Thunderoil: Aug 15- Aug 17th

So more trackdays at NJMP for Terry and me.

Saturday was our SVRider.com day, so Terry finished his track SV and brought it to the track.


After the first session, he came in saying the bike isn't running right. "When I have the throttle completely open the fuel is cutting out.. something is wrong.." He presumes there is a problem with the fuel delivery or something and starts taking the gas tank off and blah blah blah. I'm sitting in my chair thinking.. "sounds like he's bouncing off the rev limiter.. but he's obviously not doing that... he should know what he's doing...."....... as it turns out... some one's become a bit spoiled with his 16k RPM redline ZX-6R..DOH! What a jackass lol.


Larry aka RD350 on SVRider, came out with his buddy, Steve on a Hypermotard. I got to play with him for a session, and that was a lot of fun!

So first half of the day sort of sucked. Someone who had their oil changed before the trackday unfortunately doubled up on their washer, and blew oil from pit lane out going into turn 2.. so there was a lot of time lost first thing due to clean up.

Then right before lunch, some jackass in over his head, trying to pass multiple people at Turn 5 high sides at he exit (2 bikes in front of me) and dumps oil on the track as well! WTF!! So early lunch


It was scorchingly HOT out! Which I believe led to many accidents during the weekend. Luckily no one that I knew.


some lunchtime eye candy

after lunch someone crashes again in Intermediate, and Roy calls us into a meeting, trying to figure out what's going on. Some newcomers complain that Intermediate is too fast.... WHAT??
So Roy bumps up some people (Terry, Cru, Sam, and some others to lighten the group).

When I go back out the group is going faster anyway, I think because most of the jackasses had crashed out in the morning. And the guys saying it was too slow they should have been bumped down.
So the rest of the afternoon is a blast.



Last session someone lowsides exiting turn 2 , ending the session, I got that on video....




din din



Sunday we took a skip day to relax and recover. We went to see District 9 which I LOVED!!!



Monday to the track again.



So I participated in Absolute's I-camp, and subsequently got another coach to work with, "Jesse". He showed me some new lines to help me pass people. And overall all the feedback I got from him as well as Roy and others, was I was doing excellent, I was smooth and consistent and it looks like I've pushed my SV to it's limits and perhaps need a faster bike. ;)

shiny compromise

Don't know how it's going to end up looking on my bike. I think it might be too pretty for it :(

But after polishing the tank to a chrome like finish, it was painful to matte it all out. So I reached a compromise and decided to matte the sides of the tank, and polish the rest.



It's off to the powder-coater next.

oooh shiny! I mean yuck....

still working on the gas tank. I'm down to 1000 grit now, and starting to get to a mirror finish. It's starting to look like Terry's chromo at some parts of the tank.. and that just won't do. ;)





I'll continue to polish it a bit more, and then bring it down to a matte/satin finish to match my aluminum bits on the bike. Then it goes out to the powder-coater! Can't wait.

watching paint peel.........

Spending the day at Brooklyn Machine Works again, this time to strip paint off a gas tank. Plans are to clear (powder) coat the raw looking tank, which will truly go with my "industrial" theme of the Monster.

Terry gave me a perfectly good gloss black Monster tank, which he originally got from the moto shop. A few years ago a customer brought a Monster in with a little cosmetic damage and it was "totaled" by the customer's insurance company. Terry ended up with the tank.

I'm using Rock Miracle to strip the paint off the gas tank.

Here's what the gas tank looked like.

Terry had sealed water bottle bosses welded into my gas tank for me so I can mount some old Ducati 250 winged badges.

watching the paint peel... note this is NOT time lapsed! This is how quick this shit works!


This is what the tank looked like after a few applications of Rock Miracle, then rinsed off.



and here's a preview of what's to come.



next step is to clean up and re-finish the surface, then clear powder coat.

Aug 3, 2009

Started cleaning up the tank with a steel wire wheel attached to a drill.

still have some paint chips left to clean up completely, then I'll work to finish the surface uniformly.

some fav videos...and the death of Rivet Riders

Last year I started up an online forum, Rivet Riders. I started it up to meet fans of industrial music that also rode, in the hopes to help get me going out more again. While I met some cool people, it wasn't enough to motivate me out again LOL. One of the boards on the forum I had created was for posting moto-related and videos and photos, as well as non-moto/ adrenaline junkie videos. I'm closing down RivetRiders, and posting my favorite videos here instead. :)

Ice Racing





Christian Pfeiffer videos:







BMW promo from Erzberg Rodeo


Isle of Man TT 2007 review




BMW motorcycle safety video


urban trials riding: julien dupont











Still 2 wheels







some more adrenaline junkies...

Mountain Wingsuit





Damien Walters

Thunderbolt : July 26th, 27th

So we headed down to Millville, NJ again for 2 trackdays on Thunderbolt with Absolute.

July 26th, 2009
The first day, we were accompanied by many members of SuspectsUnlimited, as well as some SVRiders and as always some DESMOites. Met some more new people, which is always the case at a trackday! Lots of good people to be found!

These photos were taken by fellow DESMOites. Big thanks to Irene and Martin!!!

Here's one of Terry:

the others of me:





Had an awesome time, even in the hot, sticky, yucky heat... BUT at least it didn't rain as predicted the whole week prior. These two trackdays, I set out to work on passing, and feeling comfortable anywhere on the track, so it was more about playing and having fun, and less about staying "on the line". I felt very comfortable, most everywhere but tired easy!

July 27, 2009

Looked like it was going to be a wet one, but once again the weather gods were good to us!! The only rain we saw was at lunch time. The track was dry by the time the first group was called to go out! The track was almost empty compared to the previous day, and there was a nice breeze which made the day much more comfortable. Too bad we were both already exhausted from the day before.

video:

It's alive!!

My Monster.. reborn again.


back in March 2009 we stripped the stock wiring harness out of the bike



new mods:
2002 wiring harness ripped out and replaced with a
2000 wiring harness, with a 2001 ECU.

The regulator rectifier had to be moved from the rear of the bike to the front due to the different year wiring harness used.

we fabbed a tray for the rear electronics



Shock sock, I don't run a mud guard, so hopefully this will help my rear shock to stay a little healthier.
KOSO gauges were installed


Bit o' BMW bling! BIG THANKS to all the guys at Brooklyn Machine Works for helping!

They welded tabs for the regulator rectifier, as well as welded my relocated rear coil mount.

Also lots of suggestion, and moral support!!!!!!! Big thanks to Joe for allowing us to keep the bike in his shop for so many months and allowing full use of it!





Headers wrapped
the British gas mask was replaced with a smaller Canadian gas mask...