Escalation

Is the reason I won't be buying the forks I wrote about yesterday.

Let's rewind back to a time when the front end of my bike didn't look like this yet:

I'm one of those that, admittedly, wants to have his cake and eat it too. This was a big reason why I didn't buy a pair of Ohlins R&T forks for my bike a lot sooner than I could have; it's not because they were rare or people were selling a used set for too much.

It was because of escalation.

I remember having talked about it with Rob, that as much as I wanted to have R&T forks, I didn't want to have that and run it with the regular calipers. An upgrade like that to my forks necessitated (to me) an upgrade to the brake calipers as well. No biggie, but the problem was I was never one to collect parts in my garage; if I buy a part, I want it on the bike right away.

But I didn't want the forks on the bike right away without the calipers.

So I was basically leaving myself in a position to either have it all, or have nothing.

It was really by luck and a very big favor from Rob that I was able to have my cake and eat it too, when I found a pair of Ohlins R&T forks already fitted with upgraded (billet) brakes that Rob agreed to help me get.

So now the whole front end of my bike makes sense, in that they're comprised of parts that are in a way, up to par with one another; the Ohlins forks, billet and radial calipers, oversized full-floating rotors, and the forged aluminum wheel. Virtually nothing is stock in my front end with the exception of the wheel axle, and that's only because of my apprehension to run a titanium axle for daily use.

So what does this have to do with the superbike forks?

Escalation.

While the superbike forks would bring me ever closer to my ever continuing goal to make my street bike a rolling homage to today's absolute racing motorcycles, I can't just stop at the superbike forks, can I? What would be next? Nickel-plated billet Brembo calipers, perched over some insanely expensive rotors, like say carbon rotors?

I don't stop. When I get going, I do not stop.

So before I even get started again, I'm going to have to draw the line right now for me to not cross. Where the bike's at now is already elevated from where it was, far from where I ever thought I could take it.

So why keep escalating when I've already done more than enough?

You Will Always Find Me in the Corner of "No Regrets" and "With Reason"

I don't typically post a photo of anything I haven't already bought or installed on my bike, unless for reference. But this time it's a bit different.

That's an actual photo of a pair of Ohlins superbike forks (FG470) being offered to me for less than a third of what their retail were ($10k - $12k?), shipped from the UK. Normal me would be posting these photos right now too, but writing instead that "I just bought them and they're on their way, woo-hoo!" But within the next month, my first child is due to be born, so I'm not really my normal self this time out.

Before I got the pair of Ohlins FG43 forks currently fitted in my bike, I swear I would've never thought the day would come that I would actually score a pair of them for my bike. I swear. So imagine how I feel when these forks are being laid on my lap.

I'm basically in between the nexus of No Regrets, and With Reason.

So I wanted to make this entry and post these photos up anyway, either as a reminder of the time when I said "no regrets," and purchased them.

Or the time when I was "with reason," and this was the closest I got to ever having them on my bike.

I'll know which soon enough.











P.S.
Fuck you, temptation. Very much.

The Last Hurrah Before Stella

The title's a bit misleading; as a matter of fact, I've already got a trackday booked for October 2nd, AFTER Stella arrives. So that's two trackdays done this year so far, with a third one later on in the year. Don't know if I will or can squeeze in another trackday between now and October 2nd, but assuming my dwindled trackdays dwindle some more post-Stella, then what are we looking at here? Two trackdays a season, maybe one?

We'll just have to see.

One thing's for sure - however many I'm left with of few and far in between trackdays, what little of them left will be such catharsis. :)

The Final Tally

double-edged sword noun

    : something that has or can have both favorable and unfavorable consequences

(source: Merriam Webster)

Over 1000% of the goal in our first crack at it. If we were to average the goal set and the final amount we collected to figure out what should be our goal to fundraise next year, it'd be about $2000.

Our fantastic family and friends raised our bar slightly too high. Victims of our success? I think so!

Of course, we'll gladly cut ourselves on both sides of the blade for TAAF, in honor of my brother.

Again and again. :)

We lost count of how many people asked at yesterday's walk

if my bike was being raffled off. Shoot, I wonder

how much money I could raise if I do raffle it off!

Let's Try This Again

When I dropped my bike on a bed of rocks over half a year ago, and after dropping off the rashed panels at Bob's paint shop to be re-done, I finally have them back!

No complaints; it's always a good thing when you have to wait for your pieces because your friends' businesses have had a lot of work. That's never really a bad thing!

Man. So much has changed in the time I waited for the repaint!

Besides, all's well that ends well. Got it all back together and ready, just in time to be displayed at this Sunday's annual awareness walk for TAAF. :)

The Final Push

I think Belle's on her last trimester at this point for Stella. Right? Which means I should probably wrap up everything I ever planned or wanted to do on the R1 before she gets here.

Right?

Well, not quite...

I've been unbolting and bolting shit on my R1 for a better part of four years now. It's been an adventure on its own to be scouring the net - Craigslist, eBay, eBay UK, online forums, etc. - trying to find aftermarket parts for my 10-year old bike; either a used bit of unobtanium kit, or a new part that's been sitting in some moto shop's shelf in the last ten years, collecting dust. Apart from that, it's been (eventually) fun to make things that aren't supposed to work on your bike, work on your bike. For that, I thank my good friend Rob for his continued support and willingness to frankenstein whatever I want frankensteined on my bike. For example, if it weren't for him, I would've long dropped nearly $5000 for a race swingarm made for my bike, instead of paying him a couple of hundred here and there to make a regular one look like a race swingarm.

If I was Danny Ocean, Rob would be my Rusty Ryan.

Without his help, I couldn't have molded my bike to be what I always imagine it to be.

  

The latest bits to go on the bike:

Samco Sport Silicone Hose Kit.

So will I ever be done with this bike?

I don't know, and I don't typically think about it. I will say this though: I am at a point now that after four years of modifying the bike, it would be easier for me to list what remains original in the bike, rather than list what I've upgraded.

So what's with the title to this entry?

It has nothing to do with Stella, actually. Rather, I have a tentative plan to retire this bike at 50,000 miles and/or the end of this year (odometer is currently at 45k miles). I've sculpted this bike into a form that I cannot get tired of looking at, and so with that comes the feeling of wanting to preserve it the way it is, removing it from the riding risks I take every day on the street, or the track.

So the point in time between now and the end of the year or hitting 50k miles is akin to sleeping it off; we'll see how I really feel once I the mark(s).

Until then, I better keep plugging away at the damn thing.

 "Love. You can learn all the math in the universe, but you take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home."

- Mal, Serenity (2005)

P.S.

This Sunday is the 7th Annual Awarness Walk for TAAF, so the couple of panels I had repainted should be done no later by then. I can't wait to have my bike "whole" again. It's been too long!

Overachiever

My sister, that is.

Her first crack at fundraising for TAAF, and she's 700% over the goal she set as of this post. A week an a half until this year's annual walk for TAAF, and I'm wondering if she'll hit the 1000% mark.



I'm very proud, suffice it to say. :)