In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Yeah, after he was done kidding that was the one word of caution from my surgeon. I guess the way my plate is on there it's pretty darn close to the ends, and thus pretty strong.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Yeah, after he was done kidding that was the one word of caution from my surgeon. I guess the way my plate is on there it's pretty darn close to the ends, and thus pretty strong.
Colin Edwards!? My jaw is on the floor, and it may take a while to collect it. That's awesome.
Noodling around with bike stuff while I wait for the kids to go back to school and I dive into some house projects. With two weekends in a row of big kart races coming up at the track near my house the place was overrun with super serious kart guys. It was fun to watch them do setup and pressures and chasing 1/10's, but we retreated to the other track an hour away for Sunday. Two fun things about that. First was that my buddy Cesar was out with his XR100. He's gotten a ton better and is getting close to getting a knee down.
Also the teammate who did the whole tib/fib titanium rod leg breaking thing earlier did his first laps since his crash. Darn near teared up. Then I figured out that he's still faster than me. Dangit.
Still playing with wiring on the titled XR. Everything works through the switches now so it's time to build mounts and clean stuff up.
Those aren't the turn signals that will be on the bike in the end so those mounts are ugly/low effort. The whole thing is quick detach with a single dzus which will 100% break the fender in time, but when you have a box of dzus they seem like a solution.
Last but not least, I'm taking a few moments to acknowledge how amazing things are right now. Kid#3 asked if we could go do a few laps after her basketball practice. Sure. I picked her up with the bikes in the truck and headed over. Did two sessions with just the two of us there. At one point I stopped and got off the bike and walked a line on a hairpin to show her a quicker way through the corner. She understood and went a bit faster.
She just had another birthday. We've only got a couple short years to play like this. I can finish other projects later.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Time with the family always trumps any projects one may have waiting. Good for you guys!
Laced up the wheels for kid#3's bike. I hate 12 inch spoked wheels so much. I think they're true enough and they look rad. She has more tire than me now. Have to scrub the kart rubber off the used tires and then see how it runs.
Yeah, you can't just drop Colin Edwards' name and not explain. Please explain.
In reply to Nader :
Look back at page 8. The picture at the top is Colin Edwards and his son and deucekid#3. They were at the track lapping one day when we stopped by to ride. I was still off the bike with the collar bone thing but kid#3 did some laps with them. We talked about bikes and stuff. He stood at the track edge and went full dad taking phone videos of his son. Fist bumped kid#3 when she came off track and told her she was awesome. Sometimes the world is a funny place.
XR70 with Chinese bodywork?
Fun bike, I used to steal my son's all the time
In reply to Suprf1y :
XR 70 with a SSR110 engine with a manual clutch and now wide 12 inch hoops to run proper race rubber. It's a combination of stock and cheap replacement body work. The side panels will go back on when I get the exhaust sorted, before race season starts again. She's gotten good with the clutch and once she gets used to race rubber we'll pick up an Ohvale which is what she really wants to ride.
Had the whole Worst Pace Scenario at the track yesterday, all riding their own bikes, all healthy. It was a good day. We did have to try and pick the tank lock of another rider who forgot his key. By the time the picks came out they had already damaged a couple of pins with a screwdriver. Eventually they broke the rest of them and were able to fill up.
Did a BUNCH of laps on the 70/110. Fueling is off but the bike is awesome with the new wheels. Kid#3 had a school thing so she didn't get to ride. The suspension is totally garbage for someone my weight but even with that and the jetting issue I was only about 2 seconds slower than I was on the XR100. I think once we get the fueling sorted, get some softs on instead of the takeoff tires we have now, and put someone who weighs 70 lbs less than me on the bike, it may be faster. Either way, I think it's a proper transition bike from dirt bike style riding to an Ohvale now.
This is the swingarm from the XR70 that came in the three bike deal that I got. I found one on ebay for $45 shipped so I grabbed it. I could have welded it but there is a significant chance that this will be a kids bike when I sell it. Seemed like the right thing to do.
Ransom said:Colin Edwards!? My jaw is on the floor, and it may take a while to collect it. That's awesome.
Catching up on the adventures. Random anecdote.
I was at Road Atlanta in 1991 crewing for a buddy and I saw Colin Edwards run what I was told was one of his first road races. Honda had an amateur spec series with the CBR600F2. He mopped it up and was so much better than the 2nd place guy (who IIRC had flown in from Japan and wasn't *really* an amateur), it was difficult to process. By the end of that season, he showed up at Daytona, crushed everyone in all the Amateur classes he entered, immediately turned pro, and started doing well on a 250. I recall some whining about the quality if his equipment. "Dude, if you were that good, people would be giving it to you instead".
At some point that year I saw one of the Hayden brothers at Nelson Ledges. He looked very tiny on his 125 in the tech line. I vaguely recall there being some complaining about his age (14ish) and whether he should even be allowed to race.
