A good line up

[VMX247]

Weardale, England, 1985.
cheers Alison

[Tim754]

Two years on from that magic photo the FIM had killed off the big beasts.

[LWC82PE]

cool photo. i see a lot of Wasps there. wheres the photo from? have you got any close up shots of those sort of outfits from then?

[Tim754]

Here L these ones all currently race in pommieland. http://twinshock-chairs.tripod.com/id2.html

[LWC82PE]

oh i know that site. havent been there for a while. there used to be a YZ490/465 sidecar on there but that one is gone now

check out that Hagon though ive never seen one of those before.

[LWC82PE]

is that 8 licencend riders in moderns or vintage class?

[LWC82PE]

crikey what happened

[LWC82PE]

so are they upset they cant ride big 1000cc bikes now? gees they got 600 & 700 cc MTH and Zabels up around the 80HP mark or more, isnt that enough power? i would have though that if they were serious about sidecar racing, they would put that behind them and they would just except the rules as they are nowdays and race the current 500, 600, 700 cc outfits like all the other guys in the current scene. More importance on rider ability i say than having a big 1000cc motor which is probably only an advantage to someone who can actually use all that power and probably only on a real fast open track.

is it only the Swiss that only want to race if they can ride the bikes with big motors?

they cant win or have fun racing if they are not racing  . sounds like a bit or protest to me.

ok lets say if they opened up the class limit for big bikes again, do the swiss want to still ride the old Jumbos, Folans and bored & stroked 650 yamahas in the modern classes, or do they want to race with new big modern hi tech 2/4 cylinder jap roadbike engines and or develop new 1000cc 2 strokes?

sounds like they really love their big bikes that much that they dont want to ride anything smaller so dont want to race at all

its interesting though anyway

[Tim754]

No remember this happened 20 odd years ago, The ruling  basically on the Folan 1000cc two stroke effectively outlawed the heavyweights in the major World and European Sidecar GP. Leading to the 500cc single two stroke era.    The "paying" spectators and a lot of riding teams lost interest as it became as with the 90s onward  solos ,same bikes different paint work.   This avenue of motorcycle racing was a great place  for unique and individual, small factory and private specials to be built and tried out. Big Brother says I think that team is winning to much so we shall change the rules to slow them down!! and as ALWAYS happens they rooted it for everybody.
The rules were relaxed much later on which enabled the big bore Zabels and MTH singles to evolve. Come on which would you enjoy seeing and hearing most  a bunch of angry CR/KX 500cc twostrokes taking off a the start gate Or twenty+ individual heavyweights with one .two, three, or four cylinder four and two strokes?

[LWC82PE]

yes i understandand and know this happened 20 years ago (and we are now not talking about vintage sidecars), thats what im saying, they are all upset from what happend then (most of the guys from back in the 80's would be reaching retirement now and wouldnt be racing moderns now anyway) but the next generation from 90's onward has not wanted to start racing moderns because they cant ride the big bikes like their fathers and others did back in the 80's. Did the Swiss scene just die off when they said they cant ride big bikes and the new generation has never caught on to what the current competitive machinery in sidecr cross is?

so bascially the whole Swiss sidecar scene has died because of the rulling they had 20 years ago to ban big motors. Well i know if i was racing moderns i would go out and get the latests and greatest sidecar the same as what everyone else had and and just get out there and have fun. I never knew that the swiss only wanted to race big sidecars. Oh well its their choice of course.

i personally dont see why they dont bring back a modern 1000cc class. They can still have the class for the 500-700 singles but also have a big multis class, it would add a bit of spice and variation

[Tim754]

Yep to your question  , homogenised and lacking the serious individual imput. Not saying it was/ is not still a spectacular hard physical and well brutal sport it just like many others got strangled by "Controlling Bodies" so a generation was lost  and the interest crumbles.