Vince

Anybody can have any opinion they like but there are some saying that the BSPA are stupid or have no idea when it seems quite clear that they are the only people with all the information. We all think that they sometimes make silly decisions, sometimes it's easy to see in retrospect that the right decision wasn't made, but very rarely do we fully understand the whole story of why a decision was taken. Saying that in your opinion they are wrong is fine, assuming that because they take a different course to what you would like to see because they are stupid just seems daft to me.

Why do so many people assume they know more than the BSPA about Speedway? You may not like the way they do things but it's fact that they are running tracks while the vast majority of us are looking in as outsiders with varying degrees of knowledge. There are very, very few on here who know even the basics of running a Speedway track and maybe one or two who have the in depth knowledge of the promoters. You/we may not like their decisions but given the fact that they have all the required information to arrive at a decision and non of us do it seems a bit daft to just assume they are stupid. In general they have somehow made enough money to run a Speedway track whether as a business or an expensive hobby, the vast majority of us have been unable to make enough money to consider it even if we wanted to. It's all a bit like the postman telling the bricklayer how to lay bricks because he saw somebody else do it once, or the brickie telling the postie the best way to deliver letters because it's obvious - even though he's never actually done it. Assuming somebody is stupid because they don't do things the way an amateur thinks best seems a bit, well, stupid!

There seems to be a lot of negativity about the idea of having two British (NL) youngsters in each EL team and I can understand the scepticism, however the full details aren't yet known and if there is a complete fastrack system put into place it could be the most positive thing to happen to the sport in many years. Originally I had real doubts but many of them are being answered as more details of the plan become public. Just imagine if each year those entered into the fastrack system are given proper coaching, help finding and keeping sponsors, mechanical and setup advice from top riders, dietary and fitness help rather than just being chucked into the EL. Suddenly it becomes a very worthwhile exercise and would explain why 20 riders are being selected and drafted rather than a blanket under a certain age and average rule. Just being in the team at EL meetings would be an education in itself but not enough on it's own in my opinion. Maybe it's just a pipe dream but anything close to that would be far better than has so far been available so I really hope it could become a reality.

If the rule was something along the lines of any rider under 25 who has competed in the NL and has a PL average less than 5 or 6 gets put into the pool then it would be a great idea. If it was any current NL rider, even though I am very keen to see British riders helped I don't think it would be doing them any real favours, I also don't believe the rule would last long.

I would have thought the exact opposite would be more sensible. Bring in a structure that the sport can afford and that would be attractive to the fans who attend meetings and then if you can sell what you have it's a bonus. The alternative is to wait for a TV deal and if it happens spend every penny it pays on trying to survive rather than to help with the long term future. If it doesn't happen it will be too late to make dramatic changes and you will have lost riders and fans who won't or cant wait around until just before the season to arrange their own lives. The biscuit crisis is dependent on the TV deal. A tentative offer has been made on a bulk order of chocolate digestives but if no TV deal is finalised by January they will be left on the shelf and plain digestives substituted. At the current meeting chocolate cake has been purchased in order to show Sky how confident they are.

I love the SGP and think that at times it has provided the best racing I have seen in over 40 years of watching, however perhaps the more sensible route for riders would be to pull out of the GP until they are paid a rate befitting a World Championship. Of course it won't happen as there will always be somebody willing to take a devalued World Championship. But the amateur way that motorcycle sport is run by some of the self interested parties at both International and national level needs to be challenged. There are some great people trying their best within the FIM and ACU but they are beating their heads against a brick wall.

Just how do foreign lads on a 5 or 6. point PL average survive if they get paid less than British riders and only get the same travel expenses? For sure there are plenty of British lads out partying instead of dedicating themselves to Speedway, there are also plenty of foreign lads doing the same thing, including some that ride over here. Equally there are riders of all nationalities, including Brits, who work very hard to get as far as possible in the sport.

He is if you are calling in a local plumber to repair a leak that is preventing your business from running efficiently. There are numerous exceptions to employment law, in the case we are talking of those concerning training and sport would cover anything so far discussed. The whole self employment / asset system could be another story but if it suits everybody there won't be an issue.

You need to look into European employment law and especially the exceptions, much of what is accepted as general knowledge isn't based on fact. A few years ago I was in a position to look into how these things would work and all were possible within the law at the time. Unless things have changed dramatically in the past 5 years or so I believe most if not all are workable.

Only allow British riders to become club assets if they have actually been trained by or ridden for a club for at least two years. Give British riders a really good advantage for team building averages. Bring first year British riders in on a two point average and keep them at reserve for their first year. Give clubs an even bigger discount for team building if they have trained the rider, he comes from within 50 miles of the track, or they arrange accommodation, transport etc to allow him to ride at the other end of the country. Give clubs an extra allowance for each year that they retain a British rider. Do not ever allow any foreign rider an average below their original assessment.

Some time ago on another topic you clearly stated that it cost £4000 to rebuild a CRF 250 engine, I offered to do it for £2000 but you didn't take me up on it, that was a shame as I could have done with the excessive profit. As topics that old don't seem to be available any more then I am sure you are aware can't link to it so if it makes you happy to lie that you didn't say it carry on. I can easily see another point of view, if you read what is written you will see that I have said more than once that I don't necessarily see F2 Speedway as the way forward but that I do think it deserves proper consideration. I can accept that somebody doesn't like watching F2 Speedway bikes, I couldn't let the statement that they were ridden like shorttrack go because it is impossible. In the same way the blanket statement that Speedway engine parts were less expensive than their MX counterparts could be proven wrong as the figures are easily available. No vested interest but quite a few years of paying for MX and a few paying for Speedway has left me with a clear view of what I think offers the better value for money. As my real passion has always been for Speedway I would like to see the sport survive and cant see the logic of complaining about everything that anybody suggests might help the long term future of the sport. MX clearly has something to teach Speedway when their practice days are attended by ten times the number of riders that Speedway ones are.

You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. It's understandable that you might not realise that F2 Speedway bikes didn't have brakes despite your 30 years experience. It's equally easy to see how you could make the statement that it costs £4000 to rebuild a mx engine if you don't know any better. Everybody has their strengths though and yours is the way you can repeatedly make the same comments in slightly different ways while managing to entirely ignore any facts or figures that don't fit and avoiding using any facts yourself. You have an incredible ability and I would think Alastair Campbell will be in touch for some advice very soon.

Two bolts that go al the way through the threaded holes in the rotor will do the job.

How about if they were to pay direct to the Promoter for each meeting shown 75% to the home team and the rest for the away side? No middleman taking a cut and encouragement for Promoters to produce good racing tracks and pick up the Sky money.

But at least I back up my statements with facts and figures rather than 'I don't like anything so this is no good'

I think that if Jawa had put cam timing marks on their engines perhaps people would have been a bit more willing to try and do their own valve grinding and piston rings at least. There seem to be lots of youngsters willing to strip and repair their pitbike engines. Presumably that is part way down to the lesser cost if they mess up but also they don't actually have to have a thorough understanding of how an engine works because everything is marked up and easy to reassemble. There does seem to be a culture of needing an NEB clutch and Blixt carb in Speedway long before they can benefit from either. Obviously anodized rims are the exception as they make anybody so much faster!

