Chain Trivia

This is pretty much the worst chain I have ever seen. Doesn't happen too often that we see that at the shop, usually we get to replace them before they get that bad; or the chain is broken, wrapped around the wheel or missing. In this case we caught it in its last stage just before breaking. It came off a big bike with beaucoup horsepower, too: CBR1100XX Blackbird. Downright scary!

I think this calls for a quiz. What's wrong in these pictures?

That's right, this one was easy. No tension. This might actually call for a new qualification of minus tension. It's like a limp noodle! Not good. This is so beyond 1-2" of slack it is amazing that this bike was actually ridden in.

Next picture...How much "air" is ok? Well, you are not supposed to be able to lift the chain off the sprocket hardly at all, never mind off the sprocket beyond the tips off the teeth. Speaks for the chain and sprocket quality though, Drive Systems, which we put on some 10,000 miles earlier. A lesser quality sprocket would've sheared the teeth right off. Still, the chain could have easily lost contact completely and flown off to then lodge itself in the wheel. Instant crash would've ensued. Note to self: find out which company the guardian angels were hired from.

In this picture, two things are not like the others. If you look closely, two of the rollers that go around the pins are missing. Meaning that instead of minimal friction in a roller-on-tooth scenario there is maximum friction, pin-on-tooth, no rolling, just grinding. And look at the distance between the pins and the teeth! No wonder there is all that slack. This must've happened on the way to the shop, since chains don't last very long once they get to this stage.

Cheers! Three out of three bad scenarios, all in one chain. Cheers also to the guardian angels with a soft spot for the owner, who actually did diligently service his chain, even beyond serviceability, and luckily came to the shop in the nick of time.

My advice though: catch it a little earlier, since most bikes with chains like that come to the shop in a tow truck...

Critters Part I

Now this may be old hat to you if you live out in the sticks and store your bikes in a barn, but to us city slickers finding these little entomological treasure troves over the course of working on motorsickles is always a bit of a treat.

What we see here are two separate, correct me if I'm wrong, wasp's nests in each of this Moto Guzzi V7's exhaust cans. Additionally, a spider's egg sac was also unearthed when the bike was stripped down.

Hey, maw, if we throw that sucker on the griddle, we can have a couple thousand omelets cooked up in no time.

Here's video of the above bike being started for the first time after getting a thorough work-over by Ed, who pulled it out of... some barn, I guess. Watch for the nest!

Tired But Still Rolling

When you work at a motorcycle shop long enough, certain jobs become a statistical given because they involve items that, by their nature, will wear out over time. Drive chains, sprockets, and fork seals are some common examples, and, of course, one's tires.

We always say shit like, "man, that's pretty bad, but I've seen worse."


Not this time though.

I can safely say this is the worst tire (that wasn't blown apart or set on fire) I've seen. How this guy managed to ride in at all is marvelous.

Bravo, sir!

Electric Musings

Werkstatt 16 Year Anniversary Party This Saturday

Photo by Christina Shook

We would like to invite you to celebrate our 16 year anniversary with us 

At Werkstatt, 3248 17th st, San Francisco,

this Saturday, 9/25/10, from 10-7pm.

Here's the program:

10-noon, $30 dyno runs. Please RSVP so we know what to expect!

Noon: Firing up the grill! Free Sausages and Kraut and Potato Salad a la my grandmother, served by Christine. We will also have German Spaten beer, one of my hometown breweries from Munich. Dirndls and Lederhosen encouraged...

Raffle! To help the Werkstatt Mavizen Team to race in Spain to battle for the World Championship in TTXGP (click here to see how the electric racing went this year...spoiler: I got second in the US TTXGP and am really excited about the progress electric bikes have made in this short year). 

We have a ZoomZoom Trackday to raffle off, helmets, jackets, hair cuts from Colorbox Salon, etc etc. It'll be good! 

We will also be having a store wide sale, 20% off and Galfer is coming buy to show some of their new products.

Oktoberfest Time at Werkstatt! Can't wait. See you there.

Prost!

