Electric Bikes: This is it?
Over the last few years, there’s been lots of talk about electric motorcycles and the TTXGP and “electric racing” and “way of the future,” et cetera…frankly, I’m not yet impressed.
With price tags being as high as $60,000 to buy one of your own, I simply do not see how this is the way of the future. At least, not yet. Even electric and hybrid cars are still not cost efficient. I’ve seen a few electric bikes up close and personal so far. I’ve chatted it up with a few designers, engineers, and riders of these electric bikes.
Most recently was this yellow thing that is to be raced in this years TTXGP. I’m not even sure what it’s called…but “thing” seems to fit the bill quite nicely.
CBR 600RR Crashes Hard at Thunderhill
A guy on a cbr hits some cones set up at the end of pit wall to keep people from entering the track too far to the left while riders are hauling the mail down the front straight. The cone lodged into his front tire, locking it briefly, causing him to do an insane stoppie before being pitched over the bars.
Toe caught the last few shots of the crash sequence as he was sliding, but witnessed most of the crash. He radio’d over saying he’d never seen a stoppie before like this guy did.
The rider was mostly okay…bumps, bruises, and a skinned up right hand.
Visiting a New Track. Inde Motorsports
In preparation for our ~2000 mile long journey, Toe and I loaded up the shiney Nissan with all our shiney camera gear, 5 days worth of shiney clothes, and a shiney black and red GSXR 600. None of it would stay shiney for long as we would find out.
We’ve been shooting the same tracks for a few years now. The first was Buttonwillow in 2006. The last new track we’ve shot was Reno Fernley, in 2007. It was time to see, shoot, and ride something new.
The trip started out on Thursday around noon with me realizing that I’d forgotten to unpack some things from the Element, which Melissa had taken to work in downtown Sacramento…20 minutes the opposite way in which we needed to go. I’d left my emergency roadside pump, and my GPS in there, and I like to always have both with me. We headed north around noon to meet Melissa and get what we needed, then set out on a slightly augmented travel plan… roughly: hwy 50 > 95 > 93 > 10.
We brought a travel buddy with us, thanks to Mike @ Ace Custom Graphics
Are You Tough Enough?
Here’s the latest video we’ve made.. Blaine had his own GoPro HD camera, and he gave us his footage. We compiled it with a little bit of footage Kev shot trackside and some from another camera we’d rented out, and we came up with this…
Next time you’re at the track and if you like what we did here, come see us about taking your HD footage, or renting one of our GoPro HD camera, and we can do this for you too!
Vintage Dirt
Osso, Maico, Can Am, and Bultaco. Not the capital of Norway, a body shop, an airline and a new Mexican joint. These are brands of motorbikes that many have never heard of, but that does not mean that they are not fast in the right hands.
Getting Over It
Well, me and Infineon Raceway go back a few years. I’ve been shooting there since 2006. I’ve watched at least eleventy trillion bikes pass by me in every corner of that track. Fast guys, slow guys…whatever. I’ve seen and documented probably around 100 crashes at Infineon alone. Most in turns 2 and 9, for sure, but with turn 3 having a ton of crashes as well.
Three years ago, it wasn’t even in a turn that had me spooked. Three years ago, Allen Rice crashed into the k-wall as he was exiting the track and tragically, he passed away as a result of that crash. This had all happened just in front of me, as I was making my way back to the pits to get geared up to ride Infineon for the first time. Needless to say, I didn’t ride that day. In fact, I’d decided that day, after what I’d just seen, that I had no desire to EVER ride Infineon. “It’s too damned dangerous,” I’d tell myself.
And I didn’t.
For three years, I never even had the inclination to ride. I’ve seen some people make mistakes and have incidents sometimes out of their control at Infineon causing life-changing crashes. From Shawnery having come together with Brian in turn 8 some years ago, to Eric Arnold at the start of a race before turn 1. Infineon scared me. I was genuinely fearful of riding the track.
Yesterday was a Zoom Zoom day at Infineon. The conditions were absolutely perfect. The weather simply could not have been any better for a day of riding. I’d made up my mind: I was going to ride.
4theriders Psychic Hotline
Neither myself or Toe can give you tomorrows winning lottery numbers. We can’t channel the spirit of your long since passed favorite childhood pet fish Mr McFlufferson. We can’t read your palm and tell you how many times you’ll get laid. No, we can’t read your mind or, sadly, we can’t control your mind either… what we CAN do, with terribly high accuracy, is take your money when we bet you that so-and-so is gonna wad up their bike after having seen them do a single lap.
