redkow97

I'll be there by 7:00, but actual racing starts after lunch. If you arrive before lunch, you'll just see practice. If you get there AT lunch, you can probably take the short way to the paddock (i.e. across the back straight, instead of over the misery bridge). I think it's like $15 to spectate (which I admit sucks...)

show me which trailer is yours and consider yourself covered. I live ~40 minutes from the track, and could pull your bike to my garage in a worse-case scenario. I THINK i have a pretty good idea of what's going on, but i guess I'll find out tomorrow morning come out and play. the school should be pretty relaxed, and great weather. If there's something crazy that we can't fix on your bike to make it race legal, you can go home Saturday night and it won't cost you anything...

is it a matter of getting to the track, or just knowing what to do once you'er there? I'm meeting up with a guy who races expert, and Nathan seems to know what he's doing.

Dub - I will post a picture of the yellow vinyl I have when I get home. Plan to find yellow tape too, but this will get you started for sure. And we have all day Saturday to figure something out. I'm SURE someone in the pits will help us. I have 2 EZ-ups, but one will likely be over my sleeping tent on Sunday... I'm also supposed to meet a friend of mine up there who should have his own canopy.

We're all talking to each other in various threads, but let's get something in place regarding who is riding, spectating, and pit-bitching Race school: dubguy85 - #330 redkow97 (Chris) - #524 (orange/brown) Racing: Kanatuna(?) - #?? sjc1000rr (Steve) #305 NateDogg624 (Nathan) - #425 brn6604(?) (Brian) Foster (Ben? - sorry bro, it's been a while!) #535 Others who said something to me, but I don't remember if they're riding or just hanging out: Blue03636 (Craig) Aetsh (Shaun) others?

^that, and I suspect it's a (pretty good) photoshop job. **edit - the more I look at it, the more i think ti's photo shopped. right-click on the image and choose "view." It opens in a larger window. Then look at the left-side tires on the taurus. The area directly behind the tires (on the truck) is a slightly different shade of maroon.

the first comment on that forum summed it up pretty well for me. All the weight of the taurus is in the engine. Assume that they emptied the trunk of the spare and drained the gas tank, and it seems possible. I'm more impressed with the fact that the come-along in the last pic isn't just ripping that hole in the truck bed wide open. Chevy trucks: like a rock.

They've always put out about as much power as a modern 650

what does it cost to buy a race ready XR100?

^ agree.

Yeah, the war wouldn't have come into play, but he's still got legitimate reasons to hate the blacks and the mexicans. His neighborhood used to be nice. minorities moved in, got violent, and now it's not nice anymore. Obviously it's more complicated than that, but I don't think "mexicans and blacks ruined my neighborhood" is a totally invalid perception on Walt's Kowalski's part. Plus the character is a "racist with a heart of gold." That person simply doesn't exist in real life. It's like Homer Simpson: the lovable functional alcoholic who tries really hard when it counts. But my point is that Walk Kowalski may have thrown around a lot of racial slurs, but he didn't actively go out and hassle blacks/mexicans/asians for the hell of it. He didn't start trouble with anyone, he was just mad at the entire race for the trouble started by some members of that race. If there is such a thing, I'd call that "passive" racism. In my mind, there is a HUGE gap between believing that whites are superior and all other races are animals who should be caged; and believing that a given minority group (or groups) is responsible for problems that didn't occur until they started populating the area. The former isn't a justifiable conclusion. The latter (arguably) is.

bullshit. If they have a cell phone, they are choosing their cell phone over feeding their family. If they have cable, they are choosing cable over feeding their family. If they have a car worth more than $10,000 they are choosing some sort of luxury over feeding their family. There are a lot of "poor" people who have a ridiculous amount of non-essential luxury items ranging from designer clothes, to 22" rims, to gold goddamn teeth. I will publicly offer up my services to any "poor" family feeling the pinch from gas prices. First we'll review their spending and see where they can find more money to pay for gas. If they're actually being fiscally intelligent, I will personally drive them to and from work on a daily basis. I would be shocked if I end up giving anyone a ride.

if your house is within walking distance of a bus stop, you're not in the best neighborhood to begin with. My house is boarderline in that regard... but that's one of the primary means of keeping poor people out of nicer multi-family housing units. You can't fight the zoning laws, so you stifle the public transportation instead.