Sock it, man (burning out his fuse up here alone)

Sheesh, what are the chances that a post would come along that works better with the Sock-it-to-me gag? Well, whatever. I'm going to do the manly thing and not doctor the old post's title to the benefit of this one.

Instead, I'll opt for an admittedly more mediocre pun and pose a question to you, our clever readers. How do you modify an aftermarket air filter that's now bringing in TOO much air to your mixture?

Tube socks. TUBE. SOCKS.


Not one, not even two, but four layers of sock apparently deliver the optimum fuel-to-air ratio. Hats off to you, MacGyver customer, you have my respect.

This is Nail City. And we got the record here. Three nails! Looks like a bouquet really, of nails, and not of flowers, and receiving this particular bouquet was not pleasurable. Flat tire, in the middle of nowhere, argh!
It's a big mystery where all these nails come from, and how do they get lodged in the tire like that??? We are open for suggestions...

Sprocket to Me

The above photos show a front chain sprocket from a Honda CM400. If you have ever wondered when you ought to change a sprocket, if yours looks like this then NOW is the time. Honestly, months ago was probably the time, but don't sweat the small things. The last image shows the amount of material that was lost between the original item and a spanking new sprocket.

Personally, I'm going to polish this thing up and use it as a throwing star for any wayward ninja vagrants.

My Bike Has Been Making A Lot Of Noise Lately

Rocker arms

What you see in this picture is the chewed up rocker arm of a 500cc single. A few months ago this bike came in with that really bad top end noise and it turned out that it didn't have ANY oil in it. It ran for a little while longer after refilling it, but it eventually died.
When we took the bike apart, we discovered where that very awfully loud noise was coming from: one of the rocker arms had worn paper thin, so the clearance between the rocker arm and the valve got rapidly bigger, making all that racket and the piston was worn out, too.
The damaged rocker was on the exhaust side. The engine would suck in fuel but because there was a big gap between the rocker and the valve, it wouldn't really open, not releasing the burnt fuel, causing it to not run anymore. The piston got damaged also when it was run low on oil, so it's getting a bigger Wiseco piston now!
So there is an upside: Our customer took the opportunity to make the engine faster and better and it'll run like a bat out of hell once we're done with it!
He's also doing some custom work to it, will post pictures when done! It should turn out pretty nice.

Nom Nom Nom Nom!

Hi, girls and boys!

Have you ever thought to yourself, "Gee, I wonder what my bike would do if I let the rear brake caliper eat my rain cover while I'm in motion?" Needless to say something exciting, as one befuddled but ultimately lucky customer found out in person.

Thankfully, even a totally gummed up and immovable rear wheel from Bavaria won't stop this bike from rolling about. Utilizing the very latest in modern sportbike transportation technology, we set the wheels in motion, cleaned this puppy up, and set it off roving.

Stay frosty out there.

Sweet 16...

On August 1st, 2010, Werkstatt turned 16. In some countries this is the legal drinking age. So cheers! Here's to 16! And you are allowed to now finally ride a motorcycle. That's something we here at Werkstatt have been doing for far longer than 16 years. I got my drivers license 22 years ago, and most everybody that works here has been riding since a young age.
My wrenching habit is turning 22 also if you count the many hours I spent on my first bike, a kick start only XT500 that constantly broke down, to the point that 20 years ago I decided to do an official 3 year apprenticeship in Munich, Germany, and then worked as a technician in a dealership near Munich for a while.
A lot of things have changed since then. I have moved to San Francisco. I became a business owner in 93, opening Werkstatt in the back of a welding shop as a one woman operation. I have hired people to grow Werkstatt to the great business it is now, and the staff has grown to 5.
This year we got voted "Best of The BayList" by the SF Chronicles SFGate readers, and we got voted "Best San Francisco Mechanics" by the readership of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
The website was started in 2001 I think, and I started writing the blog in 2007. I have since neglected it, concentrating on the business and racing instead, but since we are getting requests to start up the blog again about the ongoings at Werkstatt, we will start posting again. There will be guest posters such as Kyle Dinh and Will Houng to share their experiences along with me. So keep posted!
Cheers! Jennifer

Chicks on Bikes

Wow, so I'm back, blogging. Sorry for the long absence! Had to figure out first on not to write the whole thing in Hindi :) The settings on blogspot.com had changed themselves in over a year of not logging back in.

