End of April Meanderings

By now I should have a race weekend and a few trackdays under my belt to talk about. Alas everything's getting cancelled and June might be the first track weekend I get, hopefully. During the last OMRRA board meeting the likelihood of the June 12-14 race weekend happening sounded low. Unless the state/city/hospitals/ambulances start going back to normal early enough for the club to prepare for the round, it just won't happen.

Being that I already have that Friday off from work I've started planning a contingency, if the race weekend doesn't happen I'll go to Central/Eastern Oregon with my moto-friends. The problem with that is that my VFR is in bad need of an overhaul and I've put it off to the last minute when shops are busy. It badly needs refreshed suspension, brakes, and some engine bits. I guess that's what happens when you ride it like a sport bike for four years and 38,000 miles.

Pictured: Once in a while I clean off all the bugs and mud

In 2018 I did two trips (Fossil and NorCal) on the Ninja because the VFR was down for fork seals and it was last minute, and none of the shops could get to it. Riding 300-400 mile days on a ZX6R is painful. One day in NorCal after a hundred miles of barely paved single lane suck I was ready to abandon the trip and just blaze home. I digress. I'd rather take my sport touring bike on a sport touring trip.

When you have two street legal bikes you can usually ride one when the other is down. But sometimes they're both down due to bad timing/luck or bad planning. On a ride last weekend my ZX took a rock to the radiator and I had to limp it home. I swapped bikes for the VFR and hauled ass back to intercept the group still on route. Big groups take a long time to get going again after stops, so I was able to pull that intercept off successfully. On that trip it was really apparent of the maintenance items I'd neglected, so even though it goes, it doesn't go well enough to be considered ride able.

Well I fixed the ZX radiator with my friend JB Weld (don't judge me) and I'm waiting for a radiator guard. But I miss having a bike I can cruise around on and not need to go a hundred miles an hour to have fun on. Tomorrow I need to get in touch with the only shop to seem to be willing to do work on a V4 and get my bike into their queue.

Pictured: Test ride to see if the leak is fixed

Instead of agonizing about stuff I can't change or won't make a decision about I suppose I need to think about stuff to look forward to that hasn't been scrubbed due to C19.

-Central/Eastern Oregon trip in June or whenever it ends up

-MotoAmerica at the Ridge in August

-Highway 20/Cascades Highway in Washington (probably before or after the MotoAmerica round)

-OMRRA/Track season whenever it starts

-Maybe a fall ride into NorCal after Labor Day. I've been kicking around the idea of hitting some of the sierras on the east side

Consolation Prize

Have you ever ridden through a state park and thought: "you know these roads are great, asphalt is smooth, corners fantastic, I just wish I wasn't parked behind a minivan through all of them going 15mph. I wish a global plague would happen to reduce traffic in this park so I could enjoy the road the way the Motorcycle Gods intended".

You see where this is going, right?

After work I hopped on the ZX6R and ran off to meet another cornering enthusiast. We worked our way through the farmlands  and up towards a certain state park. At the last major interchange (last chance to turn back) there was a road sign advising the park was closed. That's where the fun started.

Admittedly since the stay at home order went into effect the traffic in a lot of places has been lessened. This road however is usually always busy, so seeing it this dead is weird. I was able to get into my rhythm, unaffected by coming around a corner and having a stopped minivan in the road, and worked the edges of the tires.

There were a handful of other bikes out and on the way back we ran across a buddy who was riding two up with a special lady.

I rarely call a ride perfect, but this was pretty damn close. A fair consolation prize for my track and race season slipping away.

Blowing off Some Steam

Today should have been the Austin MotoGP. It should have been the premier of MotoAmerica Superbike at Austin. I should have spent all day in front of the TV eating pizza, drinking beer, and swearing every time the announcer says "Marc Marquez".

But alas those events were scrubbed due to C19.

As an avid reader of my musings you are aware that in an effort to combat the frustration of lockdown and my own track/race season getting... delayed I converted my ZX6R back to street trim, so I could enjoy it. All I needed was a nice day to do so.

