Page 38... A very long rain check...

Well, a few of you may have noticed I've been a bit slack on the posts lately... Things here have been very quiet as of late, with only a couple of highlights in the last couple of months.

The Nightspeed crew recently held the final round of the 'dragwars' competition, which we went to support, as a friend was at the top of the points for the ladies class. I was lucky enough to win a bunch of free tickets to the event, courtesy of 4'n'rotary promotions. I decided pretty much last minute to see how fast our car would run, just for the fun of it, it's a 1996 Mitsubishi Legnum 2.5L V6 non-turbo. Admittedly, it's not made for racing, but I was pretty chuffed with the quarter mile times I got. I was more worried about breaking something, than anything else, so only ran a couple of passes. I was there mainly to support my friend in the ladies class, which she ended up winning, and taking out the season championship! Everyone was stoked for her, due to the fact that she was on a bike, racing against all the other girls in their cars! Personally, having taken both the car and the bike down the strip now, I can say it's much more fun on the bike, and if I'm allowed, I'll be taking the bike back in the future. I think if I change the sprockets to a lower ratio, I'd be able to get a high 13 at least, which would put the bike pretty close to being on par with the 400cc bikes that run... add to that a couple of other small changes that will take place over the winter, and the bike should be running even better for next season!

As I mentioned in my last post, my partner and I also took our Legnum to a show'n'shine day, organised by a local mag wheel business. A couple of my friends from NZBlokes.co.nz (insert shameless plug here!) had a bikini car-wash running as well, which was great entertainment for the day! Even the rain couldn't dampen the spirits too much! I didn't get a count of how many cars were in attendance, but the carpark was pretty much overflowing, with all sorts of cars, from hard core track cars to old school street cars, heaps of Skyline's, Evo's, and Sylvia's, even a couple of rare Honda NSX's! All in all we had a great day out, cheers to Nic and Matt and the girls from NZBlokes.co.nz, keep up the good work!

Last weekend I received an invite to go hang out with a bunch of my biker mates in the Fat Bikers Motorcycle Club, at the Riverhead Tavern, where the club president and good friend "Fatt Max" was playing in the Blues lineup. I have to say, if you haven't met him yet, you should definitely do so, he's a top bloke! I haven't met anyone quite like him in all my travels, he's just an absolute blast to hang out with! Funny as all hell too, might I add! Catching up with him and the rest of the Fat Bikers was awesome, I highly recommend anyone and everyone out there, be you a biker or not, you should go meet them! They're regulars at the Riverhead, and always out and about on rides for charities, as well as a bunch of other stuff, look them up on Facebook! (Was that yet another shameless plug? Lol) Their symbol is a steaming hot pie, you'll know it when you see it! :-)

Well, that's pretty much all I have at the moment, hope the wet weather isn't getting to you too much, keep an eye on this blog in the future, even though it's been over a year since starting it I'm still gonna keep it going! Stay safe out there!

Till next time!

:-)

Page 37... BBDO!

Would you believe it, I've had yet another absolutely epic weekend at the track! Only difference being, this time I got to ride! Hampton Downs racetrack hosted the "Big Bike Day Out", a new event organised and run by the awesome crew at Playday On Track. Two days worth of bikes doing laps, at a comfortable pace for pretty much any rider! Last weekend was the first in a new ten year venture between the organizers and Hampton's, and it was a huge success! Saturday had a reported 120 bikes, some of who continued into the 100 odd that made up Sunday's numbers. Add to that a few cruisers, some extremely quick Super-Karts (on Sunday), as well as a small contingent of classic cars, it was pretty packed! One of the countries top suspension gurus was there giving out free advice, as well as the teams from the local Kawasaki and Honda shops. There was no end of cool toys for any avid biker to admire!!!

The organizers somehow managed to squeeze in 6 full sessions for each group on both days, which I thought was pretty amazing in itself! I only had enough finances to attend on the Sunday, but I spoke with a few people that did both days and the story was the same all round - there wasn't a single complaint to be heard! From what I could gather, everyone in attendance thought the event was top notch. Even the top Superbike guys were happy to chat, share advice, and give the newbies (ie: me!) any help we might need to improve upon our skills.

First session out, I was pretty nervous, and only turned in some pretty slow laps. I'm not entirely sure, but the rear tire on my little 250 felt a bit squirmy, and I wasn't getting as much top end power as I thought I should be. So at the end of the session I pulled back into the pits to check my tire pressures, and drop a couple of PSI out of the rear. Quick check of the oil and water, anything that might have come loose, bolts, etc, then it was pretty much time for the second go! Straight away, once back out on track, the bike felt way more stable through the turns, and I was getting better power out of the turns, which kept the revs more in the "power" range, thus giving me more top end, especially down the main straight. The whole bike really felt like it was working properly, which had me smiling! I finally got the rear tire heating up enough to start scuffing it on the turns, and my leaning is definitely looking better than before. I was told the track temperature at mid-afternoon was 54 degrees Celsius!