So since I last blogged, I have raced another MotoCorsa Classico at Willow Springs and have been to another Moto Melee and I celebrated with many, many friends my 15 year anniversary of Werkstatt Motorcycle Repair in August and all of a sudden I can think of many a story to tell, but what was most awesome and made me want to blog again is the arrival of:

"Chicks on Bikes"! A photo book by Christina Shook.

12 years in the making, it has great pictures of women riders, including me (at the tender age 27) and a lot of other women, some of whom I have known for 12 or more years, riding and enjoying motorcycles, and pictures of a lot of women I don't know that I am glad to hear about their stories and see their pictures. There are so many!


The book itself is a fast paced ride with twist and turns, you never know what to expect on the next page, but it's always exhilarating, a roar to women on motorcycles. The mostly full bleed pictures in this small, square shaped and intimate book format truly capture this particular slice of life in an extraordinary fashion that makes you want to devour every page and then go back and take the same road over again.

Real, raw, full of life, a celebration of women riding motorcycles, no sweet talking here, just beauty. And in a way, a contemporary history book of modern women riding motorcycles, a cap-off to the long history of women riding motorcycles since the motorcycle was first invented.

I love this book, I am so glad Christina got it into print. There are only limited amounts available, and you can buy it here. I ordered 5 myself, to give away to friends and family, to share with them all these different women of all ages and backgrounds with one single uniting factor: the love of riding motorcycles.

Moto Melee

Every year there is the Moto Melee. A hundred vintage bikes take off to tour California in 1000 mile, 3 day tour.

I know the date in advance, end of June, always, yet, when do I start working on my bike? On the Sunday 6 days before departure.

Well, I'm a mechanic. My bikes don't break down, do they? Besides, it ran fine last time a rode it. 4 years ago. Wait, it kinda didn't want to idle so well. And it wouldn't start so well either then. As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, it wouldn't start at all, and it was summer and I was really busy at the shop and so I just parked it. It couldn't be more than a little points adjustment or blowing out the idle jet, could it? What could possibly wrong with it?

Just one little but crucial thing. I just didn't know it yet.

So on the Sunday 6 days before departure I gave the bike a full tune up, overhauled the carburetor, tightened all the bolts, replaced worn out rubber things and gave it a wash. THEN I kicked it over. Surprise! No compression! Now that's pretty crucial. Actually: that is one of the three crucial things: Spark, gas and compression. But no compression. As in: I put my finger in the spark plug hole and it does not get blown out. At all.

Instead, all the air goes out the side.

That would indicate a blown head gasket, see picture. Now my 1971 Moto Guzzi Nuovo Falcome is really nothing too special, except for you can't get parts in the United States for it.

I text my friend Jutta in Germany, despite being in the middle of night for her, and ask her to express me a top end gasket kit from Germany. She calls IMT Munich on Monday, they work on Moto Guzzis all day, and they have the head gasket in stock.

It turns out Marc who works there owes me a favor, and he hooks me up with a head gasket, and Jutta picks it up there and then it gets picked up from her house by the post office on Tuesday, and it appears at my doorstep on Wednesday, 40 Euros later. Thanks Jutta and Marc, you are the best!

Phew! So on Wednesday night and Thursday early morning I overhaul the top end and kick! Kick! Kick! It fires up!

I feel very lucky to have friends across the big pond.

Then test drive Thursday night, Friday night, and off I go on Saturday morning. And it ran great! The engine didn't leak, and besides re-torquing the head on the Sunday morning in the parking lot to avoid another blown head gasket, I really didn't have any major problems.

For a vintage bike that is anyway. You know, this used to be my daily commuter for two years 19 years ago. Now I remember how I became a mechanic beside the apprenticeship: fixing things on my vintage bike that needed a lot off attention.

