... The need for speed ....

 We all know the classic line from Top Gun, and how it relates to young macho dudes needing to tickle their adrenal gland in order to fulfill something. That has not been my case. I simply need to find some speed in an attempt to suck less at this racing thing.

 Ever since my injuries in 2012/ 2013 I have not been at full speed. I definitely have improved my mechanics of riding, but still the lap times have not been there. This has everything to do with confidence and feeling. The more comfortable you are on the bike the farther away the "feeling" of fast is. What I mean by that is that when the bike vibrates and pushes the front tire, or the rear tire is sliding, or lifting the rear wheel under braking these are all items telling you that your are "feeling" fast. Last time we were at Sears Pt I had lots of moments where the front tire would begin to chatter and push, and I was "feeling" fast only to find out I was running a 1:53. That's not fast. Pushing the front end into the Carousel, or Turn 7 is not where you're going to pick up a ton of time. I needed to analyze what I was doing and really think through where I could get better and find that time.

 But before I could do all this analysis I still needed to address some fitness issues. I've dug deeper into mountain biking which has paid off in my lung, and heart fitness, and it's been fun. Like I told my wife I found a whole new way to break bones! But really doing some long MTB rides and doing extended climbs has given strength to my legs that gym exercise just can't touch.  The downside is I'm not very good at MTB and I keep falling down. On an extended ride (The Tamarancho Loop) with novice racer Alex I had 3 solid crashes landing on my left knee. That left me bloody and swollen for a couple of weeks to follow. So much so that when we did a track day at Sears Pt the next week I could barely bend my knee getting into my leathers. That made for some not fun laps around the track until it would warm up each session. My take away from that was not to ride really hard single track trails just before a race or trackday.

 The first weekend of September and we were again at my favorite race track Sears Pt (Sonoma Raceway for new people) I did a couple of practice sessions on Friday just to give my mind some data for analysis. This really helped. I spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning with some quiet time really thinking through each lap looking for places I could be better. This is not the easiest thing in the world looking at yourself and finding where you are not good at something. I know  I need to work on carrying more speed through a corner, and more importantly opening the throttle sooner. This would be my focus on Saturday. I wanted to get the bike settled so it wasn't moving around so much and get on the gas sooner. I spent a good amount of time after each session with Jim my suspension tuner at Catalyst. We had added some fork oil at the previous race weekend to help with bottom out while under braking, but we added too much and this weekend on Friday we took the forks apart and removed 5mm of oil height. This really helped. Adding the extra oil in the first place allowed the fork to be more "supported" at the bottom of it's travel, and not bounce off the bottom, but removing the little bit gave us more adjustability in the preload setup. At the last race I was having issues with the bike "chattering" as I released the brakes into a turn. Gerry from GP Frame had spent some time in my pit measuring my brake rotors to see if they had any uneven wear.  Gerry was suspicious that something was amiss but couldn't pinpoint it. I sent the rotors back to the Braketech for a deeper analysis, and they discovered the float buttons were worn, and replaced them with slightly oversized buttons to firm up the amount of float. The new buttons are like .1 or .2 mm larger. So here I made a 5mm fork oil change, and a .2mm change to the brake rotors and it was like riding a completely different motorcycle. I found myself consistently braking deep into the corners lifting the rear wheel slightly off the ground and setting it back down just before turning in. 

Start of F40 on Saturday afternoon

 The race on Saturday afternoon was our typical Formula 40 light weight, and I had a good race. I launched well, and stayed with the leaders the whole race. I ran as high as 3rd place before finally finishing 5th and setting my personal best lap time ever of 1:49.1. It was a great way to end the day and lead into our next event.

 Saturday evening at the second Sears Pt round is when we typically doing our margarita party and this time we'd elevate the whole experience. Now re-branded as Margaritas and Motorcycles. Chips and salsa were supplied by Jim and Nickie at Catalyst Reaction , and fresh margarita mixed provided by Tommy's Margarita Mix. New this year was support from Lunazul Tequila , who provided us with some great swag that we gave away during the event. And of course a huge thanks to Julio Bermejo from Tommy's Mexican Restaurant for continuing to support me, and amateur motorcycle racing. The turn out was great. We put out a tip jar with all proceeds going to our AFM turn workers. For those reading this that don't know the people in white that work in the corners waving flags, and scraping broken riders off the ground are volunteers. They get a small stipend to help cover costs of getting to the track, and lunch. At the end of the year riders donate money to the turn workers fund, and that money gets dived up among them. It's a tear drop in the ocean by compared to the support they give us. This year we've raised $586 donated to the end of year fund. I'm proud of that fact alone. 