The motorcycle gods must have made a deal with the weather gods as they made today turn nice. One of the Salem guys said "Ride at 1, meet at xxxx" and that was it. Everyone else must have been just as itchy because about 20 lads and lasses showed up for the ride.

At first everything was kind of ho hum boring, fine I'm breaking in new tires, and then it continued so. What, has the ride leader lost his rip? So of course as you know when I'm on the ZX6R I make pour decisions and I blew by them. Efff that noise, I'm gonna get my rip on, as I blew past the group and blazed my own trail.

Ironically some miles later I ran across the tail of the group who had gotten lost, so I flipped around and hung out with them for a bit until the ride leader retrieved us. Things went back to the ho-hum and as we were entering my AO and the roads I know I said "eff this" again, but this time I knew what the intended route was. Me and a 'Busa rider split off and blazed out the country road at triple digits to catch up to the rest of the group. Funny how riding the ZX6R triple digit speeds just seems so... natural. There's no fear here, just corners, just enlightenment. A truly dangerous (legally speaking) machine as its natural state is far beyond the closed mindedness of the law.

The breakaway caught up to the rest of the group at the intersection of a fun road and a hill climb which is just awesome I gotta tell you. I must concede also that its a hillclimb that I know quite well and... do not want to be in the rear of a group for. So (you see this coming don't you?) I did a little pass-on-the-left of the group and blasted up the hillclimb. Two of the faster guys on liter bikes eventually passed me but by the top there was nary a chicken strip among us.

This kind of bad (depending on your point of view) behavior continued for the rest of the miles out to the second bridge where we had our impromptu bike show and appreciation event among the fishers at the reservoir. Excuse the picture, as this many bikes in a line (this wasn't all of them) is difficult to shoot.

But don't worry, we kept our six foot distancing the whole time.

Later when I got home I made a pizza and decided to drink too much wine and blog! Fixed my depression for a few hours at least!

OMG my pizza is so good.

ZX6R street conversion

Last year I wrote a blog post or two about converting my ZX6R for track/race duty. Well due to this C19 nonsense all my trackdays and race weekends have been cancelled up to June at least. If you read my previous vent post you know that the uncertainty and lack of control was driving my insane. So I ordered the cheapest fairing kit on ebay and decided to enjoy my Ninja on the street in the meantime. At the very least this would give me a chance to be mad at something more tangible (misfitting fairings, me being bad at fitting fairings, etc) instead of C19.

I started with the tail because its the easiest. I knocked that out on Friday after work. The hardest part was remembering how the locking mechanism goes together. Here's the funny thing: I ordered a Black-Matte kit, and my tank and solo seat cowl are shiny-black. So that it wouldn't clash I rebuilt the tail with my existing parts, which weren't all that damaged from my crashes.

Saturday morning after watching old races (two races were MM93 didn't win) and talking to my dad, I started on the main body.

I started with assembling as much as I could on the living room floor. The ZX6R has the benefit of being able to put the top cowl/nose and both mid-fairings together with the headlight. This is where I started running into the problem of 1. I'm bad at doing this and 2. I bought the cheapest kit possible. The kit didn't have all the right kinds of bolts/screws/wellnuts/quick rivets to actually put it together. My morning was spent back and forth to the garage to scavenge bits from the old trashed fairings (good thing I didn't bin them) and putting them into the new. Fit was another issue. For instance one side the turn signal fit right in, the other it didn't and I broke a bit of plastic. This particular kit was probably manufactured in 2010ish and felt super brittle.

This is also where I started running into the problem of being unable to fit certain trim parts because I suck and can't get the tabs and slots to line up. They must have a special jig for doing this in the factory. Anyways by mid afternoon I was able to get it into the garage and test fit it.

Thanks to having lots of spare bolts and connectors from other bikes I was able to start making progress. I eventually just gave up on most of the trim parts. The body is going to come off in two months (hopefully) anyways, screw it. Kawasaki in their wisdom put the R/R heatsink mounted on the inside the right fairing on the turn signal, which was a pain to put back in place.

Anyways I was able to finish good enough for a picture without mirrors(rainy outside so I stayed in).

Next week is forecast for some good weather. So maybe I'll get to ride the Ninja for the first time since September. Gotta take it easy, break in the tires, make sure nothing falls off, and most important remember how to ride it!

The Crown of Thorns

<This is another one of those posts where if you get offended about stuff you shouldn't read it.>

The best thing about winter is that it eventually passes. When you look at the calendar and say "Great, only a month left before it warms up enough to ride comfortably" its a defined amount of time. There is no question about it.

All winter long I got up early and busted my ass in the gym, I watched my diet, and I managed to get down to "race weight". Go me. I de-winterized my track bike and put on fresh sticky rubber. I splurged and got a new race suit and back protector. I even managed to save a few bucks to fund my track habit during the summer.

Then all this Covid19 nonsense happened and the world went mad.

March Trackday - Cancelled
April Trackday/Race - Cancelled
MotoGP - "postponed" until at least mid-May
WSBK - "postpond" until at least mid-May
MotoAmerica? Who knows

In Oregon the Governor shut down the state with a ridiculous stay at home order that makes it a misdemeanor (with possible jail time and large fine) to do "non-essential" travel. Even riders I know who would normally raise their middle finger to authority and say let's go ride are shaming others for wanting to get out.

I know what you're thinking, "but Tim, this is to protect the old and sick that could die from the Covid19".

Allow me to explain why that pisses me off. I have bad asthma. Like, really bad. In 2013-2016 I had multiple respiratory infections resulting from the flu. In 2018 I was in the hospital multiple times for it and we had to re-home our house cats just so I could breath.

The world didn't come to a stop. No governor shut down the economy of the state and ordered everyone home so they wouldn't spread the flu to an at risk person. People still stubbornly came to work with their colds and flus and coughed on me. You know what? I'm not the only person who's ever been "at risk". In Oregon all the deaths from this virus are people that were on seriously borrowed time already.

I digress. The worst part about this stay at home order is that its like the winter, except there's no end in sight. Unlike winter I can't go to the bar. Unlike winter I can't go snowboarding. Unlike winter, I'm not a badass for going riding, I'm a criminal that my own friends will shame and might turn in.

In closing, here's a picture of my white elephant. Can't use it, can't sell it. It just sits there in my garage as a reminder of what could have been.

Winter Doldrums 19/20

I realize I've been horribly amiss in riding and writing. This has been the kind of winter where, although there's been many warm days, the nice days happen midweek when I'm at work. The weekends are often frosty or cold rainy. I will admit also that the seasonal depression has got the better of me and I've spent more time staring at glowing rectangles than doing stuff that usually makes me happy.

I have gotten out to ride, just usually not more than a 30 miles loop around the valley and then back before the next rain storm.

As usual when I have too much time to think, I think too much. Life goes by quicker but seems simpler when I do more doing, than thinking.

Today I lucked out on weather and took the VFR to the coast to see if it was still there. With no surprise it was still in fact there. One of my favorite highways was fairly empty and not a lot of winter debris. Regrettably one of my favorite coastal restaurants has gotten rather popular and with it the wait times. Judging by the license places in the parking lot, the Google reviews must have given away the secret.

I kept my pace low enough all day to not earn a ticket except from the most hungry of highway tax collectors, which meant more time to think. My mind wanders and I relive old arguments and past mistakes. If I'm going license remover speed there isn't enough brain left to do that. Its better to do that on the back of a motorcycle than in my office staring at a glowing rectangle. Still if I could shut off the fear, the self loathing, and the reminiscing about past mistakes I would. I've learned my lessons, can I move on please?

I had an epiphany a while back that I've been struggling to commit to words. Its one of those feelings and realizations that is hard to really convey verbally but I'll try for the sake of getting it off my chest.