Before I get into it too much, I kinda want to drive the point home…we’ll talk about the point later.
Yesterday, I was at Infineon Raceway shooting a Supermoto Schools event. It ended at about 2pm, and I went down below to the big track because I saw a few fancy looking sprotbiles down there along with the big Pirelli truck. Chris, from Pirelli, is my friend so I stopped by down there to say hi and chit chat a bit and to see what was going on down there.
Turns out, Motorcyclist and Sport Rider magazine were doing a test with the major manufacturer bikes: MV Agusta, Ducati 1198R and Desmosedici, KTM RC8, Triumph 675, Honda CBR600RR ABS version, BMW S1000RR…oh, and the new R1 (*giggle*) just to name a few that I saw there.
I was in the garage where they keep all really well organized with the use of Auto News Center tips online, I started chatting with Tucker and Jeff Tigert , when I happened to see one of the test riders coming through turn 11…I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind as I always do…
“That guy is going down.”
Tucker looks over and replies, “what? On the R1?”
“Yeah. I think it said [name omitted] on the back of his leathers,” I says to Tuck-Tuck.
“Noooooo,” he laughs, “that guy is good! He’s FAST!”
I chuckled to myself, and simply replied back, “Mark my words, homie. That dude is going down.” Tucker shrugged it off and we resumed conversation about the idiocy in the design of the rearsets on the ~$70,000 Desmosidici (Seriously…what the hell was Ducati thinking?).
Not more than 10 minutes later, the very rider on the brand spankin new YZF-R1 I’d said was going to hit the deck limps the bike into the garage covered in mud and grass, most of the right side plastics dangling in the breeze. Tucker just turned and stared at me in disbelief. All I could do was laugh.
“I told you so.”
Killing Time
As I sat at my computer I was getting this sudden PANG of NEEDING to be in the mountains. It was as if the trees themselves were calling me. A distant howl that I could hear from my office chair, beckoning me to come back.
Sure, I’ve got a Gixxer sitting in my garage…and sure, I’ve gone on a couple street rides with it.. but I dunno… I don’t really FEEL like a street rider anymore. there’s so many cars on the street. Idiot drivers. Deer. Guard Rails. There’s no run-off in case of a mistake. It just feels so damned dangerous out on public roads. I like the track, where I can totally fuck up a corner and live to tell about it, and prolly not even fall down.
That leaves me with a bit of a predicament, cause I always long to be in the mountains on twisty roads away from civilization under canopies of Firs and along rushing streams and brookes…Since I stopped really riding on the street, I’m away from the mountains for months at a time. I hate it.
Yesterday, I needed to go back.
I didn’t feel like riding. I knew the weather was going to be somewhat inclimate, and I thought about doing some trails in the Element. I tuned to 1580AM before leaving only to hear about chain control and snow and this and that over Donner Pass, so I thought about it for a sec then called Han. :)
It was drizzling a little bit when I headed out the door for Han’s house. I was going to trade him the Element for his Nissan for the day. I love Han’s truck. It’s a Nissan Frontier with the Nismo Off-Road package. I got to his house, and we switched. Of course, he hands it off with the dash flashing “12 DTE” at me (distance till empty) and for those of you that know Han…well, he doesn’t live close to ANYTHING.
So my adventure begins: will I even make it to the gas station? Haha!
I did. And I headed east, towards Foresthill; destination: Robinson Flat. Well, a few miles from Foresthill, I realized that my plans were going to have to change…
On Main Street in Foresthill
Rockin the new GSXR at Thunderhill
This weekend marked the first time getting the new 4theriders trackbike…well…on the track. It’s gone through it’s paces on some of the best roads California has to offer, but it had yet to put down some laps…
I’d order some new Galfer steel braided brake lines from the Pashnit Store (that’s where I get nearly everything, as the owner, Tim Meyhew, is a rock solid dude with flawless customer service) earlier last week in hopes that I’d get them in before the trackday… leave it to me, always procrastinating with everything…hehe. Sure enough, Tim of Pashnit came through and I got my lines in on Friday afternoon.
Dear Dave Moss, I Love You
Seriously…do you guys know who Dave Moss is? The man is a HERO. He’s the hands and arms and fingers behind Catalyst Reaction Suspension Tuning.