Sideways in the Northeast

More from the Harrington 1/2 Mile

2011-12-20T05:32:00.000-08:00

I recently sent the Harrington slides down to Larry Lawrence for his blog The Rider Files. He's a contributing editor at Cycle World, and has a superb collection of motorcycle racing photos taken during the 80's and up to current times. He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of the racers, down to the names of club level riders all over the country.

He had offered to digitize the slides for me, and if any were worthy he would load some on his site. Well he came through on both promises, as I just got the slides back along with a CD containing the digi's, and he did in fact publish many of the images on The Rider Files, including the identification of riders. I was pretty psyched to find out who I had photos of;

Here's Chris Carr riding a Wood Rotax sporting an amateur plate with Dellorto sponsorship.

Randy Goss, check the helmet sponsor!

Bubba Shobert on the RS750

I'll post more of these as I have time, but you can check 'em out at the rider files...

Big thank you to Larry for his work!

Great weekend

2011-11-08T18:03:00.000-08:00

It would be hard to exaggerate how great this past weekend was! Scott flew up from Brooklyn, and Hannah was here, and we really packed a lot in. Some of the highlights;

On Saturday, Scott and Hannah and I met Seamus and Jay at Matt's place in Milton for some epic trail riding. Matt very graciously loaned Scott his YZ250F to ride, and Matt drove his dune buggy down to the moto track for a few laps. Seamus, Jay and Scott took off on the woods loop while Hannah and I did some laps on the track. Matt gave Hannah a ride in the buggy as well. When the guys returned I went for a ride on the woods loop with them and Hannah stayed on the track to work on her moto technique.

Seamus gettin' some on the powerline.

Group photo, taken by Jay.

On Sunday the family headed over to Hunter Farm to shoot some clays. In my case it was more like shoot at some clays, I missed most of 'em. Jay and Ben Danger eventually found their way over and joined us.

The latest fashion trend at the Gun Club....leather jackets

After shooting a case of 12G shells and a couple boxes of 410, we headed home for lunch.

Bonfire was next on the list, with some XR200 seat time thrown in...

Sandy got lots of garden clean-up done.

Who can resist a motorcycle fire jump? Scott couldn't.

300 EXC rebuild

2011-10-23T19:27:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the rebuild of my KTM engine. I had to tear it down because of a couple episodes of air filter leaks allowing unfiltered air, dust and sand into the engine. I had hoped that the damage would be limited to the top end, but the connecting rod had some play, so it turned into a complete tear down. I started on a Sunday a few weeks ago, and I had the cylinder off pretty quickly, but I ran out of time to split the cases, so that would have to happen on a Thursday.

Parts were ordered and the cylinder was dropped off at the Crank Shop on Kellog road Essex to be re-chromed. They sent it out and said it would be two weeks, which gave me some time to get the cases split. That job went pretty well considering I had no service manual. The rod took longer to arrive than I had hoped, but when it came in I dropped it off with the crank at the Crank Shop and asked if there was any chance I could get it back in time for the weekend. The nice young lady at the counter laughed and said probably not, but she'd ask. I got a call the next day saying it was ready, which was very cool since that would allow me to get the bottom end back together while waiting on the cylinder. Things went well until I realized that one of the new crank bearings was going to need to be pressed onto the crank, and I lacked the technology to accomplish that. I drove back the the Crank Shop with the crank and new bearing and asked if they could get it on for me. Five minutes later I'm walking out with the job done. LOVE those folks. And better yet, she called me the next day to say the cylinder was back.

Along with the new parts (crankshaft and transmission bearings, full gasket set, new reeds etc.) I ordered a service manual. Service manuals all seem to share a few common traits. They're often indispensable for certain procedures, but just as often they seem to omit critical information about how to actually do stuff. I ran into this with the transmission shift drum and forks. The instructions just said to install the forks on the drum and then install the pivot shafts. No specific reference or index points, but they did have some photos of the assembly. I did what the manual said, but couldn't get the transmission to shift into all the gears, just 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I was convinced I had done something wrong, and I proceeded to take the tranny apart. After several attempts to solve this with no better results, I just gave up and continued putting the engine back together with the hope that it would somehow find 4th and 5th gear once I had it running.

Sure enough, once I put everything back together and tested the bike, I had all 5 gears.

New piston from KTM.

This is my cylinder after the re-chrome job. Lovely.

Engine cases etc. Not exactly a sterile environment.

Somewhere in Charlotte...or is it Starksboro?

2011-10-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday Art Clifford invited me to tour the Clifford Tree Farm with him and another couple. The tree farm is in the foothills of Charlotte and Starksboro, we rode Honda ATV's from his dairy farm up some logging roads and across some neighboring properties to get there. His family has logged the farm four times in his life, and it looks like nobody has ever set foot in it. Absolutely beautiful woods with mountain streams flowing through them, waterfalls, and some stone walls built in earlier times to line roads or mark boundaries that were washed away in the great flood of '27.

In the 70's, Art and his wife wanted to build a pond up on the hill. It would require a small dam to be built across a shallow little gorge. He went to the state and got permission to go ahead, with the proviso that the state would send somebody up periodically to check the status of the dam. The 4 acre pond is fed by a nearby brook, and drains back into the brook by a pipe that regulates the pond level. Quite an engineering feat. More recently, they built a small cabin with six bunks and a fireplace in it, a great spot to hike to and spend a night. The Cliffords don't discourage others from hiking there, they have an "open land" policy, as long as you respect the land and leave nothing but footprints.

This is a hunting camp (Deer Camp as it's known around here), Art on his ATV.

A Sugar House that was built before the war. A family of 5 lived here for several years. The shed on the right is connected to the house by a covered hanging trolley, so that they can supply dry wood for the sap boiler.

The pond. Art's wife, Suzy, mows the grass and maintains the property. He claims it keeps her off the golf course...

During the construction of the pond, some nice rocks turned up. Art planted them and had an artist come out and etch these footprints for Suzy's birthday.

Suzy's Glen, she cleared the brush and saplings to open this view of the waterfall.

Ok, I forgot to talk about the ATV I was riding. It was Suzy's, a Honda 425cc utility type, automatic tranny, power steering, independent suspension, 2 or 4 wheel drive, quiet, comfortable. So easy to ride it was really almost cheating. The closest I've come to just floating over the ground. I actually want one.

XC Trip final day

2011-10-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday was our last day to ride, and another foggy day in S.F. We rode to the beach for the official water ceremony, which would involve collecting some water from the Pacific Ocean, which we will introduce to the Atlantic Ocean at a later date. We hadn't given much thought to the process of collection, and it was proving to be a bit awkward without getting wet. I summoned a passing surfer to help us, and he was very obliging.

That mission accomplished, we had a little more time to kill so we walked up to the Cliff House restaurant/bar/gift shop/historic site, and took a look around. Then it was a couple blocks ride to Paul's place where we would leave the bikes to be picked up by a shipping company.

Once the bikes were in the garage, and we'd had a chance to ogle Paul's collection of bikes, BMW R75, Honda VFR, Honda TransAlp, Ducati 916, we headed into S.F. for the afternoon. It turned out that S.F. was not prepared for the traffic on Labor Day weekend. Paul had offered to drive us over to a beer garden/hiking club type of place in Marin, but we couldn't get over the bridge because the traffic had come to a complete stop. We bailed on the beer garden idea and found a place to have lunch downtown. After lunch we ran into the same traffic problems, couldn't get anywhere near Lombard Street or the Wharf, so we gave up on the notion of seeing the tourist sites and went back to Paul's. Martha had been preparing a great meal for us, tacos with lots of different options, and we had a great dinner at their place.

The next morning we caught the shuttle to the airport, and submitted ourselves to the TSA and the airlines for the next 15 hours.

Vermont plates at the beach drew some attention from a few passersby.

Not exactly beach wear...

The bikes parked outside of Paul and Martha's place.

Paul and Martha, expecting their first baby very soon.

The total miles according to the Garmin. It's probably the most accurate over the two bike odometers.

Well, I've obviously left out a lot of the trip. I still have some of the songs running through my head that snuck in there on the slightest suggestion, and stayed for days. Some great moments on the road and in hotels, gas stations or park gift shops.

Thanks to Sandy, Hannah, Scott, Bill, Uncle Richard & Sandy, Paul & Martha, and friends who helped outfit us or work our shifts.

To paraphrase a great quote from a WW2 GI, I am one lucky son of a bitch.

XC Trip day 14

2011-10-12T17:00:00.001-07:00

Uncle Richard escorted us out of Santa Maria and onto the Pacific Coast Highway up to Ragged Point. This was a pleasant ride, we were expecting it to be chilly and foggy, and it was, but still a nice day. We stopped to look at Elephant Seals at one of the roadside pull-offs where they had signs saying we could see them. Cool.

At Ragged Point we warmed up with a cup of coffee and a danish, said goodbye to Uncle Richard and headed north on Rt 1. We soon fell in behind a little red Karmann Ghia, and had a very entertaining time following him as he carved his way through traffic. The guy driving (flogging) it was really getting the most out of that car, and in fact he got away from us. We caught up with him at one point, but then it was time for a lunch break and we never saw him again.

We had lunch in Big Sur, at a great restaurant looking out over the ocean. While we were eating we watched an Otter diving in the kelp beds and eating clams. More coolness.

After Big Sur Rt 1 gets a bit less scenic until you reach Santa Cruz, which was where we headed inland on Rt 17 to bring us into San Fran. I missed a turn that would have given us a nicer ride, but we still got to our hotel by the airport in plenty of time to check in and do some exploring. We decided to head over to Muir Woods, which meant crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. I wasn't sure what the best route would be, but I don't think it would have mattered, the traffic was pretty bad everywhere, since this was Labor day weekend.

Unfortunately, the bridge was wrapped in dense fog, so you couldn't really see much at all. I was bummed, 'cause this was Hannah's first time here and it would've been nice to have a clear day to see the bridge and the view. Anyway, we pulled off into Sausalito so that she could check out the houseboats in the harbor. Then we headed on to the entry road to Muir. This is a very tight and fun 2 lane road that winds down into the park. We got there with only about a half hour of daylight remaining, so we just walked into the main trail far enough to see and touch some Redwoods. It was dark by the time we crossed the bridge again, and we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel.

Unc. Richard's house.

Unc. Richard's BMW, custom paint and details, a pretty bike.

Ready to go.

One cool veedub.

We just saw a Sea Otter!

XC Trip day 13

2011-10-10T04:55:00.000-07:00

Our first day off the bikes. We got to sleep in a bit, and then Richard and Sandy took us to breakfast at one of their favorite restaurants a couple towns away.
After breakfast we drove to the beach for a little sight-seeing. I hadn't realized what the plan was, it took us quite awhile to get to the beach considering it was supposedly 10 miles away,but then Richard pulled up to a beach entrance, paid the lady, and we drove right onto the beach....oh, you can do that here?

Oceano, Grover and Pismo Beach. I think this was the only stretch of California beach where you can drive on and have access to the dunes. And tons of people do it. With trucks, buggies, quads and motorcycles. You can rent dune buggies there, 2 seaters up to 8 seaters. They look like fun, but I bet they're underpowered, they use a decidedly industrial looking Honda V-twin.

I did a little bird watching as well, then we drove further up the coast for an early supper in another town that I forgot the name of. There was a Farmers Market on a boardwalk by the beach. Very nice. We drove down a pier and stopped to look at seals lounging on a floating dock. And after dinner Richard drove us to a scenic overlook, but by that time the sun had set. We saw some Mule Deer browsing there though.

Uncle Richard and Sandy's house in Santa Maria.

There's almost always a photo opportunity with Unc. Richard!

XC Trip day 12

2011-10-05T05:04:00.000-07:00

Sequoia National Park was next on our list. We had to ride south out of Oakhurst to Fresno, then turn east to head into the park on Rt 180. The ride was fine, we followed Uncle Richard since he knew the area, and I was happy to just follow and sight see. I almost took that too far though, as we were cruising through some farm land I spotted a falcon flying over a field on my right. I looked at it for maybe two seconds and looked back at the road just in time to catch myself from riding straight into a ditch. The road had made a gentle turn to the left and in my distraction I had stayed straight. One more second of me trying to ID that falcon would've been disaster.

