THE DEAN MACHINE

other 15 riders all over world 45 bikes all over the world another 3 bikes and another couple of seats on a chartered flight surely next in line should be davy watt ? and he is in aus

and going by the crowds , speedway is not going in the right direction for a lot of people

then if your right , dont bother sending any riders half way round the world , iron maiden will be touring there soon just get them to play , the stadium will be packed and bsi will make a fortune , the gp is just turning into xfactor on bikes ,

ive got nothing against jason but the credibility of speedway is a stake here (if it has any left), if its about putting bums on seats then get Justin Bieber to ride , he will get 1000s of screaming girls to attend ,this is selling speedway down the river , this is the world championship ,its a competition to find the best speedway rider in the world, what bsi do about promoting the gps should have no influence on the riders who ride in it

just to let the organizers know I'm available for the Cardiff wildcard, my mom is welsh lol

it does pay some of the costs , it pays travel expenses and it pays points money and nowhere else will you get that racing motorbikes , ,but untill you get to at least a second string in the premier league you shouldn't be thinking about getting anywhere near breaking even and not treating it as a job , it would be wonderful if speedway was raking money in and could afford to pay riders decent money but it cant, i'm not saying riders riders don't deserve getting payed for it ,i'm just saying that with what speedway does pay you should be grateful that you get something that you love doing , and to be honest if you are doing speedway to make a fortune and earn a good living ,then you are in the wrong job , cause unless you get to the top it isn't going to happen ,that does sound a little harsh but its a fact , speedway itself could do something to make it more affordable but it wont , costs will just keep rising and about 80% of British riders wont get past premier league standard in their career and will not have made any sort of money , but 99% will say they had a fantastic time trying

for me it has to be ermolenko/ correy and hamill/hancock and when wolves met cradley somebody had to lose ,those were the days

im going to annoy some with this post but , to be a speedway rider is your own choice nobody is forceing you to do it , it is a fantastic often painfull career/hobby , you have to sacrifice just about everything to do it , no other motorcycle sport pays you anything other than prize money to compete, you dont have a given right to earn money at it ,especially at NL level , it takes a silly amount of money to compete above NL level and although sponsors are great and well recieved why should you expect someone else to pay for your privilage/hobby/passion, as brits yes we do get less backing from our govening body than say Denmark,Sweden or Poland but it will never change , i do sympathize with anybody trying to get started in the sport ,the fact is it costs a stupid amount of time and money and your always going to be on a loser , but the sport dosent do anything to help out with costs , ive been going around in circles for long enough now to know how it works ,and when i think of the money i lost around 1997-2001 trying to compete in the premier league it makes me cringe ,i was traveling to berwick and glasgow for home meetings but i wanted to be a rider and thats what you have to do no matter how much money you lose , i actually didnt lose money last year by doing my own engines and frame straightening and wheel building , im just seeing out my career this year and having fun , hopefully all you young new riders will get to the top and make loads of money from speedway , but what im trying to say is to be a speedway rider is a privalige not a right and to get to the top its going to cost you in money/time/effort/tears/heartache/sweat and blood , enjoy the ride

the new guards will now just chop your fingers straight off instead of burning your skin

the silencers are deffinatly in for all league speedway , as for the mudgaurds ,not heard anything deffinate yet , it did say in last years rules they would be in for this year but you never know with speedway ,personally i hope not ,i think they look rubbish and as you say is just extra expence , but we will find out around march

wolves v cradley , dudley wolves trophey matches , in the ermolenko/correy v hancock/hamill years were imo the best speedway meetings ive ever seen , it wasnt speedway it was war, to a wolves or cradley fan , the league ,koc and any other trophey were irrevelent, it was all about those 2 meetings

sorry to hear karl is retiring , always been a fair and friendly rider, all the best in whatever he does in the future

well i dont ride for the isle of wight its buxton and i dont work 9 to 5 hours ,i work any hour day or night, week or weekends and who else does my bikes ?,on a sunday i get back from buxton around 7pm and my bikes are washed and prepped before i go bed and just for good measure i also work for hynek stichauer as mechanic (but he was injured in august ), i will admit i dont get much time for anything else but i fit it in , i do sacrifice pretty much everything else in my life , and if you are that interested in my work habits, on race days you will see that most of the time i working in the area of the track im riding at ,be it plymouth ,weymouth or wherever,yes im lucky in that respect but its still work, also about commitment of SOME youngsters im not trying to get people to agree with me im just saying what i see ,if you dont agree with me then thats fine

1st i agree about the silencers,dirt deflectors and so on they will all be used ,it was just a suggestion,2nd yes you do need a decent engine but why couldnt you make that decent engine yourself ,a press would cost around £200 and the timing equipment and the bits and peices around £100, if it needs more extensive work yes you need more machinery but for serviceing that £300 should be enough , once you know how to do valve timing ,i dont think you will get it wrong ,and i dont know a rider who hasnt got an engine back from service and its blown on 1st race or sometimes on warm up , it a race engine "it happens "

im not saying rider x should ride for less money ,my point is if rider x did his own engines and learnt to do them as good as tuner x (which is not difficult) and which has been done many times before ,he would be a lot better off finacially from speedway , and could some expert out there in speedway land tell me what is so tricky about buxtons track , i will tell you ,riders come to the track and they are already beaton before they even ride it ,and you can pay for the best engines in the world but if you got that attitude you wont go far in the sport , i am only trying to help in a small way but if you know better then thats fine ,i am being open and honest about how i see NL speedway from a riders point of view, and just to throw a spanner in the works , who would win a race GREG HANCOCK using my engine V any premier league rider ?

im happy someone gets my point ,

i am not putting any rider down ,ash ,simon or anybody ,i just used them as an example as to prove a bog standard engine is good enough for NL racing ,they have got rides in PL through talent and im not disputing that , its not inexpensive at all ,it just could and should be cheaper than it is if you could do your own engines . im not pretending to have the answers to speedways problems, but at NL level im just trying to give some advice to some of these younger riders who are struggleing to make ends meet in speedway , if they choose not to take it then so be it

well i work 60 hours plus a week and some weekends and i stll find the time ,it comes down to dedication at the end of the day ,do you want to be a speedway rider ?, no one said it was easy ,and the national league dosent owe you a living ,i understand that statement goes against the grain but speedway is the only motorcycle sport that pays you to compete , and i feel very lucky that it pays me to do something i love

what people think is, the engine tuners are rocket scientists and the engines are full of magic parts that only they can fit ,its just not true most tuners are ex riders (not really known for the brains ) ,but they understand how an engine works ,what different cams do ,what different flywheels do ,compression etc etc, there is nothing magic in a speedway engine it is proberly the most basic combustion race engine in the world today ,the main point im making is you would save a fortune by doing your own engines and you would learn how to make them faster , there is no reason why a rider couldnt do an engine fast enough for elite league ,i know 1 ex rider who riding didnt really get above NL standard but is doing engines for premier riders and a couple of elite, its the end of season now ,a rider could go and buy a cheap engine strip it, service it ,play about with it ,learn about it and by march be competant enough to be riding his own serviced engines, the lesson is there but i doubt many riders would take it

well sam is proberly right when you get into premier and above but at national league a bog standard engine is more than good enough ,i have no idea what ashley birkes ,simon lambert ,jon armstrong ,john oliver ,jay herne have special in their engines or who tunes them or how much they pay for the tuning but i have beat them all in the last 2 months on a bog standard 6 year old engine and a clutch that noah sold me off the ark

speedway in general is not cheap and parts are not cheap but it could and should be a lot cheaper if you work at it and understand the bikes you ride , another bit of advice is listen to the older riders like jeremy doncaster ,bruce cribb,alan grahame ,riders like that ,they understand their engines , i learnt a hell of a lot from listening to paul pickering and martin dixon and jan staechmann about bike set ups ,and when i was having my engines done by bloomfeldt and bullet and diesel dave i was learning listening askin questions ,untill i thought i knew enough to have a go myself ,imagine my pride and excitment when i won my 1st race on an engine i had done

unfortunatly some riders would rather buy the latest phone than a primary chain or cables for their bikes ,it would only be around 10% of NL riders who have a clue what goes on inside their engines ,stripping and engine serviceing and rebuilding it and understanding how it all works is not something you need a degree in ,it is quite straight forward , one of my work customers who used to make engines for motorcross and trials in the 70s laughs at speedway engines because they are basically the same engine that were used in the 60s ,nothing has really changed , its just got lighter ,but its still the same parts ,there is nothing special in there, it is a overhead cam combustion engine ,thats all, set your self up with a press and the tools ,then buy an old engine off ebay or wherever and spend the winter learning about striping it down and rebuilding it, valve timing etc , you will save a fortune in engine repairs

tyres are not really an issue in the NL ,cause you dont have to use a new one and i have only used 1 new one all year and that was sponsored by someone , motor sport is always going to be expensive to a certain degree but just a bit of engine knowledge goes a very long way in speedway , my advice to any NL rider is learn about the bike you ride ,dont just buy something cause englebert smith,s got one and he is a good rider, A 10 year old GM/JAWA crank case is just that ,its a crankcase there is no power or performance in it at all,it goes exactly the same speed as a brand new one ,learn that the power is all above it ,same as a old wheel ,put new bearings in and it spins at the same speed as a new one, dirt deflectors should be scrapped cause they do a little less that sod all ,there,s a £200 saving straight away , maybe only 1 type of carb can be used ,such as a bz , maybe you can only use NEB/JAWA clutch plates in national league £10 each as opposed to harushi plates £40 each ,im sure paul bennett wont mind me saying this but if you put mine and his clutch plates together you wouldnt make a good set between them and we both got a maximum in buxtons last meeting ,