a huge part of any motorcycle shop’s business. Under this new law, these dealers can’t even sell replacement parts for kid’s motorcycles. Luckily at BBR, our target customer is adults (on kid’s bikes) so we have been able to sell throug h this mess – but it is hard to sell a bar kit to a guy who can’t buy a bike to put it on. Funny thing is, the Chinese are still selling knockoff 50’s and 110’s at the local auto parts stores and sporting good shops. I’m sure there is no lead in those bikes! It’s a double punch to our great U.S. dealerships who try to do the right thing….they follow the guidelines of the new law and pull all of the kid’s bikes off the showroom floor, then they watch as the Chinese bikes with all the lead in them continue to sell at the store down the street. Big Government and motorcycles just don’t mix very well. But we better get used to it. Our current government is just not very motorsports friendly. There have been land closure bills in the works for years which are coming into focus again now. These land closures will get little or no resistance, and will probably pass easily. Hang on for the ride.

If you want to help fight the Lead Ban you can learn more here:

http://www.mic.org/stbn.cfm

Be sure to check out the AMA’s website for information on possible land closures here:

http://www.amadirectlink.com/news/story.asp?id=816

MTV Teen Cribs


MTV has a new show out this season called Teen Cribs. The premise of the show is “Ordinary kids living extraordinary lives”. MTV sent a crew of nine people out to my house to follow my daughter Jennifer and our family and friends around. They came out for three days and shot over twenty hours of film for the ten minute segment. They did a lot of riding shots, home photos, and shop pictures. Hopefully, we hooked a whole bunch of people on riding! MTV will put it on their website permanently in a few weeks, so check it out at http://www.mtv.com/. Or check it out Tuesday April 28 at 1:00pm if you have satellite or at 4:00pm on cable (check your local listings). It is MTV Teen Cribs episode #11. The kids, family, and friends all had a blast and learned a lot. Thanks MTV!

Mini Moto SX

We have been building Mini Moto bikes like crazy since Christmas. Thirty+ race bikes for our team riders, plus who knows how many customer bikes! We tested the last couple of weeks with Derek Costella and Ryan Abrigo, and they both are going faster than ever! Not that he needed to, but Derek (the defending champion) has picked up the pace for sure. The guy is crazy on a mini bike. Every time Derek comes to our test facility, he walks right past the race bikes and goes for my daughter’s $70 “garage sale” Z-50 that she learned to ride on. Derek always says “let me race this thing in the stock class!” Well, it’s Derek’s lucky year. Mini-Moto is having a Z-50 8” class this year at Mini Moto. Derek threw a leg over the Z and spun a few laps at the BBR test track. I have never seen anything like it. I have been fortunate to ride with all the best riders in the world over the years, and have seen some crazy stuff. What Derek was doing on that little Z looked impossible. He’s crazy! Nobody has more fun riding Mini-bikes than Derek. For sure it is the key to his success. Ryan Abrigo is hauling right now also. Ryan is one of the most talented riders we have every worked with. He is completely injury free and has the bike set up perfect for him. Watch for big things from Ryan again this year. Timmy Weigand will be as fast as always, and has had time this year to practice for Mini Moto. Timmy knows how to win on minis, being the three time Langtown champ and White Bros 150 champ. Check out the holeshot Timmy had at last year’s Mini Moto in the 12E class (number 33):


We also have some fast kids riding for us this year. Jason Anderson will be there along with Kevin Flynn (racing the 13-17 youth class). My son, Carson Brown, will be riding the 12 and under youth class. He’s hoping that the 15 bikes he has destroyed in his short ten years on this earth will pay off for him! UPDATE: Tyler Villopoto and Drew Gosselaar will also contest the Mini Moto SX on BBR bikes. Both have blazing speed and should be fun to watch on Friday night. For more info on the Mini Moto SX click this link: http://www.minimotosx.com/

Jason Lawrence
I don’t know what to say. I had never met Jason before but he is going to do Mini Moto on a BBR/Monster Energy Factory Race bike. It should be like fire and water in our pits. It is funny to think about me and my brothers, who would feel right at home living with the Brady Bunch, and mix us together with the wild child and it should be fun…well at least for the internet crowd. One thing J-Law and all of us at BBR do have in common is our love for mini-bikes. Monster called up and asked us to build him a bike, so we said, “Let’s do it!” Can he win it? Who knows? About ten years ago we put on a 150 race in New Jersey as part of a video shoot for a mountain bike extreme video. I wasn’t there, but my guys came back talking about this crazy fast kid on an XR100…..Jason Lawrence. This kid has some serious skills, so we will all look forward to seeing what he’s got for us in Vegas. If nothing else, his talent and all of the drama that come with him will be worth watching!

