From: couyant@convex.com (George Couyant)
Subject: YIPEEEEE!
Organization: CONVEX Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx., USA
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 04:04:04 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.


Hooweeee!! Like where do I start??

I'm still up in the clouds!

TWO SECONDS AND A FIRST PLACE!!!!  OVERALL NOVICE WIN!!!!   YAY!!!!
[5m 
MY FIRST ROAD RACE TROPHY!!!!   YAY!!!!!
[0m
...ok the valium is kicking in, so I'll tell you about it...make sure
you're comfortable.....

Scrutineering started at 6.30am and since everyone suggested I should be
there early, I was.... I was greeted with "whatdafuck's that?".....
"It's what I intend to race today Sir.." I says...
....."you can't race that... I mean...look at it....it's a..err...it's..
...errr..ummmm....whatdafuck is it anyway?"

By this time, there were a few others there and with their prompting and
goading, I was given my sticker and papers and away I went to roam the
pits....

I watched the A,B & C grade practice and noted their lines, braking points 
etc. I learnt heaps and it sort of helped me settle down a bit. Like I
didn't sleep the night before from worry and all the excitement..

Next practice session was ours. The novices...I was shitting my pants. I
started the bike in the pits and made my way down pit lane with a group of
about a dozen bikes. I cautiously ckicked my way into top gear and 
touched the front brake a few times to make sure it was there...

Into the first bend, a long sweeping right hander which tightens a little
towards the exit, ...hmmmm this could be difficult, no berm...I wobbled my 
way around it trying to stay on the racing line, but wasn't going fast 
enough to be able to swing through it nicely. Onto the back straight and 
the bike was bucking and complaining because it was still in top gear. Down 
a couple of gears and give it a squirt. No worries...onto the brakes and I 
pulled up about 50 yards sooner than I had to.. Oh well, I'd get used to 
it I'm sure.

Into another right hander, this one's tight, and flop into a left hander
with a short 70 yard straight into a sweeping 180 deg. right hander and
onto the main straight. It wasn't long before I was being lapped by
others in my practice session. I didn't care because I was still really
nervous and trying to get the feel of this bike and track.

I let it rip on the main straight and shit it's quick. I started breaking
later and later (still miles before the A graders) and I was keeping up
with a small group of bikes I was in. I just followed them around the
bends and shit, it wasn't hard..Everything just flowed. I had my first
chance to play race with a guy on a CBR600 (I think) as we were entering
the main straight. I went around the inside of him and powered on. I was 
head down and leaning forward trying to keep the front wheel down. My mates 
watching me from pit lane (with videao camera) seemed to be quite excited 
as I out accelerated the CBR. Later, on the video, I watched as my bike 
went down half of the main straight with the front wheel a few inches above 
the road....3rd, 4th and 5th gear...The straights though were boring after 
the initial burst of acceleration. It seemed as if I was just reving the 
crap out of the bike in top gear for ages and ages.

Before I knew it, the red flags were out to mark the end of practice. Shit!
I thought to myself. This was supposed to be 30 min practice..I've only
done a handful of laps...turns out they gave us 45min....man I must have
been nervous. I can't remember much else from practice other than I kept 
forcing myself to concentrate on lines, braking, being smooth and going
faster. I was even talking to myself....

I remember making my way back down pit lane and being crowded by that
bunch of mates of mine as they were slapping me on my back and helmet. I
thought yea great I survived practice.....Well fist me dead, I posted 3rd 
fasted time (and 180.9 kph!!) for novices practice which was also a 
respectable C grade time..Shit, that was easy mate!  Should have seen the 
looks I was getting as I made my way back to our pit spot....Standing up on 
the pegs of course in true dirt biking tradition!

I had a couple of hours before my first race so it was time to work on the
bike. It struck me when my brother asked me what sorting needed to be done
after I got out of my leathers.....Ummm, I don't know...I can't remember..
All I knew was that it was starving for fuel towards the end of the main
straight, but that's about it...I honestly couldn't remember what
suspension changes needed to be made...The suspension just kind of worked.
I never really noticed it....Looking back now, I think stiffer springs.
(I used the stiffest 0.40 kg/mm from the spares kit and cut them down)...
A little bit of headshake towards the end of the main straight but nothing 
like some of the violent headshake I've had on the dirt. As for brakes,
well everyone was right about needing lots of it. The lever became spongey
and I had to really apply some pressure to pull it down. Locked the back a
few times too... =8-O

Curing the fuel starvation proved to be a bit of a pain. We ended up
pulling the guts out of the fuel tap, drilling it out and grafting on a 
larger diameter and stiffer fuel line to the carby. I don't think this
will get past scrutineering next time but it'll do for now....

As race time drew closer, I must have gone to the toilet a dozen times...I
was in my leathers 3/4 of an hour before I had to. I was worried about the
start...How the hell do you take off quickly?...suppose I'll find out
sooner or later...

We were ushered to the dummy grid behind pit lane and my little heart was
beating like crazy. It was reassuring to see the apprehensive expressions
on most of the other racer's faces. I guess that a lot of them really were
first timers too. We fired the bikes up and trickled out on to the track
for the warm up lap. I took the opportunity to try a couple of starts. 1st
gear..rev it....dump the clutch. SHIT !#@%! POO !#$&* I wont do that again.
Once again and slip the clutch..hey, not bad. Tried it once more and
changed to 2nd really quickly as the bike started moving....hey that's
better..By this time, half the field was onto the back straight so I took
off to catch them.

