redkow97

I'm always leery when the ad title says "749" and the bike says "999" on the side.

My brother wasn't living at home when I got my first bike, but I took him out to a big empty parking lot pretty much the first day he was home for summer and "taught" him how to ride. I have certainly made my fair share of mistakes throughout my years riding, but the basics of riding were really easy for me (and my brother, and my dad...) to pick up on. I would like to see some data on whether or not being proficient at driving a manual transmission car before learning to ride lowers the incidences of newb crashes... My guess is that having a mastery of the 'theory' portion takes out a HUGE variable, and thus reduces mistakes exponentially. Anyway, if you can't trust your dad, who can you trust?

Good info. I'm about 7 months away from making loan payments again... Last time around I was paying 3 different companies. Nightmare.

Ditto. I like horses, but I don't know them well enough to trust them

This may have been a "you're not ready for that yet" piece of advice, but it really helped me out when I was in B group, and just moving up to I. Brian touched on this, but didn't explicitly say it: Especially when you're approaching a turn after a sustained straightaway, get your ass moved while you're still on the gas. The bike is most stable while you're going fast in a straight line, so do your moving and 'get ready' then, rather than under braking and sort of during corner entry. Brian did explicitly note that moving during a turn is essentialy a suspension input and can disrupt the chassis. If you have your butt off before you brake, you're eliminating your full body-weight from shifting on the seat/pegs, and really only (smoothly) moving your head and shoulders to the inside as you tip the bike into the turn. Plus it just takes away one more thing to think about as you initiate turn-in.

i'm thinking of a lot of people who are great at what they do, but most wouldn't really jive too well in a single band... Vocals - Ronnie James Dio Bass - Flea Drums - Dave Grohl Guitar - Mark Knopfler (purely because I think the riff in "money for nothing" is the best single guitar riff of all time.) as noted, I enjoy each of those individual musicians, because I think they're amazing at what they do in their chosen genre of music. I can't really hear their styles jiving though...

how long before "sons of anarchy" features something like this? Or have they already? I don't watch the show.

you'll have to catch me first. but thanks for the tip. I've looked at a couple of bikes, but some of these Craigslist people are beyond frustrating... they list shit as $700 obo, but then refuse $650.

they're melting down the firearms collected at this event. I took a screen-shot of the facebook post announcing it (with comments). The comments will most certainly be deleted, which is why I'm taking screen shots. I'll post them when i can.

I'm counting on it

Then I need to amend my first post to expand the season budget to approximately $707 (by my math, with fees, transponder rental, insurance, etc., each round costs an average of $70.xx. that's running 2 classes, and assuming only 2 BeaveRun rounds, which are slightly more expenisve, but really a negligible difference when you add everything up...)

even if i could get fast enough to win on a big bike, I still can't afford enough entry fees to win a championship. if the fun-factor is all equal, I'm going to focus on the series where I at least have a shot at some success. The OMRL should take away most of my excuses, especially with a low-mod stock class. I can't blame the bike, I can't blame lack of funds, etc. Scheduling conflicts aside, there's no reason I shouldn't make all 9 rounds and get a realistic picture of how I stack up against everyone else. I'm not so arrogant to think I'll set the world on fire as a noob, but I'd like to be challenging for a podium spot by the end of the season.

The article in road racing world this month about the ninja 300 makes some interesting points about the lifan and hyosungs of the industry. It is very easy to go out and buy a new smaller displacement bike for around $2-3k The thought is that Kawasaki is stepping out of the "cheap" bike arena and has no intention of making disposable bikes that beginners drop a bunch, an then sell a year later. The 300 is pretty legit, I hear.

Dick brush.

who needs a shotgun or a bow? I could hunt deer with a knife near my house... I'm not even kidding. I literally almost ran into one while I was jogging. It wouldn't get off the paved running path through the park. On a separate instance, my brother and I had to wait for 1 large deer and 2 fawns to get off the path. We didn't want to find out if jogging between mommy and the youngsters was going to piss mommy off, so we were throwing shit to try and scare them all onto the same side of the trail. the fact that so many people feed them (and squirrels) in the park really makes the deer dangerous IMHO. And it's going to get the squirrels killed. My dog is NOT there to feed them. /rant. sorry...

