Top Dead Center

Hey guys, I'm Al neighbors and welcome to T DC. Now, if you've never been to Del Mar, you're missing out on a great happening with something for everybody.

People that come here, um,

really, really enjoy the, the bikes that we do have out on display. We have probably some of the best bikes in the country here at Del Mar today.

Yeah,

I'm having a lot of fun.

We love these bikes. So I think it's a fabulous name,

right?

What is it? B

Bell Taco.

Well, close while the brand is Bull Taco. Some folks had some other more colorful names for their custom machines. The name of the bike is my mistress when we first started it and it was mistress, Misst Ress.

Then it became

bitch. Then it was vicious bitch. And then even, uh last week we changed it to evil, vicious bitch.

And it's just because the bike bites me on every single thing we

do

with

real

nice,

real

nice.

I dig it when I just sit around and watch people just look at it, people walk by us and look at my pain and go back and

go. Oh,

oh,

damn. So we started writing it down. How many times we've heard that the whole day everybody that sees, it just drops their jaw. And I mean, to me, I eat that up. Iii, I like, I like people to enjoy it.

Del Mar. The event itself is one of my favorite events of the year.

I've been coming here for a long time and, you know, every year it seems like they add a little bit more and just a great event.

Wow. Wow.

Watch out

the man.

We're a ball still stunt show from West Texas. And, uh,

we're riding a big still ball all three of us and we just carried up in there and go crazy. All three of my boys get in there and we get it on.

Yeah, it's a great show.

I got the hat, getting ready to put it on the back of his head.

Can't reach it. No. Well,

getting ready to rip it up around them.

We're all in sync. So, uh, one of us leads and the other two follow and, uh, one of us leads and we just go up, give us some gas and

hopefully we don't crash. Uh, we're gonna probably average about 33 miles an hour with their, uh, xr seventies all board out and big suspension, thick wheels and everything. So we don't crush the wheels. G forces.

They're pretty,

pretty bad in there. We pull about probably 2 to 3.

Uh, it took a long time to get used to it. It hurts your back, makes your muscles all sore.

And, uh,

the dizziness was the hardest thing to get over. You know, you get so dizzy in there, but, uh,

probably go about

3 to 5 laps at first and just fall over because you're so dizzy whipping it around.

Hopefully, we don't wanna hit each other.

We crashed. I don't know how many times can't count that much.

We just crashed until we learn how to do it. We've just had uh, concussions, broken bones and stuff like that. I mean, there's so many crashes. Can't even count them all. I can't relate to them all. It just, just stuff happens and you

gotta watch out, you gotta learn how to fall because if you fall and stick an arm or a leg out, it's gonna get ripped off. So you gotta just kind of curl and just hope you don't hurt too bad. You got

two screws. I broke the knot off. So I put two screws going up right there

and two screws right there to hold the rod in place.

And then up here on my knee,

that scar is where they cut my knee open to put the, the rod through the top of my bone

runs all the way down

the whole length of my leg.

This is what I spent three months of my life doing

is building this ball.

This thing was the headache for me.

I took off, I was in the motorcycle business and I just left the shop and said, I'll be back when I get done with this thing. Who knows? It was gonna take three months.

This ball is 14 ft in diameter.

I had special mill run tubing made for it.

It's machine fit

that if that ball is not completely square, it will not go together.

It comes in four pieces, the top comes off and it splits,

the bottom comes and it splits apart. So it comes in four pieces. It's the only ball that stands on its own legs. This is my baby right here,

even though she needs a little work there once in a while because the boys tear it up. But

this, this is what makes the money right here.

It gets pretty rough in there.

It's all good though. Just like adrenaline's pumping so hard. You don't even really pay attention to the crowd. Really? You're just still just like, wow, that was crazy. And just

some, like, we have real close calls and you just concentrate on that and like, get out and just

the

way I live my life. It's awesome. I thought it was awesome. It was really cool.

I think

I wouldn't wanna do that. It's crazy.

Ok.

Now, how about going forward

and sideways on dirt at over 100 miles an hour?

It wouldn't be Del Mar without the mile.

Pretty cool. You know, it's a real close racing and I think it's one of the closest racings you have out there.

Sometimes 15 guys all within, uh, four or five bike links seems like sometimes, you know, all in a row, you know, three and four wide. So,

pretty exciting deal

on this track, like this one that's

over 100 and 2500 and 30 miles an hour down the street,

you know, watching that, that kind of speed and

you know, that tight together,

pretty exciting.

What do I like about dirt track racing?

No,

to me, you know, it's a lot of fun, of course. Uh I like going fast and sideways at the same time.