We lined up and I was on the first row next to an RZ350 ridden by another 
old fart and we winked and nodded to each other. There were about 15 in the 
field with an assortment of bikes. It was funny watching me waiting on the 
start line on video. Man I was fidgetting and squirming all over the place.
I lost count of the number of times I went from neutral, to first and back 
to neutral...Anyway, the starter's 30 sec board went up, then the 10 sec....
Did I piss myself?..naa it's gotta be sweat...  flag went up and I was 
down low on the bike, revving, hand on clutch...GO! SHIT SHIT SHIT!!! I let 
go of the clutch too quickly and the bike lept up and forward...SHIT had to 
pull it in and ease it out again..by this time, half of the field was ahead 
of me. SCREAM down the straight and pick up a couple of places...shit this 
thing's quick! Jump on the brakes when the guy in front of me hit them for 
the first right hander and I locked the back(!!) no worries though. Around 
we go and I have no trouble sticking with him around the bend, but he ran 
a bit wide as it tightened toward the exit so I kept on his inside and 
powered on to the back straight. I picked up his position and the guy in 
front of him down the back straight, though the second one got me under 
brakes into the tight right hander. We stayed together until we got on to 
the main straight where I out accelerated a couple of bikes. On video, 
the CRRR just rockets out of the turns and makes up a lot of ground. The 
top speed  wasn't great in comparrison though.

We continued the friendly dicing for a few laps and I just slowly picked
my way up the field. The old guy on the RZ350 was in the distance racing
on his own. He'd done this before....The last lap board came out and the
ol' pit crew were cheering and wooping it up as I went by in 2nd spot. By
the time the chequerd flag came out, I was about 100 yards behind the RZ
and 30 yards ahead of 3rd!

Back in the pits and man, this bike and I were heros...People just came
past and stared. There was a bit of money that changed hands, I'm sure. The 
old fart on the RZ came over, planted himself on the camp chair he was 
carrying, passed me a can of Coke and said "whatdafuck's dat thing yer 
rid'n there mate?" as he nodded towards the bike.....

I was soaking in sweat, but it wasn't really physical like dirt riding. My
little brother came running back yelling and screaming (189.1 kph!!!).
...hmmm, I thought it felt quicker after fixing the fuel problem, but 
the front had started to wobble a bit more seriously from about 3/4 down
the main straight. Again, not as scary as the dirt, but it did make it hard
going for the brakes......

We pulled the front wheel off and my brother took it off to check the 
balancing...ya never know... In the mean time, I checked the fluids etc. I
didn't measure how much fuel it took, but it went through HEAPS of the
stuff. The front wheel came back with different weights, so I was hoping
it would cure the wobble.  Brakes were only ok. It was really difficult
washing off all that speed. All I could do was change the fluid hoping
that it would help keep the lever firm.

We all sat for an hour until the second race, and whilst the nerves weren't
as bad as before, they kept my heart pumping (and the bladder full)...

I won't bother you with details of the other two races, except for the
fact that I took off really well both times and got the lead in the third
race. I finished second in the second race behind the old guy on the RZ
again and won the third after the RZ ran wide on the sweeper on to the
main straight. He finished 5th in the last race so I won 1st overall!!!
with a neat trophy too!

Back in the pits it was party party party!!! and we were kicked out around
11pm.

I don't remember any _really_ scary moments apart from a few unexpected 
power slides coming out of the tight left hander onto the small 70 yard
straight and occasionally going into turns a bit faster than I wanted to. 
I'm a bit sore from climbing all over the bike around the bends and the 
arms still tingle from the vibrations and from trying to hang on. The bike 
was good. It loved the inside line and I could generally get away with an 
inside pass if there was room, especially on the exit part of the turn. As
for the power, I've just got to soften it. I was just plain lucky not to
highside it when exiting some turns.

Future mods? well, I'm not really sure...I'd like taller gearing and a bit
more top end. I'd also like to do something about it diving under brakes
too. The steering geometry is ok though I might try to lengthen the
swingarm to help increase the wheelbase and make it a bit more stable
through the bends...oh yea, and a steering damper or two, or three, or
maybe more....Brakes? well, I'd like some.

Now for the inevitable comparrisson with riding dirt bikes...It was a real
adrenalin rush! I don't think I've ever felt anything like it. It feels a
lot safer than riding enduros (I've never really raced MX nor SX) because
you know the track ahead. This track also has heaps of runout room. You
can also go 10 10th's for the few laps in a road race and then have a rest. 
I won't be giving dirt bikes up though. I just love the scenery too much.
Besides, there wasn't even one big hill.... ;-)

I just have to decide whether to buy all the bits I borrowed and keep road
racing or buy something like an RZ350....naaa being different was half the
fun.. If I continue with it, I'm up for thousands of $$ just to buy the
bits....which means that I'd have to sell the KX's and/or the TT. 

Now if only the guys in the office would remove the gag they tied over my
mouth, I might be able to tell them about the racing....again.

Cheers all and thanks for your advice and putting up with me/it/ramblings/etc.
George C.

PS If any of you dirt fiends get a chance to try a bit of peg scraping on
the black stuff, jump at it. Simple as that.

Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles.dirt