It was a very strong reminder to keep my focus on the job at hand. Anyway, we got to the park, waved my pass and we were in. Just to discover that they had recently resurfaced the road with a layer of fresh tar, which is then covered with pea gravel. So for the next 40 miles the best we could do would be about 30 mph, slower in some of the tighter turns. There were cars and trucks building up behind us, since we were apparently the slowest things on the road. I passed Unc. Richard and pulled over to let the traffic through, and check our map to see how much further we had to go. My Garmin suggested that we had another 2 hours, but it turned out that I'd set it for the south entrance to the park. In fact it was only another 15 minutes to the "Giant Forest", which is where the General Sherman tree is.

The General Sherman sequoia is the most massive living thing on the planet. It's heavy.

We headed out of the park and ran into more road construction, which held us up another half hour, and when they let us through we still had 20 miles of 30 MPH speed limit. We were heading to Unc. Richard's house in Santa Maria, and wound up getting there after dark. It was a loooong ride. I did spot a B17 parked at an airport near the highway, but I don't remember which airport it was, and I didn't want to repeat the morning's distraction.

A Giant Sequoia

The General Sherman

XC Trip day 11

2011-10-04T05:36:00.000-07:00

The ride on Rt6 from Tonopah to the California border was relatively short, and again we noticed a fairly abrupt and distinct change in the landscape once we crossed the state line. We got into some rolling hills, the road started to curve again, and then we came over a crest and saw snow-capped mountains on the western horizon. Beauty.

Turning north on to Rt 120 you go through a fun section of dips and rises up into some foothills, and then it brings you past Mono Lake before turning west again. The ride up to Yosemite is very pretty, climbing into the mountains towards Tioga Pass (9,960 ft) where you actually enter the park. We had to stop for about 15 minutes for road construction but luckily we were at the head of the line, so when they cleared us we had the road to ourselves up to the gate. I had purchased an annual National Park pass at Yellowstone, so we were cleared pretty quickly.

The first hour of the park was nice. Great views of the mountains, in fact I came to the conclusion early on that this place was all about the rock. Rock mountains. Huge rock faces that you could see were once liquid (igneous?). Rock all around, and some trees and lakes and streams thrown in. We caught up to traffic pretty quickly because the speed limit in the park is 35 MPH, and with no places to pass we had to putt along for quite a while. Like 4 hours.

The plan was to meet Uncle Richard in Oakhurst, where Sandy had booked us into a Best Western. We were a little late pulling into town, but found the hotel quickly, and Unc. Richard motored up shortly after. We had a great evening catching up on events over drinks and dinner at the hotel.

A lot of the highway signs were riddled with bullet holes...

Climbing the access road to the park.

This was as close as we got to Half Dome, unfortunately.

XC Trip day 10 Wendover to Tonopah

2011-10-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

It was hard to leave Bonneville but we wanted to get to Tonapah by evening, and that was going to be close to 300 miles, so we left the salt flats around noon and rode back into Wendover in search of gas, food and a car wash to rinse the salt off the bikes.

Then it was south on Rt 93 into the Nevada desert, which got more interesting the farther we went. Arrow straight roads with scrub all around and mountains in the indeterminate distance...20 miles?...50? Hard to say, 'cause they never seem to get closer until you realize you're on a grade going up through a low pass, then you empty back into the next basin for another hour or so.

Gas in Ely, then we're in some entertaining stretch of highway, actual turns, and yet another National Forest although the trees didn't seem to be more than bigger scrub bushes, but scenic, then more desert. At some point I saw a sign that identified this area as the Black Rock desert.

At another point we were passing a farm and I saw 4 different raptors in less than a minute, turkey vulture, red tailed hawk, northern harrier, and a falcon, most likely a prairie falcon.

A little further on I spotted 2 antelope near the highway, and because I was consumed with get-there-itis, I kept on going until Hannah piped up on the radio. We turned around and went back for a longer look at the antelope, after all the times we'd stopped in Yellowstone to see animals it didn't make sense to just blast by these simply because they weren't in a National Park! I was glad we did, Hannah got off the bike and did her best cartoon deer stalker approach, and one of the antelope did his instant simultaneous all four legs off the ground leap. Priceless.

When I saw a roadsign that Tonopah was 15 miles, I stopped to call Sandy to ask her to see about booking us into a room, rather than arriving in town and taking our chances. It was a good thing I did, 'cause when we got into town I called back to find out where we were staying, and she'd gotten us booked into the last available room in town. We celebrated by going to the local hot spot and playing pool and enjoying cheap rounds of beer.

Striking a pose in the Black Rock Desert

Click on this picture, you should be able to see the antelope

Good place to launch rockets.

The Jim Butler Inn, Tonopah

The Club House in Tonopah, great little watering hole. I looked for the song "Willin" on the juke box, but couldn't find it. The lady at the Inn told me the real name of the song is "Dallas Alice", but she didn't know who Lowell George was, so I'm not sure I should believe her, even if she does live in Tonopah. I had to take a picture with a truck in it...

Brough Superior

2011-10-01T05:22:00.000-07:00

Rhymes with "rough". I was absolutely gobsmacked when I saw all of these gorgeous bikes.

The first one had been out on the mountain course and had just completed the return run to validate the AMA record for his it's class at 124.98 mph.

I found out later that these bikes are reproductions of the originals. Some rich dude recently got the rights to the name and patents and is building them and selling them to other rich dudes.

But they're still beautiful bikes, even if they were Sir Lawrence's bane.

There were some other vintage bikes in attendance. This is a really cool Indian.

This is one of several Vincents on hand.

XC Trip, day 10...morning

2011-09-28T17:44:00.001-07:00

Bonneville Salt Flats. The AMA BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials. This was something I'd been looking forward to for a long time. I think the AMA got their own week of speed trials about 7 years ago, so that there would be more time for motorcycles, rather than trying to work their own event into the world renowned Bonneville Speed Week, where just about anything with wheels can run. BUB is a motorcycle aftermarket accessory company specializing in exhaust systems, and I guess the owner is a speed freak and runs bikes on the salt flats, so he decided to invite the AMA to join in the fun. (That's what I remember reading when the whole thing got started 7 years ago, but don't quote me on it.)

As we were riding from the hard road that brings you into the salt flats to the pit area a few miles in on the salt, I had a very strong feeling of having done something like this before. It felt very much the same as when we go ice racing, white and flat for miles all around, not much surface grip, and the general excitement of performance engines and fuel in the air.

I'll let the pictures do the talking, there was so much to see and absorb. I'll just say that it was great talking with the racers and hearing stories about their efforts. As usual, you take the simplest premise..go as fast as you can in a straight line..and then you find out just how hard it can be, poor traction, high density altitude, high temperature, vicious salt attacking everything everywhere, wind. We'll be back with our own bike, to give this a try. I swear.

Go to this website, they've posted preliminary results. You'll have to cut and paste;
http://www.speedtrialsbybub.com/2011_event/index-2011.html

More to come on this topic...

XC Trip day 9

2011-09-26T05:05:00.001-07:00

The next day's route would take us south out of Idaho past Bear Lake and into Utah. Another very pretty ride that continues on Rt89, that funnels you down through mountain passes and National Forests. I lost track of how many National Forests we passed through on this trip, probably close to a dozen anyway. Once we reached Brigham City Utah, the road became more typical freeway, and not quite as scenic.

We stopped for gas and lunch just outside of Salt Lake City on RT 80. As we got back on the highway we had The Great Salt Lake on our right. Last time I passed this way I didn't stop to look at the lake, but this time we had the time so we pulled in at a marina. There was a long stretch of "beach" before the water, it was hot, we'd just gotten our jackets on etc. so I just took a couple pics and we rode on. As we were passing the lake there were some roadside pools, and I saw several American Avocets standing by the water. Another life bird for me, seen on a motorcycle at 70 MPH. There would be more "lifers" later on this trip.

The Salt Flats go on for quite a while, and you don't get to the actual speedway until you're almost at Wendover, so we pulled in to the speedway sometime late afternoon. We had already decided that we'd come back in the morning, but I still wanted to see what the place looked like. We spoke with the guy at the ticket booth, who was very helpful and friendly, and said we were welcome to get off the bikes and look around. One of his helpers was a British bloke named James, who was there for an attempt at a record in the Vintage Production 100cc class with a British bike called a James "Comet". A very pretty little scoot, nice enough to make it onto the event T-shirt this year. It was great meeting him and talking about the bike and the salt.

We also met a guy coming off the salt with his BMW K bike, it was clear he had entered in the "Run What Ya Brung" class, and he was very entertaining, another British dude. He was still pumped full of adrenalin, he had gotten up to about 130mph or so, but was losing track of the course, or trying to zip his leathers or put on his sunglasses, I don't remember, and wound up taking out a marker flag, which DQ'd his run, but he didn't really care too much, he was pretty thrilled with the whole thing.

After a while we got back on the bikes and headed into Wendover, found the Super 8 and checked in. We walked into town for refreshments which we brought back to the room, and had a quiet night.

The Great Salt Lake...

James, with his "James"

Run What Ya Brung dude

XC Trip Day 8

2011-09-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

Breakfast the next morning was at the Canyon cafeteria, which is not quite as nice as the Lake Lodge in Yellowstone, but it was OK, kind of 70's school architecture. After breakfast we asked at the information desk about where we might take a quick walk before hitting the road again. The Ranger asked if we'd seen the Canyon yet. Duhh, nope. So we took a quick ride over to the Canyon and walked a bit of the Canyon trail. At the top there's a great view of the upper falls of the Yellowstone River, and further down the trail you get views of the Canyon. I honestly didn't even know there was a Canyon in Yellowstone (despite all the obvious clues), so I was amazed to see the size of the Canyon. You gotta go see this place.

Then it was back on the bikes for the ride through the park, stopping when there was something to look at, like geysers or bubbling mud holes or other noxious things. Whenever traffic is stopped on the road you can count on seeing some type of wildlife. At one of these stops we saw a pair of Foxes hunting in a field by the road. It was pretty entertaining, and lots of people stopped to watch them pouncing on grasshoppers and butterflies. Further on we saw more Elk. We missed seeing Old Faithful by a few minutes, but we did catch some of it from the road.
Then as we were getting close to the exit we caught a glimpse a Black Bear through the trees, walking away from the road.

By the time we got to the southern entrance to the park it started to drizzle just a bit, so we put on our rain suits and headed south. The road from Yellowstone to Jackson is still one of my favorite rides. You follow the Snake river south and pass Jackson Lake with a great view of the Grand Teton Mountain range beyond. The weather stayed overcast and rainy for most of the ride to Jackson where we stopped for a late lunch break.

Once we got on the road again the skies were kind of clear directly in front of us, but threatening storm clouds were moving in from the west. Soon there were storm clouds right and left, but there always seemed to be a patch of clear sky where we were heading, so it became a race against the storms to get to the next town down the road. But we'd get to the next town and it wouldn't be raining yet, and the sky was just a little lighter ahead, so we'd keep on going. It was a fairly exhilarating ride, as the road constantly descends through these steep mountain passes, funneling you down lower and lower. We reached Montpelier Idaho just at dusk. Super day.

Race report OVRP 9/18/2011

2011-09-20T06:04:00.001-07:00

We interrupt the XC Trip reports to bring you this race update...

Rounds Racing made an appearance at Oakland Valley Speedway on Sunday, featuring the debut of Hannah Rounds, racing the well worn but still beloved XR100. This event was a combined AMA Vintage National and local club race, so I entered my XT500 in the AMA Hotrod Singles class and the local Senior 50+ class.
There was another debut at this race, Scott was the chosen rider for the Royal Enfield "Bulletproof Badger" project street-tracker owned by Leon Stanley, of Cycle Icons. The bike was ridden to the track from Trenton by Leon and my brother Mark, who did the paintwork and some of the prep. Once at the track, the lights were swapped out for number plates and 19" wheels were installed. After assessing the class structure it was decided that the Badger would be most competitive in the 750 Brakeless class, so the rear brake was disconnected.

Scott would also be riding his XT500 in the 500 Masters class.

Practice went smoothly enough, with everybody getting a chance to get a feel for their bike and the track. Scott was able to get two practice sessions on the Badger, the second cut short because the right side footpeg was loose and rotating down, so he couldn't get enough leverage to keep the bike stable. It was also popping out of gear because the rearset shift lever was contacting the track, so the stock forward mount lever was installed, and the footpeg tightened.