I skipped the third session to talk suspension with the guru himself, Mr Robert Taylor! Such a worthwhile decision, he has just sent me an email following up on our discussion, detailing in specific a whole bunch of small things I can do with my setup, even though I don't have any 'proper' adjustable settings like most new sport bikes have. Simple things like filling my forks with slightly more oil, to reduce the air gap, or installing longer spacers on shorter springs to reduce the spring friction inside the fork tubes... Lots of things the average biker would never think about! Whether or not I'll even be able to feel the difference if I do slightly change anything, I don't know, but it's nice to know that I can change things up eventually if I choose to.

For the rest of the sessions on track, I concentrated on my lines through corners, focusing on things I had been told by previous instructors, and got quite a good flow on by the end of the day! My confidence in my tires, suspension, and throttle control are definitely growing with every lap, and even though I'm far from what others would call "fast", I reckon I'm doing pretty good!

The only slight issue I had throughout the day was the bike overheating towards the end of sessions, but only if I was changing gears over 14 thousand RPM. If I shifted before 14k, the bike's temp stayed in the middle, but if I got even close to the 19k redline then things started to get hot quite quickly. I think I need to upgrade to a bigger radiator, and my research has found that one off an NSR250 will fit with only small modifications, and has a thicker core for more fluid. Apart from that though, the bike is running mint!

Anyways, a huge thanks to Ash and Gary and Tony from Playday On Track, you guys put on a great event! I'm already looking forward to the next one!
Next weekend my partner and I are taking our car to a show'n'shine, something a little different to the usual I know, but bound to be fun too!

Check out some quick pictures from the track below, I've also uploaded a full set to my Flickr account...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/s_a_patterson/sets/72157632845196186/

Till next time!

:-)

Page 36!

So, now that I'm recovered from the weekend, I can share my experience with you lot! It was a really long day, with a LOT of action (mostly on the track) but heaps of fun all in all. If you haven't been keeping up to date on my posts, I was marshalling at Battle Of The Streets, one of the bigger events in New Zealand motorbike racing calendar! Held in Paeroa, it's a full on street attack, and I happened to be marshalling on the best (or worst, if you look at it that way) corner! A tight left-hander, with big hay bales on the outside and little bales on the inside, a lot of which moved a considerable amount during the course of the day! The turn probably totalled about 100 degrees, definitely more than 90 anyways, coming off a decent little downhill straight. More than a few of the bikes came in too hot and had to over-brake to negotiate the turn, of which we had a bunch of machines put into the outside bales! Suffice to say, it was a very busy day picking up broken bikes, and riders... I think I pushed a total of 8 or 9 bikes off over the course of the day, almost all from impacting the outside bales. One of the sidecars actually flipped over on top of the rider! Fortunately, he and his swinger (the mad man on the back of the bike - see the pictures below) we're okay, more just upset with the damage to their bike. However, more than a few riders we're unlucky enough to be taken away in the ambulance, after a spate of rather nasty crashes around different sections of the track. My heart really goes out to those who feel the harsher side of motorsport... I won't go on any further about that, but those who understand what I'm talking about will know I'm thinking of them and their loved ones...

Anyways, for myself personally it was a bloody good weekend - some scary moments, some awe inspiring moments too! I still can't fathom how the really quick guys can get round corners as fast as they do, it just doesn't seen physically possible to me!

Things are progressing rather nicely here at my abode, my partner Abbee has just finished her last day of work before she starts her course, which I know she is greatly excited (and more than a little nervous) about! I'm so glad she is finally out of the factory work, it was slowly eating her away... Still, one good thing came about from that job, we met each other! So I shouldn't complain too much I guess... But still, onwards and upwards, as they say, each step is merely the predecessor of the one that follows! My new (-ish) job is going great, there are already options being discussed for my future role withing Traffic Management, which is pretty cool! I've gotten the hang of it again really quickly, the simple stuff that I had forgotten since leaving the Hamilton branch is once again like second nature to me now. I'm hoping to keep rolling the hours in, keep my timesheet full, and keep things at home stable while Abbee is studying. Fortunately though, my work is hugely fun, so I'm happy to keep pulling long hours for our households sake. And I get plenty of time to keep my new found track addiction content, so really I haven't lost out at all! Come winter, and a decline in track days, I'm sure I'll go at least a little crazy, but that's almost the norm anyways with bikers, right?

Next weekend I'm off to do some aforementioned track riding, at Hampton Downs once again, for the "Big Bike Day Out". The aim is to take my time again, get used to the bike, and try to get a better feel for what's happening around the corners. I'm only gonna be in the slow group, so I won't feel bad holding anyone else up. The weather is looking like it's gonna be a mint weekend, so hopefully the next post you'll see will be full of pics of me on the track again!

Till then!

:-)