redkow97

yeah, but the tools will live in a drawer in my garage, and I can use them whenever I want. Will you sleep in my garage?

I ran off in Turn one after 77 made contact with me, then crashed avoiding contact with him at the end of the first lap (all on the restart, so really lap 3 or 4). I got back on the bike and rode in anger, in a vain attempt to catch up with someone. Anyone. Got a few of the slower novices, but I never got near Russ or Ben, or even Todd. I took the white flag, and threw the bike away in turn one (at full throttle, riding the rev limiter). That one was my fault. But the fact remains, I am scored ahead of people who took the checkered flag when I did not.

already have a big ugly I-4. it's a different kind of fun. Currently the kind that is leaking oil all over my garage. I really need to install the crush washer...

Ironically, this was on Yahoo's home page after I made my last post: http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/24/5837642/riding-project-livewire-harley-davidson-first-electric-motorcycle My favorite part is where the HD reps admit that noise is not a safety feature!

I resemble that remark! But for reals, I'm out this weekend. Spent more than I should have at PIRC this past weekend. Need to get some stuff done at home.

Could not agree more with this part of what you said. Beyond that, your logic and actual experiences with virtually all of the brands in question have no place in this thread. Kindly leave this debate to those of us spewing hate and talking predominantly out of our asses (in a weird way, this thread almost makes me want a cruiser. It probably wouldn't be a HD, but some kind of big shiny twin might be fun...)

I'd echo Todd's comments on the scoring, but I'd like some clarification on how it's going to be scored before anyone gets too upset. I know this isn't the proper venue, but I'll also informally "protest" my own result in the Stock XR race. I was listed as 15th or so, ahead of Ben, Russ, and a couple of other people. I crashed out. Plain and simple. Mark it a zero, Dude. OVER THE LINE! That noted, I will be submitting a proposed rule change for the club at the end of the year: Rather than make this a "double points" race, I would like to see qualifying count as "race 1" and the feature count as "race 2." I said this before the event, and it turns out it would have helped me A LOT. I qualified 5th, and got a DNF... so instead of 0 points, I'd have scored ahead of everyone in our club, except Devon, Jared, and Kent. The #77 situation... Upon further research, he's a professional flat-tracker with some serious racing credentials. I still feel that he was riding in an unsafe manner, but I'm slightly more willing to acknowledge that some fault for the incidents I was involved in falls on my shoulders. He would stick out his foot, and I would (over?)react to that. Had I just put my head down and ridden my race, it may have been less of an issue. I still think the guy was riding like a dick though, and more importantly, an unsafe dick. He wasn't at a flat-track event. He wasn't racing against other professionals who are used to that kind of aggression, and perhaps most relevantly, he wasn't racing for the lead... If he'd been kicking ass and setting lap records, I'd have thought, "well he's doing something right..."

I guess I am just lower maintenance than I thought. Put me in an enclosed trailer with AC and an air mattress, and anything else is just a bonus.

I guess if people actually USE their RV bathrooms, then I almost understand the desire to own one, but my experience has been that (Nelson Ledges aside) tracks have bathrooms that are a lot better than most RVs, and even when the RV bathroom is nice and roomy, everyone is always saying "NO SHITTING IN THE RV!!!" I can piss outside behind any enclosed trailer... I don't need an RV for that. I expect women-folk to have a mildly different take on that point, but it's not like walking to the bathrooms at the track is an epic journey.

how picky is your girl? I have seen some nice non-camper enclosed trailer setups. Air conditioning and a decent bed go a long way toward pleasing the women folk. anyone can install a microwave and a mini fridge.

I think we met then. I was talking to you guys about the gentle leader and the dog harnesses. The pits were packed! Record turnout is a good thing. We had the Anderson Door Racing banner up on Sunday. Not on Saturday though. mine were the ugly red/white/yellow/black leathers.

The kart people were worthless, and on top of that, they were kart people... I don't know how they could take this stance, but I thought they were claiming they didn't know what "aggressive riding" looked like. What I was a bit more upset by is that Kent and Brian didn't address things more firmly. To be completely fair, I know Kent went and talked to the guy after I voiced concerns to Kent. I do not know what was said, or how he responded. I also think that it should fall on Ryan Flemming to go the extra mile to keep riders from his club in-check. If Kent went down and said something to Ryan about anyone, I would have expected Ryan to put an immediate stop to it. I think of it in terms of how I would react... If Ryan came up to me telling me to back off, I might think "this guy doesn't know me... WTF?" If Kent came up to me and said the same thing, I would absolutely take it seriously and be legitimately apologetic toward whoever complained. From what I saw, this guy's response was to go out and run into me in Turn 1, then ignore black flags.

