Hi folks -

Here's a great link with detailed trackday information for every local track, with direct links to the organizers:

http://jimrace.com/AFM_biz/ca_trackdays.html

Here are the remaining track days that I'm currently signed up for this year:

All at Thunderhill:
5/23 Open trackday with ZoomZoom (Colin & Vicki will be here, Mark Eastwood, Bill Moore, maybe Ben) ***DONE***
6/27 (Monday) Open trackday with Pacific TrackTime (not sure) ***DONE***
7/23 (Saturday) Open trackday with Sierra Sportbike Association. ***DONE***
7/24 (Sunday) Open trackday with ZoomZoom (+ Colin & Vicki, Mark Eastwood, Jonathan Eastwood) ***DONE***
9/3 (Saturday) Open trackday with ZoomZoom (+ Ben, Mark Eastwood)

- Alex

Vicki and I are signed up in the "Novice School" for the 5/23 day at T-Hill with ZoomZoom. It's supposed to be a structured C group, with classroom instruction between sessions.

I did a bit of research and thought this program with ZoomZoom offered the best value for a first-time track experience for anxious novices looking for a more controlled environment than a typical open trackday.

I'll write a little report afterwards and let folks know if it met this expectation...

Colin

I'll be there with bells on, and my new rear sets, which I started putting on tonight. I'll post a full pictoral once they are completed. the left side was easy, but the right side needs the brake lines to be drained and re-routed....hmmmm....we'll see how that goes. :idunno

Unfortunately I discovered the mounting bracket for the right side pipe was cracked. DOH! I'll have to get that re-welded.

I'm replacing the coolant on my bike tonight or tomorrow and on Vicki's over the weekend. I'm not very mechanically inclined, but if Alex can do it....

:D Alex would be very unlikely to be able to do it without the able help of Annie. But between the two of us, we got it done with little collateral damage...

Awww... Alex acknowledged my existence! Usually, he takes credit for my handywork... i.e. ZX-12 wiring when explained to buyer this past weekend :mad:

Did you manage to sell the Kwack? Ann did you take your "Explainer fee"? %10 is the industry standard, but I would go %15. :D

Yup, sold it Saturday! Ann hasn't settled on a commission figure yet...

OK, here's what's wrong with the commission logic - his money is my money, so how can I charge commission on my own money? :o

Try the "coffee in bed for a week" fee. Or at least the "upgrade my laptop to a 2GHZ" fee. :rolleyes:

Well, the coolant swap was successful on the 6R, hopefully it'll go faster when I do the F3 later this week.

That's not to say it went smoothly...

I had the benefit of a great step-by-step tutoral with pics written by some guy with the same bike:

http://www.themcdonalds.net/richard/bike/zx6r/trackprep.shtml

This made it very easy, so the hiccups weren't technical ones. However,

- After I drained the coolant, Vicki called (she's on a business trip) and while chatting with her I managed to get distracted and kicked over the entire bucket of coolant. All over the floor, under our water heater (which is raised, thankfully), and into my little tool kit. Yuck. The hazmat cleanup took 20 minutes and I spent another 30 at the end of the night cleaning sticky antifreeze off the 50+ tools. Vicki mentioned she was glad she wasn't home.

- The flushing process started off well enough. Lots of distilled water? Check. Buckets? Check. Narrow funnel to reach the radiator? Uh....doh! So, an hour to run to Kragen for a funnel (and to buy/eat some Chinese fast food...Dai Chin chicken, mmmm....)

- It takes a *lot* of flushing to get the water to run through clear, 3+ gallons (thanks Alex for recommending 4 gals to do the job).

- Once it was all buttoned up, I was a bit worried my fan didn't start at 103 degrees as indicated by the tutorial. Head-scratching, kicking and cursing ensued, until...doh! Why can't the US use Celsius like everywhere else? Kicked in as scheduled at around 216 F.

As usual, it took longer than anticipated, but there's satisfaction in doing it myself. Yeah, it's a simple task, but chain-cleaning is the prior sum extent of my motorcycle maintenance repertoire. Well, not couting the nearly 6 hours to install a luggage rack...

Hopefully, the plumbing on the F3 will look similar enough to the 6R!

OK, here's what's wrong with the commission logic - his money is my money, so how can I charge commission on my own money

"His money is my money" is one thing...."your money is his money" is quite another....

- It takes a *lot* of flushing to get the water to run through clear, 3+ gallons (thanks Alex for recommending 4 gals to do the job).


I didn't use distilled water to flush; I only used distilled water to refill. We ran a garden hose to the top of the radiator and kept flushing until it ran completely clear, then fully drained. At that point I started using the distilled water, closed up the system, and added the water wetter. There may have been a smidge of non-distilled water in the system (a few tablespoons) but I'm not going to worry much about it...

I figured that would work too...did you leave the drain open while filling from the top? Or fill...drain...fill...drain?

Left the drain open the whole time, but the hose seemed to be refilling fast enough that the radiator stayed close to full the whole time while it was draining from the bottom.

I was worried about rain, but the 10-day forecast indicated 90 degrees at Willows on 5/23.....yikes!

I was worried about rain, but the 10-day forecast indicated 90 degrees at Willows on 5/23.....yikes!

That'll work. If it turns out to be 90+, no doubt this will be the last of the tires that I'm somewhat questionable on now. (I'm pretty sure they're fine, but hard to tell)

How strict are they in tech about tires being "new?" I have no idea how old the M1s are on my 600, though they look pretty good to me and have even tread depth across the middle and edges. But I'm not good at judging remaining tire wear, and I'm not familiar with what a new M1 looks like.