Heat races started with Scott in the Masters class, where he got a 4th, which put him on the second row for the feature. My Hotrod Single heat was next, I had a poor start, and trailed the field coming in last out of 5, but feeling like I might have a chance with a better start. Hannah's XR100 heat was next with only 3 bikes, but she went out and gave it her best, showing great form and wishing she had more power from the little XR100.

The Senior 50+ heat was next, and I had to start on the second row for some reason, so I had to pass a couple guys to get a 3rd, which would give me a decent line choice for the feature.

The Brakeless heat was last, and as we were getting the Badger started in the hot pit, we discovered some problems. The clutch felt kind of funny, and upon engaging first gear we heard a loud clunk followed by silence as the engine stalled. The chain had popped off the rear sprocket, so we managed to roll it back on while frantically waving at the gate marshal to hold the race for us, only to repeat the whole thing again. Then we discovered that the rear wheel was cocked in the swingarm because the left side axle adjuster was broken. At this point we waved the gate marshal to start without us and we pushed the Badger back to the pits. After some amount of fiddling and scratching it was determined that the clutch was fried, so the Badger's day was done.

Features! 500 Masters was first, with a full field of 15 bikes at the start. Scott had a good spot on the second row. The race had to be restarted after a crash in turn one on the first lap. Scott had a better start on the restart anyway, this time coming around holding down 5th place across the start/finish line. There was a huge battle for the lead between the 4 bikes in front of him, which kept everybody close the whole race long and kept us on the edge of our seats. On the last lap the leader had caught up to some lap traffic on the back straight and wound up crashing into a rider, taking the lapped rider out and sending him up to the wall, which allowed everybody in the top 10 to move up, so Scott got a well earned 4th place!

My Hotrod Singles feature was next. I had a decent spot on the line, and before the light turned green one of the guys jumped, so he went to the penalty line. I wound up getting a decent start but I was still in 4th place after the first lap. The guy in front of me was on a framed XT500, and he got a little sloppy going into turn 3 a few laps into the race, and I was able to duck under him and hold the inside line as we went back into T1. I continued to defend the inside line for the race and finished in 3rd, which I'm still pretty pleased about.

Hannah successfully raced to a 3rd place finish, no crashes, no drama, so that was an excellent debut.

The Senior 50+ feature was an easy win, my 500 had the rest of the field covered.

So Rounds Racing went home with a 1st, two 3rds and a 4th. Not bad.

Heat race action in Hotrod Singles

Scott's 500 Masters heat

All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't get the Badger racing again.

Brother and sister, comparing racing notes?

For more photos, go to the Badger facebook album, by Ron Truch...lot's of nice pics in there.

XC Trip day 7

2011-09-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

It was around 7:45pm when we rode into Buffalo SD so there was still some daylight to spare, and the signs on the highway said we'd find a Super 8 a couple miles up the road. We pulled into their parking lot and we were a little giddy at our luck, not running out of gas, missing the rain storms on the horizon, and finding a Super 8 and a Mobil station nearby. I heard nighthawks calling above us and looked up to see dozens of 'em buzzing around, getting moths and whatever else was flying in the evening sky. It was all good.

A routine check-in at the hotel, and we found out there was a laundromat next door, bonus! We got the laundry started and walked across the street and ordered some take-out. The food took awhile, but it was great and we weren't in a hurry. Got the laundry done and repacked, played some more cards and went to bed.

I was really looking forward to the next day's ride. We would be riding through the Big Horn Mountain range to Cody, and then north out of Cody, briefly into Montana and then southwest into Yellowstone. The ride didn't disappoint.

We got back on Rt.90 briefly to get up to the Ranchester exit, then turned on to Rt. 14 which starts out as a red tinted road heading into the mountains. The only bummer was that they had been repaving the road, so the really cool red tint was replaced by fresh black tarmac after a few miles. The climb up the eastern side was nice, lot's of big switchbacks with expansive views back east, then we got into the high mountains, passing a few snow fields and high meadows. The descent on the western side was really spectacular. Just one beautiful view after another in every direction, and the road was ours. The weather was perfect too, so we stopped frequently to take pictures.

We finally reached the Plateau between the Bighorn Range and the Rockies. Passing through Greybull I noticed an airport on the right with some old piston engined transport planes. I was about to keep on going when I saw a Canadian Air Force C119, and a few other planes that I couldn't quite put my finger on...I had to stop, turn around and take some pictures. I'm not sure Hannah was thrilled, but it needed to be done.

Rt. 14 brought us into Cody for lunch. There were signs advertising the weekly Saturday Night Rodeo. We asked our waitress about the Rodeo, and whether it was worth coming back out from Yellowstone for, and she said it would be at least 4 hours of driving, and she wasn't a big fan anyway, which made us feel a little better about missing it.

The Northeast entrance to Yellowstone is pretty spectacular. You actually enter the park in Montana, and the views on the way are just great. Once you're in the park you start seeing these huge meadows with mountains all around, rivers flowing through, just beautiful. Then you start seeing buffalo, or more properly, Bison (bison bison) and it's a little more incredible. We had a ways to go once we entered the park, our reservation was in the Canyon area so it was another hour to get there, and we rode through some minor showers. No big deal though, got to the Canyon, checked in and found our cabin. After a quick bite we hopped back on the bikes to see if we could find a nice sunset or something. It was too far to ride for a good view of the sunset, but we did see some Elk. 2 large mammals accounted for...

As I said, lots of mountain views;

10 points to the first person that can identify this 4 engine plane...

XC Trip day 3 - 6

2011-09-12T18:18:00.000-07:00

So we reached Ann Arbor and found a motel and food. Not the nicest part of town, but well positioned for an easy escape the next morning. We got on the road and blasted through Michigan pretty easily, turning south to dip under Lake Michigan before heading north again into Chicago. At some point I decided to let the Garmin guide me into the city, since I could plug in the address of the hotel it would be a lot easier than reading a map while riding. As we got closer to the city it was looking like rain was inevitable, so we put on rain suits after paying one of the innumerable tolls, and were rewarded with a pretty steady hard wind and rain all the way into the city. I was nervous about the Garmin getting wet, but I couldn't navigate without it, so I risked it and left it up. No problems, it worked fine and got us to the hotel with minimal hassle. We then discovered that the hotel (Hyatt Regency) was not accustomed to, or equipped for motorcycles. After a little standoff with the Valet parking manager (who turned out to be very accommodating after all) we were able to park in the VIP area (all it took was money).

Once we dried off, the rain stopped and we were able to walk to the Navy Pier and enjoy some typical tourist stuff, including a 90 minute sail on the "Windy", a steel schooner plying the tourist trade business along with about a dozen other types of power boat/yacht. It was fun, and when we were cast ashore we headed back into the downtown area to look at architecture, and we saw some really neat buildings too.

The following day was our mission to see Whitewater Wisconsin, where my dad was born. We got there and had a very nice lunch at a little cafe in the downtown area. It's a pretty little town surrounded by agriculture and golf courses. I think my dad would have been proud of the place.

Then it was off to Iowa, following Rt. 18 west from Madison. If you've never done it, it's a pretty amazing thing, riding through endless miles of corn. Nothing but corn, except for the occasional soy fields, then more corn. Two days of it actually, with a stop in Mason City Iowa, where I got carded at the "Prime & Wine" restaurant and had to go back to the hotel to get my ID, which I dutifully did. Then found out they only had one cut of well done prime rib left, so I had the salmon. In the middle of Iowa.

The next day was pretty much uneventful. We stopped for gas in Spencer IA, which is a pretty little town, it has a divided 4 lane main street with lamposts hung with flower baskets. When I went back into the gas station to see where they put the recycle bin the young lady behind the cash register didn't know what I was looking for. Not a clue.

We pressed on to reach Murdo SD that evening, which was about 70 miles past Chamberlain (which is where we crossed the Missouri River, having crossed the Mississippi at Prairie Du Chien, WI).

There was a Super 8 right by the highway so we checked in (with a little tedious and unneccesary drama trying to get a room key that would unlock the door) and rushed off to find some dinner. After dinner we were back in the room playing cards when I thought I heard some thunder. I opened the window and the wind was blowing really hard, leaves and litter just whipping around in the parking lot. We ran out to the lot to see how the bikes were, I was afraid they'd be knocked over because we'd left the top cases on. Luckily they were still upright, but the wind was rocking them pretty well. We were able to move them around to a safer spot for the night, but the storm never really reached us anyway. A weird thing about Murdo, there were thousands of crickets in the parking lot and around the motel. You couldn't walk without stepping on 'em, and when the wind picked up they were just getting blown all around. The next morning there were dead crickets everywhere. We weren't sorry to get on the road.

The Badlands of South Dakota were next, very scenic, and so was Spearfish SD, with a really entertaining riverside road with beautiful views and sweeping turns, worth the side trip out of Sturgis. We stopped for lunch in Wall, which is another roadside tourist trap where you can spend money on all kinds of stuff. We made it all the way to Buffalo that evening, nervously glancing from our fuel gauges to the threatening skies and back down to the blinking fuel gauges. That was the longest single no-stop leg, 211 miles.

Aboard the Windy

Bright lights, big city

Approaching Whitewater

We're in cowboy country now

Badlands

XC Trip day 2

2011-09-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

So, after bidding Bill fairwell we headed off to Rochester NY. As usual, I managed to screw up a turn and we took a somewhat more circuitous route through Vermont than we needed to, but once we got on course it was fairly easy going. We dodged a serious looking thunderstorm near Rutland, stopped for lunch in Whitehall, and then caught some rain past Syracuse, but no problems.

The next morning broke to beautiful skies and we headed off to Niagara Falls, riding along Lake Ontario for the first bit until that road ended and we had to move inland. Since Scott didn't have his passport with him, we stayed on the N.Y. side, which is the less desirable, esthetically. After lunch it was time to split up for good, Scott had to get back to the city, and Hannah and I were hoping to make Ann Arbor by early evening. All wet well on both ends, as he got back in decent time, and we made it to Ann Arbor with some daylight to spare, despite doing an extra lap through Hamilton Ontario due to road construction and poorly marked detour signs.

Laughing in the parking lot

Photo Op in front of Lake Ontario

Photo Op in front of tacky Niagara sign

Gassing up at the Esso station. We're not in the US anymore

The wind mills went on for probably 30-40 miles in Ontario

XC Trip

2011-09-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

Hannah and I got back from our cross country trip Tuesday around 2:00 AM. Thanks to Sandy for staying awake to pick us up and listen to some of our stories, not to mention booking us rooms, holding down the fort and weathering the storm, and for making it possible for us to do this trip in the first place!

We left Vermont Saturday morning to meet Scott and Bill in Newburyport Mass. for lunch and a short ride up to Bill's place in Yarmouth Maine, which would be the launch point the next morning. Once we got to Bill's house we realized that we hadn't actually touched the Atlantic Ocean, so we hopped in his car and drove out to one of the many islands in the area to catch the sunset and skip some stones. Scott dominated the stone skipping part.

We got back to the house for some chicken and corn on the grille, a few cold ones and then it was bedtime. We got off to a reasonably early start next morning, with Bill escorting us into Casco Bay for the official Sea to Shining Sea ceremony, and then through New Hampshire before he had to turn around for other commitments.

Leaving Vermont

The meet up in Newburyport

Skipping stones into the Atlantic

Dinner!

The full Interceptor escort

Hannah on her way down for the "touching of the water" which must be done at the beginning of the journey.

More trip reports on the way.....

Sea to shining sea, once more...

2011-08-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we ride!

OVRP video

2011-07-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Here's some video from Oakland Valley Speedway.

This was open practice for the amateur classes. Scott was right behind me but his bike was acting up so he couldn't keep pace.

Vintage feature race, until the rain started falling.

Senior Plus restart. This race was restarted a couple times due to crashes etc. This is the final restart to the finish.

1st race of the season

2011-07-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

I know it's a late start to the season, but this is going to be a very short racing season anyway because of the cross country trip in August. So I wanted to make the best of it by coordinating with Scott and Bill to see if we could manage to all get on the track in one race, which would once again be a first. We got it done on Sunday.

