MotoBrief

The Associated Press reports that there is little hope in the near future for kid’s dirt bikes. The buzzkills staff of the Consumer Product Safety Commission have issued their recommendation that dirt bikes and ATVs not be exempt from the recent lead product ban.

Sales of dirt bikes designed for children have been halted since a new law prohibiting the sale of any product containing more than a miniscule amount of lead went into effect February 10.

Kids seem to have way more common sense than the CPSC staff. A February USA Today story quoted one 12-year-old as saying, “Are you kidding? This is silly. There’s no way I’m going to stick a motorcycle part in my mouth.”

You can contact your Representatives and the Consumer Product Safety Commission at the AMA’s Rapid Response page.

MotoGP is rolling into Indianapolis for the first world championship motorcycle race ever held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s also going to be the first MotoGP race that I attend.

When the MotoGP left Laguna Seca almost a decade and a half ago, I wasn’t a big racing fan. And since its 2005 return to California, I haven’t had the chance to go. Now I’m in Chicago and tomorrow I’ll be driving down to Indy. I can’t wait until practice starts on Friday.

I still have no idea what to expect. MotoGP coverage in the U.S. is pretty thin and doesn’t show much beyond the actual race. Faster, one of the best motorcycle documentaries ever made, did an awesome job of capturing the spectacle of MotoGP around the world. Still, I don’t know how that’s going to translate to the middle of Indiana.

But I’m going to find out.

We’re into the second week of the MCN Fantasy Road Race 2008, and I’m in second place. There are plenty of races coming up, so it’s not too late to sign up and try to win an Arai helmet. MotoBrief.tv will also be giving away a helmet camera to the second place finisher.

All you have to do to participate is go the the Fantasy Road Race website, create an account and pick your team, then send me an email and tell me your team name. I’ll send you the code necessary to join the MotoBrief.tv league and you’ll be in the running for a new (and pretty awesome) helmet.

For years I’ve been left out of fantasy sports. I just don’t care about football, baseball or basketball so there’s never really been much allure. But now MCN is hosting Fantasy Road Race 2008 and I’m ready to go. They’ve made it free to play. There are prizes for each round and a grand prize of a 2008 Kawasaki ZX-10R (although you are only eligible for prizes if you’re in the UK — tough luck for those of us in the U.S.).

You can also join private leagues to compete with other players. I’ve created a league for MotoBrief.tv and I’m going to figure out some decent prize for whoever comes out on top in the MotoBrief league. I can’t give away a motorcycle, but I promise it’ll be some neat gadget or piece of gear. So go create your team today and then join private league number 38.

UPDATE: Don’t forget that I don’t have anything to do with MCN, other than being a fan of the site. I won’t have any information about who you are when you join league 38, and I won’t have any way of contacting you should your team come in first.

So please, add a comment here telling me your manager name and your team’s name (and include an email address — it won’t appear with your comment and won’t be shared with anyone), or send me an email at tom@motobrief.com.

Motorcyclist has a good interview with Scott Summers, who has been tapped to manage the BMW team in the Grand National Cross Country series through 2010. He seems pretty impressed with the G 450 X.

You never know what you’re going to find when you move. You start boxing things up and pretty soon you’re stumbling across stuff you’d forgotten about years ago. That’s what happened to Lee Sutton. An amateur motocross racer in the 70s, Lee uncovered a stash of photographs he’d shot during his time at the tracks of Northern California.

Unfortunately, about half the negatives were ruined. After all, in 1975 there wasn’t much for someone to do with a bunch of pictures like this. You could share them with friends — provided they lived nearby and you got together to have a look. You could submit the best of the best for publication somewhere. Or you could put them in a box.

Today, things are different. Lee picked out the best of the surviving photos and did what anyone would do — he uploaded them to a Flickr photoset. Within days knowledgeable fans had annotated the pictures with details and reminiscences of racetracks, riders and their machines.

I love the Internet.

Gizmag has an article on Dainese’s motorcycle airbag. It’s a revolutionary system — the high tech gear does not require a connection to the motorcycle like the airbag on the Honda Goldwing. Instead, accelerometers and gyros identify movement that looks like a crash and deploys an airbag stashed in the hump on racing leathers.

The idea of an airbag on a motorcycle has always struck me as kind of crazy, but the airbag has already been used in an actual race. It was used for the first time in the Valencia MotoGP 125cc world championship. Let’s go to YouTube for the action:

With the Dakar cancelled, this YouTube video has been getting some new attention and a bunch of new comments. I’m still crushed from the cancellation and wondering what they’re going to do in the future.

Apparently, Chile & Argentina are angling to have the Dakar held in South America. Isn’t the Dakar all about Africa? Wouldn’t it be just another rally if were held anywhere else? I suspect relocating the Dakar would take away a lot of its allure and I’m betting that when A.S.O announces their plan for 2009 it’ll be focused on increasing security in Africa and planning for alternate routes in case of trouble.

The Jockey Journal points to some awesome footage of board track racing from the early 20th century. As the story goes, the footage was shot by the Czech importer of Indian motorcycles during a visit to the United States. This may or may not be accurate, since the story also claims it was shot at a board track in Daytona that never existed.

It’s remarkably good footage and includes some sidecar racing. These guys were real men — I can’t imagine taking a spill on that track. If anyone has any idea what track is really shown, leave a comment.

OK, I’ve been gone, spending all my time on a new job and on MotoBrief.tv. But the Dakar schedule is up and they’ve posted a YouTube video showing the entire route. The race begins January 5 in Lisbon.