Isn't that the point? How many lads have bought supposedly good Speedway engines that have fallen apart within a couple of days practice? I have also seen more than one newcomer to the sport wash their bore because they don't know about laydown engines flooding. Given that they are new to the sport that'll be a complete rebuild with minimum new piston and recoated barrel if they are lucky and get the right guy to do the motor, if they are unlucky and get the wrong guy it could be double the price they paid for the engine. Secondhand stuff whether MX or Speedway is a bit of a minefield and it's easy for even experienced mechanics to buy a pup. I would also question your statement that MX parts are more expensive than their Speedway equivalent. I fairly recently bought a complete crankshaft and conrod ready assembled for my YZ450 for £211. The crankshaft in there was genuine as was the rod and big end so very likely had never been replaced. None of it was past it's useful life and could be refitted and that's on a bike that has over 170 hours on it, even a weiss big end bearing wouldnt do 5% of that! Admittedly it's 3 years since I bought any Jawa parts but that would have only bought a rod and big end bearing at that time. Pistons are between £110 and £160 depending on make so the top end stuff is about on par with Jawa, main bearings are expensive on a YZ at about £20 dearer than Jawa but most mx bikes are about the same. Valve train components are broadly similar in price. There are plenty of standard 450 engines running at British Championship level and not getting rebuilt every meeting (250's are a different matter!). Go to any deep sand track and you will hear MX engines working harder than they ever will on a Speedway track and they will be doing so for up to 100 minutes racing per day. The idea that they won't last if they are being revved hard on a Speedway track is misleading because they have built in rev limiters. These engines are used in Enduro's, Hare and Hounds, beach races and even Desert racing where they are wide open for longer than they ever will be on a Speedway track. At the level these bikes are intended for their standard service interval is about 25 hours or 900 races. Why would you not just run an FCR carb with a standard CDI? I wouldn't disagree that a standard 884 will last a long time in the hands of amateur or novice riders, if they learn to do basic servicing themselves then it would be low cost. There are way too many riders who can't even adjust tappets. There is still a lot more maintenance time on a Speedway bike than a MX bike where you don't strip clutches and carbs every meeting. I'm not convinced that F2 is the way forward either but what is happening now isn't working so something needs to change.

For me it would be perfect as I work while the majority of Speedway meetings are running. The opportunity to watch selected meetings at my convenience would be spot on and I suspect I could select meetings better than Sky sometimes do! However a setup cost of a 'few thousand pounds' will rule most promoters out I suspect, not because they have no vision but because they have no money to spare.

As I see it there is little room for dispute that at places where they are installed in front of a solid fence air fences are by far the best solution currently available. It can't be more than opinion as no matter how many statistics you compiled every crash is different and the injuries caused in different ways. My guess would be that more injuries are caused by riders hit by bikes than by impact with any type of fence. Where I still see room for debate is where collapsible fences are used. Again it's only my opinion but I still see Rye House as having the best fence I have seen, and hit. It slows you very quickly without stopping you completely. I just cannot see that installing an air fence at Rye will improve rider safety and, again only opinion, I think it very likely it could make it more dangerous. Whatever, there is no absolute right or wrong as the evidence isn't and never will be sufficient to provide the complete answer. Still seems like a reasonable question to me though!

Then the endless millions spent on researching road safety has been wasted when all they had to do was use common sense and surround the cars with foam rather than sophisticated crumple zones. Crash helmets are clearly the wrong way to go, common sense dictates that they should be air filled soft bags rather than a hard shell designed to reduce impact by collapsing. I still think it is fair to question whether air or foam fences are actually safer than the best collapsible fences already in use. Quite obviously at tracks where a collapsible fence isn't an option then a properly installed air fence is many times better than a solid wall but that isn't the case at every track and some tracks already have excellent fences and may be replacing them with something that will be worse.

Perhaps your 30 years experience of riding, watching or whatever will allow you to explain how an F2 Speedway bike with no brakes was ridden shorttrack style where they brake into the corner. Completely different style of riding, you might not have liked F2 Speedway but it wasn't ridden like a shorttrack bike. There have been quite a lot of riders and ex riders watch these bikes when I have been present over the past couple of years and until your post I have never known anybody comment that it wasn't 'proper' Speedway. Les Collins has a bit of Speedway knowledge, apparently his family have been around the sport a while! he seems to think it's Speedway and a good idea. Surely you would understand why I would value his opinion, especially considering that he has ridden the bikes, way above yours. There are some valid questions about availability of engines and possible vulnerability of radiators and so on that need answering (my opinion is that availability could be an issue, radiators and wiring are a lot tougher than they look, MX bikes take some big hits without falling apart). However something needs to change because as things stand nowhere near enough kids have any interest on getting on a Speedway bike. Pete Seaton (another bloke who has been around and knows a lot about Speedway) has put a hell of a lot of time and effort into something that he sees as the way forward. It may or may not be but it deserves a bit of sensible discussion rather than being written off after a quick look by somebody who appears to be anti just about everything. At the very least Pete is trying his best to do something positive.