I drove down to Oakland Valley Speedway on Sunday to meet Bill and Scott to race in the regular Sunday series. The track was just as perfect as it always seems to be, and the turnout for the Vintage class was spectacular. Lot's of Yamaha 500's but a good many Triumph twins as well, and one very special RD350. Enough bikes for 3 heats to establish starting position for the feature. Bill and I signed up for Vintage and Senior Plus (50+ yoa) and Scott signed up for Vintage.

Unfortunately we were all in different heats, which is pretty random, but at least we knew we'd all make it to the feature. Also unfortunately, Scott's bike was breaking up at high RPMs, so he wasn't able to run at the front despite several efforts at sorting it out between the heats. We never did figure it out, but he went out and raced as best he could, short shifting on the straights, and had a good time racing with whoever he could. Great attitude there.

I had a decent start in my Vintage heat, coming around in 2nd place after the first lap, but I ran it in to t3 a little hot a couple laps later and opened the door for a guy on another Yammie 500, who took full advantage, so I finished 3rd. My Senior Plus heat was uneventful, good start and I lead from flag to flag.

Our Vintage feature was exciting. I had a crap start but managed to pass a few guys and get myself into 4th place, and then it started to rain and they red flagged us.
We waited for a bit, it was only a light drizzle and they were able to get the track ready fairly quickly once it stopped. We did a restart in single file from our last completed lap, so I got to restart in 4th but I wasn't able to improve on that so that's where I finished.

The Senior Plus race saw some drama too, as there were crashes and mechanical failures right left and center, but I managed to win the thing, and Bill had a solid 4th place finish.

I left before the crack of dawn, but the crack of dawn caught up with me.

Jeff and Fumi made the show, I think they came directly from Mid Ohio where they had raced a Vintage National. This is one dedicated pair of racers, and you won't meet nicer dudes.

Bill Clarke's beautifully prepared RD got lot's of attention in the pits, and he had a great debut at this track, grabbing a well earned 4th place in the Senior Plus race.

Hugh Mackie's Triumph 750, it was the first day out for this bike, but no problems.

Pete Wooten's Triumph 500. Another beauty.

Scott's recalcitrant 500. It needs a little love, but he's lucky to have it. It was stolen out of a van, but was recovered the same night. Apparently the thieves couldn't figure out how to start it and so they abandoned it a few blocks away.

This Bike Climbed Mt. Washington

2011-07-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

Yes indeed, where the highest recorded wind speed was, um, recorded. I wish I had taken a picture of the sign at the top, because I'm pretty sure they mention that it was the highest wind speed "observed by man"....as if there's some species out there that could dispute the "ultimate highest wind speed" with us.

Anyway...

Hannah and I made a day trip out of it, and had a delightful time.

Took the north route from home and the south route back, which included the Kancamagus Highway, which is always a treat.

Oh yeah, 231 MPH is the recorded number. I think we hit about half that number at Bolton Flats on the way home. Don't tell Mom.

Another first, sort of...

2011-07-04T05:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went for a ride with Scott and Hannah. We are fairly sure (but not completely sure) that this was the first time we've all ridden on the road together.
We had a very nice ride up to the Canadian border, then down to Hyde Park to visit some friends.

We stopped in Berkshire for a few minutes.

This is a pond somewhere along Rt 118. We stopped for this pic, and spotted a pair of loons on the water.

Lake Elmore

2011-06-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

Hannah and I took a short (150 mile) day ride yesterday. Rode through some nice countryside and some pretty rough weather, but a good ride nonetheless.

We stopped at The Elmore Store for a sweet break. Nice place.

First Outing

2011-06-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a (seemingly) long time in the works, you might even say years, but it looks like a plan is coming together for another cross country trip. My son Scott and I did the trip when he graduated high school. Now it's Hannah's turn to see what this US of A looks like through a helmet visor.

We found a couple Suzuki twins that had withstood hardship from previous owners, and we rescued them.

Hannah will be riding a 2007 SV650S

I'll be on a 2002 DL1000 V Strom

We took them for our first ride together last night. From our house up through the islands to Rouse's Point, NY. The sun was setting as we got there so we enjoyed some nice mellow light to take some pics with my phone. Rode back a different route past the Missisquoi Wildlife Refuge and down Rt89 for some highway time. A couple roadside repairs/adjustments on the SV made life interesting, but in all it was a very successful first ride.

There will be many more rides before we launch for the second C2C trip.

Bonneville Bimble

2011-05-30T05:26:00.000-07:00

I took the Bonneville out for what the Brits would call a bimble, a short leisurely ride to nowhere, just to make sure it would be reliable.
I stopped to take this bucolic picture.

The cows were curious so they started walking over to check me out. It reminded me of a story in Chuck Yeager's biography, when he was shot down behind enemy lines in Europe during WWII.
He learned that sometimes German snipers would hang out in the trees near a pasture, but that the cows would invariably come over to check them out, and thus give away their position. It pays to grow up on a farm...

Anyway about a minute after I took the pic, the Bonneville started acting up just as it had last year. I guess I didn't get all the rust out of the tank.

Thursday

2011-05-28T04:51:00.000-07:00

Yes, Thursday was a decent motorcycle day, and it's about time! I've been slowly getting the Bonneville back together after putting it away last year. The last time I rode it, it left me stranded at St. Mikes and had to be loaded in the truck for an ignominious ride home. At that point I was pretty well tired of working on it and parked it in the corner of the shop. Later, when it was time to drain the fuel out of the tank for winter storage I found that the left petcock wouldn't flow any fuel. Note to self; check tank for rust, check/replace petcock.

I etched the tank last week with some acid I'd used on a couple previous gas tanks, and got a gratifying amount of rust out of it. Re-mounted with new petcocks, added some fresh gas, put the battery in and two kicks later was rewarded with the welcome sound of a happy British vertical twin.

A quick test ride and it seemed to have all the power from both cylinders, brakes still worked but I didn't have a functioning brake light. A new(ish) bulb, saved from one of many old Volvo taillight sockets in the junk drawer, cured that problem. I still didn't have a brake light from the front lever though, just the rear, so I stopped in to Classic Bike to get some advise from them, and learned how to fix the front light switch. Spent some time on that, didn't resolve it, but I know what I need to do now. In any case it passed a Vermont State Inspection, so I'm legal.

On to the TNT (Thursday Night Trailride) which was the first of the season, held at Kelly O's in East Orange. This is a favored loop on the Montshire circuit, with some great hill climbs and stream crossings. Unfortunatly most of the exciting parts were still too wet to ride, but we were able to ride the main loop which is about 2.5 miles. That was enough for me since I haven't done much woods riding, and I managed to get in 5 laps with a couple rest stops in between.

Here's the parking area, Kelly's house is on the hill, we head up after the ride for barbeque, beer and bench racin'.

I truck-pooled with Neil, but I couldn't keep up with him on the trail.

Scott at OVRP

2011-05-25T06:15:00.001-07:00

Well I just had to post this pic, lifted off of facebook, of my son Scott in action at Oakland Valley last weekend. He had a pretty good day, won his heat race and the 12 lap Vintage feature over some fast competition.

And here's one from Victory Lane

Okinawa R&R

2011-05-24T04:46:00.001-07:00

I got this email from Hale Irwin (not the golf pro on the Senior Tour), a customer and friend of mine. He "beat the air into submission" flying helo's during his time in the US Marine Corps.

We brought these Yamaha's in from Japan to Okinawa in the back of CH-46 Helicopters after the birds were overhauled in Tokyo:

Looks to me like he's wearing his flight helmet. Which is appropriate, 'cause he's flyin'!

Check Hale's blog out;

http://checkmysix.blogspot.com/

YZ134....Version 3.1?

2011-05-19T05:26:00.000-07:00

Actually, it's hard to figure which version we're looking at right now. It started out as a motocross bike. Then it was lowered and raced as a flattracker, with a 19" spool wheel on the front. We bought it in that phase, with the original 21" front wheel and brake as spare parts.

As Scott grew, we raised the suspension a little, but he still grew out of the bike, and it became a little obsolete as a flattracker, so we thought we'd try some Super Motard racing with it. I pieced together some 17" rims and hubs, sent them off to get laced up and reinstalled the front brake. It became a fun little supermoto bike. I guess you could call that phase/version 3. We raced it successfully in both supermoto and some indoor shorttrack events.

But that only lasted for a little while before we realized that we wanted to use the bike for some woods/moto riding. On went the 21" spare wheel and a proper pair of dirtbike tires, the suspension was returned to full length. Back to phase 1, but with some mods.

After that I got interested in ice riding/racing, so a spare set of wheels was obtained through ebay, and ice tires built. I tried a few different tires, and in fact I'm still working on that set-up. The engine was due for a top end, and I decided to go with an overbore kit from Eric Gorr's Forward Motion. We'll call it phase/version 4.

As you may see from previous posts, this has been the most difficult phase in terms of jetting and performance. I've managed to blow the top end several times, whereas previously the bike didn't seem to care too much about what it was doing. Riding/racing in cold temps requires much more attention to jetting, and I'm afraid I wasn't attending to the finer points as much as I should have been. Live and learn.
Anyway, after the last episode, Eric Gorr very kindly honed the cylinder for me, and sent it back with a fresh piston and gasket set, and some sage advise about proper jetting. I put it back together and decided I'd mount the S/M wheels for now, since we may want to race it in June with that set-up.

New lid

2011-04-20T18:27:00.001-07:00

I got a new helmet. It's a Fly Racing. My old helmet was pretty beat up.

Here are some observations about my helmets (and snowboards, come to think of it).

I'm fairly certain that I've never seen anyone wearing the same model and design that I have.

I have a habit of buying a new helmet and going out and crashing the first time I wear it. Since it's new, I can't live with the thought of replacing it as the manufacture and magazines all suggest, so I keep wearing it until I can reasonably justify it's replacement. That can take anywhere from a couple more rides to a couple seasons, and I'm happy to say the last one was a couple seasons.

Here's my Simpson, it's an early 80's Bandit. I raced Karts in this helmet.

This is my first Bell, it's an M1. It was my street and racing helmet for a few seasons. I don't think I crashed this one.

This is my 3rd Bell, back when they were made by Shoei (I think). I raced this for a few years, then crashed pretty hard at a 1/2 mile race in Brockton Mass.

I was concussed.

My last Bell.

My first KBC, which originally stood for Korean Bell Corporation until Bell Helmets found out about it and told them it should stand for something else. So I don't know what it stands for now. This helmet got wrecked at Square Deal Riders in NY.

Gas Gas

2011-04-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

I rode at Hunter Farm today. Started out on Hannah's XR200, just plunking along, setting up some singletrack lines to ride. Fred joined me on his Gas Gas trials bike, and we had a nice ride, stopping to ponder some of the possibilities for routes. We completed a circuit of the farm, and I parked the Honda and hopped on the Gas Gas. What a blast! Such a different type of riding that calls for a different approach, and opens up some completely new lines to the terrain that you thought you knew.

This is a rock face that I hit a few times. Super fun.

Airshow!

2011-03-25T05:37:00.000-07:00

I don't like to lift photos from other people's blogs, I'd rather use my own, but a friend sent me this link, which had another link embedded in it, etcetera etcetera...you know the drill.

Anyway, pretty incredible shots, mainly because we "Westerners" didn't/don't get to see this stuff too often. The Soviets had three flight demonstration teams, two of which flew the contemporary fighters, the Mikoyen MiG 29 flown by the "Swifts" and the Sukhoi Su 27 flown by the "Russian Knights"....

Here are the "Swifts"

The "Russian Knights"

And here they are together, which is cool because you get an idea of the size difference between the two jets, as well as some of the similarities of design.

I guess they don't have a "Navy" flight demonstration team the way we do. It would be cool to see the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds fly together though.

Here's the link;

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/index.html#Maks2005

YZ134

2011-03-22T05:56:00.001-07:00

One of the reasons I haven't been posting much is that I got really sick of anything to do with motorcycles. I know, I blaspheme, but hear me out. I siezed the YZ 134. Again....

I thought I had the jetting pretty well squared away, and I probably was close, so I went out to just do some more testing. I was riding a road course on the south side of the sandbar, it was about 10 degrees out. I took a couple slow practice laps to let the engine warm up, then I picked up the pace. Too quickly. The engine sized just as I shifted into 6th.

So this is what a "cold sieze" looks like.

I have to mic the cylinder to see how bad it is. Maybe I can clean it up and just put a new piston in...probably not though.