I thought the yellows were okay - but the blues were non-existent, I would agree with that. If anyone has footage of Brian Phillips causing a sketchy situation, please post it up. I'll be looking to compile a "greatest hits" thread at some point.

I have no problem calling him out either, but I was going to wait to get into it until everyone posted their results. I agree with at least 90% of what you said. Splitting the grid should not have been an issue though. I think there needs to be more spacing between each row when the grid is that size, but 30 should be safe. Frankly, with the exception of Phillips, everyone on that grid WAS safe. I would like to think that if Kent and Conrad had seen Philips's riding in-person (i.e., if they'd had to pass him, or race against him) they would have been more proactive about reprimanding him earlier in the day. I made contact with him in morning practice on Sunday, but avoided him in qualifying. I was 5 seconds a lap faster than him, but had a HELL of a time finding a way around him without making contact. That should not be the case. I think his riding was totally unsafe and overly aggressive. I heard some people say "that's flat-track style." Okay, but it wasn't a flat-track event. If I went and tried to put my knee down at a flat-track event, I would expect to get kicked and bike-checked. Maybe he was expecting us to run over his leg. I came damn close on at least 3 occasions. What really upset me though was that he was allowed to start the last race of the day after completely ignoring the black flag in the stock XR race. If you're ignoring the safety rules, you should be booted from the event. Period. I won't grid up with him again until I have seen him demonstrate that he's safe. Call me a pussy for taking my ball and going home, but I had zero fun on/after that re-start. I was just worrying about when (not even if...) he was going to put me or someone else at greater risk than necessary. I'd love to have seen everyone take that approach in the last race of the day. Shit, I would have paid back their race fees to watch the guy circulate on the track alone, and then get booed when he accepted his #1 plate for being the only rider in the class.

Well, lots of ups and downs this weekend. Unfortunately I ended the day with a couple of downs in the stock XR race... Otherwise my weekend was pretty great. I hit my target time for the weekend within 2 practice sessions on Saturday, then got into the 1:15's as the day concluded. Dinner was great Saturday night, and we were early to the track on Sunday. I took it easy in practice, but had an incident where I made contact with another rider who decided to turn his bike sideways in front of me as we entered the front straight. The XR just isn't capable of braking to avoid that... I killed it in qualifying. 1:15.xx for the F3 qualifying session, and 1:14.56(?) for the Stock XR qualifier. 5th fastest in both classes, which is probably my biggest racing accomplishment to date. The F3 race was okay for me. I got stuck behind Gotham. I had speed on him in a couple of places, but not enough to pass him cleanly. Patton somehow pushed his way by both of us, and ran away. I had the speed to stick with Todd, but not the balls to get around Gotham. After turning consistent 1:15's in practice, I only managed 1:16's behind Gotham. My fault. The Stock XR race wasn't even fun. I got a shit start (again, my fault) and got pushed into the grass, losing a lot of positions in the process. I was making my way back through traffic, chasing Ryan (NJ mini president) and Gavin when the red flag came out 3 laps into the race. The re-start yielded another crappy launch for me (noticing a theme here?) and then the flat-track guy (he deserves his own thread...) bombed the outside of me and stuck his foot in my wheel. I stood up the bike, and we both ran way wide. I came back on the track, and he decided to just go straight and pick up 2 positions in the grass. So I chased him and another NJ guy for a lap, caught up right away, and watched him bomb into the #7 bike on several occasions. I ended up wrecking to avoid hitting him. We were doing 1:20's or so behind that guy. After I crashed, I was doing 1:15's catching up. But I'd lost enough time that my race was over. I circulated at a fast pace, but took the white flag, and then threw the bike away in turn 1 (at top-speed for an XR100!). That was the first incident of the day I'll completely own. I don't know exactly what happened, but it was definitely my fault, and I'm glad no one else was around. I bounced right up, and don't feel any worse for it this morning. The damage to the bike appears to be limited to snapping off the metal bracket that holds my number plate on. $0 repair is a number I can live with. I think I got 7th in F3, and I have no idea in stock XR. they scored me 15th, but I crashed out, so I'm not sure how that happened. I'll probably concede those 2 championship points (1 x 2), but I don't know how they arrived at that finishing order. The above-mentioned flat-track rider was likely DQ'd. I know he was black-flagged and refused to come in to serve his penalty. Like I said, he could have his own thread.