Always smiling when handing out 100% agave cocktails

 

Pouring some Lunazul

 Sunday's first race was 650 Twins. I got a good start and stayed with the leaders for a couple of laps then the shit show started. 450 Production had started in front of us and it took us a lap and half to catch the back of their grid. We would spend the next 4 laps dodging slower bikes, and taking bigger and bigger risks. I ended up losing several positions and got tired of taking such big risks passing slower bikes so I slowed down and cruised around the last lap. It was lame. But the fight up front gave me some motivation for the race later in the day.  A fellow racer told me "at one point the 3 of you looked like you were riding the same bike" I'm pretty sure he was talking about this moment in T7.

   
 The second race of the day for me is always Formula IV. I was gridded 3rd and got a great start. I battled for 6.9 laps for 3rd place. Why 6.9 laps and not all 7? well on the last corner of the last lap I a gap had developed to the guy in front of me (because of lapped traffic again) and I knew he was too far away, but I also knew there was a bike close behind me so I decided to brake a little later to make sure the rider couldn't come underneath me. Like has happened so many times before the rear wheel lifted off the ground, but this time since I was later on the brakes I didn't have the distance to set it back down before turning, and so I began to turn. Let me tell you unless you're Marq Marquez that doesn't work. The rear end began to pivot around the steering stem, and the handle bars went all the way to the lock as the front tire began to skid. Amazingly I let off the brake and set it back down after leaving a 5' black line. I gathered myself up and finished the turn just as the guy behind me came through. I finished 5th again, but I was OK with that because I just had the save of my life. The whole thing lasted so long (in my mind) that I was already counting the hospital bills before I got it under control. That was a hell of a race.

An effected shot by Kate of me before the FIV race

Fast through turn 10

 

Here's the FIV race if you're interested in watching

 The last race of the day was literally the last race. Now I've missed the last race most of the season. Earlier in the year I kept packing up my friends pits after they went to the hospital, or I was hot and tired. This time I was mostly ready for it. I did not get a great launch like I had in my previous 3 races. I'm blaming it on being on the outside of the first row. It's really hard to see the green flag. I had a great battle for the win with Justus on his Ducati 649. I was not running the same pace I had earlier. Chalk it up to late in the day on the 3rd day. I was tired. I led him for a little bit when he made a mistake but he came back by, and I never really had a challenge.  My fitness is definitely better, but still has room to get even better so I'm not tired at the last race of the day.

Briefly leading Justus through 9

Over the top of 3A

 










 So there we have it. A great weekend of racing with friends and family. Thanks to so many people for coming out, hanging out and supporting us.
 
Special thanks to my wife Kate for being such an amazing pit crew. She's gotten really good at hand signals I now know not only how close the rider behind me is, but how many there which is a huge help in planning my in race strategy. Thanks to Mr, and Mrs Fry for having us stay at their beautiful home in Sonoma. I'm pretty sure Alex and I should not have drank the entire 12 pack of beer on Friday night, but it didn't seem to slow me down so it's OK. Thanks to Max at Oxymoron for taking so many pictures.

     
             

 

I once was lost but now I'm .....

                                                                            .....Still F'ng lost!

Mickey What are you talking about?

I haven't written since the start of the racing season. That's pretty lame on my part since there's been plenty to write about. The problem is that I'm not happy about where I am and what I'm doing so I've been unmotivated to write. That's not OK. I'm supposed to write no matter what. Ideally I do that writing on the Monday following a race weekend when everything is fresh in my mind, but 2 of the races I've had to work on the Monday after. I tell you that is rough. Racing is physically, mentally, and emotionally draining. Having to go to work at 7am and be focused is really hard.

Here's the racing synopsis for the last 3 rounds. We show up on Friday, I ride around for 3 days, I suck, we go home. Fun right? I'll get the meat of that shortly.

The Sears Pt round started off with so much hope. After the first round I installed my new engine, and had it tuned at Spears Enterprises. The bike on the dyno made more power in a better way than any engine had ever before. I did pretty good at Buttonwillow, I had a new engine, and Sears is my best track. Let's kick ass and take names! It didn't work out that way. I started the weekend tired. For what ever reason I was really nervous and not sleeping well. Not being rested is a huge hit to a race weekend. And the weekend started early as I was racing in the AHRMA series which started on Thursday. That's 4 days of racing in a row. By Sunday I was wiped out. I rode poorly in all my races, and was really disappointed. As a bonus I skipped my last race because my friend Peter crashed in Turn 7 and got his arm ran over. He had to transport in an ambulance and we stuck around and loaded all his, and Alex's gear into Peter's trailer, and I towed it the short distance to his home in Sonoma.

