Second are these, darker more chopped up looking lining.
Second are these, darker more chopped up looking lining.
Kid#2 has been to the track three times now. He's just over a second behind his little sister and not super happy about that. We're basically the same size so he's been wearing my gear and I've got on borrowed leathers and the rest cobbled together. I fixed a bad oil seal on the ignition side of the white XR100 and the brake stuff above is an effort to get that bike stopping better. Apparently I don't get to ride my own bike or wear my own gear any more. I'm ok with that. 
He doesn't want to race in the season opener in 10 days. I'm hoping we can get him to do an enduro with us before he heads to college in September.
Race weekend! Saturday was the four hour enduro in Katy Texas. We were 1 of 3 bikes in the Grom class with 18 bikes overall. The plan was to stay on the bike and keep it out of the pits as much as possible for the whole time. It worked! 1st Grom and 10/18 overall. We won Grom by 7 laps and at least 5 of those were due to our fast rider changes and the one quick refuel. The plan now is to attend every round and see how we can do for the season.
Sunday was sprints. Remember when I said above that kid#2 didn't want to race yet? He changed his mind. Bit of a mad dash to get the white XR100 ready to race, bit of shiny in the oil that will probably be an issue later, but it would probably hold for the weekend.
We did five races each. Lots that I could say about it but I'm having trouble with the words. I watched my kids battle people and each other. I lined up at the start with both of them for two races. For one race I was able to sit behind them for three laps watching my daughter work out how to pass her big brother. Someday my kids will beat me, but on this day I could still hold my own.
It was the kind of day you dream of having when you have kids. We all won trophies. We all got crushed in other races. We all fell down and got back up. I hope we get to do it again.
Keep it up, thoes are the opportunitys and memories I wish I got as a kid.
One of our team members just posted a video of our last team day. We had fun.
Next race canceled. Maybe the rest of the season? We're sad. The track is still open to members (for now) and we've still been riding. Kid#2 took over the white bike for now. It's slower (with me on it) but he feels more comfortable and is going faster. The motor is tired. Super tired. The crank case vent blows air like a compressor. I pulled the motor from the future street legal bike and swapped. Motor swaps in bikes (at least these bikes) are kind of fun.
I may pull the head/cylinder and see if I can get away with just new rings or if more is wrong. In the mean time, Mrs. Deuce was flipping through old pictures and found this one of kids #2 and #3. Maybe I should have expected this outcome.
Track is still open to members (which keeps numbers lower while still keeping a couple of people working) so we went to ride bikes Saturday and Sunday. Did about 150 laps in total. Today I put the GoPro on my bike in a couple of different configurations primarily so I could show kid#3 what I was seeing. Once she knew where her lines were she tightened them up and took almost a whole second off. Her fast time is just over a second slower than my fast time. She may be faster than me soon.
Point 1: you're so going to grin ear-to-ear when she can beat you. I would too!
Point 2: I was initially deeply bothered by the close up butt cam. But then it really made sense. Good work.
In reply to TVR Scott :
Yea, I'm looking forward to her beating me. I'm just amazed that she's come as far as she has on such a simple bike. The group of us that ride together all agree that she's ready for a GP style bike (probably and Ohvale) but the for sale market has pretty much stopped. We're gong to have to wait a bit until people start selling again.
As to the butt shot, yea. Nobody wants to look at my butt. I don't want to look at my butt. I love watching motorcycle racing on TV and have always loved the onboard shots. Watching them you get a proper feeling for the dynamics and athletecism that it takes to ride a bike, Not saying that I'm any kind of good at it, but watching me move over, the bike lean, and my knee drag across the curbing is about the closest I've ever come to dancing. I need to spend some time trhing to figure out a camera mount that captures the dynamics while showing less butt.
I think I posted about the RS125 with the KTM motor before, but if Ididn't, I will now. My riding friend bought it last summer when I had only done one track day and was intimidated by it, otherwise I would have bought it. There have been some teething issues but it's running well now and he's getting some laps in. It's magical.
