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.

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.

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.

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.”

I did a little coaching with Doug at Buttonwillow this past Friday.  We were there with MotoYard.com  Doug was a Lindemann Engineering track day suspension set up client and I had time to ride too.