shaggy
03-21-2005, 02:41 PM
first off, big thanks to mother nature for keeping the spot of sun on willow and the mean looking clouds all around us away. Perfect(almost) weather made for a fun weekend! Got there saturday to help J-rod and my bro through new racers school and wathc them out in there practice sessions. Looking smooth boys! Hooked up my new transponder to check out some lap times and sat around all day letting my face get sunburnt!
BTW, check out www.mylaps.com and you can see all the laps times from the practice and races live as we are riding!
Sunday rolled around and more sunny skies. Went out in morning warm up to feel the bike out and got down to business, felt good and came in early to save a little tire. In the second session I followed 823 and 789 for a few laps then went off and chewed my tire up with some big slides in T4. Already told Jared he could borrow my brand new rear so I ended up buying another one up there...credit cards are great...took my wheel off got the new tire on and mounted it back on the bike. My Incredible girlfriend was awesome enough to deliver my new tire warmers so on they went and then sat around until my race. Gridded 2nd next to James I got a decent start and led into T1. Going into 2 James came up and bombed into 2, drifting wide I got back under him but he came back in and closed the door on me. Coming out of two I had a killer drive till the back stepped out big and sent me into a nice little tank slapper. Let off and James pulled out a bit into 3. I pulled back a little up over 4 then drove up hard on him out of T5 when my bike went into colvulsions over T6 and went into a nice high speed headshake all the way through T7. If I gave it more or less gas it just got worse so I rode it into 8 and it went away...not fun!
Through T8 Llyod went by on the outside and gapped me immediately. Onto the front straight for the first time and James was gone, at least 20 bike lengths ahead. I cranked my steering damper to full stiff hoping that would help next time around T6. Had headshake out of T2 and T6 again the second lap with a slide over 4b that spooked me a bit, I was losing the leaders at this pint so I had to figure out what the hell was going on or ride around it...
Finally got into a rythm after the half way point and figured that if I practically sat on the gas tank with my weight really far forward it would calm the front enough to get on the gas hard into T8. With two laps to go I reeled Lloyd back in and got around him over the top of T6 with the bars going back and forth! Got down to a 29.7 on the second to last lap and was hoping traffic would go my way but James was just out of reach. With traffic I had closed on him but it was way to far for a last ditch effort :cry:
Ended the race in second to round out my podium career. next month I'll be an expert and get my azz handed to me by Perez and beck but thats ok, I know I will learn a million more things next month than I have in the last 4 months!
So today I get home from work and go sit next to my bike, wondering what went wrong...The only thing changed between morning warm up and the race was the rear tire so I checked it out. It's a UK tire but should be the same as the US version. Then a thought struck me, I asked the dunlop guy to put it at 31psi and he said thats what they noramly do, trusting that he did what he said I was lazy and never checked the tire pressures after mounting it on my bike...out with the pressure gauge and right now sitting in my garage the rear tire is at 40psi!!!!!!! with the warmers that probly put it around 46-47 psi during my race! all well, I didn't crash and learned a stupid lession, always check shiet yourself, don't trust anyone when it comes to your bike!
Congrats to Pulse and Argh6 on there very succesful weekends and thanks to BUYMOTO, hyperCYCYles, Goodridge, and Bryant for helping out so much. Hope to see you all out there next month!
And a super big thanks to my lovely girlfriend for going to fedex to pickup up tire warmers and driving up early to bring them to me! your the best Carol! :cheers: :bowdown: :wub:
BTW, check out www.mylaps.com and you can see all the laps times from the practice and races live as we are riding!
Sunday rolled around and more sunny skies. Went out in morning warm up to feel the bike out and got down to business, felt good and came in early to save a little tire. In the second session I followed 823 and 789 for a few laps then went off and chewed my tire up with some big slides in T4. Already told Jared he could borrow my brand new rear so I ended up buying another one up there...credit cards are great...took my wheel off got the new tire on and mounted it back on the bike. My Incredible girlfriend was awesome enough to deliver my new tire warmers so on they went and then sat around until my race. Gridded 2nd next to James I got a decent start and led into T1. Going into 2 James came up and bombed into 2, drifting wide I got back under him but he came back in and closed the door on me. Coming out of two I had a killer drive till the back stepped out big and sent me into a nice little tank slapper. Let off and James pulled out a bit into 3. I pulled back a little up over 4 then drove up hard on him out of T5 when my bike went into colvulsions over T6 and went into a nice high speed headshake all the way through T7. If I gave it more or less gas it just got worse so I rode it into 8 and it went away...not fun!
Through T8 Llyod went by on the outside and gapped me immediately. Onto the front straight for the first time and James was gone, at least 20 bike lengths ahead. I cranked my steering damper to full stiff hoping that would help next time around T6. Had headshake out of T2 and T6 again the second lap with a slide over 4b that spooked me a bit, I was losing the leaders at this pint so I had to figure out what the hell was going on or ride around it...
Finally got into a rythm after the half way point and figured that if I practically sat on the gas tank with my weight really far forward it would calm the front enough to get on the gas hard into T8. With two laps to go I reeled Lloyd back in and got around him over the top of T6 with the bars going back and forth! Got down to a 29.7 on the second to last lap and was hoping traffic would go my way but James was just out of reach. With traffic I had closed on him but it was way to far for a last ditch effort :cry:
Ended the race in second to round out my podium career. next month I'll be an expert and get my azz handed to me by Perez and beck but thats ok, I know I will learn a million more things next month than I have in the last 4 months!
So today I get home from work and go sit next to my bike, wondering what went wrong...The only thing changed between morning warm up and the race was the rear tire so I checked it out. It's a UK tire but should be the same as the US version. Then a thought struck me, I asked the dunlop guy to put it at 31psi and he said thats what they noramly do, trusting that he did what he said I was lazy and never checked the tire pressures after mounting it on my bike...out with the pressure gauge and right now sitting in my garage the rear tire is at 40psi!!!!!!! with the warmers that probly put it around 46-47 psi during my race! all well, I didn't crash and learned a stupid lession, always check shiet yourself, don't trust anyone when it comes to your bike!
Congrats to Pulse and Argh6 on there very succesful weekends and thanks to BUYMOTO, hyperCYCYles, Goodridge, and Bryant for helping out so much. Hope to see you all out there next month!
And a super big thanks to my lovely girlfriend for going to fedex to pickup up tire warmers and driving up early to bring them to me! your the best Carol! :cheers: :bowdown: :wub: