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June
19-20 WSMC We had a little extra pit
crew
help this weekend via our friend Galen down for a visit from Portland.
We
clad him in a team shirt and made him work all weekend. This provided a
third
stooge for the usual two in the pits :) I had planned on racing the new GP GT class on Saturday (WSMC's answer to not allowing GP bikes in the GT races). The GT races are always after 5pm on Saturday during the summer months only. Well, that morning they announced that the GP GT would take place during the lunch break on Saturday. I'm sure there is a person somewhere on Earth that would enjoy a 20 lap race, midday, in the middle of the desert, in June, but that person is not me. Now, I would have sucked it up and done it, regardless of liking it or not, but the 125 was far from being set up correctly. |
 Stooges, three of them |
|
We had changed the shock
spring
to a slightly stiffer shock, so I was confounded as to why the bike
felt
like the spring was welded in position with zero travel. We
adjusted
and adjusted, but the problem was translating into serious front end
high
speed wobbles. I had to chop the throttle through the two fastest parts
of
the track for me, turn 2 and 8. We just couldn't figure out the
problem. I was gridded on the pole, got a fantastic start and lead into turn one. As soon as hitting turn two however, I had to slow down. I think it was turn 8 of the first lap I was passed, where the front end was chattering all over the place. I tried to sit as far forward on the tank as I could to keep the front down and more stable. All I remember is catching up to the lead group a few times in the slow part of the track, turn 3,4 and 5, getting left on the faster parts and just concentrating really, really hard. I don't remember much else from the race. I was concentrating so hard I never saw either the white flag nor the checkered! I realized the race was over when I caught up to the leading three riders and saw they were all sitting up and the corner workers were all waving to us. Needless to say I was pretty disappointed. |
 Racer Melissa stopped by just so she could
touch
JM's bike
|
It wasn't until a week later when we were putting the softer spring back on the shock, did we see that the bumper thingy at the bottom of the shock went in crooked and squashed the plastic spring guide into the spring, severely limiting travel. That would explain the shake. At least I know now what was wrong at the last USGPRU race weekend. What else is there to do but move on. I didn't race the aprilia 250. It finally got booted off the team. Turns out the fork springs I very generously received for free were the same springs that were already in there: Stock. I would have to have a custom pair made, and seeing that the season is half over and I was only going to race this bike for one year, it isn't worth the trouble. The final straw was the piston seizing in the cylinder during Saturday practice. Thank goodness it was only a soft seize, because it was in turn 8 at Willow Springs and that is not somewhere you want your engine to stick hard and chuck you. I sold the 250 with the piston welded in the cylinder for cheap pretty quickly. I just got tired of messing with the thing. It is quite difficult to race two bikes without a full time pit crew and mechanic, so it will be somewhat of a relief to me having only one bike to tech, prep, change tires, change oil, etc, etc. Many, many thanks go to Galen who was visiting us and played pit crew all weekend. And no you cannot have my dog, even if she loves you :) |
Wearing an apron makes you a better mechanic. Wearing nothing BUT an apron gets you lots of help.
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