The following race at Thunderhill had a similar theme. Again I didn't sleep well leading up to the race, and It showed again in my lap times. I'm being very cerebral and for sure going better in some parts of the track than I had before, but I'm not going any faster overall. as a bonus I was sick. Not terribly but a small fever. There's nothing like racing a motorcycle with a fever in 90° weather. After the F40 race on Saturday I pulled into the pits and handed my bike off to Peter, and laid down on the ground. I was so spent I couldn't even back my bike up. Again I missed my last race on Sunday because my friend Aaron had an amazing front end highside out of Turn 6 and he had to be helicoptered to Chico. We packed all his stuff into his truck and Kate drove it to the hospital where we were to meet his wife. A very disturbing trend was forming.

Here's an amazing video of Aaron's crash

The last race was again at Thunderhill and this time I was well rested. I was finally sleeping normally before a race weekend. I'm going to chalk this phenomenon up to not racing for over a year. I was pretty well prepared and in a racing mood so once again expectations were high. I did OK. I got a decent start a couple of times and ran with some of the front guys for a little while. This time however it was the heat that got to me. I did my best to stay hydrated but I'm a city boy and triple digit temps beat me up. Next time before we go to Thunderhill I'm going to take some bikram yoga classes to condition my body to the heat. Again I missed my last race on Sunday but this time it was because I was so wiped out from the heat I knew I wouldn't be competitive, and if you can't go full tilt you're "just burning tires, and gas" so I withdrew. At least we didn't have to pack up anybody's stuff.

The Wife giving me the signal of how many, and how close are behind me

Turn 4 at Sears Pt

So why do I suck? That's the magic question. The bike is in good shape. I'm in decent shape for a 43yo. I have been going to gym regularly, but I think the program I'm doing isn't enough. To try and get my fitness in a better place I've taken up mountain biking again. When I say again I mean I used to mountain bike (sort of) when I was in my late teens, early twenties. I was so into it at the time I switched from smoking Winston regulars to Winston lights. That was  big deal. I stopped with the bicycle thing when I got into motorcycles. I bought a new mountain bike in 2003-4 and rode it a little, but only in the park or the presidio. Last week after getting my bike tuned up at a new bike shop here in our neighborhood I went for a real mountain bike ride. Since Marin county is the birthplace of mountain biking I figured I should take advantage of it. I did my research on MTB Project and picked a route that said was beginner/intermediate. That's me right? After crashing 4 times, and coming home bloody and bruised I had some doubts. Then I figured out I missed a turn on the trail and was way off the bunny slope. I ran the route again this week, and stayed on the correct course. It was lovely and I didn't crash at all. I'll be doing that more often.

But fitness is just a small part of the sucking. My problem is all in my head. I tell everyone that I've recovered from my injury in 2013. But have I really? I don't really walk right. I can't run. It hurts just to put a shoe on my left foot. Am I racing with fear in my heart? If so I need to pack it up. I don't think so though. There is a wall there. A mental barrier and I need to find a way to break through it. Thinking back to my last 3 races I can honestly say I'm not really pushing anywhere. I'm going decently fast but I'm not stretching the limits. Racing is pushing the limits. Your own limits, the bikes limits, the tracks limits. Racing is finding those limits and finding ways through them. I need to dig in and figure it out. It's time to "ride fast, and take chances"

The next race is the first weekend of September at Sear Pt. There's going to be a hell of a shindig at the end of the day on Saturday. You should come. It'll be fun.

Starting Over - Again

So here it is. The year 2016. Honestly if you'd asked me back in 2003 when I started racing if I'd be starting my 14th season of racing I probably would have laughed at you.But here we are March of 2016 and round 1 of the AFM season is already behind us. Yeah it's the start of the 14th season of racing, but in some ways it feels like the first season. Maybe it's because I've been away for so long or maybe I always feel like this at the start of the season, and it's been so long since I've started a season I just don't remember. No matter what I still feel like a newb just getting my shit together.


Last year I did a couple of rounds just to see if I could still ride at speed, and if I had the drive to push myself. After those 2 rounds I felt pretty good and I didn't give it a lot of serious thought. Maybe is all I would tell people. And yet when and opportunity came up to acquire a hopped up engine I jumped at the chance. So much for Maybe. Sometime in the fall of 2015 my buddy Mark decided he wanted a track bike. We looked at various options that were on BARF at the time, and the bike that I just couldn't get away from was this racing EX650 very similar to mine. We decided this was the right bike for Mark but it came with a racing engine that needed to run high test fuel, and that's not ideal for a novice track rider so we hatched a plan, and after a long day we bought the bike, got it to my house, and swapped in a stock engine. There sitting on the ground for a couple of months was this superbike engine taunting me.