Alright, I’m headed out the door to Vegas – Should be a blast! C-you there….. Duane

BBR Knocks Itself Off

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Most of us here at BBR have young kids (or nieces and nephews) that are at the perfect age to really enjoy Christmas and the holidays. We have a big Christmas party every year for the employees, venders, and family. We have an employee smorgasbord with everyone's favorite food and catch up with what's gone on all year. Some years we rent an indoor riding facility and pound each other into the ground in celebration of Christmas. Other years, we have had Moto Santa ride in and hand out motorcycle toys to all the kids. Anyways, Christmas is a fun time of year at BBR. I hope it is for you too.

Rumors have circulated for several years that BBR is working on its own production motorcycle. Certainly, we have built thousands of motorcycles over the years. But, those have always been custom bikes built to the whims of a particular customer. We’re finally ready to start talking about it. The goal is to build an affordable BBR production bike. A bike that is manufactured in large quantities to keep the price down, but is worthy of the BBR name. This would be a bike our customers and dealers can be proud of, and not make excuses for! We have been all over the planet in our quest to "do it right". Trust me; you can do it wrong, and others have proven that. In many ways, we have become the complaint center for "knock-off bikes". Want to know what’s wrong with brand “X” knock-off bike? Just ask our sales guys. The disgruntled customers call us to complain and hope we’ll fix it for them. For example, when one popular brand of knock-off started breaking swingarms, we had dozens of people call us hoping we’d make a better swingarm that wouldn’t break!

There is not a single knock off bike out there that hasn’t shown up on our loading dock (some with BBR stickers on them) with the manufacturer begging us to sell them. We have flown to the factories and checked them out (you probably saw the pictures on the internet forums). All it would take is a single phone call and we could have any number of Chinese bikes with our name on it, delivered to our front door. That would be easy, especially when our dealers and customers are demanding an affordable bike. Actually, who cares where it's made? We'd go to China in a minute if we thought they could build and assemble a whole bike for us to our standards and yours. Maybe someday this will be a good option. But after riding every knock-off bike out there (a lot more than I wanted to) we found this still isn't the best option. Don't get me wrong, for $3,000 some of these bikes aren't bad. Especially when there is no other option; we feel your pain and hear you. But in the long run, selling a disposable bike wouldn’t work out for any of us. The motorcycle world (and everybody that has supported us over the years) is counting on us to do this right. Look how many of the knock-off companies have come and gone. If you could pay a little more and have it done right the first time, with a friendly knowledgeable staff backing it up, with every part in stock, with the best riders in the world doing the testing,... that would be the dream wouldn’t it? Are we still going to build one-off, unlimited budget, hand-carved from a block of aluminum bikes? Of course! That's who we are, and that is what our customers expect from us. The only difference is now, customers can have an affordable starting point if they want,...much like Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, etc. do with their race bikes. They have a production bike that can be modified by their race team or by their customers into a full factory works bike over time.

The bike is done, but we're still shooting photos and wrapping up the boring paperwork and legal matters that go with it. I can't tell you everything about the bike right now (the rest of the BBR guys would kill me), but I can leak a few things 'till it pops up on our web site in the next few days. The first and the most important thing is the bike was 100% designed, engineered, and tested at BBR. We didn’t pick a single existing part out of a book. We developed and tested every part with the same designers and test riders that we’ve used on our BBR USA race team bikes. We know how to build great competition motorcycles and no corner was cut to develop this bike. Second, the production bike is going to be completely assembled at our facility right here in the U.S. This lets us insure several things. Since we are going to be assembling parts that are manufactured for us by our partners from around the world, we can individually inspect every part before it goes on your bike. Another reason for assembling the production bike here is we are not forced to rely on one factory or one country to build an entire bike. Basically, we are not putting all of our eggs in one basket. We are having parts made in Italy, Japan, Taiwan, China, and of course the U.S. All are venders we have used in the past we know we can trust to do it right! Finally, the last thing I can tell you is that every part on our bike will interchange with our current products. No goofy spokes, cheap bolts, odd-sized foot pegs, or incorrect dimensions. We’ll have replacement parts in stock the day these bikes start shipping. The bike will be on display at the Indy trade show and at Mini Moto, so swing by and check it out. We should have pictures on our website in the next couple of days so hang on! I think you will be as excited as we are! Here's a sneak peek at the bike:


Blast from the Past

This week’s blast from the past comes from Mini Moto Magazine and our friends that started it; Tim, Melinda, and Cindy Clark. Timmy Wiegand is on the cover in route to one of his many Langtown wins. This was one of the last races ever held at Langtown. All good things must come to an end but sometimes not a happy end. There are so many great stories, races, and bikes that came out of Langtown over the years and most of them have been told in the media or right here. None of them are exaggerations. This was a truly great race.