That's me coming back into the pits. It feels absolutely perfect from a size standpoint and with somewhere north of 30hp it's a rocket. I'm still learning shift points and how to keep it somewhere close to the powerband, and it feels like I'm nowhere close to what the bike can do. Riding terribly and with less than 20 laps on the bike I was able to beat my best ever time around the track by 2.5 seconds.
I need a proper GP bike.
There is a chance that 90% of all the fun motorsports in the country right now is at the local kart track. Yesterday we had karts, bikes, and a handful of drifters. Still less than a dozen people today and everyone keeping distance.
The drifters were good and fun to watch. They also brought along one heck of a photographer. She sent me some pictures she took and I'm over the moon with them.
You need to frame two prints of the top one. One for kid 3 to take with her when she flies the coop and one for you.
As we all know, Interstellar Sledgehammer has been providing the forum with music. The instrumental just begs to bet the soundtrack to something. That has inspired me to work on 3D printing better GoPro mounts to get better footage to edit into something that might one day be worthy. Here we have kid#3 testing out the first mount. I'm generally happy as it shows hand inputs and head motion well. I think it needs to be just a bit further forward on the bike.
Short clip. I 3d printed a gimbaled camera mount to hang off the side of the bike. It was too gimbally. I need to pick up some damping grease to slow oscillations. In the mean time, we zip tied the gimbal and got this clip. I'm still not super happy with it but it's useful for showing how close to the curbing she really is. She's getting a knee on the curbs but her wheels are 12-18 inches off of it. Good training tool to see the difference between where you think you are, and where you really are.
LOVE that camera placement.
I rode a bit as a kid and only recently have started riding again on the street. I've never put my knee down, but watching you and your daughter train on the kart track has certainly piqued my interest in trying it someday.
In reply to Mezzanine :
You know how you drive a car on the street and it's fun and you like cars and then you learn about autocross and think "looks fun, but they only go 60 top speed, probably fun, but....." and then you get a ride in a Miata with Hoosiers? Like that but more, and with bikes. DO IT!
Seth, do you follow Ari Henning on Instagram? He posted this the other night. Almost stuck the landing.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
I have this I need to sell. Can you come to Leesburg Virginia to get it? :)
In reply to hobiercr (FS) :
I don't Instagram. I'm waiting for my kids to tell me it's played out and then I'll join.
Thanks for linking that thought, it was awesome.
In reply to Jah29 :
So I sent you a PM..........
Let me know if you get it.
Minimoto is way outside my wheelhouse but this thread has me interested. What's a realistic minimum cost of entry? IE, what might one pay for a decent starter bike, spares, set of leathers, etc?
In reply to nderwater :
Cheapest way in is like anything else, buy a used bike that's prepped. The endurance race Grom we bought was $2k with the good suspension bits on it. The cheaper way in is an XR100. They can be had in decent condition for $800-$1200 and they ony require a set of $200 tires to get on track as they sit. Like all racing, you also want to look at what people around you are racing so you have someone to race against at some point.
As far as gear, you need helmet, boots, gloves, leathers and with our group a back protector. I'm not sure the back protector is required everywhere but it's a good idea. Again, like car stuff, used safety gear is the bargain of the century. Good, lightly used leathers sell for 1/4 of what they do new. There are also some good discount leathers on ebay in the $400 range if you don't want to rub against someone else's sweat. The only thing I would make sure I buy new is a helmet. You can spend $100, you can spend $1k, but make sure it fits right.
If I had to do it again knowing what I know, I think I could go from "I want to ride bikes" to "I'm riding bikes" for a bit less than $2500. This highlights the MAJOR downside to this sport. That's a lot of coin to see if you like it. I think most people come to the sport either from road bikes (where they have most of the gear), big bikes (where they have all the gear) or from friends that can loan them things to get them hooked. If you want to wander down to Houston, I can get you hooked up.
This is all pure awesome. I will likely never get the chance to try it, but damn this thread makes me want to. Kudos.
A gaggle of groms went buzzing by yesterday and I thought of you
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