So after this Melee it only needs a few things. Just a few. Like: Steering bearings, the forks need a rebuild since they are not much more than pogo sticks anymore, the brakes are terrible and need to be redone, shocks are now blown, the headlight and the taillight gave out, the tank mounts broke off and the ignition switch is on its last leg. Plus I REALLY would like a 5 speed transmission. It's a never ending story.

And although I had such a blast I really appreciated the KTM afterwards. So smooth, with brakes, real suspension, and lights. I never thought I would call the KTM smooth. But in comparison...Modern technology. The world has made progress. A lot of progress. It's not as cute as the Guzzi, but hey. Can't have everything.

Well, I blame the 1000 miles of all the rough back roads we did in those 3 unforgettable days, and the dirt roads. A lot of fun, and absolutely beautiful, like a dream, but also a lot of vibration. And since the Guzzi is really not a dirt bike, I shouldn't be too surprised. It looks like one now, see picture. Judging from the dirt that is...

And when am I going to start working on it again? That's right. The Sunday before the next Melee. Or maybe I'll do it this winter. I'll make myself a reminder. Really. I swear.

Needless to say though this was SO MUCH FUN. I had great ride companions and the roads were awesome. Ute, Johnny, Ben and Steve were great. And thanks Harley and Jeff for putting on 11 years of Moto Melee by now.

We made it through some mishaps together, especially Ben, who had all kinds of problems and crashed twice, but got right back up and made it through the whole ride. He also got the Willy Makit Award for that at the Banquet Monday night.

I'll write another blog about all that later. Probably on this blog. Keep posted!

'08 Sheetiron 300

This weekend I did the Sheetiron 300, which is a dual sport ride starting in Stonyford, then goes over the Sheetiron Mountain and ends up in Fort Bragg and back in 2 days, organized by the OMC.

The only street legal dual sport I have is my (since I did a bunch of work to it, now hopefully...) trustworthy KTM 950 Adventure. I bought it last year and prepped it to go to Mexico with but alas the water pump failed and I ended up taking a trustworthy KLR instead. But finally the Sheetiron gave me a chance to figure out the dirt with the beast.

I met John Sweeney, a friend from the SFMC at a Mill Valley coffee shop and we took the scenic route up to Stonyford where the temperature was like 109F. So once we got there and met up with the SFMC we kicked back and drank a couple of beers, made dinner and retired to our tents early.

The next day we got started fairly early, like 7.45. Could have been earlier, but have you ever tried getting 10 guys to leave from somewhere?

I was a little tentative about taking the big KTM over the dirt and people kept saying, you're riding THAT THING?

But it handled - great! Once I learned how to control it in the corners with the throttle I was having a blast! At the end of day 2 I was able to pass some people on smaller bikes to get away from the dust.

And dusty it was. At times all you could do is chase the taillight in front of you and trust it was going the right way. Since they were all street legal enduros, fortunately everybody had one. I'm still coughing up the dust though, and all day I had grit in my teeth...

I drank a lot of water, like a gallon and a half. And you have to, because all hat keeps you cool is the evaporating sweat. The breeze doesn't do anything, it's just like a hair dryer.

We were all really looking forward to Fort Bragg where we knew it would be cold and foggy, and that's how it was. You can see the fog in the picture of the Oceanside Hotel, formerly the Driftwood, which has cheap, charming and rustic accommodations. Read between the lines...but it must have like150 rooms or so and is perfect for a ride like this.

At the luggage pick up everybody got their photo taken and I got a button with my own picture on it, that was a fun souvenir! I think I give it to my Mom...

At the hotel I checked the oil and the air filter, which was pretty dusty, so I cleaned it a little and then went to get dinner at a fancy restaurant above a gallery space in Fort Bragg. Excellent natural beef and organic vegetables. Just the right thing after a dusty ride like that.

And back the next day. This time a different route, mostly easy fire roads, lunch in a little town, BBQ on the side of the road, organized through the OMC by local restaurants. Got back around 3, waited out the heat before I squeezed back into my full suit, and blazed home...got there at 9pm, took a shower, plunged into the hot tub.

Perfect weekend. Can't wait to do it again next year...Nothing like swallowing dust, working hard in 100F, with 500 other crazies...