Bob and Linda Langin put the race on for twenty consecutive years putting up with egos, the media, and the neighbors'. I can't believe they got away with it for so long! Anyone who has ever put on a race knows how hard it is. Try putting one on at your house (I'm sure your wife will go for it…)! Anyway, the county came in with their red tape, wet land, spotted turtle, and (insert global buzz-word-of-the-day here) and closed down the single most fun race in America!

The thing I remember most about the last Langtown wasn’t the race itself, but the phone call I got the day after. It was from a guy who said his dream was to meet Bob Langin and see his track and wondered if I had his phone number. I told him I couldn’t give it out, but I was happy to call Bob and tell him to call this guy back. The guy seemed a little irritated so I asked him what kind of bikes he had and he really couldn’t name any. It didn’t take long to realize I wasn’t talking to a motorcycle guy. I told him I would give Bob a ring and pass along his phone number. I called Bob the next day and told him about the guy but Bob said he had already shown up on his door step. He was from one of the knock-off bike companies and wanted to use the Langtown name on one of his piles of crap. Bob, being the nice guy he is, sent him nicely on his way. I broke the news to Bob that he was going to have to trademark the Langtown name or it would be whored out. $5000 later and a stack of paperwork, that would make any government official proud, Bob owned his own name.

When we showed up at the Indy Trade Show the next year, the bike was there in all its glory. Displayed in Chinese row, there was the BBR 150 Langtown replica complete with its red, white and blue graphics. Luckily for Bob, the bike didn’t say Langtown on it but it did have prism “BBE” graphics with red checks. Of course, these guys are fooling no one and any publicity is good publicity. That said, I guess we got plenty that year! The bike was really bad (even by Chinese knock-off standards). I’m sure that no one had ever actually ridden it. I doubt it would start and run let alone move under its own power. It was a bad way for Langtown to end, but not even Big Brother or a Chinese knock-off bike can take away from all of the great memories of racing in Bob’s back yard.

10/12/2008

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! It has been crazier than ever around here. We are gearing up for Christmas and are offering 10% off all online orders today (Friday 10/12/2008) through Sunday the 14th! Hope this helps!

Jesus’ birthday is almost here so if you are going to do a bike build as a gift – you’d better get on it (even if it really is for you!). We need 3-5 days to ship it to you, so factor that in (we don’t want to work late on Christmas Eve this year, but we will!)

Question of the Week

Hi guys, I had a quick question about my fifty. I seem to get one flat after another – even with heavy duty tubes. What is the trick to eliminate flats?

The key is air pressure. The smaller the wheel the more air pressure you need to run. The standard on big bikes is 12- 15lbs depending on the track conditions. On most fifties and even some 110s we run a minimum of twenty pounds. On a bone stock fifty we run thirty plus, with an adult, or you can count on exploding the back wheel. Make sure you are running a rim lock at least in the back. It is cheap insurance against tearing the valve out of the tube. Also we leave the nut loose on the valve stem so the valve can slide down in the rim a little bit if the tire does slip on the rim. Hope this helps – Duane

Blast from the Past

Alright, this week’s blast from the past comes from the August 2000 issue of Dirt Rider Magazine. Our buddies over there at the time (Ken Faught, Karl Kramer, and Dick Burleson) invited us down to the Dirt Rider 24hr shootout. We brought a 2000 YZ125 with a TTR225 engine stuffed into it and a 2000 CR125 with a punched out XR250 engine stuffed into it. There were two things that stick out in my mind about this test: The first was how tired I was after riding for nearly twenty four hours. Hey, when all of your heroes are in one place, riding on the same course, you would ride all night too! The second thing I remember is bending a valve on the TTR five minutes after we arrived for the photo shoot (the day before the actual 24 hr shootout). Somehow when I was goofing around warming the bike up and checking the track out I over revved the bike and mashed the piston into the intake valve. We pulled the head off and saw the bent over valve and thought we were finished. I called Chaparral to see if they had a valve on the shelf and they did. We ran across town and grabbed the valve and then had to find a machine shop to re-cut the damaged valve seat. By the time we had the valve in hand all the machine shops in the area were closed. We decided to take a chance and sleep in the truck, in front of a foreign car machine shop, in hopes they would have the right sized valve cutter. Our gamble paid off. The shop cut the head and we were back on the road headed for the event. We put the head back on, fired the bike up, and let some of the best riders in the world beat the bike for 24hrs without a hiccup.

The CR/XR300 was also one of my favorite off-road bikes we ever built. The engine was real torquey with a big flywheel feel and really chugged along. The chassis was state of the art Honda stuff for the time. Great bike! Even by today’s standards. Imagine if you could by a cheap, perimeter framed, motocross suspended, air-cooled, 300cc four stroke play bike that was easy to work on and maintain! Click on the image to read the whole story:



The blog is a little short this round, but I’ve got to get back to work. Thanks for helping us live the dream - Duane