A

big, big part of this racing is drafting, which

the draft you have to be really close. So,

and that, that's one of the big things about mile dirt track racing.

The drafting,

the

whole deal is everybody knows everybody and everybody trusts everybody. So we feel pretty comfortable with that

with each other out there. Drafting, going

out straight away is, uh, just,

you know,

half inches apart and you really got to

push your buddy in front

of you to

not do nothing stupid and

keep the air behind.

So hopefully draft that way.

It's a

kind of one thing, you know, you got your heart pumping out there,

Salvador.

That's good.

The noise, the smell, um,

when they get close and racing

when there's an actual races, it's exciting.

It's

just flat track racing. Good reason.

Excellent reason.

Right now, I'm missing this one. So,

except for a brief period in the 19 eighties, Harley Davidson has had a monopoly on flat track racing

those days are now over.

I

think he's

jumped into the sport this year for dirt track racing and, uh, they went with 1/4 factory effort this year.

Uh, it's pretty exciting, you know,

uh,

been dominant the last

2025 years

in dirt track racing and uh to have a new factory team coming

into the sport is a big deal for us.

It's definitely a big deal for the fans who want to see a different brands and motorcycles out there racing. And uh

it's a fun deal. Suzuki knew that all eyes would be on their new machines and they did not disappoint.

We're running a 1000 cc based V twin engine,

uh

production engine out of the beach drum motorcycle that presents

itself.

And uh what it has is something that no other dirt tractor has is uh fuel injection.

It's also a water

pooled engine.

And with that with

injections, we have a special black box Power Commander box that we use that you can actually plug in a laptop computer

and program

how

the air fuel mixture is with the fuel injection. You can

lift the bike up, lean the bike up, all with the touch of the computer. Also at Del Mar Austria's KTM unveiled their new flat tractor today. We're Deb the new LC eight KTM Flint motor and

it's in a stock chassis.

We just lowered it down a couple weeks ago. Pretty

shar bike.

We got a lot of chassis stuff we need to do with it. It's got a great motor in it right now. It's

for this type of a track. Uh,

I think we've got a great motor for this

second, great shot at winning on. It

just need to get a handle a little bit better and uh

and all the riders are in agreement, change is good and the new competition is making the future a flat track. The bright one,

I think it's great. You know, it's uh getting more bike brands and balls, you

know,

you can't hurt nothing. I I like to see all the bike. I like to see

what, you know, you see all the bike develop,

getting the manufacturers involved. It's, it's better for the riders, it's better for the fans,

it's better for the sport, period, exhibits involvement and hopefully bring in a new fan base

and uh take it to the next level.

The theory today is, is to keep a little bit of cushion. I'm talking like an eighth of an inch on top where the bike skim across the top rather than dig in and chunk the track out.

It's a ballet man and machine working as one number

30

separated by

each and they finesse a machine that speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour. This is flat track racing. This kicks ass

right here is, uh,

pretty much the first practice. I went out and got behind a couple of people and, uh,

next thing, you know, I came in and look at my arms and here we are out having fun. Whatever gets you off buddy

with the Delmar race being the season finale. Gladiators of the mile were looking to finish out the ears strong

for

the last couple of races. We've been doing well and finishing high

and I wouldn't want to go in the off season with a good minute

here in Del Mar. And

what

next

for Joe Cop and came down to writing the new KTM or waiting to debut the beast until next season, we just talked about it.

We don't want to go out there and look stupid on it and hurt ourselves on there that,

like I told him, I said,

it felt pretty comfortable in the first,

the first track. So I was out there on it.

I'm gonna just keep riding it and keep learning on it and try to trust it more and more each lap. You know, it's definitely not pushing it to its limits right now.

It's, uh, this is something, you know, so new to me that I don't want it to come around and slap me.

But when the flag drops to

out throwing the nine

win

running mid pack and George rotor pulled away from the field on the tried and true Arsenal.

I got a better start that time, you know, and

this

position and I wanted to be, I, I

think I passed AJ and three and four there and,

and I knew the rest, you know, the

zoo keeper fast if I could get them behind me,

you know, I might be break away and

work out just like me to plan it. You know,

when you are leaving like that,

the only thing that can happen is bad. So

when you're,

when it's like that you're a lot more nervous than, uh

when you're exciting with somebody.

All you're worried about is a rage.

All you're worried about now

is a

break

led by Kevin Barnes and AJ East. Look

Suzuki finished off the season strong by going 23 in the main. It's kind of neat out there running with AJ, you know, your teammate and, uh, we kind of wing back and forth with each

other going down the trade away.

Yeah, I got a bunch of girls, you know,

16 laps,

16 laps. I saw him, you know, at least 14 times. So that good

Codi finished last race of the year.

It's A plus R

to make sure,

make the off season a little bit easier for everybody.

Trials has always been about finesse and grace. But that image changed when Jeff Aaron released his groundbreaking trilogy of films. Balancing it.

CJ

if

not

at the bastard,

most of the videos that were out there about trials were just uh competition footage.

And uh that was great for the guy who's really into trials competition. But I wanted my videos to appeal to more mainstream, to attract younger people.

And

uh

that

is Beer boy.

Oh,

here

I,

you want some more,

made more of a crusty style video set to music

quicker pace.

I

call it like in your face trials,

but they've had really good reception. You know, a lot of people who are non trial drivers are buying these things just because, uh,

you know, they think it's a cool thing and, uh,

you know, it gives them good ideas. I'm

gonna

kill

you.

That's kind of the way I felt all the way along with trials. You know, I just need to get it out there and people would appreciate it

a lot of times, you know, there's events are held in remote areas and so we don't get the play that I think it deserves. That's one of the reasons I'm doing all this stuff that I do.

Yeah.

As Jeff travels the world competing and putting on exhibitions. Like the one at Del Mar.

There's one question he hears wherever he goes. How do you do that?

It's just like anything, you know, you build up to it, you know, you're not gonna go out there and pull a back flip the first time on your motorcycle. The trials, you start small, you just build your way up

and obviously there's techniques to get up all this stuff. And, uh,

you know, I've worked hard a long time and watched a lot of the best riders in the world and, uh,

learn from videos. And, uh,

you know, that's how I've, I've uh accomplished what I've accomplished

for some racers. It's all about taking the checker. But trials guys, they're a different kind of competitor.

It's just you against the terrain. It's,

you're not uh racing against another person or, you know, a pack of riders,

you know, you're the only one to blame. It's you against the obstacle.

Just uh

it's like made me focus on it and it, uh, I guess that's what I like about it so much. You know, it's a real personal achievement.

We like to,

to get it out there and, and put this sport in front of people because uh

everybody seems to really appreciate it and it's a lot of fun for us to come out and ride

a few years ago, Yamaha started the Four Stroke Motocross revolution with the Potent Yz Series.

Today, these bikes are more refined and remain the weapons of choice in the highly competitive 1, 25 and 250 classes.

The early ones had a hot start button on the carb which takes too much time to use if you drop your bike during a race. But today

we're gonna fix that.

This hot start kit from Dubo

racing solves the problem letting you control the hot starting from the handlebar.

These bikes have a finger pull decompression lever on the left side of the bar.

So the Dubbo

unit mounts on the right side.

This is a really easy project you can do in 15 minutes with simple hand tools.

When you're done with the installation set, the thumb lover slack using a nickel as a gauge.

The YZ 250 F also responds well to exhaust upgrades.

We got some time.

Soli Bolton, one of doctor D step system pipes.

It uses several rings to enlarge the diameter of the stainless header all the way back to the aluminum muffler.

It's 25% lighter than stock and has 3.6 horsepower.

That's a lot of power from a bolt on

and it will only take about 20 minutes to do

next week. We'll resurrect this.

It's Alan's totally crashed CBR 900 sport bike,

Tommy G. Let's get on that Honda next. My road rash is almost healed.

Man. That was a bad wreck.

Ok. Now, each week we show you the newest bike accessories and today is no exception

if you're into chrome, check out auto meters, new 8000 RPM, electric tack and 100 and 20 mile an hour. Speedo.

Now bring the camera in closer. I wanna show you guys something. They've got a cool raised flame design on a brush face. The tack retails for around 275 and the Speedo goes for around 300.

They're mounted in this chrome plated billet aluminum bracket from Yankee ingenuity that retails 4 $70.

But to get this mounted to your custom Harley, you'll need one of these.

It's Yankees bar mount and it's taps of the gauge brackets, bolt up flush for a very sanitary look suggested retail is $100.

And for you guys who wanna tune your fuel injected bikes, check out the Power Commander three R from dyno

Jet.

It plugs into your control module,

pressing these buttons, you can tune for low mid and high RPM. And if you really want to fine tune your fuel and ignition curves, the kit comes with software and a serial cable. You can hook up to your laptop and precisely remap your engine. It's a great tool. If you plan on adding performance parts, the Power Commander three R starts at around 329.

Check out the ultimate touring suit from Joe Rocket. This is the razor two piece suit which also includes the zip in pants.

The jacket features a rock tech show with body armor, critical points like in the shoulders and elbows

that wraps it up for today.

Next week we have a treat.

We'll head to the Bonneville Salt Flats for speed week.

You gotta love those streamliners. We'll have them for you on the next top dead center