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Summer is here, even though there is an 80% chance of rain for Monday. That means the local, and in some cases traveling, bike nights are starting to become more populated. I have met quite a few people at the Wednesday night meet held a Skipolini’s Pizza in Concord, and I probably would not be a part of 4TheRiders if I was not a regular. Motorbikes have been a huge part of my life for the last few years, and the almost family like friendships that I have developed and seen grow at bike nights helps to bring back my faith in humanity, since I like any type of bike, from big bikes to even scooters which I read about visiting sites like scooteradviser.com. I was even part of a wedding that held it’s reception at the Wednesday night meet.

Photobucket

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Soooo…yeah… everyone knows that I’m a total poser/camera whore. Everytime I’m riding and I see a camera, I immediately turn into a Ricky-Racer-Wannabe-Badass.

Anyways, I’d never had a photo taken of me in turn 7 at Thunderhill before. I’ve been telling Toe for a few months now “I really want a shot of my in turn 7…because, like, my body positioning is different through there. I feel like I have my outside elbow up really high to help control front end drifts…”

Ken Hill was following behind me recently with his NON GoPro HD camera *snickers* and shot about 1/2 a lap of me before blowing my proverbial doors off and checking-out on me… I was really surprised by what I saw in the video, to be honest. I’m carrying significantly more lean angle through 7 and 8 than I’d previously thought. I’m also nearly dragging elbow at apex of both turns. It’s not that I’m TRYING to…it’s that I’m hanging off the bike pretty far to try and minimize lean angle on the tires.

So anyways, to get back to retardation… Matt got a shot of me in turn 7 yesterday while at an open trackday…well, just as I was exiting turn 7, but still…all the signs are there…

weird body position turn 7 thunderhill

Aaaahhhhkk-waaard!

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Those of you that know Matt Taylor know that he’s a phenomenal artist. He’s a great photographer as well, and is responsible for 99% of those wide angle shots that you guys like, where the camera is sitting on the ground…

But enough about his photos…I wanna show you where his REAL talent is…

Pencil sketch of Chris McGuire [aka trackmoney] of CTracing in turn 2 at Thunderhill Raceway
chris trackmonkey pirelli r1 sketch

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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.

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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.

motorcycle crash

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.”

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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

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i headed up the mountain to go visit rweezy. i ain’t seen him in about 2 years, so i figured it was time for a surprise visit. i didn’t bring my camera, but i did bring the gopro..i took a few pics on the way home. nothing special.

did an oil and filter change at his shop really quick and threw on the obligatory 4theriders-red grips like i do to all my bikes. i can’t help it…dunno what it is…i HAVE to have red grips!

gsxr dirt road

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