Racing — part deux

Well…

I guess I’m getting the racing thing the hard way. Took to Arroyo Seco down near Deming for the second attempt, and it didn’t go quite as well. I don’t know the track nearly as well as I’d like (or, really, at all) and the Saturday track day was seriously plagued by wind. I got about 20m on track.

The Sunday, race day — not as good! First race went OK, though I felt slow as molasses. Second race, second lap — racing incident, as a 250 thought there was a space on my inside and there wasn’t. His front tyre hit my thigh, and that was a predictable result

 

 

The bike got off worse than I did. Clutch master, rearset both trashed, lever bent, frame slider screwed up and some bodywork damage. The latter? Meh. The lever? Usable. The others needed some work — thankfully, used parts abound for the RC51.

It’s been a bit of a fixfest, but the test and tune went well. Leathers getting fixed up!

Racing!

Doomed. I hadn’t planned to buy a new bike – in fact, I had planned not to. When the deal appeared, I failed — and then I decided to try racing it.

Hello, 2002 RC51.

Bought on Friday, suspension setup Friday night (HI BRANDON!), track day Saturday, first ever race day Sunday. Good plan, right?

Actually, I got 3 races – the mock race (which, having done enough corner-working, I knew was to be red-flagged at some point just to make sure we knew what would happen) and two ‘heats’ for the SuperStreet class which I had to complete to get my race license (for next year; this was the very last race day of the year here). First things first was getting a new rear tyre on the thing; the one was fairly shot, but luckily track side support (Speedin’ Motorsports) had ONE left (thanks Brian!!), and it was ‘appropriate’ for the RC51. That’ll teach me to buy on Friday, track on Saturday! Mismatched Dunlop front and Michelin rear, and a 200 instead of a 190 – but I was riding. 🙂

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Sipapu for the LOEBMW rally

More to come on this, but Heather and I got our second ride (ONLY our second ride) in for the year. There’s been day trips, and hops, but not much.

Despite Clair (who’s idea it was) not being able to make it, and Shaun getting to Wyoming and not being able to continue it was still lovely.

Thanks to Missy and Paula for making it! Good company

The crew on top of Sandia Crest on the way out of town

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Restucco, addendum

Well….

The stucco ‘job’ turned into about 75% fiasco, and has been awesomely wonderfully crap. The front wall – of course, most visible – developed multiple large cracks within 2 weeks of being done. Or less. The stucco contractor proved absolutely wonderful to deal with after being paid (and agreeing to having money docked for the fact that his crew blew the A/C compressor units by leaving their scaffolding over them and not mentioning it in 95F temps and then stuccoed shut the drain from the pump, not to mention using the stones that had been relocated so as not to be covered in stucco as their concrete dump). It’s been 2.5 months and he finally came out to look at it for the first time since it was done. It took complaints to the BBB (who appear to be about protecting the business, not the consumer. Fantastic people who do nothing but delay the process) and continued pressure.

Even then, it’s our fault somehow that there are large cracks and chips. He did, finally, agree to fix it. We’ll see if it happens. I’m just shocked and amazed that he came out at all — and even more so that he actually agreed to fix it and didn’t just say ‘that happens when you go over bonded paint’.

Lets not even talk about the rest of the stuff the crew did.

Eventually, we will name said contractor. The work seemed good, but MAN getting anything out afterwards has been a nightmare. So close to feeling I’ve needed to lawyer up just to get anything out of him, but it seems he’ll make it right in the end. I just don’t want to jinx it my naming someone. (Later, my precioussss)

At least, in better news, we’ve had Andy’s Painting out to redo the fascia, beams, and soffits. It’s looking good — finally the outside of the house matches the upgrades we’ve made to the inside. Those guys seem to have been super-professional all the way around.