Maybe I can post a pic for opinions?

edit: ZZ requires "tires in good condition with plenty of tread" so I'm sure my current set will be fine.

I read the same text, and became more comfortable with mine. It's not a huge deal one way or another, it's almost guaranteed that there will be tire supplier there, who will happily put new tires on your bike in a few minutes if you need 'em. Just make sure to bring a rear stand and tools to remove your tire if you want to do it yourself...

Alex, how'd you get the number on your bike (to facilitate photos)? Some kind of white tape or did you get a preprinted one from the photographers?

They have the numbers there for free (they are stickers). Just get to the Got Blue Milk truck sometime early that morning to pick the numbers you want. I have taken off my side #'s, so I'll probably need to either find more "65", or replace that number with 3 new ones.

OK, here's what we want to emulate on Monday:

Link to incredible lap of Thunderhill by Tony Meiring (http://www.southbayriders.com/forums/videos/thunderhill_kenhill_tonymeiring.wmv)

Ann...regarding the commission...I have just one word to say "Island"...

You mean something like this?

http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/23112397-M.jpg

Not quite... but very cute :rolleyes: . Maybe you can work on the kitchen island while I'm gone...5 weeks should be plenty of time to get one ordered and installed via Dave Bullman...and it'll keep you busy and away from buying motorcycle stuff on the internet.:D Dave has already confirmed that he has the same granite counter tops and maple cabinetry we have in our kitchen <hint, hint>.

I just added another day to the schedule, 7/24. Ann and I are up there on 7/23, so we'll stay Saturday night and get a few sessions in on Sunday as well....

Hi folks -

Here are the remaining track days that I'm currently signed up for this year:

All at Thunderhill:
5/23 Open trackday with ZoomZoom (Colin & Vicki will be here, Mark Eastwood, Bill Moore, maybe Ben) ***DONE***
6/27 (Monday) Open trackday with Pacific TrackTime (not sure)
7/23 (Saturday) Open trackday with Sierra Sportbike Association. (Ben)
7/24 (Sunday) Open trackday with ZoomZoom
9/3 (Saturday) Open trackday with ZoomZoom

- Alex

You already had 7/24 listed (opening post for his thread), so I'm confused... were you never signed up on 7/24 (above was a typo) and now you are OR you just signed up again and hence signed up TWICE for 7/24? :confused:

You already had 7/24 listed (opening post for his thread), so I'm confused... were you never signed up on 7/24 (above was a typo) and now you are OR you just signed up again and hence signed up TWICE for 7/24? :confused:

Neither.

This afternoon I edited the first post (adding 7/24), and posted a new message at the bottom so it would bump the thread to the top and people would actually see the 7/24 date. Don't worry, I'm only signed up once. ;)

Neither.

This afternoon I edited the first post (adding 7/24), and posted a new message at the bottom so it would bump the thread to the top and people would actually see the 7/24 date. Don't worry, I'm only signed up once. ;)

Ahhh... OK, next time I will be more mindful of the "Last Edited" Date/Time stamp.

Off to kickboxing... see you at home after class. What do you want to do for dinner? ---- Wow! Vicki's right! This is glorified IM!

Looks like Vicki and I will likely be signing up for the ZZ day on Sunday 7/24.

Bring your chairs and we'll bring the canopy!

Supposedly there was a discount code on the tech slip from the last ZZ day so "return customers" get a break on the price. However, I think we tossed our tech slips. I haven't yet checked to see if the code is printed on the tech stickers, which are still slapped on the front of our bikes.

I used the BARF discount code; $15 off. Just enter BARF in the box. To be a good citizen, you should have a few posts on BARF (i.e. > 0 ) before using the code.

http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/

i may do that....i have a few (very few) posts on BARF...but i think the tech slip discount is $25 rather than $15....and there's two of us....the difference is an extra margarita and two beers!

So folks -

Who's going to be at Thunderhill next Monday? Hopefully someone with a canopy so I don't fry! :) I bought a tripod for my timing beacon today, so now all i have to do is get the bike wired up and I have a full system.

I signed up for the 24th of July at Thunderhill. My brother Jonathan will also be there. We will try to get there early to get a spot under the grand canopy.

Hey Alex, I will be joining you and Ben for the 3rd of September at T-Hill! The wife granted a full day pass despite it being her birthday! Maybe my gift to her is getting rid of me!! :thumbup

That's great! But you have to make a gentleman's agreement not to embarass me by more than 2.5 seconds/lap, ok? :D (where was that mail-order turbo kit for the R6...)

That's great! But you have to make a gentleman's agreement not to embarass me by more than 2.5 seconds/lap, ok? :D (where was that mail-order turbo kit for the R6...)
Aww... Alex, are you still upset about last weekend? :p Don't worry, if Mark laps you in September, I won't tell anyone... I'll just graphically represent it and post it on this forum! :D

Mark, if you missed the thread on the go-karting ride (http://www.montgomerybikers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200), take a look at the race results - it's under the attached files at the bottom of Alex's initial post. Alex came in 4th, but look at the "gap" column - Alex was lapped by the 3 guys in front! Way to go to Jeremy (Steve Pickford's son-in-law), Ricardo Gale, and Steve Tourdo! :thumbup :clapping

I know, I know, I came in 9th, but hey I am genetically predetermined to be a bad driver (Asian+Female)... and I needed both pedal extenders and a booster seat! :hellokitt

I did see the posts. Those were some sweaty happy people!! :bounce

I will keep my gentlemens agreement if Alex promises to sit up straight and keep his bum firmly planted in the middle of the seat!! :p