The Wreck

Not a motorcycle wreck thankfully.

On the way home from the October 5 trackday at PIR I got in a wreck. The vehicles in front of me stopped suddenly and I rear ended one of them. Stuff like that happens when you're towing  with a Chevy Malibu.

ODOT and PPB showed up to contain the scene. It happened in the center lane and my vehicle was disabled so ODOT had to help me to the shoulder. After dealing with the other drivers, police, and a tow truck taking my disabled car away, Tyler and I were left on the side of I-5 with a trailer containing our bikes and gear with no way to get it home.

U-haul was taking its sweet time sending out a tow truck for the trailer, and they said we needed to remove our stuff or it would be locked up in a tow yard. Our friends were unable to get a tow vehicle, so we hatched another plan: we would convert our bikes back to street trim and ride home.

Right there on the side of I-5 we reattached street parts, removed tape, added air, and re-enabled lights. Two different riders stopped to see if we were alright. Our buddy Sam came by and picked up our excess gear leaving us and some backpacks to carry back with us.

Finally the tow truck arrived and towed away the U-haul trailer so we departed. A few miles down the Freeway the strap holding my toolbag to the back of my R6 failed and it fell off onto the chain side and started rubbing. I was on the bridges, so no place to pull off. I gingerly kept riding with visions of something getting caught in the chain in my head. Once off the bridges I pulled off and re-secured the bag (which had nearly fallen apart from rubbing on the tire).

The unoffical Wrecking Crew motto: Wreck it, keep riding.

What seemed like an eternity later (freeway riding SUCKS) we arrived home. Tired, cold, sore from the wreck/riding, and me stressed the fuck out from my car getting wrecked.

As it turns out the insurance is totalling the Malibu :(

Last two trackdays of the season

As September was coming to a close my buddy Tyler started encouraging me to go to one last trackday in Early October... and to take him with me. Then other friends started bugging me to go with them to Thunderhill. I talked to my boss and next thing, I had both days off and ready.

I set about readying my bike and loaded up with Dillon. We trailered our bikes down to Medford and loaded up onto a toy hauler with two other riders. We made the obligatory Trackday Junkies stops at Liquor Expo and In N Out before arriving at Thunderhill Raceway. The plan had been to spend the night there in the toy hauler, but Pacific Track Time hadn't paid for camping, so they kicked us out.

We'd met another Trackday Junkie there (she had come up from the Sacremento area to hang out with us), so with her in tow we went into town and got some hotel rooms. Ralph had convinced Junkie Bradee that her bike needed new tires since she was down to the cords, so she stayed the night with us (stored her bike in the hotel room. don't tell the mgmt).

Whats there to say about T-Hill? Its an excellent track. Lots of elevation change and good corners. The track surface is in good shape and PTT runs an excellent show. I started with a virgin (no miles, at all) rear tire and the first few laps were squirrely as fuck. After getting my suspension adjusted by Kung Foo Grip I was feeling pretty comfortable and was running some of the faster times in C group at 1:44.

The way home was uneventful besides my bike falling over in the trailer and breaking the windshield and cowling (d'oh!).

Just about two weeks later I loaded my shit up on a heavy ass u-haul trailer with Tyler's SV-650 and headed up to Portland International Raceway. We got to PIR kinda late but were able to pit next to our buddy Sam (see Wrecking Crew ride). We missed part of the riders meeting but didn't miss any track time.

First session was a little uneasy for us all. Sam was trying to get his confidence back from a bad crash and had never been on PIR. Tyler and I were trying to get our pressures sorted out and learn the corners. Midway through the morning someone spilled coolant on turn 1 and got the track shut down for half an hour.

About that time the wind kicked up and was gusting pretty hard. For a few sessions I was misinerpreting the wind for tire slide from the coolant spill and it killed my confidence. After talking to one of the coaches I remembered what Keith Code said: Bikes don't do anything every few laps, only riders. So I went back out and ignored the sliding feeling, and would you know it, my turns felt really good.

Our last session I started three bikes behind Tyler. I caught up to him after a few laps and passed him. Hell yeah. He chased me like a motherfucker for a few laps getting on my ass through 7-8-9 each time and finally passed me out of 9 just before checkered flag. Helluva last session for us. The pic of us going through 9 is excellent.