I went into the garage on Sunday, looked at all the bikes, turned around and walked back out.

When it actually gets warm, maybe then I'll be inspired.

Making Tracks...

2011-03-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry to leave the blog on hold for so long. It's been an interesting month or so since my last post. Been to Spain. Been to Montreal. Been hanging around the house, and I've been doing some cross country skiing.

I'm guessing this is a Bobcat hoping to catch the Turkey that wandered here.

This is what it looks like when a Turkey takes off in a hurry.

I'll get back to motorcycles soon.

Destination Moon

2011-02-09T04:41:00.000-08:00

Or at least a few hundred feet into the air...

I still have to work out the balance. I may need to add some weight to the nose. Actually I know I need to but I'm not sure how much, probably an ounce.

Launch countdown sequence starts at 1:30 PM on 03/07/2011

Billions of blue blistering barnacles...

Another afternoon on the ice...

2011-01-31T17:02:00.000-08:00

Matt and I spent another afternoon trying to dial in the jetting yesterday. Actually, we both made changes at home in the relative comfort of our garages, and tried them out, and the changes seemed to be spot on for both of us. I pulled my plug after several runs and it just looked better each time. So for what it's worth, it seems a 460 main and 65 pilot jet, with the needle clip set in the center (#3) position, is just what the doctor ordered.

Matt's bike has a Lectron carb, which is a different beast altogether. Semi-Flat slide, clear float bowl and the only jets you change are the pilot jets...

I also tried to make my rear tire grip a little better by repositioning the left side screws. Didn't work, the thing is still a bitch to ride. You have to hang off the seat and keep the bike straight up to get any traction. I'm getting too old to mess with that kind of compromise. I just want tires that work.

This is just a quick look at the ugliness.

We ran the oval "backwards" for a session and my rear tire actually worked better turning right. Didn't get any video of that though.

Top Secret Project Revealled

2011-01-26T04:46:00.000-08:00

Spy photos of the "Top Secret Project" have surfaced on the internet...right here!
The images of this unfinished OLAC entry were captured this morning, in an unguarded moment.

This appears to be a scale replica of the "Destination Moon" rocket from the famous "The Adventures Of Tintin" book series.

It's looking more like a rocket...

2011-01-22T15:55:00.000-08:00

Making more progress on the Top Secret Project.

Body secured to motor mount. Shock cord attached.

Fins on.

Landing gear.

Carburation day

2011-01-22T15:47:00.000-08:00

Thursday was carb day at Lake Arrowhead. Matt and I tried out some jetting on our respective freshly rebuilt top ends. We both wound up chasing the right settings, and I don't know that I got much closer to them. But at least we have an oval plowed, so we'll be able to continue the task tomorrow.

Motor Mount

2011-01-20T06:16:00.000-08:00

The next phase of the Top Secret project got underway last night. I have a special knack for turning a fifteen minute job into an hour job, and still getting something wrong, but in the end, it's going to work just fine.

Lower body section, motor mount, centering rings, epoxy, instructions, lubricant.

I was supposed to tie the steel cable to the upper centering ring before I glued the centering ring in place....

Because it's hard to tie a knot down there.

Top Secret Project

2011-01-13T16:54:00.000-08:00

Yeah, well, it's top secret except for the internet savvy, but you'll still have to guess what I'm building, unless you know already in which case, don't tell anybody.

I spent a few minutes wondering how I was going to round off the bottoms of these ogive nose cones.

I came up with a solution. A bench vice, a drill and some masking tape.

I was even going to cut out a form to use as a guide, but that would've been even more work. In the end I settled on the venerable TLAR method.

The next step was proving to be a little more of a challenge. I was working with a blueprint, but I had to scale it up, and I wasn't sure how to do that. Lot's of scribbling and fuzzy math ensued.

Then I asked Sandy if we had any graph paper...

Once again utilizing the TLAR method, I've made some progress.

Stay tuned for more OLAC build reports.

Progress

2011-01-09T12:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I milked a good part of the day just getting the bodywork back on the bike. Cleaning this and that etc., but I did get it done, got it off the work table and started it up. Sounds good as ever. I'll do a couple more heat cycles and have it ready for next weekend.

YZ134

2011-01-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

Today was a productive day. Got some domestic items done early in the day, ran some errands, blah blah blah.
Got home and spent some quality time in the shop. After all, the YZ cylinder wasn't going to walk over to the bike and bolt itself down, I'd have to get involved. And it is ice season!

Here's the top end as it came out of the box from Forward Motion. They treat their customers right!

I should have taken a 'before" picture, but I was too embarrassed. The center of the port had a lot of metal missing. I'm going to be a lot more careful with jetting this time around.

The patient..

Looking good so far.

Looking better.

I had to take a break for dinner and more domestic chores, so I went back out later and got the cooling system installed. Carb, bodywork, ice fenders to follow. Should be on the ice on Sunday.

More Military...

2011-01-05T17:38:00.000-08:00

After looking at tanks and cannons, we drove over to the airport to visit the static display at the Air Guard. The Vermont Air National Guard has flown these planes, as well as some not pictured here.

T33 trainer

F94 Starfire

F89 Scorpion

F16A "Fighting Falcon", but no pilot calls it that. They call it the Viper. This thing looks like a model when it's parked next to the Cold War jets.

This is the famous Vulcan "gattling gun", built and tested right here in Vermont by our good friends at GE.

On the other side of the drive, some nice "reciprocating mass" powered machines. We tried to look this one up when we got home, and couldn't find it in any of my reference books. Looks to be a Douglas, but I could be way off...

This is a Beech 18 unless I'm very much mistaken.

Ever wonder what the firing order on a Pratt and Whitney Wasp Junior is...

Here's the answer, 1,3,5,7,9,2,4,6,8, as well as valve lash and timing info.

The best for last, 'cause this is my favorite jet. Even if they didn't design it with machine guns from the start.

McDonnell F4 Phantom II

Every jet should have a tailhook. And down swept elevators. And two big ass engines.

Military Displays

2011-01-02T13:32:00.000-08:00

I just took a week off from work to do a little kitchen renovation with the help of my brother, Mark. We had a very productive week, so after the hard work, and sometimes harder celebrations, we took a day off to drive around and see what we could see.
I drive past Camp Johnson every day, and I've wanted to stop and look at their tank display, so this was a good day for it. Mark did a stint in the Army Guard and he's an avid war buff, so it's always great to tour these things with him.

Here, he's standing in front of an M1A1 Abrams Tank

This is the rifled barrel of the Abrams 120mm cannon

Standing in front of the M60 tank, which was replaced by the M1A1. Note how much taller this tank is than the Abrams.

155mm Mobile Howitzer

M46 Pershing

M7 Priest, a 105mm Howitzer mounted on a Sherman tank chassis. Called the Priest because of the "pulpit" right of the cannon.

There were several interesting vehicles that were not on display, just tucked away in a corner behind a building. We poked around these too.

This low green vehicle is a Soviet troop carrier.

This troop is about to gain ingress.

Ingress achieved!

This is a Quad 23mm Russian Anti Aircraft unit, captured in Iraq.

We couldn't figure out why the tire would say it in English, maybe it was made for export to a 3rd world country?

Harrington Half Mile

2010-12-21T05:31:00.001-08:00

Here are some pics I took in the pits at Harrington. Sandy and I had been going to lots of races during the early '80s, IMSA, F1, SCCA, AMA Roadrace, Indy Car, even Nascar. We saw races all over the Northeast, Pocono, Trenton Speedway, Montreal, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen. I'd never seen any national event that seemed so homespun as this. But the racing was incredible. Somehow it didn't compute.

The weapon of choice for most..

A sweet Honda framer

A well sorted SR500 framer

Privateer Honda's

For some of the racing shots, go back to my earliest posts. I took photos of some slides and posted them. The slides were taken with my Minolta SG, I don't know what camera I used for these photos, maybe my Voitlander?

Englishtown New Jersey, Raceway Park!

2010-12-13T16:40:00.001-08:00

I took these photos sometime in the early '80s. I think this might have been a Spring National event. I'll add some photos later. This was just before the track got a major overhaul to keep it's National status. New grandstands, timing and scoring tower, pit walls, all came shortly after.

This is the staging area before the water box. You can see a blue '55 Chevy sedan just coming off the line with the wheels off the ground. This guy was dialed all weekend!

Pro-Stock multi time champion Bob Glidden, in his hideously ugly/fast Ford Fairmont.

Classic match-up, Camaro vs. 'Cuda

Another hotrod Pinto.
And I just noticed, we have an Elvis sighting!

Here's a B/A "Altered" dragster. I never knew how they stuctured these classes. Blown/Alcohol maybe?

Love the Opel GT...

Watkins Glen

2010-12-08T04:43:00.000-08:00

There was a time when Formula One was much more accessible to the average race fan. I'm sure we paid more than $5 to get in, but the camping ticket seems pretty reasonable.

Here's Jody Scheckter driving a Ferrari 312 T5 up the "boot" on the back side of the track.

After the race, they put these transport wheels on.

Souvenir

Wrack & Ruin

2010-12-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

We had another strong windstorm blow through this week, gusts over 60mph were predicted. Came home to a substantial Oak tree blown down across the driveway. Got that cleaned up and cut for firewood for Seamus.

Then I took a walk in the woods today, and found that most of my single track motorcycle trail is now blocked by more trees. With any luck, the neighbor/landowner will take a lot of the damaged trees this winter when he logs the lot.

(Racing) Year In Review

2010-11-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

This was a tough season of racing. I had some fun, for sure, but it was also just one tough break after another. It's hard to categorize even a single event as being good or bad, (with the exception of the last race of the season...bad) 'cause it seemed there was a little of both every time. Examples;
Ice Racing, got a 3rd place trophy, but blew up the engine doing it.
Hare Scramble, mangled my thumb, but I finished the race, and I think I'll try it again.
Mini Motard, struggled with jetting all season, but got some decent results.
Flattrack, still had some minor brake issues, didn't win any races this year other than a heat race. Got a 2nd and a 3rd though.
Broken bones. I broke my ankle mid season, which took me out for two months. Scott broke his clavicle, and wrecked his new race bike through no fault of his own. That was the last race of the year for us, and aside from having a couple great practice sessions, it sucked.

Scott never turned a race lap on the bike, it blew the top end in his first practice sesh.

Catra Harescramble

Flattrack at JRM.

Vintage competition

Jim Durkee's superb SL350

Sorry, don't know the rider, but it's a cool Maico

Racin' Mini-motards in VT

TT race under the lights at WVR.

Electric City Riders Memorial Cup

You just don't see many of these. This is entered in the TT class at EC.

On Guard

2010-11-24T06:22:00.000-08:00

I was delivering a new car to a customer in Morrisville VT yesterday, and saw this great Army Tank standing guard for the The Vermont National Guard’s 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry, Echo Company, Distribution Platoon. They are currently deployed at Forward Operating Base Lightning, Paktya province, Afghanistan.

I believe it's an M60 Patton MBT (main battle tank).

Montessa Impala

2010-11-19T10:56:00.000-08:00

I saw these in Barcelona a few years ago, and thought they were cool. I don't think they were ever imported here. Obviously they'd look better with wire spoke wheels, rather than mags.

The CB Cup...

2010-11-11T19:08:00.000-08:00

Believe me, this takes as much guts to post here right now as it did to race the bike almost 30 years ago...

I just stumbled across this photo while going through a pile of miscellany. This is Bill Clarke kicking my ass on a very rudimentary dirt oval, racing even more rudimentary Honda 350's. The rules were simple; any Honda CB/CL 350 twin was legal, but you couldn't spend more than $175 total on the bike (.50 cents per cc).

Bill was the undisputed champion for the series, winning every race he entered.

Riding at Matt Cyr's place

2010-10-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

Here's some helmet-cam video of some of the trail system that we've been enjoying for the past few years.

I rode on Thursday, the weather was turning from partly sunny to overcast and windy during the day. Matt and I finally got going when it was overcast, so the light is kind of poor.

And not to make excuses, but the leaf cover on the trails and the general wet conditions were enough to slow me down, particularly because I haven't been doing enough woods riding to feel proficient.

It's also interesting as I review the video, the terrain doesn't look particularly challenging, the steep sections don't look steep and the logs don't look threatening and the side hill crossings don't look perilous, but you'll have to trust me when I say that all that stuff will bite you if you're not careful.

