NEMM! (New England Mini Moto)

So Sunday turned out to be a great race day as well. The first round of the New England Mini Moto series at Loudon. Our goal was to have some fun, support the new series run by our friend Aaron Phinney of Caferacer.net fame, and not get dinged up. Fairly low expectations, but this was a new venture, so it seemed like a good idea to go in like that.
Turns out we had a blast. My XR100 really wasn't running right, I had OK low end, but I couldn't get any high RPMs, the engine wouldn't rev. I figured I'd be alright if there wasn't a long straight...but there was a long straight. Since I've already tried several times to adjust the timing with no apparent sucess, I decided to live with it.
Bill's bike was looking and running great.



We went out for a couple practice sessions. Each session is 20 minutes, which I'm just not used to at all. In dirt track racing you're lucky if you get two 5 lap practice sessions, so this was somewhat surreal to me. I just pulled off the track after awhile, 'cause I figured I was just burning gas.
Bill and I were signed up in the XR100 Cup, and Aaron wanted me to go into the Premier class as well. I confess I wasn't really sure what all the classes were, but Premier sounded and looked like bikes that were way over the level of my poor, tired little XR100. I convinced Aaron to let me run in the Sport Cup with Bill and some of the other guys. He said it would be fine but I'd have to start at the back. Fine.

Well I don't really remember much of the heat races, I did pretty well in the Sport Cup, 3rd, and I was doing OK in the XR100 Cup till it started to rain, I crashed and finished just about last.

The Sport Cup feature was great though, I had a decent start and was running in 3rd behind a TTR and a nice BBR Honda ridden by what I guess was a slightly less experienced racer, (she had a hard time with the T1 hairpin) so after lap 2 I was in 2nd and I could see Bill and our buddy Steve Baker were not too far behind me. I was hoping they'd have a harder time passing the BBR girl than I did.
Well I was doing my best to hassle the TTR, but no matter what happened in the infield, he'd pull away on that long straight. I could see Bill catching up to us on every lap at the end of the straight, till the 2nd to last lap, when I didn't see him because he was right behind me. Well he was patient, followed me around and passed me on the straight as we took the white flag. I knew it was over but I tried to at least stay with him and not get passed by Steve, and we finished in that order. Bill ran a hella good race to run me down after the gap we started with, so we were both pretty psyched after that!

Th XR100 Cup didn't go quite as well for me, starting from the last row I had a good start and gained a couple positions. Then I made some mistakes here and there and lost ground just as quickly. It was a ton of fun though, 15 bikes in the race. I haven't been on the track with that many bikes in a long time. I'm looking forward to the next round, in Graniteville Vermont!

Wachusett Valley Riders Club

Let me start by saying I love this place! "Sideways Pete" has built a great facility, it's an awesome clay racetrack with a great "grassroots" atmosphere. You can really run anywhere you want on this track surface, and believe me, the pro riders do.
I hooked up with Bill Clarke for a weekend of racing starting here Saturday evening. We were both signed up for the Senior "B" class and I entered Vintage as well. Bill would be running his Trackmaster framed KX125 and I'd be on the XT500 for both of my classes.



Right to the racing, we started with the Senior "B" 8 lap heat, I had a decent start and felt pretty good during the race. I think we got spread out pretty quickly, I was in 3rd behind Bruce Ward on his Rotax and I don't know who was in 1st. I wasn't making any headway on Bruce and we finished in that order. Bill was still learning about his Trackmaster, this was only his second time on the bike, he was riding well but with some caution. Good idea.

The Vintage heat was two races away so I shut off the bike to let it cool off. Took a little help to get it restarted and once I did get it going I stabbed the brake and got nothing. The nut holding the brake stay had come off, (I must have left it loose when I remounted the tire) and the hub rotated and bent the pull rod. I had to miss the Vintage heat race and spend some quality time with my rear brake. The brake arm had stripped on the pivot splines, so I had to remount it with some safety wire jammed in between the splines for a tight fit. Presto...brakes again.

The Senior "B" feature went about the same as the heat race, an OK start, but not good enough to get in front of Bruce and the other guy. The best I could do was keep 'em honest, but they stayed up and in front of me. I finished 3rd again. Bill's race was also a repeat of the heat, but I think he rode a little better.

I had to start on the second row for the Vintage feature race. That wouldn't be too much of a problem, I thought, 'cause I had 8 laps to make my case. I had a decent start and finished the first lap in 3rd or 4th. I remembered to relax and be patient, and by the 3rd lap I was able to pass our new friend Randy on that sweet 500cc Guzzi, which left me chasing Mark Methe on his 400cc Husky. There was a red flag next lap, so we had to line up for a restart, single file. I should have taken more time to get into position because I prefer to start in 2nd gear, which requires rolling to the line in gear. Instead, I got into position and started in 1st. I spun the tire at the start and had to back off just a bit, which was enough to let Mark gap me a little. I was able to close the gap by the last lap, but I couldn't get under him so I had to settle for a 2nd place. No complaints though, Mark ran a great race, I had fun trying to catch him (I actually rubbed his rear tire coming out of T4 on the last lap, I backed off quickly and no harm was done).

