HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE

Well done to Mick for being the first 175 to win a bantam race outright, it was nice to have you back. roll on mallory with Michael Brown now hot on the heals of his old man i think there will be a good fight for both trophies in the second half of the season providing that sidecars are BAND FROM MALLORY.

Interesting isn't it ? The 175's winning every race at 3 sisters... Does this herald the take over of the 'big bantams' or is it a one off so to speak? The 175(Jimmys) i was riding at Donington could not live with Ian's re-vamped air-cooled piston-ported machine, in fact Ian passed me down the straight and i felt like i was standing still! On to Three Sisters and i think its fair to say Ian could run with myself(Jimmys) and Mick(Teds) 175's but did not have the low down grunt to get out the corners.

Have the 175's now come of age and are competitive aganist a fast 125? I think the answer is not quite, but i do think there will be more 175 wins this season!

The 175's came about from an idea of myself and Derek Betts before the demise of the BRC (about 1992/93). The idea was it was easier to build a 175 to a stricter formula and therefore improve the bantam grid size. We never intended for 175's to actually win races but thought the 125/175 formulas to be fair and equal. My favourite bit is the cause - if you win the bantam championship on a 175 then you have to change up to a 125 thereafter - that was one of Dereks and i think it showed great insight into the future???

Worth noting - 2007 Championship races all bar 1 won by 125 water cooled reed valvers - 1 by air-cooled piston ported
- 2008 (to date) all air-cooled piston ported 1 - 125 4- 175

Have we witnessed the change? Regards Mike

Well done Mike, I like it! 175 formula is cheaper than 125. But give him a hard time Ian!
And don´t take any notice of my waffling about fairings -- Ned put me right... I hated them because of feeling hemmed-in. And reading up a bit more I found that our clever, theoretical, predictions on steamlining 50 yrs back were pessimistic in saying "...effective at 70mph plus..."
So keep at it ...
Go well and keep well,
Aye! JayBee.

Mike raised an interesting point of the 175 ( with its simplistic formula) -- versus the 125( with its sophistication of reed valve etc... etc...) ever winning the championship...?
My opinion, for what its worth (based on heresay -- not factual report), is that a lot of development is still needed to get the 175 competitive at every circuit. By that I mean the 175 motor needs to be tuned to suit the particular circuit. ie. That weird 3 Sisters circuit needs an exhaust system and port timing that will give high torque at relatively low revs (and hence best acceleration out of the corners) where Donington needs a change of resonant pipe and timings to give increased horsepower with higher speeds ...
Come on -- (you´ve still got a fortnight to sort the bike...) -- pick the bones out of that...
Go well and keep well,
Aye,
JayBee.
PS. I like this site because my avatar warps time back for me to a moment in history when most of you were either not born yet or toddling and I was winning my first ever Bantam race at Cadwell (clutch slip and all..) Admitted it was ONLY a NOVICE race but it was a wonderful feeling silly nostalgia allows me to enjoy....
JB.