Anyway, the above video starts from the lumber yard and culminates with a climb up "Randy's Hill", which starts with a few large rocks that guard the base of the hill, followed by a fairly difficult climb through some deep ruts, roots, rocks and trees.

Part Deux
I go till I crash..

Part the 3rd
Continuing on..

Quattro

Oakland Valley Race, video and pics

2010-10-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here's some video taken during open practice. Not sure who the first bike is, but then you'll see Mike Kramer #278, Scott (#12) followed by Nick Wiemer #495, then me. I'm having some trouble loading it, so you may have to cut and paste into your browser to watch it.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_OEu2bGHeA

This is the wreck sequence that Ralph Corwin shot.

Thanks to Ralph Corwin for taking photos, and Fumi Matsueda for shooting the video of practice. Try these links for a better viewing experience;

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/_flash/gallery/gallery.html&Site=TH&Date=20101011&Category=LIFE02&ArtNo=101109997&Ref=PH

Mike Kramer wrote up and posted these pics on his fine blog. Thanks Mike.

http://greasermike.blogspot.com/

Oakland Valley Race Report

2010-10-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

What started out as a really nice race day turned into a nightmare pretty quickly.

I got up early and drove the 5 hours to meet Scott at the track by 10:00 AM. He'd managed to catch a ride up with Greaser Mike at the last minute instead of his normal racing transportation with Van, because of some drama down in the city, but we all arrived at the appointed time, and got busy with pre-race prep.

OVRP runs their practice sessions before the riders meeting, so we suited up and got in line for our first session. The track was just as I remembered it, smooth and fast, easy to slide in to the turns and good grip coming out as long as you're careful with the throttle. I had gone down to a 42t rear sprocket at Electric City and I left it on for this track. I wasn't disappointed either, 'cause it gave me a little more top end, I was able to run it as hard as I dared without over revving the engine.

In the first practice session, I went out and found myself in front, I knew Scott was behind me so I ran a couple different corner entries to catch a glimpse of him, and to try some different lines. We caught up to another rider and passed him before they waved the checker on the session.

We both felt pretty good after the session, so we didn't change anything on the bikes and got back in line for the second session. This time Scott went out first, I was going to be right behind him, but I was in neutral when we got waved onto the track and Nick Wiemer got out in front of me on his Honda, which was fine 'cause I wanted to see how hard he'd run it. Well Scott took off and left us. He was gone within a couple laps, so I just followed Nick to see if I'd be able to keep up with him. I could, but I didn't see any easy way around him and I tried a couple different lines.

When we got back to the pits I mentioned to Scott that the holeshot would be important, he said that was on his mind as well. Fumi came over and said he took some video of Scott 'cause he was flying out there.

The riders meeting was kind of typical, but the track manager did say we were going to start the races without an ambulance there, because the ambulances had been called out, but that there were two in the area so we would be OK to race.

Scott and I were lucky enough to be in the same heat race for Open Am, along with 4 other riders. I started on the outside, next to the wall, and Scott was next to me, so we were last on the line. I had a pretty good start and I saw that Scott did as well. The low line into T1 was filling up, so I stayed a little high and figured I'd see how it was going to shake out coming out of T2 onto the back straight. As we were rounding through T2 I had a good high line, and the competition for the low line turned out to be Sandriana Shipman, riding a newish Honda. I had clear track ahead, and I could see that Sandriana was struggling with traction down low, so I eased on the gas and got going. Just as I passed her I felt a little jolt, I suspected it was her hitting my rear wheel.
Looking down the back straight, I saw the flagman start to raise the yellow, and then start running up the track. I hadn't even gotten down the straight and I knew it would be a restart.

It was when I came around turn 4 and looked back up track that I saw that Scott had been taken out in the crash. He was on his side and not moving. So the rest of this story gets a little harder to write about, in fact, I'm going to skip over some of the details.

When I reached him he was just coming to. It took him a little while to put together what happened, but I was relieved to hear him talking and responding to the EMT that was on the scene immediately. (I don't know where she came from because there wasn't an ambulance on site, but she knew what she was doing.)
So I stayed with him as she started to get busy with her EMT stuff. At some point during the proceedings (Cervical Collar, Backboard) I questioned whether this was all necessary, and she told me in no uncertain terms that yeah, this was necessary.

I decided to load the truck when the ambulance team took over. I had some help from Arion and his dad, as well as all the 6th Street gang, which was great. While I was loading, I saw a helicopter flying kind of low over the track. Curious...
Next thing I know the chopper has landed, so I'm worried about Scott, and Sandriana.
I run back to see what's happening, to find that they've cut Scott out of his leathers and he's got an IV in his arm. Holy Shit. I asked who the chopper was for and they pointed at him. Sandriana was going to get an ambulance ride.

Well, they loaded him on a stretcher and eventually got him on the bird. After some internal discussion, the pilot told me they were going to Westchester Medical Center. I asked where that was and had a dozen EMT's tell me it was in Valhalla NY, just across the Tappan Zee bridge, about 60 miles.

The rest of the story involves lots of Emergency Room sitting around etc. so I'll cut to the end. Scott had a broken Collar bone. I left Scott at Westchester after it became clear that he wouldn't be released but he would spend the night in a comfortable room, got home at 2:00 AM. Scott didn't get released until late the next day, but was released into the care of Clubman Racing/Saviour South Cycles Brother Bill Clarke, who will be a hero, a legend, for delivering Scott to his front door in Brooklyn.

This was my helmet-cam footage, it may not work on the blog, but I'll try to fix it tonight.

Overdue race report

2010-10-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

Hey, sorry to take so long to post a race report. The truth is, I had a cold (still do). I was in a fog (still sort of am). So was the bike. Together we didn't add up to much.
In fact we were just in the way.

The race was the last race of the season for NEMM, and it was also the debut of the new track, Boxshop Speedway, near Kezar Falls Maine.

The track will be great for NEMM. It's a bit longer than the Vermont track, not as much elevation change but still a difficult track. Narrow in certain sections and fairly fast. The dirt section was short but still had two kicker jumps, a table top jump and a nasty right hand berm that was a mix of sand and wheel deflecting/fork compressing rocks. We're talking baseball/softball size rocks. Hitting them with your 16" road tires was pretty fun.

Anyway, I raced in a few races, sucked, finished last. The XR wasn't happy with it's jetting and it let me know in very uncertain terms. I fiddled with it enough to make it finish the last race and then loaded it back on the truck. I might not look at it again for awhile.

One cool thing is there are some new "GP" classes to race. "GP" stands for "no dirt, thank you very much", so the GP classes can have road race bikes. Fun to watch.

Here's a Youtube link to the start of the GP80 race;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hGHMAI5cy4

So the New England Mini Moto season is over, except for one more track day that I won't make, 'cause I'm racing that weekend at OVRP.
I think I finished 4th overall in the XR100 Cup for the season, which is better than last year where I was in a 3 way tie for 5th. Scott actually finished 3rd in Sport Cup, so that's cool.

Electric City, 2010 Memorial Cup

2010-09-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

After the rain out last weekend, I returned to Electric City to race the Memorial Cup on Sunday. Despite some threatening overcast, and some really tedious and unexplained waiting around, we got to race the full program.

I signed up for Vintage Light and the 50+ class instead of my normal Senior B class, at Hugh Mackie's suggestion, because at least a couple of the 50+ guys would be on vintage iron. So there was Hugh on his 750 Triumph, another guy on a 750 Yamaha, two guys on Honda CRF450's and a guy on a Rotax of unknown displacement.
In the heat race the Rotax lead the way, followed by the two Honda's, me and the two twins. I got around one of the Honda's early on, to take 3rd and we finished that way.
Once again I discovered during the heat race that my brake was mostly ornamental. Upon closer inspection I thought maybe I could tighten the pivot arm a little more, so I did that and re-adjusted the rod.

The Vintage heat had 3 "cheater" Honda's in it, plus another SR500 and a nice '78 YZ400. I refer to the cheater Honda's because they didn't exist before 1974, which was the original cutoff year for Vintage. And they always seem to show up in Champion frames, which hardly seems fair. Well it turns out that the AMA changed the cutoff year to '79, and they allow twin shock racing frames even if they were built last week, so the cheater Honda's are legal now.

So anyway, two of the Honda's are being ridden by experts, one by a nice fast kid, and they all beat me in the heat race. In fact both the experts jumped the start and were sent back to the penalty line, and they still beat me into turn one, but I was having some trouble keeping the front wheel down, which slowed me a bit. I finished the heat in 4th place.

As we lined up for the 50+ feature, the two Honda 450's stalled and all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't get those bikes to fire again. That left the Rotax, the two twins and me. I gave chase to the Rotax and kept him honest for a lap or so, then he started to gap me and we finished that way, he got the better of me but I was happy with 2nd.

I had one of my worst starts in years in the Vintage feature. I was the last bike off the line and in my ham fisted attempts to catch up, the front wheel kept coming off the ground so I had to back off. This was not looking good considering I only had 6 laps to make my case. One thing in my favor for a podium finish was that the nice young kid on one of the Honda's didn't make it to the feature because of mechanical problems, but I still had to pass the SR500 and the YZ400 to get a 3rd. I got the SR coming out of T2 on the first lap, but the YZ was a little tougher. It took me a lap to catch up to him, then I followed him around for a few laps, looking for a good chance. He was fairly consistent, I had a better corner entry speed than him but I didn't want to do a slide job on him so I decided to work on a better corner exit, get inside and take his line away. He gave me the opportunity coming out of T4 on the
white flag lap, he just got on the gas a little too hard and opened up a nice hole for me to slip into and that was all I needed.

So I finished the day with a couple trophies, which kind of made up for the interminable waiting around. Hugh had a great day too, with a well earned 3rd place in Vintage Heavy after a race long battle with a Yamaha 750.

Here's Hugh setting up the bike.

The 6th Street Specials racing crew.

Sporty

2010-09-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

This is Jeremy Patrisi's 883. It's for sale I think. Sweet ride.

My newest favorite thing

2010-08-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

Just got this photo in the mail. Completely unexpected and unsolicited. Big thanks to Leon Stanley, who obviously has a story to tell regarding the acquisition of this signed and dedicated photo!

And, thanks Gary, I appreciate it!

Winchendon Aug 21

2010-08-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

The Winchendon series went off great this past Saturday. A pretty good turnout of NEMM riders mixed with a decent NEDTS crowd made for some great racing. For most of the NEMM riders it was their first chance at a dirt oval, and it was definitely the first TT for us.

We started the night with the oval racing. There were two heats for the XR100 cup, I was in the first heat with Aaron, Jeremy and an NEDTS a racer. It was a great race with Jeremy getting a jump on me at the start, and Aaron right behind me. I was able to keep the pressure on 'til Jeremy made a little mistake going deep in T3 and letting me by. Aaron was all over me but couldn't figure out how to get by, if the race had gone much longer he might have got me.
For the feature I had an OK start but I didn't have the power that some of the NEDTS had, so I got gapped pretty quickly. I don't even know where I finished, but it was a fun race with plenty of laps.

Scott was racing in the Knobby class on a borrowed XR100 (very graciously offered by the Hildebrant's), so I couldn't race him on the oval, but he did have a good race and got lots of seat time.

Once the oval racing was completed, they turned us loose on the TT course. 4 laps of practice, then immediatly line up for your heat race. I did sign up to race the Knobby class TT, as well as the XR100 Cup, so I'd have a chance to race Scott.
We had a blast, the TT course is so much fun on the small bikes. I don't think it would be as much fun on a big 450, more like work, but with the XR100 it's just so manageable that you can relax and just go for it without worrying about the consequences.

Scott had me covered in the heat and the feature, but I had a great time watching him battle for the top spot against another couple XR100s and little Bobby Bettencourt, riding a Pitster Pro with 14" knobbies on it. Scott wound up getting a 3rd place, which was well earned after a race long battle.
I stalled the bike in the race, couldn't get it restarted but luckily I had a spare plug at the truck, so I was able to change plugs and coax it to start for the XR100 Cup feature.

That feature was great, I had a decent start and managed to keep up with the front runners through the infield. It's so cool when you're following a pack of guys hitting the jump and setting up the left turn back onto the oval. It's a great visual. Anyway, after a few laps I settled into 3rd behind Aaron and was thinking I'd be really happy to finish that way, then he pulled off as we came out of T2 and I inherited 2nd place, so needless to say I was even happier to fininsh 2nd!

