I found this girl in Tiki’s water bowl, she looked dead but I fished her out anyway and put her in the LE Bee Warming Station. It’s fun to watch them groom themselves as they warm up. She will spend the night in the shop and Bee on her way tomorrow.

Fork tubes have a tough life. The worst part is being whacked by rocks and road stuff at high speeds closely followed by rust. New tubes can be expensive or hard to find but all is not lost. The chrome your forks came with can be chemically removed, the tubes can be re-plated with hard chrome, then ground to the correct size. The new finish is harder and tougher than what you had.

The shop LE had been using for a very long time closed. I did some searching and some checking and today I went for a tour. I was impressed, clean shop, helpful staff, the owner knows his stuff and they have been doing fork tubes.

As you can see from the first photo, they can do jobs much larger than fork tubes and shock shafts. The building was built for this purposes. The stripping and plating tanks shown were sunk into the ground and can handle 30 foot long parts. The tanks are steel, in a fiberglass shell, in a thick concrete tub. The large gray boxes provided the DC power for the tanks.  Running between the converters are large air tubes for the special venting system that filters out the harmful chemicals.

Turn around time is two weeks or less, a big improvement from the month it took at the old place. I’ll post a photo of the first set of tubes late next week.

Below is the first set of tubes for LE.  They are perfect.  Check out the big yellow coffee cup they gave me!

Erika sent me this message after the WERA West races this past weekend. We first met at a 2WTD event in Dec of ‘15. My answers are in Italic:

Hey Ed! Congrats on the win and pole positions today!
We stopped by your garage after a race but you were busy talking with a race mate and when we came back you were out and about. So I’ll have to hunt you down another time so you can sign my helmet
I hadn’t been to the track since we saw you at two wheels except to finally take the New rider school and I was focusing on their instruction and getting the hang of being ‘thrown into the Wolves’ in Their A group. I rode in every A group session except for one so that I could have lunch and let it digest. The mock race came up and although pole didn’t mean anything, I made sure I was early for the warm up lap and got into the third place grid. I had a good start but the lack of cylinders and cc meant I would get passed before turn 1! I rode the rest of the three laps without knowing their was someone behind me on a 250 As well! That may have been for the best for my peace of mind! I ended up being the fastest 250 and there was still a small group behind us! It was such a fantastic experience and I totally get why you and every one else gets so excited to be out there. I just wanted to share this story with you because I get very excited and motivated to see fast people like you on little bikes and really kicking butt out there
I will be at SoCal Trackdays this coming weekend and will practice getting closer to the apex since I realize I miss it by a lot of distance.
Look through/above the apex, never down at the ground.
Glad my posture looked good! When you say ‘big hang off doesn’t apply to street bikes’ I feel my style isn’t to hang off much anyways but I notice my tire wear is abnormal though so maybe I should get comfortable leaning with the bike?
Lots reasons for funny tire wear, PSI is #1, don’t worry too much about it as most of what you hear about tire wear is BS, show me next time you see me or send me a photo. Hang off just a little, move your ass only half way off the seat, keep your shoulders square with the bike. Look at the photo of me in “No Elbows.”

I’m not sure what you mean with keeping my eyes level with my head.
Draw a straight line through your eyes and let it extend forever out both sides, keep that line level with the horizon, just like when you’re walking.

Does it mean for me to look farther ahead during the turns?
Yes, that too.
Tuck into the bike more?
No, see photo in “No Elbows”
Anywho I know this is a lot and you had a long weekend so I’ll leave it at that and write more thoughts in my Moto diary congrats again!
Thank you.

Mookie had a good weekend with WERA West, he posted this on my FB page:

“I have been with Ed Sorbo of Lindemann Engineering Race Suspension for 2 races now. Before Le-suspension.com, I was concidering the possibility of not racing anymore. When I was convinced by my manager (Albert Monge) to start working with LE-suspension, my race life has taken a MAJOR upgrade!! I wanted to keep Ed Sorbo a secret for myself because what he can do for EVERYONE (good for YOU, bad for me lol). This man/company has been heaven-sent!!! “Thank you ED SORBO for all you have done and will do for my race program!! Words can’t describe the appreciation I have for you. I would NEVER go this fast without your help. Thanks again Ed ……… Suspension Mechanic and friend.”

Still not dragging my elbow, just looking through the turn and still winning.
Photo by MG. ACS with WERA Motorcycle Road Racing

WERA Motorcycle Road Racing ACS Race Report:
After two days working and riding with FastrackRiders, I worked for and raced with WERA today. Two races, two pole positions and two trophies. Races were ESS and FSS both on the Iceman 250 Ninja. The poles were because I won both classes last year, two more number one plates. Race one was ESS up against two 300 Ninjas and a R-3, I took 3rd. I won FSS and had another good battle with the R-3, he was in a different class. Tony Serra had a good time too.

When an Umpire does his job well, no one notices. The same is true for the behind the scenes work of any production. At a track day you should not need to worry about the track being ready or the battery in your instructors bike. This was my first event on staff with FastrackRiders. I bring 34 years of racing experience. I got to see the behind the scenes stuff.

Did you notice that they were ready for you in registration, that there were extra people at Tech when you all showed up at the same time, that there was always someone at the trailer to answer your questions, that there were two people working pit out, that the cones were in the same place as last time?