Sunday, May 28, 2006
once upon a time there was a wierd race team. team pig. we weren't particularly good, and the bike, well, that's why we called ourselves team pig.
ever tried to pushstart a high compression 1300cc gsx1100? lets just say it's good training for playin soccer, and a shitty way to work off a hangover.
so we annoyed the shit out of our lead rider until he got some rollers. you stick them under one of the drive wheels of a car/ute/van/whatever, put the bike on them as well (the rollers are about 4 feet wide) and then start up the vehicle, get it up to about 60 kph, then drop the clutch on the pig and it will start. (crew laying on the rear plastic bits for max traction)
we all had a go at racing. and if you read the bit about me drag racing, well racing was just as wobbly.
we were racing a sub class of post classic racing, called "forgotten era". the bikes were from 1971 to 1981 or something like that, and had to be visually indistinguishable from those of the era.
my gsx1100 wasn't as bad as the main pig though. mine had an electric start still, and was pretty much standard. after our drag racing experience though, we'd put in a beefed up clutch basket to avoid our previous detonating clutch thingy efforts.
i'd just got back on after only recently dropping my gpz900r on kiama bends in the rain (oil). so i was still a little nervous. and everything ran like it usually did, disorganised and last second screwups. we practiced with the wrong group, which was nice though, because my bike was a lot quicker than theirs, and then i faced my first race.
despite not changing a lot on this bike from road trim, we'd ripped off all the crap, and geared it down a little, so my first ever race start in earnest was also the wickedest wheelstand i'd ever done. so after nearly shitting myself at the start, i was about 4th or 5th into the first turn, after starting at about position 12 or 13. i was about 20th out of the turn however. over the flip flop on oran park i got the most sideways i'd ever been, while airborne over the tank, while not actually falling off the damned bike. i wasn't the slowest however, i managed to hover around 12-13th out of 16 i think. there was this guy in front of me on a cbx1000 6 cylinder honda. i caught him easily on the straight, but i was so wobbly on turn 1 that he left me until i caught him again on the main straight.
finally i took a big breath and blew him away on the straight and stuffed myself into the corner so wide that he couldn't get past. i think he was the only guy on the track wobblier than me. with one lap to go i was hooking up the straight, to see that someone was hanging out a race finished board. i didn't realise that the race winner was behind me, and after only 8 laps, had caught me on his warm down lap. i think i only finished a few of the races that day due to coming in too early. when i finally worked it out and kept going for the last lap, and actually finished the race, he did a wheelstand the length of the short straight behind me while i finished my last lap.
our sponsors were there this weekend. they were the local motorcycle wreckers, and particularly successful at post classic racing. they had some, interesting stories, about rule bending. anyway, it started raining, and after my recent crash on kiama bends, i didn't wanna play. they carried on like a bunch of old women, you can do it, give it a go, blah blah blah.
finally one of my sponsors said to me; "what would you do if a horse bucked you off?" of course looking for the standard response
i said; "i'd shoot it."
they left me alone after that. one of them took my bike in the next race, in the rain. crept up a few positions on the start when no-one was looking, jumped the start like you wouldn't believe, and finished second on my bike. heh. i thought it was funny.
ever tried to pushstart a high compression 1300cc gsx1100? lets just say it's good training for playin soccer, and a shitty way to work off a hangover.
so we annoyed the shit out of our lead rider until he got some rollers. you stick them under one of the drive wheels of a car/ute/van/whatever, put the bike on them as well (the rollers are about 4 feet wide) and then start up the vehicle, get it up to about 60 kph, then drop the clutch on the pig and it will start. (crew laying on the rear plastic bits for max traction)
we all had a go at racing. and if you read the bit about me drag racing, well racing was just as wobbly.
we were racing a sub class of post classic racing, called "forgotten era". the bikes were from 1971 to 1981 or something like that, and had to be visually indistinguishable from those of the era.
my gsx1100 wasn't as bad as the main pig though. mine had an electric start still, and was pretty much standard. after our drag racing experience though, we'd put in a beefed up clutch basket to avoid our previous detonating clutch thingy efforts.
i'd just got back on after only recently dropping my gpz900r on kiama bends in the rain (oil). so i was still a little nervous. and everything ran like it usually did, disorganised and last second screwups. we practiced with the wrong group, which was nice though, because my bike was a lot quicker than theirs, and then i faced my first race.
despite not changing a lot on this bike from road trim, we'd ripped off all the crap, and geared it down a little, so my first ever race start in earnest was also the wickedest wheelstand i'd ever done. so after nearly shitting myself at the start, i was about 4th or 5th into the first turn, after starting at about position 12 or 13. i was about 20th out of the turn however. over the flip flop on oran park i got the most sideways i'd ever been, while airborne over the tank, while not actually falling off the damned bike. i wasn't the slowest however, i managed to hover around 12-13th out of 16 i think. there was this guy in front of me on a cbx1000 6 cylinder honda. i caught him easily on the straight, but i was so wobbly on turn 1 that he left me until i caught him again on the main straight.
finally i took a big breath and blew him away on the straight and stuffed myself into the corner so wide that he couldn't get past. i think he was the only guy on the track wobblier than me. with one lap to go i was hooking up the straight, to see that someone was hanging out a race finished board. i didn't realise that the race winner was behind me, and after only 8 laps, had caught me on his warm down lap. i think i only finished a few of the races that day due to coming in too early. when i finally worked it out and kept going for the last lap, and actually finished the race, he did a wheelstand the length of the short straight behind me while i finished my last lap.
our sponsors were there this weekend. they were the local motorcycle wreckers, and particularly successful at post classic racing. they had some, interesting stories, about rule bending. anyway, it started raining, and after my recent crash on kiama bends, i didn't wanna play. they carried on like a bunch of old women, you can do it, give it a go, blah blah blah.
finally one of my sponsors said to me; "what would you do if a horse bucked you off?" of course looking for the standard response
i said; "i'd shoot it."
they left me alone after that. one of them took my bike in the next race, in the rain. crept up a few positions on the start when no-one was looking, jumped the start like you wouldn't believe, and finished second on my bike. heh. i thought it was funny.