When I get nostalgic about something/sometime/someone, I'm not feeling about the time/place/people/action/thing, I'm feeling about how something could have been. I'm feeling about how the world at the time seemed like so many good things could happen. Ultimately none of it happened. Loves were lost, I never got the perfect assignment, I started racing too late to be any good at it, and I ended up where I'm at. The past seems brighter some days than the future, simply because the future doesn't seem as open as it used to. There was a time when it seemed like something really good was just around the corner. Now many corners later I know what comes next, and that having the dream of the grass being greener on the other side is just an illusion that caused me to go when I should have stayed, or stayed when I should have gone.

Fortunately we're past the Winter Solstice and the countdown to the beginning of the good weather is under way. My first trackday is scheduled, my OMRRA membership is renewed, my race tires are ordered, and I have MotoAmerica at The Ridge to look forward to.

Motorcycles and Photography

I wouldn't be the first person to say that the only thing I enjoy as much as riding my bike is taking pictures of it and showing them. Well maybe not "as much", but its up there. In 2016 before my Laguna Seca trip I bought a DSLR (Canon Rebel, go ahead and laugh). Since then I've taken a handful of pictures that I really thought were "good", among thousands that were bad or just OK. In the last year I've started a more concerted effort to learn how to shoot and post process better. One of the biggest frustrations is realizing that the field of computational photography (my Pixel 3a for instance) often produces better photos than I can using a DSLR shooting in RAW and post processing. If only I could attach a 50mm prime lens to my Pixel 3a I'd have the best photos all the time.

There's limits to my gear for instance (Canon Rebel with kit lenses) and my software (Canon Digital Photography Pro) but also that I'm not that great at post-processing. Photography is a hobby like motorsports that can consume all available income if you let it. If I bought a better camera body I'd get a better image sensor that can do extremes of light better, and if I bought better lenses everything would be better. If I bought Lightroom and Photoshop I would have features that DPP doesn't have, but would I really make a better photo because of it?

Like my club racing I'm trying to keep it simple and not let it consume every dime possible.

Without further ado I present, Some of Tim's favorite motorcycle photos. Not necessarily the best and not necessarily all of them.

The classic "everything important has been moved into the new house". The quality of the photo isn't anything to write home about but all these years later I like the composition.

I don't remember if I took this with a smartphone or a point and shoot. My current Pixel 3a would have shot these colors and HDR lighting so much better, but I like the composition and the result nonetheless.

Top, CBR, bottom, VFR. I tried to recreate the oroginal photo several years later. The top is with a smartphone I believe. The bottom image was with my DSLR in automatic without thought of focal length or anything else, really just a high-res point and shot.

Racer at work on his bike. I kind of accidentally got this one right from a focal length/composition point of view. If I'd been shooting RAW back then I could have corrected for the highlights, but alas here we are.

I rushed this photo (and it was with a phone). But the composition could have been really great if I'd had my DSLR and taken my time.

Shot on an overcast day so the lighting was good. Composition wasn't fantastic because I didn't work on setting up the bike with a good background.

Action shots are tough. This one though was one of my better shots from the Alaska trip. If you look close though you can see the chromatic distortions from my crappy kit telephoto lens.

Victory lap at Laguna Seca 2019.

Fields run 2019, somewhere in Nevada.

On a ride recently I shot some action pictures. That's not me obviously. This was golden hour/behind a mountain so the light was failing but since I shot in RAW I could correct somewhat in post.

I liked this one as a candid more than the technical aspects of the shot. An OMRRA racer and his daughter.

Middle of the summer in the shade of very bright light. The light is just about as good as you can get. From this angle you can see the pretty tail, exhaust and the just slightly tinted windscreen.

Tom Luthi's Marc VDS bike at Austin MotoGP 2018

VFR in the rain. Rainclouds make for the best diffusers. (cell phone)

HDR image where my phone (Motorola Moto-e-4) went overboard on saturation. I like it anyways.

Eugene Laverty Laguna Seca 2019 (Canon Rebel)

VFR near field of sheeps. (Canon Rebel)

ZX6R in race trim. (Canon Rebel) Yes I know the paint is awful, its rattle can, and no I don't care.