A Nice Seafood Dinner

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Update: Added another trackday to my NJMP trip on columbus day weekend... now doing the thunderboolt track on both the 12th AND 13th of October

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Last friday 9/26 I did my Penguin Roadracing School day in order to be eligible for my racing license. It was pouring all day and I will need rains anyways since I'm going to race so I got some pirelli diablo rains on my spare set of wheels.






Then I had track days on the 29th and 30th.

Here is one of my better laps:

[youtube]FH6QL8zjtV8[/youtube]

Still waiting for my photos to show up, but here's a couple teasers:

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Don't know if trip is actually going to end this blog thing when he said he would so I figured I would just post up a few notes:

Still waiting for my real photos to show up from the track days.

Will be leaving either friday night or saturday morning to head down to the new track in NJ, New Jersey Motorsports Park, with my buddy. We're doing TD's on sunday the 12th and monday the 13th (columbus day). Hope to get some good pics and video down there because it's the COMPLETE opposite of my home track.

Then it'll be a long fucking winter or wrenching and dreaming...

[ceo012384]

Tried out some Diablo supercorsa DOT race tires... friggin awesome. After the lightning day those things were TOAST... so I grabbed a set of fresh ones for myself. Did the 10-13 day on them and it looks like I'll be able to use them for my whole first race weekend in the spring.

The new set is soft front / soft rear aka green/green and I had a blast on them at thunderbolt on columbus day. By the end of the day I was feeling really good and getting up to a decent pace at least in my opinion (low 140s) and was concentrating on being smooth getting on the throttle since that was a weak point of mine. In the past I would get on it a little and then hamfist it as the bike stood up.

I did a LOT better with that at thunderbolt... the tire tells the tale. No tear anywhere, just smooth wear all the way to each edge and little bits hanging off.



After the second to last session at thunderbolt i had an instructor/racer talk to me after we met up for a few laps and he said some very flattering things... I'm very excited to start racing and based on some things he said I think I am well prepared to give it my best.


I bought a set of woodcraft tire bakers from a friend. Pretty awesome to go full tilt into T1 and not worry about things. Also the woodcrafts have a nice safety plug built into them so there is no chance of leaving them on when you go out and burning through them like the chicken hawks.



With the new drill press was able to safety wire a couple things... oil fill and drain, dipstick, filter... and the nearest bolts to wire them all to.







Now for the track stuff:

Track photos showed up:









Turn 6 group shot, coming up on a slower rider



Here is that video I posted it somewhere else but it's a lap around NHMS from the sept days:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH6QL8zjtV8

These are from the 10-12 Buell Inside Pass TD at the Lightning course at NJMP. It took me most of the day to get up to speed there, and by then the photog was done I think, so in most of the shots I look shitty. Anyways,

Here's a vid... I am the camera biking riding my buddy's 636 and he is riding my r6. I catch up to him mid-session and we switch around a few times. Then his bike ran out of gas ... that was fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzeop6u-Jds

Like this one:


A Buddy and I:


Riding my buddy's 636:





Him on my R6:



Only a few shots from the 10-13 day at thunderbolt... think I have some vid too but I need to dig it up:

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And a garage update as well:

Grabbed a fridge for under the workbench for 'beverages'




Had some home depot credit so I picked up this sweet drill press, should be great for safety wiring:




Buddy's new race tard will be chilling in here for the winter, and we'll be doing plenty of work to it to pass the winter months:



My best bud just got married and I was the best man... as a best man gift he had this sweet sign made up... pretty cool gift!



Now it's flanked by two of the greatest riders ever:

[ceo012384]

Clutch has started to slip when hard on the throttle and getting to around 10k. All the track miles have done their damage. (probably have like 1500 track miles on this thing now)

Ordered a Barnett race clutch kit and will be rebuilding the clutch (friction plates, steel plates, clutch springs) not this weekend but the following one. Will also be helping my buddy put a slipper clutch in his new motard.

Lots of "wants" for the bike before the race season starts but they will all depend on money. The absolute musts in my opinion are a damper, gearing change, and suspension maintenance (oil, seals, etc).

I have some other ideas up my sleeve though

[ceo012384]

Well things are all kind of up in the air right now but I figured I would try to close this out with my current status.

I started trying to sell a lot of the street parts (fairings, headlight, etc etc) and started stripping off more of the street stuff (control switches, horn, wiring, etc) and will eventually have a 100% race dedicated bike and will have sold all of the stock parts that I won't ever need.

I have begun the first stage of things I HAVE to do (in my opinion) before the race season starts. As money allows, I will add things that are more wants and not really needs.

Since I will be finishing my research and thesis early in the 2009 calendar year that will open up a lot of opportunities for me to get more of the things I want and sort of 'start my life' even though that sounds corny. It will be pretty easy for me to get a good job that pays pretty well in my field. So the racebike and non-racebike plans are pretty set in stone and shouldn't be a problem. The wants are all just that, possible wants



Racebike HAVE to dos:
- Replace clutch plates, friction plates, and springs with Barnett race kit since clutch was toast (I completed this today)
- Finish drilling things for safety wire (I have been doing this bit by bit)
- Drain and flush engine ice (did today)
- Go to distilled water and water wetter
- New grips (did today)
- Continue to strip off unnecessary parts (switches, wiring, etc) and sell
- Sell all stock parts
- Bleed brakes, throw in fresh motul rbf600
- Acquire steering damper (ohlins if I can afford it)
- Change gearing appropriate for NHMS (520 DID ERV3 and driven sprockets)
- Replace fork seals and oil

Non-racebike stuff that will occur in the spring:
- Buy toyota tundra
- Buy DRZ-400 for a street bike



Racebike WANT to dos:
- Spring and valve forks
- Buy buddy's ohlins shock
- Vesrah SRJL17 brake pads


Non-racebike wants:
- Buy enclosed trailer
- Buy dirt gear and dirt bike
- Buy race tard to run a race a weekend on or so