yeah, my wife's not at all familiar with Clint Eastwood, but I love his movies. The first thing she said was, "is that really the way Clint Eastwood talks?" hahahaha I didn't know what to expect from the movie, other than the car, and the fact that it was about some kind of racial tension. I didn't expect it to be an Asian family. I'm trying to figure out if they chose an Asian antagonist for politically correct reasons though. The movie could have inserted any minority group into that role. They acknowledged the Mexican gangs and the Black thugs, but I'm thinking the movie would have caught hell for picking on them. My friend Susie (her parents are from somewhere in Vietnam) told me, "Asians are the minority no one considers a minority, because we're the educated minority. Our stereotype is that we all over-achieve and grow up to be doctors, so because the perception is that we're all successful, people feel less bad about being 'racist' toward us." I had never really thought about it, but she's right. She wasn't complaining about it by any means, but it never would have occurred to me otherwise. I think this conversation started after she crashed her car, and the first thing I said to her (after I found out she was okay) was literally, "damn Susie - not a banner day for dispelling stereotypes. Asian woman wrecks her car? I hope you're not eating rice and noodles for lunch too."

^These are some of my favorites. My buddy's uncle is really into MMA stuff, and he was "training" us (i.e. kicking our asses) at a local gym when he dropped this gem on me, "if you're fighting someone; I mean really fighting them like your life depends on it, there is no such thing as cheating - only winning, and dying." He then proceeded to show us the most effective way to gouge eyes and crush a person's wind-pipe. That last one w/ the sheriff, I have heard before, but with "shotgun" instead of rifle.

only point the business end at something you want a hole in. That's my "safety."

if gas prices are really hurting you that badly, sell your bike. Just based on your profile picture, I'm betting you can get at least $4500 out of it. It makes me laugh when people claim they're getting killed by the increased cost of gas, but they're willing to pay $100+ a month for smart-phone service and $120+ a month for satellite TV with 2 DVR's, when all they really need is a $40/month phone plan and $60 basic cable... The only way gas prices are going down is if we stop using so much of it. That's not going to happen.

...and I can't wait to call Jbot all the awesome new names I learned!

I guess my hotel and flight estimates were a lot higher than you got. $100 for a flight back is killer amazing. $100 for gas sounds dead-on. Add in an oil change when you get there too! If you ahve an iPhone, download one of those trackday apps. None of them work very well for actual on-track use (doesn't grab data often enough), but I want to see the actual top-speed of an EX650 in real-world use Oh, and invest in some good headphones and a really nice helmet if you don't already have one... Like I said, my friend made this drive, and he was calling me every 2 hours bored out of his mind. do you have full leathers? that many miles is tempting fate w/o them... Unless someone buys the sets I have for sale, you're welcome to borrow either.

our road-trips are going to get much shorter now. Is there a snowball's chance in hell they'd have a range on site?

checked forward air's site, and you can use their container and spend ~$500. On the off chance it fits in the small box, $340.

A friend of mine moved back to Cleveland from CO not that long ago. That. Drive. Is. The. Worst. At least 90% of I-70 is the worst... In MO/KS, you'll get to max out a 650R if you feel like it. That was an option he didn't have in his Wrangler with 33" tires... So at least you'll make some good time through there. Is your brother-in-law sure it's cheaper for you to ride it? Some quick math is showing ~$100 in gas alone. Then add in a hotel stay, and your flight home, and he's looking at $500+ I seem to recall Forward Air charging about that much.

so tempting, but all my spare cash is tied up for racing if my old leathers and take-offs sell any time soon, I might hit you up.

Glad I'm not the only one who thought the rider should have had an escape route. Looked to me like he locked up his rear tire pretty much immediately, so he (along with everyone else) was following much too closely for the speed they were traveling. Of course the guy who never braked bears the brunt of the blame here, but the rider could have swerved into the median and probably avoided this. Yeah hindsight is 20/20, but it took me exactly ONE close-call in traffic to always be thinking about where I'd go in a worst case scenario. that's one more time than it should have taken. I was an idiot when I first started riding... Now I'm a more experienced idiot.

that would make them heavier anyway. Kind of defeats the purpose of a titanium system IMHO.