Why Roadracing? MRA Round 1, Scoooooters, Metric Cruisers – Early Season Projects

WHY RACING!?

Racing is a huge part of why this business exists. I found out the hard way 10-years-ago that racing is mind-bogglingly, eye-wateringly expensive, and I needed skills I didn’t have to do it as well as I wanted to do it. I also needed revenue and time, and normal jobs were never going to do that for me. In the process of gaining those skills I landed on a decent way of making enough money to go racing. Everything worked out, so I get to go racing these days. Success? If you ask me it is, and my opinion is literally the only one that matters with respect to that.

I was reading an article on MotorsportMagazine.com that really got to the heart of why some of us want to go faster than everyone else on our motorcycles, why we want to race.

It’s that black hole of feeling, I want to know it inside and out. I want to live in that black hole. I want to know what it looks and feels like. I’m willing to do anything to find out more about it. How does a person control a 2-wheeled fighter jet at the very limits of traction, strafing the pavement like a low-flying bat? What’s it feel like? Will I be any good at it? Can I even get it there? What happens when I do? Will I freak and turn my unobtanium-festooned racin’ motorbike into confetti? Will I be fast? How fast? Can I win? Can I place? Show? Participate? Do I have any talent for it whatsoever? Will I live to tell anyone about it?

All this knowing full well that nobody gives a damn about any of this arcane nonsense other than me and the ~200 other people in the state and the few thousands scattered across the world who also call themselves motorcycle road-racers and, of course, the fans of road-racing. There are nowhere near as many fans of road-racing as there used to be. The “prizes” for winning are $10 trophies, the respect of our fellow competitors, and an immense feeling of personal satisfaction . Nobody is making any money off of this. We’re literally lighting money on fire to go racing. Like I said, it makes no sense to a normal person who isn’t into it. I love a good trend, but road-racing is about as far as one can get from being trendy these days.

The consequences for freaking out or screwing it all up or just going a tiny bit too fast (3 ways of saying “losing focus”) are staggering. Bare minimum if I go down is hundreds of dollars in repairs to my bike and my gear. Maximum is death. Between those extremes: destroyed machinery, bruises, contusions, lacerations, concussions, broken bones, paralysis. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to find out what I want to know about what it feels like to ride a motorcycle fast on a high friction surface. The “Why?” really comes down to you only live once, and some us are just that passionate about it.

MRA Round 1 – HPR Full Course – 50th Anniversary Season – May 6th and 7th, 2023

Before I do anything I care about, I think about it and write down some goals. This is what I came up with during the weeks leading up to the first round of the season.

This was a long-winded way of getting myself hyped up to go fast and not crash. I wanted to put numbers on it, so I picked lap times based on my previous best and the times of faster racers I look up to at the track. An unstated goal was to come out swinging. How fast did I end up going? The fastest I ran at HPR full course last year was a 2:08.5. Here are my lap times from the first race of the weekend:

My last lap was my fastest, and it met my stated goal for the weekend. I knew I was exhausted. I knew I needed sleep. I gave it everything I had during the first race and made my goal, so I dialed it way back during my other 2 races. I think I ran somewhere between 2:06 and 2:10 the rest of the weekend. I didn’t see the point in continuing to push it after making my goal. I reckon this was a smart move. The bike is in one piece. I’m in one piece.

If you’re not familiar with HPR lap times, on a bike like mine with ~55 horsepower (maybe…) 2:05 is pretty fast. It’s about 3-5s seconds off some of the fastest times I’ve seen faster racers put up on similar machinery. I think I’m in “fast novice” territory AKA “slowest fast guy” but not quite “fastest slow guy” anymore. Feels good y’all!

The next goal is to run it into the 2:02s by Round 7. Unfortunately, to go any faster than 2:00-2:02 I will likely need more horsepower, which will maybe have to wait for next season. I reckon I’m more than capable of putting 90 horsepower under my bike’s tank if I put my mind ($$$) to it, but in the meantime I’m going to get as fast as I can using mostly what I already have. My bike doesn’t even have fairings, so that’s going to be the next move I make with respect to the bike.

Fairings should be worth a good second, second and a half a lap by themselves. The rest I’ll make up in progression and skill.

Overall I’m very happy with my performance at the first round of the MRA’s 50th season. Hats off to the MRA board, HPR staff, fellow racers, friends, and family who made everything happen that weekend.

I was walking past my van after loading up for the weekend, and I thought the bike looked really damn good from the following angle. Pics don’t do it justice, but here it is in all of its homemade glory. Nothing from the tank back is stock other than the rear wheel and brake caliper. It’s all but unrecognizable as a Ninja 650 to a lot of people. The most common thing I get asked about it is “what the hell kind of bike even is that?” and I have yet to get tired of being asked about it. It’s a piece of crap! I made it out of garbage!

My buddy Matt showed up for Sunday on his newly painted Yamaha R7 with a really cool stool for sitting that he made. He’s a welding instructor at a technical college, a fantastic welder, and a really great guy all ’round. He reminds me I need to be patient, that there’s more to life than racing for most people, and that I should chill out sometimes. He has a partner and kids he loves who love him back, and that’s about as rare as unicorn piss these days and something that commands my respect because it’s pretty much unobtainium for me. I just want to go fast on motorbikes. He’s more well-rounded as a person and a great influence to have around, one of those people that reminds me that yes, it is possible to be a better person. I get worked up about racing; I’m competitive as all hell, so it’s sobering to hang out with someone who doesn’t obsess about his lap times and the lap times of other racers like I do. It’s a triumph just to be there at all.

Recent Customer Projects – Honda Ruckus, Genuine Buddy, Yamaha V-Star, Honda CB200

I’m going to dump photos here, so these are some of the bikes I’ve worked on and brought back to life recently. If you have a bike that looks anything like one of these, you know what to do if you want it back on the road.

That’s all for now, folks. I have some “more useful” articles planned for the near future, including write-ups on common scooters and a look inside what it takes to prepare a racing motorcycle (or any machine) to start every time and have a very high likelihood of finishing every race (or trip, commute) without a DNF due to a mechanical. The same logic applies to your street bikes and scooters, and the long and short of it is it comes down to spending money replacing parts that may or may not need replacing. As always thanks for reading, and, if you want me to put your motorcycle or scooter back on the road please book an appointment online.