Sunday Ride

What a great day for a ride!  I didn't leave until 4:30, but by then, a lot of the traffic had gone home.  The sun was out for most of the ride and it was 77 degrees Fahrenheit- my kind of riding conditions!

Right before the ride, I tightened up the chain and filled the tires up a little, and I noticed the difference immediately.  When hitting Palomares Road, near the last stretch of the road, a ranching truck pulled out in front of me, but turned into another driveway half a mile down the road.  That was the only vehicle I had to wait on for all of Palomares!

On the Redwood/Pinehurst/Canyon section, I caught warning by other passing riders, that there was LEO up ahead.  He was writing up a fellow rider.  Thanks for the heads-up, guys!  I only had one car slow me down on the last part of Pinehurst, but he pulled over almost immediately.

All in all, it was an awesome 73-mile ride with very little interference from other motorists.  The bike is running like a champ and my riding is getting smoother.  The bike missed one shift, but I had no brain-farts.  Today's ride was the best in a long time!

Competition Werkes LED Flush Mount Installation

Well, after a very long search, I have found some inset flush mount LED signals that will work with the 1st generation SV650s. The installation went straight forward with little problems.

Step 1. Take the fairings off the bike and disconnect the lights.

Step 2. Remove the old lights from the fairings.

Step 3. Because the marker hole in the fairing only has a couple of tabs for the light to sit on, you'll want to create a platform interface for the light to rest on. I found an old DVD case to work with- it's sturdy enough to get the job done, yet soft enough to cut out and trim with scissors. Once you get the insert to fit correctly (tightly), place the marker light on top of it and spot out where the stalk will eventually thread through it, mark it with a pen and drill a hole through it. I used a 5/16" drill bit.

Step 4.   If you look on the backside of the hole in the fairing, you'll see that the screw retention holes for the original marker lights protrude a little higher than the rest of the surface.  Take a Dremel and grind those down, so that the screw retainer disc for the new lights will be screw on flat.

Step 5.   Cut off the electrical connector and solder on the OEM connector.  Wrap each wire with electrical tape.  Note- The black wire does not mate with the black wire!

Step 6.   Screw the new marker light into the fairing.  Attach the connectors together.  Put the fairings on and you're good to go!!

Laguna Seca MotoGP 2008

Yes, I was there. And it was one of the best motorcycle races I can ever recall. I saw the unlikely- Valentino Rossi beating archrival Casey Stoner in a battle of wits. It was awesome!

My day started early- I was up at 5am. My friends wanted to meet in Newark at 6:30am, so that we could see some of practice runs. Attendees included Christopher Layne, Joe Keto, Richard, and Dan. Most of them were acquainted from working at Guava, a biotech equipment manufacturer.

The ride down was uneventful and entry to the racetrack via shuttle bus was easy. We quickly found our way to turn 2, where we set up shop to watch some of the practice runs. The weather was quite cold, a mere 61 degrees F, and the word was that the Dunlop racers only had hard compound tires to race on, betting that the track would be hot. The race would favor the Michelin riders.

After spectating the warmup laps, we walked down to the vendor area, where we saw some exhibit trials riding and did a bit of window shopping, before foraging for food. Lunch consisted of two very large weiners, one bratwurst and one Louisiana hot link, both $8 and both were actually very excellent.

It was time to make our ways to watch the main event. Chris, Dan and I all purchased turn 4 grandstand seats, but Chris compelled me to ditch the seats for a more mobile option. I hadn't seen Chris for about five years and I decided, since he had decided to head for the hills and forgoe his grandstand seat to spend some quality time with him, so I did the same. And I was sure glad I did!

From the hill, we had a view of turns 1-5, 10 and 11- an excellent vantage point indeed! Within the first ten minutes, we watched and heard over the PA that Rossi and Stoner were constantly trading off the first position. The race was totally cat and mouse with the second rider always close behind the leader. The first two riders was racing at such a blistering pace, the rest of the pack was soon ten seconds behind!

After a short visit to the Corkscrew, I returned back to my original viewing position. A short time later, I watched, as Stoner was following in second, pushing harder and harder to pass Rossi. Then came the unthinkable, in turn 11, Stoner slowly went wide off the course and dumped his bike!! Rossi was GONE! Amazingly, Stoner's bike was still running, so he mounted his motorcycle and began his pursuit. The first two riders had such a commanding lead over the rest of the pack that even though Stoner crashed, he was still finished in second place, more than seventeen seconds behind Rossi.

All the laps leading up to the race indicated that Stoner would claim victory that day. His qualifying times were more than one second faster than the times from last year. Before the race, he boasted in interviews that he had no worries about the race and fully expected to win. But when it came down to brass tacks, Rossi rode flawlessly. There were aggressive passing moves and hard brake checks, but when you're racing at the top of your league, that's how racing can be. Stoner was not mentally prepared for such a formidable challenge. With Stoner following so closely behind, Rossi had to have a perfect day, never leaving an opportunity for Stoner to make a pass. And in the end, championship experience paid off for Rossi.