This is the XR100 Cup Oval heat race, the first two bikes are NEDTS racers, then it's Jeremy, me and Aaron fighting for 3rd place.

Here's a little bit of Scott's heat race on the Oval, before the camara batteries died.

The Grand Slam

2010-08-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of you are aware of it...the AMA Grand Slam...entails winning a National level Road Race, Mile, Half Mile, Short Track, and TT race. There are only a few (4?) racers over the years that have done it.
Well, I certainly can't expect to do it at this stage in my life, so I'm setting my goals just slightly lower. Specifically, I'd be satisfied to enter and compete in most of the sanctioned disciplines listed, and add a few that aren't.

I've already covered;
Short Track (Technically, an oval track shorter than a 1/2 mile, typically, a 1/4 mile)
Half Mile

That's it so far, but I'm excited about adding another event this weekend, TT. I've had the opportunity to do it in the past, but didn't have the right bike with me, so I suggested that NEMM and NEDTS run a joint effort at Pete's track in Winchendon, and they agreed.
I'll be racing the XR100.

I've got a secret plan in the works to get the Road Race event done, more on that later...

As far as events I'd like to add to the list, well I've already done some;
SuperMotard
Enduro
Hare Scramble
Ice Race

So the rest sort of becomes a "bucket list";
Drag Race
Land Speed Run
Trials
Motocross

I'll pass on Hill Climb, those guys are crazy.

'76 Bonneville

2010-08-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

Well the day finally came for me to roll out the Bonneville. I started getting it ready for the street last year, then got distracted with other bikes. This year I swore I'd get it on the road. Fresh Battery, new rear master cylinder, air filters, and most importantly, new CDI Ignition with some help from Seamus.

Took it for ride this afternoon, with Hannah riding the borrowed Sportster.
Yay.

Oakland Valley Raceway Park

2010-08-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I only took one photo. Here it is.

So I'm hoping that I'll get some other photos/vids to supplement this, 'cause this was a great day, except for the fact that we got rained out after the heat races.

The track is a 1/5 mile packed dirt oval, slightly banked, and it's the smoothest dirt track I've ever been on. No Rocks. No bumps. Fast as hell.

Anyway, Scott and I got to race together for the first time in quite awhile, and now we're on pretty evenly matched bikes, since they're both XT500's. His needs a few things sorted before it will be perfectly even with mine, but it's pretty close right now. In fact once it is sorted out I'll have a much harder time keeping up. Can't wait.

We did manage to get the heat races in before the rain. I was in the first Vintage heat race, and ran away with it. Scott was in the second heat race, which was a little more stacked, and he got a 3rd place after a good pass about halfway through.

We were paired up in the Open Am heat race, and we had a pretty good race. I came off the line in 3rd behind a couple modern 450's, Scott had a bad start and was a little ways back in 4th. I caught the guy in second place, but I couldn't get around him. I tried a few times, but he just seemed to pull me on the straights. Scott caught us with a lap to go and we finished in that order, I got a 3rd, he got 4th.

Hope somebody else took some photos that I can use...

The day after...

2010-07-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

An informal measurement of the Pine came out to 67', with a 19" diameter 12" from the ground. There was also a 50' Maple and some smaller trees on the same "mat".

Microburst?

2010-07-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted anything. Busy at home and work I guess, but I haven't been riding, so I haven't had much to post.

But this evening we had a pretty intense storm come through and it left a mark. I wasn't home at the time, but on the drive home from work I noticed lots of small branches and leaves on the road. As I drove down our driveway I saw a large Poplar tree that had broken in half. No real surprise, 'cause Poplar wood is brittle as cheddar cheese.

While eating dinner on the porch I looked out into the woods and saw these trees down, so I had to take a closer look. They are now blocking a section of my singletrack trail, so clearly something must be done.

There are several trees in this clump.

Their problem was that they were trying to grow on this ledge. Poor planning.

This Pine is probably about 16-18" at the base of the trunk.

These Maples just broke. I don't know what kind of pressure it takes to snap an 8-10" Maple...

4th of July

2010-07-05T04:58:00.001-07:00

After a night of beers and bench racing, we proceeded to Graniteville for round 3 of New England Mini Moto. (They ran round 2 while we were at JRM, getting our speed on.)
Scott raced in Sport Cup and XR100 Cup, while Bill raced in Vintage and XR100 Cup.

The racing was great, with some great battles between Bill and Scott, and Steve Baker.

For the first time in ages, I was struggling with jetting for the XR100. It was running way too lean, I jetted it up, then it was way too rich. Someone suggested I take a look at the needle position, and I discovered it was at the top clip...right where I mysteriously left it last year. Who knows why I do these things.

I finally got it close enough for Scott to be competitive, and he had a good time racing. He managed to scrape the pegs on the XR100, which I've never done. A big part of that is thanks to Matt Tanner, who very kindly left me a great 16" Metzeler tire to mount on the 16" front wheel we had from the early flat track days. Scott did the wrenching and got the front brake to work as well as the 19" that we took off.

Here's the new front brake, after a trip through the giggle weeds.

Bill in T1...

Scott in T1...

Aaron setting the grid.

Sport Cup grid waiting on the Green...

Here's some video of the XR100 Cup race, I ran out of memory during the race, shame, 'cause the racing got better at the end. And I know, I need a new damn camera, 'cause this video sucks.

3rd of July

2010-07-05T04:53:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty good night at Jolly Rogers (sic). The track has changed over the years, now it's a banked dirt "paperclip" track. The rider turnout was a little low but we still met up with some old racing friends.
Since I'm on the disabled list with my ankle, Scott was racing my bike in Vintage. Bill entered the 125 class with his beautiful KX125 framer.

The Vintage heat started out well for Scott. He came through turn one in 4th place, but was able to make a pass for 3rd by the end of the lap. Then he tried to make up time on the leaders and over-cooked it going into turn one on the 3rd lap and low sided. He was able to pick up the bike and finish the race, but he'd get last choice on the line for the main.

As it turned out, last choice was the inside "pole", which wasn't ideal, but Scott made the most of it and had a great start in the feature, finishing the first lap in 2nd place. The real competition was a guy on a framer Husky 410 4 stroke, and Leo Vadnais campaining an air-cooled Yamaha 2 stroke. Well Leo didn't have a great start and it took him a couple laps to catch Scott, and another lap to set up a good pass, which he did. Scott finished in third, but had a pretty good gap on the rest of the field. Vintage has been a good class, with lots of brands represented. This race had 2 Husqvarnas, 2 Yamahas, a Honda twin and a nice Maico.

Bill was struggling with a grabby clutch for his heat and feature, which left him stalled on the line twice. He was able to get restarts and put in a good ride, but I think he's ready to make the transition to his new flat track project, an RD350 that he's been working on. Should be ready by the next round...

Scott wearing the 6th St. Specials tee.

Man & machine..

Scott in practice, ridin' a high line.

The pit-out gives racers a view of turn one. The pro's were out on the track when I took this.

A slow thrash...

2010-07-03T06:18:00.000-07:00

When I was a spectator at Englishtown Dragway, I learned that the teams often had lots of work to do on the cars between races. They referred to that as "thrashing", which made sense, because they often had to work at a furious pace, swapping engines or repairing wrecked cars.
Well I'm not capable of working at that pace, but I do seem to leave plenty of work for the last possible minute on my race bikes. So I found myself last night putting the last few things together on #39. Oil & filter change, check. Fork oil change, check. Air filter clean and re-oil, check. New throttle and grips, check.
Then I decided to straighten the left footpeg, since it was looking a little flaccid. Pulled it off and started to straighten it in the vice, it snapped in two. Good thing it happened when it did, as opposed to the first attempt to bump start the bike!
Anyway, I had some old footpegs and I was able to codge up a repair that should hold for awhile.
Racing tonight at Jolly Roger! But I'm just the pit crew, Scott will handle the racing.

Distal Fibula

2010-06-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

Well here it is, my distal fibula fracture. This happened a couple weeks ago at the Richmond track. I shouldn't have been riding because my head wasn't in it, but I went anyway, and crashed within 5 minutes of the ride.

You can barely see the the fracture on the left side of the image, looks like a little spur on the ankle bone.

In this image you can also barely see the spur on the back of the bone, right side of the image.

NEMM 2010

2010-05-31T17:58:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the season opener for New England Mini Moto at the Graniteville Kart track. It's only an hour away, so I can sleep in and still get there with time to spare. Anyway, it was a good time as usual. Light turnout but the XR100 class is always pretty full.

This year there's a 45+ class, so I'm racing that as well as the XR100 class. I took the lead in the 45+ heat race from the start and won pretty easily. In the feature I had a slow start and had to file into 2nd place for a lap, but I was able to move up into first pretty quickly. I was able to gap the other riders until the last lap, going into the ramp turn I missed a shift and caught neutral right before the jump. I was able to recover and didn't lose my position, but it wasn't my finest performance.

Unfortunately the XR100 class didn't go well for me. I had an OK heat race, starting from the back I was able to finish well enough to get on the second row for the feature. I had a decent start in the feature and was holding down 4th after passing a guy on the first lap. But the guy I passed was Chris, riding a Chinese built Pitster minibike on steroids 'n crack (the bike, not Chris), and he was right on top of me and I knew I was holding him up, which is OK by me, it's why we race, but if I made any mistakes he'd blow right by me. Well, I screwed up the uphill left turn, I felt the front end going away and I couldn't recover it, so I low sided, and Chris had nowhere to go but over me. I felt bad at first, 'cause I saw him go over the bars, but then I felt worse 'cause his bike landed on top of me and he had to pick it up off of me as I lay sprawled under both of our bikes. We got ourselves collected and going again, but my rear brake lever was bent under the engine case, so I had no rear brake, so I pulled off.

So it goes, but I had a good time racing with good folks on a postcard day in Vermont!

The pit scene

The bold new look for 2010!

"The Devil is in the details"...

Here's the start of the Premier Class heat race. My batteries died, but you'll get the first lap in...

#12

2010-05-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

Good old number 12. This baby has been raced and ridden by a long list of people. Always as number 12. It's going to get a number change this year, to #39. So here it is one last time, that is until Scott takes it back and returns it to good old number 12.

The blue hand guards are coming off, as well as some of the old stickers. It should look better by Sunday. Racin' at Rocky Ridge...

Catra Hare Scramble

2010-05-17T04:58:00.000-07:00

I finished my first Hare Scramble yesterday. It may be my last Hare Scramble, I'll have to see how motivated I am to do another one in the future.

The format for this race was interesting. They start groups of similar or compatible skill levels together. I entered in the Super (50+) Senior "C" (skill level) Class, there were a handful of other Super Seniors but only one other guy at my supposed skill level, the others were A or B riders. They filled out our line with a few Women's Class riders and some Veteran (40+?) Class, for a total of around 16 riders in my row. There were another 7 or 8 rows behind us. The starts are dead engine, so the starter gives us a 10 second warning, drops the flag, we start the bikes and go. Then the next row gets a 10 second warning, etc...

We were racing a 6 mile loop through the woods, 5 laps. How hard can it be?

Somewhere late in my first lap I smashed into a tree at a pretty good pace. My right hand came off the bar and smashed into the tree or my bark-buster (who knows). I hurt my thumb but I didn't really want to look down at it. After a couple more laps I came across another bike and rider curled on the ground, so I stopped to see if he was OK. I took my hand off the bar to give him the universal "Thumbs up?" sign, but realized I couldn't straighten my thumb...it just looked like I was shaking my fist at him, so that's when I figured my thumb was busted. I picked up his bike for him, turned out he'd landed hard on his tank and "nutted" himself. But as soon as I picked up his bike he got on it and disappeared down the trail. Young kid.

Anyway, somewhere along the way I got lapped, so I didn't complete five laps, only 4. But it turned out I wasn't alone, plenty of riders didn't complete even 4 laps, so I finished 64th out of 108 starters. Pretty poor performance, but at least I wasn't last. By the time I crossed the finish line, my right hand was pretty sore. I would've gladly gotten off the bike right there, but I managed to ride it through the woods back to the truck. The race lasted about 2 hours and 19 minutes for me, and I doubt I could have gone much farther or longer.

