Get Paid
Are your ready to earn cash racing your motorcycle? Moto West GP Aug 9 & 10 @ repave Buttonwillow. Lindemann Engineering Ultra Lightweight Class. $50 each Winner to 6th place. But you have to race to get paid. You know, like a Pro does.
Busy
I’ve been at a track working or racing or both, the last four weekends in a row. This past Saturday I was at Buttonwillow with the new asphalt with 5 happy clients. Then I drove to Willow and worked with 12 happy clients.
Christian dropped off these bikes for fork and shock springs and valving. It’s good to be busy!
Be Careful The Lesson You Wish For
My fried Michael Gougis has a Blog running that I like. He posts thoughts about motorcycle road racing the world over and photo’s from events he is at.
http://motorbikeroadracing.blogspot.com/
His latest post is about the AMA Pro weekend at mid-Ohio. This is my response:
The lesson you hope they will take is that more racing is better. The lesson DMG will take from this is that one day events are even better than two day events.
The real lesson is that Mid-Ohio is not a suitable track for motorcycle races.
The surface sucks. The run off is poor to none. We are treated badly by management.
There is room to improve run off. The track surface can be done right. Track management can start treating their customers right. They have done none of this. And by track management I mean the person who owns the track.
Motorcycle people like Mid-Ohio because, like Laguna, it was one of the great events that they saw on TV. That is a fantasy based on an incomplete, edited story. Both tracks suck and treat motorcycle racers bad. Get over your childhood crush. Racing is like marriage.
Divorce the tracks and organizations that don’t love us.
Mike is on the Gas
If you have heard my track day riders meeting rhyme, you know that coasting is bad. When I get a question about ground clearance problems I always include advice about rolling on the throttle in turns. I always worry that people will feel like I’m being mean but it’s better to make sure now than to make a sale and not fix the problem. Here’s Mike’s great answer:
“Wow Ed Sorbo,
I met you at an OMRRA race 20 some odd years ago. You guys were racing a FZR600 with a Hawk GT swingarm.
I rode a beat up 600 hurricane to a win in the novice class. You guys added a couple clicks of rebound to my shock, as it was pogoing a bit thru 9.
Its not the opening throttle thing, I’m sure its way to soft for my fat ass however.
Mike”
How cool is that! Team Hawaii raced at Portland with WERA a few times and like most racers we are always happy to help.
LE Stickers, On The Bike
Erick sent me a photo of his tire. He was worried about how they looked. Sometimes the edge of the tire and the edge of the groves do funny things because the rubber folds over into space, away from the track. These wear patterns change with psi, tire wear and load. I explained this and Erick sent this nice thank you. The stickers he is talking about I use to make sag measurements easy, they peal off easy and don’t leave goo on your paint. And Erick, thank you for asking.
“Thank you so much for your reply! I had you adjust the suspension towards the end of the day at big willow and I never got to talk to you on what you did but for my first time out on that track my buddy had a hard time catching me when he was smoking me in the beginning of the day. I couldn’t have been more comfortable on my bike. Traction became better leaning lower was more confident all around a good day. I will see you at the next track days to come. I left your LE stickers on my bike. Have a good day!”
July Moto West GP Race Report
Something in the transmission of the Iceman Ninja started going sad in turn 9 during the second practice on race day. After checking all the stuff I could fix at the track the hunt was on for another bike.
Ex Hawaii racer turned electric bike racer Jeremiah Johnson was hanging out and he had a Zero S that is legal in the Lindemann Engineering Ultra Lightweight class.
With the help of some friends we had the Zero ready to go. This is the 77th bike I’ve raced so far. It’s geared for kart tracks with a top speed of 87 mph. Changing the gearing requires removing the swing arm so I’ll go for the lead off the start then try to take it easy to keep the batteries and motor from getting too hot and cutting back the power.
That may have been the best start from the second row of all time! Five bikes on the grid and I was just gone. No clutch, no shifting just twist and go.
Two Ninja 300’s passed me on the run to T-8 on the first lap. 74 year old Tony Serra and the other E bike got me on the outside of T-8 on lap 3. It was fun to watch Tony go around me.
I got 5th and $50 cash.
Thanks Jeremiah! Check out his Hollywood Electrics shirt.
Words Have Meaning
The definition of the word “safe” is the absence of risk. Motorcycle racing, like most human endeavors will never be safe.
Using the word safe or it’s divertive when talking about racing activities falsely implies that racing can be made safe.
The risk of racing can be managed. The risk level can be made acceptable. But all the risk can never be removed. This is true for motorcycling and most other human endeavors.
It’s bad enough when you fool yourself with the misuses of words. However this misuses next leads to extra work for me when useless rules are added to make things safer or because “it’s safety.”
Something bad happens once and efforts are made to keep it from happening again. When these efforts are in the category of increased run off room no harm is done. When a new material is banned because of a poor design or more safety wire is required because someone left a header nut loose time and effort is being wasted doing something pointless. Work that could have been spent reducing risk.
Racing is difficult. It should be. That is why we do it. Some of the challenge is inherent. Some of the challenge is imposed by us on the rookies as a test to be sure they won’t increase our risk level too much. If you can’t obey the speed limit in the pits how do we know you will follow the rules on the track?
Then there is the Chicken Shit. In case you missed my point: Misusing words can lead to misusing rule books.
Bimota
Back in the day, “Bimota” was a symbol of well thought out light, powerful bikes that my friends and I could never afford. This SB6R is the first Bimota I’ve touched.
The sub frame is a one piece carbon fiber unit. Three bolts on each side, two springs off the exhaust, unplug one gang plug from the harness and you just lift it off. I was thinking these bikes were everything we though they were.
But to remove the front shock bolt you need to move the air box. The clamp for the remote shock reservoir under the bike does not have trapped nuts and the foot peg bracket has to be removed and the hose untangled from wires to get the reservoir out.
Oh well, the dream lasted a few minutes and really, I’m not perfect either.
Engineering
The difference between suspension that just moves up and down and suspension that builds your confidence is Science.
Suitable For Continued Use
Remember my November 16, 2013 post “14 Year Old Penske & Silkolene?”
I sent the oil to Silkolene in England for testing and this is what they had to say:
“The Silk Pro RSF 5WT tested good. See the pic below where you can see the oil is still clear and no sediment was seen in the sample. Viscosities were consistent as was the viscosity index with new Silk Pro RSF 5WT. The material also looks good and suitable for continued use.”