I am not sure if you are fishing or if in your haste to whine about short track you expose your lack of understanding how bikes are ridden. I have seen quite a lot of these F2 bikes and have yet to see them ridden like a shorttrack bike, of course that would be impossible given that one has a brake and the other doesn't. The F2 is most definitely a 'proper' Speedway bike and is ridden as such. In fact those who lament the passing of the 2 valve Jap's and Jawa's will love these bikes as they are ridden in a similar style to which they were rather than the super aggressive style of modern Speedway. However it is 100% Speedway. Shorttrack is a completely different sport as you rightly point out. However as they use the same engines and ancillaries as these F2 bikes in similar circumstances the reliability comparison seems valid to me.

But I bet you were running it on dope so end up with the worst of both worlds! On Sunday we did a flattrack practice at Rye House, it was an open track practice so we could go on and off track as we pleased. I shared my bike with my son and would guess that we put something around 200 laps in between us. We are running a pace that would be about 4 or 5 seconds off PL race times so a decent speed for amateur Speedway. Maintenance consisted of checking the water level a couple of times and topping up with fuel once. Within 90 minutes of arriving home the bike was washed, oil changed and air filter replaced so apart from changing the rear tyre it's ready for the next outing. That is the same number of laps that have Speedway riders sending motors off to be serviced, nobody would dare put that many laps on a Speedway engine in 4 hours. I have a little mechanical knowledge and take about 40 minutes to shim valve clearances (including stripping and replacing the parts needed to get to them), done it twice on my bike in the past 2 years and it only actually needed adjusting once. No more technical than cleaning and adjusting a Blixt which you do every meeting as a Speedway rider. I do think there is a place for these bikes. If there were several in the system somebody new to the sport can turn up and do as many laps as they want without worrying about how much wear they are putting on the engine. They are around Speedway pits and bikes, learning for later without finding out the hard way that forgetting to pull the bike back on TDC can cost you £500. By the time they get on a full blooded Speedway bike they have learned their craft without frightening themselves stupid, Speedway bikes these days are a handful for anybody let alone beginners. They won't be put off by the constant maintenance for little riding time that is the lot of the Speedway rider. Some will move on to mainstream Speedway because they have the will and ability to progress. You could have them at training schools where bikes could be shared between riders and they could have a class at amateur meetings for starters. If you see these bikes being ridden it is Speedway exactly as you know it not something similar but the real thing. It has to be worth a look simply because the way things are currently isn't getting people into the sport.

A 2v Jawa or a JAP is still a very high compression engine with huge flywheels that vibrate, they do so at lower revs which could allow a little more reliability if modern manufacturing was bought into play. They were never anywhere near as reliable as a modern Japanese engine in any case. You would still be cleaning carbs and stripping clutches every meeting as well, the idea is to have something that needs minimal maintenance for newcomers to the sport. The power reduction is because of the way the engine is built to provide reliability not the other way around.

Manufacturing tolerences, water cooling, much lower compression ratios and mainly 50bhp instead of 75bhp. The Japanese are producing hundreds of thousands of these units and their customers would in no way accept engines with the lifespan of a Speedway engine. Neither do they need/ want the outright power so that is the trade off. As far as I am aware the idea is to have a formula that allows a cheaper and easier route into the sport rather than replacing what is already there. Presumably if they were ever to be bought into any of the leagues it would be a long term and gradual change