The day after...

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?

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

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

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...

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.