With the addition of the new truck I've also let go of the trailer I was using. It didn't belong to me, but I was it's keeper. Between myself and my buddy Craig we keept in our garages. When Craig let his garage go I didn't want the trailer year round. It took up too much space. No problem I have a bumper hauler anyway. However my XR100 doesn't fit in the back of the truck with the shell on it. So I bought a XR50 mini bike to use as a pit bike. Just like my 100 it's way overdone.
Tuesday march 17th I rode at Laguna Seca for the first time. It was kind of a hassle to get it all together. First off Laguna, a world class track that hosts a round of Moto GP, has a really low sound limit. 92db. So I bought a stock exhaust off of ebay, and mounted that up. That itself turned out to be more of a chore than I thought. The modified wider rear wheel I use rubbed against part of the decorative tip, so I cut it off. then I had to buy a really long bolt to mount it. Fine. Stock exhaust on, get do to my first session after lunch, and I'm meatballed for sound. Yup even with a stock exhaust I was 96.2db. The intake growl is what got me. So I hd to ride really slowly when I got near the sound booth. Lame. Anyway the day was good in the end. I got to ride with A,B, and C groups at the last session of the day. that made for an hour straight of ontrack time. If you could run flat out it would be a fun track. T1 is fast, and takes some time to get comfortable holding the throttle wide open as you crest a blind hill. T3-5 as also fast with just a little late breaking. The famous corkscrew isn't all that bad. It's suck a slow entry that there isn't much to it. However having the nerve to brake really late getting into it definitely would take some time to develop. What really scared me was T9 Rainey Curve. That turn is fast, down hill, and if you get it wrong it sends you straight at a wall. Whew. I'm glad I got to ride there. I doubt I'll be back anytime soon. I've now ridden on all the road race tracks in California. Thunderhill, Sears Pt, Laguna Seca, Buttonwillow, Willow Springs, Streets of Willow, and California Speedway. Time to branch out of the state. I hear Miller is a fun place to ride!
And here's and animated gif I made. This is of my very first lap at Laguna.
I was totally channeling my Rossi at this moment.
Hopefully if everything pans out the next ontrack time is for the west coast AHRMA round at Willowsprings. If not I'll try to make the AFM race the same weekend. If I can't do either of those I might not be on track until June, and that would be a really bummer. It kills me. I have to walk past my race bike in my garage 20 times per week, and it just sits there. We'll see.
2 comments:
Hey Mickey, good to see you back on your bike! Keeps you out of our lighting hair, nyuk nyuk nyuk! What's a "pit bike" though?
If you had hair to keep me out of. doh! The area where people setting up there bikes and equipment off track is called the "paddock" or "pit". Little motorcycles are used top move around quickly and we call them pit bikes. Often they are child sized bikes. So it can look pretty damn funny when an adult rides one.
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