Finalizing the packing list and loading up!

did I talk you into it?? You might be the novice supermoto points leader after this one race I really do think it will be a good way to learn the track and chase faster riders on slower bikes though. Plus after seeing the layout at 450 pace, you'll be able to race the XR in your sleep!

hahahaha - I'm guessing you clicked on the third picture with the pink stripe and the star outlines? I'd keep the stars ...at least until I crashed the bike and destroyed the bodywork. Then just throw a belly pan on it, and some number plates, and rock on.

the old management would let you burn wood anywhere on the gravel... With all the new paving though, there's not much of that left. Also keep in mind that there are gas pumps right across from the kart track. I know the likelihood of that being an issue is rather remote, but the fact remains, there is several hundred gallons of high-octane fuel near by. Explosion aside, burning that much 112 octane would be expensive as hell!!

you think so? I haven't seen many 250's with aftermarket pipes. I have no major objection to allowing the 2008+ 250's and the 300 in the same class, but the idea was to have the first generation 250 with 16" wheels not be completely out-classed. I guess if people want to waste money on a pipe, they're welcome to do that. I wouldn't though. Something like this would be my race bike. http://cleveland.craigslist.org/mcy/4509764575.html They're asking $850. I would throw $600 cash, or walk.

Maybe on the civil side of things. Criminal law is a volume business. For every 1 Jimmy Haslam paying his attorneys a quarter million a year, there are 10,000 Joe Drug-Addicts who are either getting counsel appointed, or failing to pay their retained counsel the $1200 they owe them. DUI defense is probably the one area of criminal law where there's a decent profit margin, and rich white folks are dumb enough to over-pay routinely.

I didn't get a good look at it, but it was a new(er) model. Certainly post-diablo. Gallardo or Murcielago(sp?) era. I was making a right on red, and my view of the car was blocked. It's a lot lower than the car that was between us. I only actually saw it in my rear view mirror. The driver revved it pretty high in 1st gear, or I wouldn't have noticed it at all.

I bought my F2 from a guy in PA or Maryland... I can't recall which, because we met in WV for the transaction. In any case, the "VIN inspection" is a joke. I had the bike in the bed of my truck, and the BMV worker didn't want to climb up there to read it, so she just asked me to read it to her. I could have easily lied and gotten it an Ohio title with the incorrect VIN. I don't know how it would benefit me to have a title transferred for the wrong bike, but my point is that they're not exactly thorough. the hardest part is figuring out which office you need to stand in line at to get the inspection done.

I have an older (and relatively beat up) 2-piece leather suit that you could borrow. That would provide you with a baseline for sizing Fieldsheer gear, or get you out to a store and back safely. I have an old pair of gloves that I consider "back-up" gear at this point. I'm letting someone else use the suit this weekend at PIRC. If you're up for some highway riding, you should come out and see how fast little bikes can be.

to get almost somewhat back on topic, would there be any interest in a group of us buying cheap first-generation 250's to race against each other? I like racing. I don't like spending money. Racing a (pretty much) stock 250 would be about as cheap as you can get on a big track. the first gen's 16" wheels mean that tire choices are limited, but the lack of super-sticky compounds and low power means that a set lasts you all season, and there is no need to run warmers. I think it would be great fun for 5-10 of us to look into having our own (informal) "first gen stock 250" class within the existing MotoSeries 250 class. The only modifications allowed would be: stainless brake lines, upgraded SPRINGS on/in shocks and forks, and items that make the bike more crash-worthy (i.e. case guards, shorty levers, etc.). You'd have to run the full stock exhaust. If you want to remove passenger pegs, etc., that's fine. Anything that can be done for $0 (i.e. removing stuff) would be allowed. The idea is to not out-spend your way to a race win. Bikes that show up to the track in street-legal trim would be gridded 40' ahead of bikes in "race" trim, if Todd will allow it Then Josh, or anyone else with a baby ninja can show up and play too.