There is some good in world after all. In fact, things seem to be on a roll. First, as I'm sure you've heard by now Nicky Hayden pulled out the MotoGP championship this year, thanks to Rossi completely choking in the final round. He needed some help, and he got it, and I couldn't be happier. It's good to have someone besides Rossi win it all. Things were to starting to get a bit...predictable.
Since then I've managed to get the SV back together and on the track. The refurb went reasonably well, although it got a bit tense when I discovered late in the process that the radiator was damaged beyond track-worthiness. I ordered a new one immediately, and arranged an emergency backup plan thanks to a close friend who happens to own a scavengable SV. However, UPS, winged messenger of the track day gods, came through by delivering the new radiator with a weekend to spare.
Other new parts include Woodcraft rear-sets, and Dunlop rubber (209GP on the front, and a Qualifier on the back).
I also ordered all new GP Composites race bodywork from SVRaceShop.com, but it became clear as the weeks ticked by, that it wasn't going to arrive in time. My backup plan in this case was to run without a front fairing, old skool style. After removing the fairing and headlights, I was a little unsure how well this would work out. The bracket holding the intruments was badly bent, and there was about 5 pounds of wires hanging off the front of the bike. I hoped to bundle it all up and slap a number plate on there to cover it up, but as I was attemping to do just that, I had another idea. I decided to remove the instruments and bent bracket altogether, and see if the bike would run with no dash at all. You don't really want a speedo on the track, it tends to get you into trouble, and I can judge the RPMs on the SV pretty much by feel. The only thing I might miss would be the low fuel light. Of course, I was skeptical the bike would run at all since it seemed likely there would be some critical circuit left broken by the absence of the entire instrument panel. It was simple enough to test, so I unhooked the main trunk of wires, turned the key, flicked the starter button, and it fired right up. Success! After that it was just a matter of fishing the remain wires back through the frame to be neatly tucked in the space under the tank.
Bare bones!
I have to admit, I like the look so much it seems a shame to cover it up with bodywork.
The other part of this adventure was acquiring a trailer. Our generous neighbors with the two rail Kendon moved away, and they took their trailer with them. I was dreading going back to U-Haul again, so we searched for a suitable substitute for a couple weeks until Stephanie found a winner on Craiglist. NorCal Trailers is a new company out of San Leandro being run by a pre-med student named Cory. He had just what I wanted: a relatively small folding trailer, that still manages to fit three rails for hauling one bike in the middle, or two on the sides. It's pretty well built, and ended up being less than half the price of a Kendon. There was some drama with his supplier delivering the trailer in time, so he sold me his show trailer which he was still in process of assembling. He really took care of me, and the trailer is excellent, highly recommended.
Of course, there was a bunch of running around tying up last minute details, like getting the trailer registered at the DMV the day before the track day, but eventually all the pieces came together, and I was ready for the track day fun to commence.
Stephanie served as team manager, pit crew, and track photographer. The day started early for us, with the alarm set for 4am. It was a foggy morning, which delayed the festivities for a bit until the fog burned off enough for the corner workers to be able to see each other.
My first session was a short round of sighting laps. After some starting line confusion, I got stuck behind someone that couldn't keep up with even the slow, sighting lap pace. It was frustrating at first, but probably for the best. I still needed to settle down my nerves, not to mention keep the stress low on the SV until I was sure it would all hold together.
After the mercifully short first session, I stopped by the Catalyst Reaction tent to get the suspension checked out by the guru of springs and dampers Dave Moss. I was thrilled to see him there, because I had made more suspension mods to the SV than anything else, but neglected to ever get it properly adjusted. He softened the rear preload a bit, and stiffened the preload and compression on the front quite a lot. It made a huge difference. The bike felt fantastic. Very controlled and comfortable. By the end of the day I was pushing hard enough to need more compression on the front, but there wasn't enough range on the adjuster. Dave's comment was, "Ah, you ran out of spring". So, this winter we'll be looking at some stiffer springs. Even so, I'm extremely happy with how it turned out.
As for the track itself, it's definitely a lot of fun. This was my first time at Sears Point, so there was a bit of a learning curve. The track is fairly short, somewhere in between Reno-Fernley (phase 2), and Laguna Seca. Lots of swoopy elevation changes. The carousel is a blast, and a great place to pass on the outside. There were no real trouble spots for me. I was a bit worried about 7 and 11 at first, but both have good visibility, lots of reference points, and acres of paved runoff.
So, anyway, the day ended with no big drama. We met some great people including Vincent Haskovec, the guest of honor. And Stephanie already mentioned Virgil Elliot. The event ended up raising $95,000 for Vincent's recovery, which is just phenomenal. There were even some writeups on SuperbikePlanet and RoadRacingWorld.
Exiting the turn 9 chicane.
Apex of turn 11.
Virgil entering turn 11 on the old beemer.
Entering the pits.
Oooh, another project bike.
Czecher.
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