I felt much better after I re-hydrated and ate a little bit, so I went back to try to capture some vids...

This is the second row of A class riders getting their start.

A couple more rows starting...

And here they are shortly after the start, ripping through a couple of the faster sections.

Here's the downhill entry to the boggy section I mentioned in the previous post. These guys didn't spend much time pondering "technique", they just blasted through it.

This is a log jump they set up right after the scoring tower that you pass through every lap. It's close to the pits and is easy access for spectators. The 3rd guy through doubled it, but I didn't see anyone else try that.

Teaser from today's race

2010-05-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

This is a multi line downhill section that sends you through some boggy lowland, then back up to dry land. It was a tough section for me, but these riders don't seem to be having a hard time. Actually, I only got stuck one time out of the four times through it. Spectators and pit crew were scattered amongst the trees, shouting encouragement.

This is some of the Experts (flying) through the section.

I'm too wiped to do a race report tonight. More details forthcoming...

Hare Scramble tomorrow...

2010-05-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

Thursday Night Ride, Richmond

2010-05-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

The Green Mountain Riders club hosted the first semi official "TNR" this past Thursday, with a decent turnout of Montshire members. Unfortunately, it rained a couple hours before the ride so we couldn't use most of the newer trails, just the sand loop, which is about a mile, and still lots of fun.
I rode for about an hour or so, but then I noticed that my bike wasn't turning very well. I finally decided to stop and see what was going on, and discovered that my front tire was absolutely flat. That put an end to the riding, so I decided to take some pics and vids...

Ray Atwood, in the blue jacket, was doing sound checks for us, to see how loud the bikes are and to ensure that we comply with noise regulations. We do.

This is a bunch of riders just getting onto the track. 3 short straights connected by 180 deg. berms, then an S turn that sets you up for a 90 deg left up the hill, under the powerline tower.

This is a view from the top of the sand/moto track. You'll see riders on the lower section negotiating the 3 short straights, the riders on the upper section have come out of the woods and will disappear down into a woods loop below.

Another view of the top.

This is what it looks like if I turn around. The riders come up out of the lower woods loop and head along the top of the hill, back into the upper woods.

Jason climbing the hill out of the lower woods section.

Ducati wins an AMA Mile!

2010-05-03T06:27:00.000-07:00

I don't normally lift photos from other blogs, but this morning I read with great pleasure on the Sideburn blog that Joe Kopp won the Yavapai Downs Mile Race, in Arizona. I'm quite sure this is a first for Ducati, and it's been a long time since anything other than an XR750 has won on a mile.
Huge props to Llyod Bros and Joe Kopp, and I hope this is the start of many more victories for them.
Everybody knows I love the XR750, but I'd really like to see some other brands winning the big track races, and eventually some other factory involvement besides H.D.
Anyway, here's the shot from sideburn.

Visit sideburn from my linkage list for more cool shots and info.

Richmond Work and Ride

2010-05-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

Thursday was another work and ride day at the Richmond track. If I haven't mentioned it before, this track and trail system is now being maintained and managed by the Green Mountain Riders Club. The club seeks to build up their membership, with this facility being the primary riding area. There are close to 5 miles of trail opened so far, most of it is accesable with a tracked skidder, which will aid in grooming the trails.
The sand moto section that I've posted video of has been reconfigured and we're currently running it "backwards". and it flows quite nicely now. We tried out a small disc harrow on it as well as a chain drag and the result was very satisfactory. This will enable us to groom the track a little more often since we can pull it behind a quad.

This is Justin pulling the disc harrow.

This is me on the same section of track.

Post ride Magic Hat with Neil, Seamus.

Photos courtesy of Tom Butland.

Richmond ups & downs

2010-04-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

I met Rees at the Richmond track for some riding and trail scouting. It has dried pretty well since this past weekend, and it's just about perfect. The only problem is the sand, when it's this dry it gets really dusty, but the woods sections are perfect. We both reset our odometers and ran the full course, and both came up with 3.2 miles, which was about what I'd guessed it would be. We'll be opening up more trail soon, but we're also probably going to close a couple sections that are considered too dangerous and unsustainable anyway. So I shot some video of the longish hillclimb that will probably be deleted, as well as the down/sidehill section that is really cool but apparently won't hold up.
I shot Rees doing both sections first, then he was going to shoot me, but of course the camera batteries died....

This is the hillclimb, it starts well before you can see Rees, with a gentle rise and a couple turns, then gets steeper the higher you get.

This is the cool down/sidehill that we cut on Sunday. I'd guess there were 12 or 15 guys working on this section for well over an hour. It's a pretty steep hill and I guess the concern is that it's all going to wash away, but right now it's very rideable and very cool.

n\

Trail work

2010-04-12T04:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a work day for the Richmond track. I got there at 9:15 and there were already half a dozen guys working on the trail. As the morning wore on we were joined by a dozen more, as well as wives, kids and dogs. We re-opened trails that had been cut last year, as well as a few older trails, and we cut some new sections. I didn't reset my odometer, but I'm guessing that we now have close to 3 miles of trail.

This video shows a section from last year that we connected to another older trail. Rees is "arrowing" the trail.

Spring is here!

2010-03-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

Pretty great weekend, watched some snowboard Superpipe action at the US Open in Stratton on Saturday, got to "shred" with the Scott, Hannah and friends.
Then today, loaded up the bike and went to the Richmond track to get my moto on with Rees, Cameron and Seamus.
The track has been re-shaped quite a bit and we were just riding an early spring section that drains well. The current layout is almost exactly a mile, but once all the frost is out it will be expanded quite a bit.

As I was loading the bike it started to snow.

I'm getting ready for first laps. Looks chilly out there, but once we got going it was not bad at all.

We ran a bunch of laps, then went on a little trail exploration in the woods. By the time we got back (about an hour later) almost all the snow had melted, but here's what it looked like when we started.

March ON...

2010-03-07T17:13:00.000-08:00

I think today was the last of the ice riding. Actually I know it was, 'cause I took the ice tires off the KTM and now I'm getting it ready for the dirt season. So one last look at the "winter mode".
Seamus and Rees and I rode for a bit at Shelburne Pond. We got a late(ish) start and the ice and snow got pretty soft because of the absolutely beautiful clear sunny day, so once again I couldn't get a good feel for the new rear tire.

When Seamus and I got back, we decided to fire up my '86 XL600 Street-tracker. It hasn't run in about 2 years, took about 4 kicks. I may be selling it. Here's some cell phone video of it.

It Ain't Over Yet!

2010-03-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

The ice riding season that is. I just picked up this AMA rear tire for the KTM today. Mounted it up and took it out to Shelburne Pond for a quick test run. There was too much snow on the ice to get a good feel for the tire, but I think on clear ice it will do pretty well.

It's a Kenda 400x18 with AMA legal screws. (Kold Kutter, I think)

Montreal Motorcycle Show

2010-03-01T05:11:00.001-08:00

I took a break from ice riding this weekend, and went up to Montreal with Seamus for the annual bike show. We were mainly interested in looking at some of the new off-road models. There isn't a Husqvarna or Husaberg dealer in Vermont, and they both have some nice "woods" bikes.

This is the Husqvarna 450 TE. A very sanitary engine layout, fuel injected, great access to filters, very nice finish.

Here's the Husaberg 450 with the new horizontal cylinder. Also a very well presented engine. There have been good reviews on this bike and it was cool to see it. Note the plastic subframe.

This is a 2010 KTM 450 EXC special edition commemorating the most recent International Six Days Enduro held in Portugal. Nice.

This is a bike that you can't buy in the US, a Honda CBR125R, liquid cooled 4 stroke single. Nice components, although I'd like to see it with an upside down fork from the CRF. Seamus is checking it out, dreaming of another trophy...

CD Sportspix

2010-02-27T17:03:00.000-08:00

These were purchased after the race weekend from the this guy's website. You can find pics of your favorite New York/New England racers on his site, very reasonable prices and great service through SmugMug. All very sanitary, never met the photographer, but he posts pics of the bikes based on rider number or name.

Here's the address
http://www.cdsportspix.com

Sandbar ups and downs

2010-02-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

I took the KTM to the Sandbar today to ride with Mike and Seamus. We had to plow a track this time, since we've had a little snow. So fine, we plow a nice "paperclip" 1/4 mile track with Seamus's wheeler, and commence to ripping some laps. I think I got 8 or so laps in before my rear tire self destructed. Faack. I was hoping to get through the rest of the season with it before I switched to an AMA set, but I guess today was the "rest of the season".
Well anyway, here's what the rest of the day looked like....

This is mike on his CR250 and Seamus on the KX500.

This is Mike and Seamus on the freshly plowed oval.

Mike taking the stylish inside line.

This is Mike and me, I'm on the KX and it's kicking my ass.

Lake George 3

2010-02-15T21:50:00.000-08:00

Here are some heat races from Sunday. This is the 450 Expert class, heats 1 and 2.
You'll probably have to cut and paste the links. Sorry....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TScrWiM55c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XE-GsEMeaU

Lake George 2, a few ice racers

2010-02-15T21:45:00.000-08:00

A nice pair of KX500s.... a line of bikes in the sun.... some cool looking quads with sand tires... and some front line 450s... I love strolling through the pits.

Lake George Ice Racing weekend

2010-02-15T04:54:00.000-08:00

I just got back from the Lake George Winter Carnival, where once again I've blown up the YZ 125. It wasn't a total loss this time since I did manage to get a full day of racing in on Saturday, but the point of the weekend was to have Scott race the bike with me on Sunday, and unfortunately he only got one practice session in before the piston gave in. It's my fault, I was ignoring the clear evidence that the bike was still too lean, mainly because I didn't have any more jets to try, and it turned out that while I got away with it on Saturday, Sunday morning was just cold enough to put it over the edge.
For the racing on Saturday I entered the "Senior B" and 125CC classes. I figured I'd be racing against young kids in the 125 class, and I knew Senior B would be a fast class, but maybe I'd be able to give somebody a good race. Turned out that most of the guys racing 125 were in fact adults, so I was pleased to see that. But I wasn't wrong about the Senior B class, 15 bikes in the field and they pretty much left me from the start. A few of 'em crashed in both the heat and feature, so I didn't finish last, but I was racing by myself.
The 125 class was a little more fun, with 6 bikes on the line. I had a bad start in the heat race, so I was in 4th after the first lap and couldn't catch the leaders. I resolved to be merciless with the clutch in the feature, so I came off the line a little better and held on to 3rd for the duration of the race.

I still need to lower the suspension a bit.

Here's Scott, this was his flattracker, then woods/moto bike, now ice racer.

A smaller turn out for Sunday, but still a good amount of bikes. There were many more quads than in this photo.

Vintage Ice Racer

2010-02-14T16:48:00.000-08:00

This was one of the only vintage bikes at the races this weekend, so I had to take a closer look. As you can see at first glance, it's an Astro. But it has a Kawasaki engine in it, which was a popular conversion in the eighties. Some would call it a Bultakaw. I prefer to call it a Kastro.
Anyway, this is built owned and raced by Glen, of Glen's Autobody. Nice guy.

Among the many mods on this bike, Glen ran an extra long length of coolant hose from the cylinder, under the seat and back to the pump, to help make up for running only one radiator.

This is some creative frame modification to accommodate the exhaust.

Video

2010-02-09T08:12:00.000-08:00

I'm getting tired of the video problems on this blog, so I'm just going to put the newest ones on youtube and you can check 'em out at the top video bar.
I finally figured out how to export videos from iMovie without compressing them to death, so you can watch some footage from Winchendon last year.
It's the Vintage feature, I started on the back line 'cause I missed the heat race. The race was red flagged about half way through. I split the video into part 1 and part 2 when I first started editing it, so that's the way it is on youtube.

Here are the links, you'll have to copy and paste 'em to your browser, 'cause the google blog hyperlink doesn't work;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk4_TZCAIUo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89TKgjwP95w

.

Sandbar road course

2010-02-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

This is some video of the road course we laid out. Mostly 3rd and 4th gear with a couple slower sections. I'm on my 300 and Matt smokes me on his 450. He's fast on an oval, road course, motocross or single-track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XbGdgXuzNc

See earlier post for 1/4 mile oval action.

Google is having trouble with my vids, click on the youtube link, or copy and paste it if it doesn't redirect you. The youtube video is much better quality anyway.