Here's the full story:
Was slamming to get the bike ready for the races last weekend, had a lot of it apart trying to tie up all the loose ends and get it painted. Installed and wired up an Idle air control valve to help with cold starts (not remembering until later that I did not have the intake manifold drilled for that so it was a waste of time) Anyway, got it back together the night before we left so I had no chance to test ride it.
Morning comes and we load up:
Me on the right with my daughter and my brother in law on the left. We've got his Aprilia RSV on there, along with a backup bike for me a Kawi ZX6E
Got down to Sonoma and unloaded the bikes to clean them up, that was the picture at the top there.
Rode the bike around a lot Friday night, doing some tuning. Bike feels great, pulls well and rides perfectly, thinking all is a go to ride to the track the next morning. Sat we take off around 8, stop and get some gas, all is good, then about a mile down the road: BUUUUUUUHHHHHHH I start to lose power. Sit on the side of the road for a bit trying to figure it out. No luck so I send Kelly back to get the trailer. Before he gets back I figure out that the crank wheel (which is my timing wheel) came loose so my timing was all out of whack. I rode it back to the house and jumped on the backup bike for the races.
Came back Sat night, monkeyed with it some more, got it running great again. Sun morning we go to take off and it just dies in the driveway. Fuel injector fuse had blown. This had happened to me before at home and I never figured out the cause, so rather than risk it I just took the backup bike again.
So long story short I towed it all the way down just to ride it a bit on Friday night. Just didn't have the time to get it all sussed out before the races. Sucks but I still had a great time at the track, lots of great racing. Here's some pics of the bikes for any of you who are into AMA racing.
Erik Buell's new 1190RS, incredible bike, and he's also a personal hero of mine. You can have one of these bikes for a paltry 45k
That is a carbon bike painted to look like brushed stainless, and here's another one you might like:
The flag is see-through so you can see all the carbon underneath. Not sure if it's paint or a vinyl wrap, either way it looked amazing!
These are some of the XR1200's from the Vance and Hines series. These guys put on a great show! The winner passes on the final turn leading to the straight!
Here's the Vesrah Suzuki boys on the left:
Jake Zemke's Ducati 848:
Some supersport boys:
Here's Jason DiSalvo behind the table and his Triumph 675's He won the 2nd race, not sure about the first.
My personal favorite, Danny Eslick on the EBR1190RS. He got 3rd in the first race! 5th in the second. Amazing to see a bike with so little development and no traction control competing with the big guys, just another example of what Erik can really do!
Chris Fillmore and the KTM RC8- what a gorgeous bike this is!
Ben Bostrom and the Jordan Suzuki GSXR1000- He's not really a favorite of mine, not happy with how his ride with the LCR Honda Moto GP went last year at Laguna, seemed like a quitter.
Blake young and his Yoshimura GSXR1000, basically the superbike title is between him and Josh Hayes, no-one else is close:
Here's Josh Herrin's R1:
And a shot of both Herrin and 2 time superbike champ Josh Hayes:
Finally a shot of Hayes' R1:
What an amazing machine that is, the crossplane crankshaft gives it such a wicked sound, and he's clearly the best rider in the field. He does amazing things on that bike.
Overall it was really neat to be able to talk with some of the riders during the paddock walk, got to stand 5 feet away from Greg White and Scott Russell and hear them do the intro for the weekend. Had a fantastic time except for the bike not panning out and basically getting heat stroke at the end of the second day. It was hot!
On another note, Infineon is a much bigger circuit than I thought it was, great facility!
BTW, I don't drink, but if you wanted a beer it was $13 Ha!