So that was Saturday night racing, hopefully I'll get a video feed from Bill to add a little later.

Race prep

I spent most of the day in the garage today, trying to get two bikes ready for the races this weekend. The XR100 was first on the list. I picked up the cam chain and sprocket, got those installed, valves adjusted, and then I wasted a bunch of time trying to get the ignition timing set while I had the engine on the bench. I used to be able to do that without much fuss, but today it just wasn't making sense. I finally gave up and put the engine in the frame, rejetted the carb, installed the exhaust, tank and seat, and tried to start it. No spark. I knew I should have just left the points alone but I just couldn't help it. Anyway, after frigging around with it for awhile I took a dinner break, went back out, fiddled with some wires, got spark, threw the tank and seat back on and bump started it before it could change it's mind. Success.
I suspect the timing is still off, but at least it runs. I can try to get it right at the track, or maybe before I head out Sat. morning.
Next up was the XT500. I changed the rear sprocket and while I had the wheel off I decided to flip the tire to the fresh side. As always, those dirt tires would rather stay right where they are thank you very much, especially when they've been on the same rim for a couple seasons. I did get it done, but I have to see if the beads seated properly, I'll check it in the morning.

Home Track

Here are a bunch of short vids of my home track. Seamus and Scott O came over to ride, we "volunteered" Scott O to be the videographer, using my A300, so don't blame him for the quality.

XR100

The XR100 is going to be back on the race track! It has been a long time, probably 8 years anyway, since this bike has actually been raced. It hasn't been idle...no, not at all; ice bike, guest bike, yard bike, pit bike, mini-moto bike. It's been ridden every year we've had it. In fact it was due for an overhaul, which it won't really get, but at least the engine will get freshened up. Here's how it looked Sunday morning, exactly one week before race day.



I got a BBR 120cc kit for the engine; new cylinder and piston, cam, rockers and valve springs. Pulled the engine, got the new piston and cylinder on with some help from Sandy, got the new valve springs installed with some help from Hannah. (Finally got to use the valve spring compressor that Scott got me for Christmas about 5 or 6 years ago!)



I was about ready to install the rockers and cam. I got the cam drive sprocket out of the plastic bag I'd put it in, took a closer look at it and realized it was shot. The gear teeth look like saw teeth.




Now I have to order up a new gear and chain, I should probably replace the valves while I'm at it. And I still need a rear tire. I was going to change the fork oil too.

The Great Santini

This isn't totally unrelated to motorcycles. This past Sunday, Sandy, Hannah and I drove down to Brooklyn in the Ranger (ugh) to visit Scott and deliver his VFR and the TS100. He's got plans for both bikes, short range cafe/city mission for the TS100, long range interceptor mission for the um...interceptor.

We met up with Scott, dropped the bikes off at his rental space, collected my CL450 wheel from Geeto67 (thanks dude), and proceeded to check out a little bit of Brooklyn/NYC. Some of that included shopping, riding the Subway, walking and birding through Prospect Park (saw lots of warblers and other songbirds), and had some great meals.

Scott and I stopped in at 6th Street Specials and visited with Hugh for a while, great bench racing there with the promise of some real seat time for Scott later this summer.

Anyway, long story longer, we went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Tuesday morning. Walked around, enjoying the trees and shrubs. Took a detour through a semi crowded side entrance, Hannah and Sandy were leading the way and a nice man stood aside to let them through. I glanced at him and instantly recognised him. Robert Duval, looking pretty much like any other tourist, taking his time cruising through the place. I'm a big fan, but I realized he wouldn't want to be mobbed by me or anyone else. I did ask him how he was doing as I walked past, and he replied "Alright", so I guess he's alright.

We didn't go...

To the Turkey Run in Rhode Island. The weather forecast was kind of iffy, so Seamus and I decided to not spend two tanks of gas plus entry fees plus 10 hours of driving to run in the rain. Instead we ran a few laps on the (newly) extended single-track on my neighbor's land, then we went to his place and worked on his track. I didn't think to bring the camera to his place. The track is coming along nicely, we built a pallet bridge over a particularly muddy bog. I'll get vids next time.

Anyway, here's the birdhouse turn on my track, looking like it should.



And here's a nice section of single-track, you drop in from a downhill over pine needles, roll through and gas the little rise to a couple more just like it, but different...