Finally in January I made the decision to give racing a full go. Not just a dabble here and there but a real commitment. That meant I wanted to put this superbike motor into my bike, but I don't trust anything on the surface so I gave Greg Spears a call about freshening up the beast and making sure it was ready to race. Well January actually means the end of January and by the time Greg actually got the motor apart to figure what needed to be done it was too late to get it ready for the first round at Buttonwillow. Typical racers. Wait until the last possible minute to do anything. It was probably for the best. I now had about 6 weeks to prepare for the first race with several major work projects in the mean time. That gave me about 2 weeks before the first race of any real free time. I needed that time to go through all of my bits and pieces. I'm also way out of shape. I was doing really well last year as far as physical therapy and gym time, but but a new injury and an old one made me stop going. Honestly I wasn't sure I could even ride a bike until I went to the doctor just before the race. The new issue is my right hip. I don't know what's up, but stretching and some exercises are helping. The old injury is my right shoulder. I hurt that in 2002 riding a bicycle and it has never healed correctly but 4 months ago is started hurting really badly. So badly I had to take pain killers to sleep at night. The X-rays showed calcification in my right upper tendon. That's not a good thing. I nice fat shot of cortisone really helped. So for about 3 weeks I tried hitting the gym as often as my body would allow. I knew it would not be enough time to get fully fit but it was better than nothing at all.
     It has been 3 years since I did a pre-season race prep and I wanted to go through all my personal equipment, spare parts, etc ... as well as have the suspension on ye olde' race bike freshened up by my friends at Catalyst Reaction.  The bay area was saddened to see my friend and long time shop sponsor Jennifer close her shop Werkstatt. Jen decided she wanted to do some things different with her life and running a business was taking too much time. Lucky for me the guy that got me started racing in the first place recently opened his own shop so it is my privilege to welcome Napa Valley Moto  to the team and to the AFM.

The Mrs and myself drove down Thursday evening and dropped off our gear at the track. Friday morning we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise welcoming us to the first race of the year.

Sunrise over power lines and I5

It was great to be back at the track and visit old friends. I spent the first half of the day trying to remember which way the track at Buttonwillow went, and then in the afternoon my parents arrived as well as Team Fry and they had along with them a new racer. Not only his first race weekend but his first time at Buttonwillow.   As it seems to be the case with Team Fry when you're a new racer the proper thing to do is crash on your first Friday practice ever. I think this is a way of engaging with the racer culture as quickly as possible to you can feel you "belong" It also ensures you get the least amount of sleep while you spend most of the night repairing you bike.

So many dudes So little ninja

Saturday brought us more sunshine, hot dogs, hot parents, more working on bikes,  and fresh chances to go faster. I didn't.
 

 Finally at the end of the day we got our shot at the Formula 40 Lightweight race. I finished 7th in that race which was mainly about not hitting the smaller bikes they had gridded in front of us. I often refer to this as "bowling for Ninjas" as we tend to come upon them in groups then scatter them like so many bowling pins as we roll through them. Otherwise not too bad, but I was not on pace yet so I didn't think much of it. Saturday night Peter got a chance to put his new portable burners to use. After instilling some serious BTU's into a pot of short ribs we all groaned with full bellies before getting to bed early.

Sunday our first race of the day was Race #1 650 Twins. Normally I like race 1 because you can come off of morning practice still rested but warmed up. The downside is it's hard to be mentally ready. Full on racing at 10am is just not fair. My brain is not awake yet. And of course another round of "Bowling for Ninjas" thoroughly pissed me off. At this point I was not having any fun. 2 races now I spent most of my time dodging slower bikes.

The last race of the day was Formula IV. In this race we'd be starting first so no mini-bikes in front of us to spend the whole race dodging. I started 12th which is middle of the 3rd row. I think there were 40 something bikes in this race so starting 12th doesn't suck. When the race started I got a good launch like I often do, but I need to work on what happens after the first 100 feet. I need to get the throttle all the way to full sooner, and work on my first to second gear shift. After the tussle of the first few laps I tried to be smooth and not get passed. I could feel myself getting tired. The lack of physical training really shows itself on day 3. Especially the last couple of laps of the last race. I finished 5th.

Here's some other great racing photos courtesy of Oxy Moron

In the thick of it

crossed up and on the gas

having a Catching good time

It was a great first race weekend of the year. Great to be with my parents (and take advantage of their RV). Great to hang out with friends we haven't seen in 6 months, and make new ones. But mostly it was great to be at the race track. There is nothing in the world like a race track. The smells, the sounds, the energy. There's a crispness to the air. Maybe it's the feeling of everyone being so intensely focused on the task at hand. I don't know what it is, but I do know I love it. I can't wait to do it again at Sears Pt in a few weeks time.

hanging around