Go Pro

Just a few more weeks. Just a few more until the 2009 season for track days start.

Until then, I decided to do a test run of my new camera rig that Belle got me for Christmas to replace my long and outdated "set up" (if you can call a digicam and a bicycle clamp mount a set up). It's the GoPro Motorsports Hero Wide camera, which I chose over other options for its versatility in mounting options, and especially because of the wide angle lens. I decided to give it a go on the street with the R1, even though it's mainly for the track and my R6.

Two thumbs up!

Five Dollars and Sixty Nine Cents

That's all it cost me to do over 100 miles of scenic and twisty riding to have fun with my newly acquired point-and-shoot digicam.

I recently picked up a Fujifilm S2000HD as an upgrade from my eons old Sony S40 for taking snapshots (still using the latter to shoot video). I'm not really aspiring to be a photographer per se, but for the same price that I paid for my S40 years ago, I got the S2000HD packed with a 15x optical zoom (!), 10 megapixel resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio shooting, and HD video recording feature. The selling points for me really were the immense optical zoom and the 16:9 aspect ratio, only because depth of field totally rocks and I think life is better viewed in widescreen.

I've been using the camera a lot lately, just to get used to it and see what possibilities I can come up with, and so far, it's been well worth the money. Today I took it to one of my usual solo riding routes (up Highway 9, Four Corners, north on Skyline/Highway 35, Alices, then down Highway 84 to the Pacific Coast) that I haven't done since I had the Aprilia. I thought with the winter sun being out today, it was too nice of a day to be cooked up in the house.

Good call on that one, as if today was going to be the last nicely weathered weekend for the year, it was not a bad season-ending ride. Got to even hang out with the infamous Gary J(aehne) up in the Four Corners parking lot to talk a little bit of moto-shop. Gary J is a man that any respectable motorcyclist has heard of; he's the only man up in the California hills on a 250cc motorcycle that you should not be ashamed of to get passed by. A true rider-over-machine practitioner. Then, at the last stop before heading home, I got to meet a gentleman who's spent a considerable amount of time, and probably money, restoring a '64 Thunderbird back to a pretty respectable state.

Like I said, a good time spent on just $5.69.

End of Season

Last Monday, the 17th, was my last track day for this season until the '09 season starts up, which is about a couple of months away (haha!). What better way to bookend this season than back at Infineon? Since I started off this season at Infineon on February, and that was my first time on that track at the time, it's now my most frequented track so far, with last Monday being my 4th time there.

It was Trung, Lili (my co-worker), and I, along with Belle and Rusty, and Trung's wife and dog. I think that similar to me, this was also the last track day for the season for both Trung and Lili, this being Trung's third time at Infineon out of four total track days, and Lili's second, with her first track day at Infineon too back in February (with me). The three of us each scored spots at Buell's Inside Pass event, where a regular track day is held with an exception of Buell's entire lineup of motorcycles available to be test-ridden around the track. Top it off with free catered breakfast and lunch, along with free pictures, this event has been the best deal of the season for me at $150/spot, hands down.

The only real drawback for me throughout the event was a misunderstanding with their staff; I was supposed to be signed up for both Intermediate and Novice, as I'm a true Intermediate rider, but both Lili and Trung were in the Novice. Prior to signing up for the Novice, I called their staff to confirm this was allowed, and was advised that it was. So I paid for the 2nd spot in the Novice so I can join Trung and Lili (I had planned to record them in video), but come the day of the event, I was denied the Novice spot at registration. Ultimately, I had to ride in just one group, but was allowed to jump to another later on in the day if desired. So I decided to stay in the Intermediate the first half of the day, then down to the Novice with my friends on the second half of the day. A "minor" quip on an otherwise fantastic day.

My new track bike worked out quite well, and I can't wait for next season to start already. Trung is well on his way to getting up to pace with me, so I'm pretty excited to be able to play leap-frog with someone I trust on the track. My friend Ruell's the only other one so far that I know who can do the same with me, but Trung has been able to do as much track days as I have compared to Ruell.

We'll see what happens in 2009.


Off-track photos:




















On-track photos:
















Videos:

Nu Stuff

First off, go check out our pictures for this year's annual Halloween costume party/contest here. Even Rusty got in the mix!

I still have the ZX6R, but I was intent on finding it's replacement. I didn't have a particular bike I wanted to replace it with, but I did have ideas of what it needed to have at the least, because I wanted to make sure that it would be a fundamental "upgrade" on my ZX6R. Versus the ZX6R's carbed fuel delivery system, standard telescopic forks, and standard front brake master cylinder and caliper mount, I wanted to make sure that my next track bike would have (at the least) fuel-injection, inverted forks, radial-mount calipers, and radial front master cylinder. I settled for a 2005 Yamaha R6, as it was within my budget I was willing to pay for a full-time trackbike, and was the first year that Yamaha offered the components I was looking for. It also seems unanimous in publications everywhere that there's no other bike that has been purposely made for the track as the R6.




I lucked out in finding the bike that I wanted, even though I had to drive over 200 miles to pick it up. The bike was already prepped for AFM racing next season, but the owner could not race after all due to family reasons, and therefore had to let the bike go. What that meant for me was I got the bike in it's entire street-legal form, with all (and more) that I need to use it for the track.

Before I parted all the street parts I didn't need for the track, I took the time to ride the bike and see if all the fuss about the bike was right. The bike IS extremely light (though seemingly not as much as my R1), compact, yet surprisingly comfy. It is completely gutless in the low and midrange, which I imagine to be unsuitable for the street where you'll be spending most of your time in those powerbands. When you get up to the higher powerbands though, the bike SCREAMS and PULLS. Dyno charts for the bike shows it's peak torque at above 12,000 RPM (!). They weren't kidding when they said the bike is only home in the racetrack.

So I got to cracking on pulling off the street stuff and fitted the track fairings on the bike. Luckily, the market for used R6 street parts here in the Bay Area is more demanding than say my Aprilia. Within 24 hours, I got rid of all the street fairings and am on my way to recouping most of the money I paid for the bike, which was already a steal on its own.

I can't wait to see what I can do with this bike, and I'll find out soon enough on the 17th at Infineon Raceway.




Despite my passion for motorcycles, I'm HOPING that acquiring the R6 for the track will help me settle with my garage. With the R1 for the street, I should have no need to overhaul my garage again in the near future with any other bikes.