I really didn't meant to start a big bike versus mini debate; I just wanted to point out how affordable the whole mini scene can be. I made it out on the 'big' bike two times in 2012... That probably cost me about $600 for one race weekend, and one track day. That's just in entry fees. Never mind the fact that my bike cost over $3k, and the DOT race tires are $300+ a set... I can literally race all season with the OMRL for what 2 weekends would cost me on the big bike. Racing is fun regardless of what size the bike is. I can afford to do 9 days on the smaller bike, rather than 3 or 4 on the bigger bike. Easy decision for me. If money were no object, I'd certainly be out on the big tracks as well. If all goes as planned, I should be able to get a solid stock XR100 for about 1/3 of what my 600 brings in. I have looked at building it up, but I don't want a $1600 mini. Not yet anyway. Maybe in a few years, but for now, I want to avoid "hundred dollaring" myself to death with upgrades. Long-term, I would like to keep the XR and race that for grins, and then build/buy/race a 'new' bike every couple of years, and try to be in the top 3 in every OMRL class over a 10 or 15 year period That's probably way too ambitious, but nothing great ever came from half-assing it! And I'm sure I'll be back on "big" bikes within a year or two, but I will do that a bit differently too. I'm thinking LW twins, or some kind of vintage class next time around. Only time will tell.

I think EBR will get there, but it will be a few years yet. What puzzles me is why they've started with a heavyweight bike instead of a lightweight or a middleweight. In that regard, I feel like Fisher did it right - they started with a very practical class that should appeal to a lot of people. EBR did things kind of backward by building the 1190RS to win AMA Superbike races... I like that they are focused on that goal, but not that they've somewhat ignored the more populous markets. I don't need an American version of a Duc 1198, but I would consider an American version of an 848 competitor. A middleweight twin. Really, I liked the old XB9's quite a bit. With a smaller (lighter) engine and liquid cooling, I think they would have been pretty awesome. Considering the engine block they were using, they were still pretty impressive bikes. But yeah, price is definitely a huge factor. I know you can only build to a price-point by sacrificing material costs, but I would love to have some options for American made bikes in the sub $10k range.

while that evidence is incriminating, it's still not enough to convict her... It's not what you know, it's what you can prove; particularly what you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

Amen. although I think we send deer the wrong message by shooting at them in the woods, but not when they're on pavement.

yeah, because the Browns haven't been routinely fucked by bad calls for the last decade... A win is a win. I'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day of the week. The Browns have 2 division wins for the first time since 2007, and next week against Oakland is a game we have a legit shot at winning (arguably an even BETTER shot with McCoy starting...).

I guess that's why they play the games instead if just awarding the win to whichever team looks better in paper. The Stillers had their third string QB in, and the Browns had Pat Shurmer coaching. Sounds about even to me. It shouldn't have been close with all those fumbles, but the Stillers also shouldn't have scored on the third play of the game. A win is a win.

Todd isn't going to turn down your money unless you're obscenely slow. When I did the WERA race school, 3 of us lapped one of the other race school students in our 4 lap mock race. He was on a 600rr and one of the guys who lapped him was on an s 650. Think about that. We were probably 30'seconds a lap quicker, and we were doing "just don't crash" pace... That guy is a licensed racer. Raced the following day.

I believe so, but there aren't (m)any dealers. I "liked" their Facebook page a few years ago and chatted with them about racing a bit. WERA fucks them by not allowing their bike to run lightweight twins. I believe that's based on the inverted forks a d brembo brakes, but I could be wrong. Regardless, it seems odd that they haven't sold well... The sv650 has proven the market is there. Just no reputation to back the name I guess. Catch-22. Can't sell without reputation, and can't get a good reputation without bikes on the streets (or the track).

They also didn't say what tires were mounted on either vehicle. That could close the gap very quickly, or widen it by a couple more seconds.

I was there. They tried to lose, but failed. Still a fun time. I spent $60 on beer. My friend spent $80 on beer and $60 on foam hands. Not joking. Seemed like a great idea at the time.