In reply to mfennell :
I've been luck enough to watch world level talent a few times in my life and all of my stories are similar to yours. Neat stuff.
More bike stuff this weekend that overlapped with car stuff. My One Lap co-driver from a few years back brought the old stage rally RSX over from Austin for testing. I have a thread somewhere here going over me fixing and eventually hating this car. The plan is to race Grid Life Touring Cup at COTA later this year. The car did good. Only tool we needed the whole day was a rubber hammer to make tire space.
The next day we rewired his truck so his trailer lights worked and then went to ride tiny motorcycles. He rides and races a 450 supermoto but rides foot out supermoto style when he does that. The goal was to teach him to ride knee out. By his 4th session I had him strip off his supermoto gear and put on my leathers. It's good to have friends the same size.
You might have to zoom in, but here he is, dragging knee. Fourth session on his first day. Either I'm an incredible teacher or he's going to be good at this.
And last but not least, we're still working on gearing with the new wheels. Hot swap at the track. Fun stuff.
mazdeuce - Seth said:
As someone with a 5 month old daughter, this pic speaks to me deeply. Thanks again for sharing the fun y'all are having.
Where are we at? Rode with friend, clearly needed another bike to share, I have more XR100s, so let'd do that! More tires. These are actually both rears because I'm getting close to wearing out the rear on my bike. I still have the old front on the 19 so that went on too.
When I pulled the rear wheel off the brake lining was laying in the drum. Spare shoes went on.
The XR in question is the older one. Seat is a little lower but other than that it should be the same? Maybe?
And here we are at the track. The bikes are quite different. Some of it is the wheel size, some is taller bars, some is the lower grippier seat. All in all, similar, but different. I think the white bike is worth developing a bit. Had fueling issues off and on through the day with gunk in the carb bowl. Need to work on that.
None of that is the big news. The big news is related to yet another blurry cell phone pic of some dude in the same leathers on the same bike.
Bit it's not me, because I'm taking the picture. This morning I got up early to get the bikes ready. Kid#3 couldn't go today because she had to work on her epic quilt class project.
On my way through the house I asked Kid#2 if he wanted to come with me today. He's grounded from the computer for reasons and was mopey, so I decided to give him the option. He said no. I took kid#4 to his school thing and when I got back kid#2 had changed his mind. He came with me. He rode a motorcycle for the first time other than in the yard. He listened, he had great body position, he solidly got knees down in several places. He got to the end of the straight and his brain confused the clutch and brake levers and he didn't slow down quite enough and dumped it. Popped his shoulder out a bit and called it a day. Came home and wanted to see the data to figure out how to get faster.
To recap, get grounded, go ride motorcycles, drag knee, crash, can't wait to do it more. It was a good day.
What sort of work stuff have you been doing?
In reply to TVR Scott :
I was hired by a friend to work as an industrial mechanic diagnosing and rebuilding pumps. Anything from small metering pumps to 1000gpm stuff. It's fantastic. Best job I've ever had to be honest. The good part is that they're cool with me working 30 hours a week when the kids are in school so this whole thing gets me back in the work force, generates a bit of income, and doesn't upset the family balance at all. I'm lucky to have found it.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Very cool! I'm glad you've found something that fits your mentality and schedule. That's a hard thing to find.
I've designed some test stands in the past with big water pumps. The last stand I did had 10 hp and a 100 hp multistage turbine pumps. Worked perfectly for our needs.
i have no desire to ride a motorcycle on the street, but i think i could get into this mini moto stuff. gotta find local venue.
In reply to AngryCorvair :
I've thought the same thing. I've already identified a couple tracks near me.
mazdeuce - Seth said:To recap, get grounded, go ride motorcycles, drag knee, crash, can't wait to do it more. It was a good day.
That right there is going to encourage bad behavior!
Last but not least, I'm taking a few moments to acknowledge how amazing things are right now. Kid#3 asked if we could go do a few laps after her basketball practice. Sure. I picked her up with the bikes in the truck and headed over. Did two sessions with just the two of us there. At one point I stopped and got off the bike and walked a line on a hairpin to show her a quicker way through the corner. She understood and went a bit faster.
She just had another birthday. We've only got a couple short years to play like this. I can finish other projects later.
I can so relate to that. Try to think of it every time we come back from the garage, it's a blessing to share it with your kid. Doesn't matter that it puts my projects on the back burner. Doesn't matter that maybe I spend a little bit too much on our project.
Here she is torqueing the head on her car. Wearing my old "streetracer" sweatshirt. This is really a time to enjoy!
Gustaf
In reply to therealpinto :
Tell her she's awesome for me. Because she is.
This post isn't relevant to anyone who doesn't own a drum brake Honda. Please ignore. I'm posting just to save parts numbers for myself.
Two parts numbers from Honda for the XR70-80-100 which all share the same hubs and brakes. First is this one. The lighter more even colored lining material.
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