Back on (the) track

Willow Springs, Rosamund, California. Second weekend of April 2008. I raced a 1966 Honda CB160.

In the picture you can see the San Francisco vintage racing contingent, the ones that made the trek down there, Jim Hoogerhyde, Harley Welch, me, Miles, Johnny Regan and Mickey Fimbres.

Got 3rd in a LeMans style CB160 only race, 8th in both 200 GP and 250, respectively, starting from the back of the grid of about 25 other vintage racers in the AHRMA (American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association).

I got talked into it in Daytona, when I was helping Jim Hoogerhyde race there. His friend Mike Riddle offered to let me race his backup bike for some dyno time. Not sure if he realized that I would take him up on that...and I am still pinching myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Mike Riddle had a race ready , great running, awesome little CB160 waiting for me at the track to race when I arrived in Willow Springs.

Coming back to the race track after a good long absence to race myself took a little adjustment. But after the first day I felt like I had never stopped.

Granted, racing a 160 is a little different than racing a GSXR750.

For one, you don't have the horsepower to bail you either out or get you into trouble. By the same token, you pay dearly for every mistake.

Hesitate for a split second on a pass? Opportunity is gone forever. Rolling of the throttle to set up for a turn or to take the edge off? You're toast. You'll never see the competitor in front of you ever again, until the pits.

With 16 horse power and 100mph top speed it is all about the teeny little details that make you win or loose. It's the small things that count in CB160 racing.

Here are a few things of the many I learned this weekend:

Moving smoothly to hang off is crucial since a CB160 is practically a bicycle with an engine and probably weighs less than me, and any rough weight changes were making the bike sway in a way that was altogether unholy especially going into turn 9 at a 100mph and a headwind.

When I was fully tucked head behind the screen and butt on the tail of the bike, my elbows were basically lower than my knees since the Honda CB160 is a very small bike and I'm 6'1". And the difference between staying on the seat or scooting my behind up on the rear hump made me a lot more aerodynamic, translating into a few more rpms and a couple more mph down the straightaway. Oh, and drafting is king.

And I learned to never visualize the size of the CB160 tires when I was leaning into a 100mph turn. They are basically mountain bike tire sized. Yet they will still let you drag you knee at crazy lean angles. This will either make you start laughing insanely inside your helmet, or wither with fear. Since it is not quite predictable which one it is going to be, it's best not to ponder the question.

This was a great weekend. Great racing, great people, great racing organization.

Thanks Mike Riddle for the bike, thanks Jim Hoooooogerhyde for putting in a word for me and getting me that ride, thanks Debby Welch for making food at the track and Happy Birthday, thanks Johnny Regan for giving me a ride to the track, thanks to everybody for racing. As you can probably tell, all this made me insanely happy. Hmm, racing. I'm glad I'm back.

Also, congrats to Jim Hoooogerhyde whoooo finished 1st both days in Supermono 2, and 2nd and 3rd in Supermono, and 4th in 250GP!

And just in case you don't know what a LeMans start is, here is a video of the Sunday CB160 only 4 lap "exhibition" race (yeah right).



That's the one I got 3rd in. When the checkered fell, I was actually in 5th because I ran low on gas, the bike hesitated on the straightaway in the white flag lap and I had to back off. I managed to nurse it around the track to the checkered flag, got passed by a couple of people and rolled into the pits without any gas...it's those many pesky little details you have to think about when racing. But it turns out we ran a lap too many and they rolled back the results, so I got that 3rd. Woohoo! But I need a pit crew. Anybody? I'm taking applications :)

Motociclismo

About a month ago or so I get a call from Italy. Motociclismo magazine wants to use our Factory Eddy Current EC997 dyno to do a comparison test on 7 bikes before they go to Laguna Seca to do a bike comparison.

Wow, I'm honored! This is a very big magazine in Europe, and I'm really jazzed to have them coming to my shop!

So they show up on Tuesday morning at the shop. 7 bikes, 7 drivers, a couple of technicians, camera man, and a couple of what looks like the general managers of this trip. I don't get everybody's exact function, but there they are, 14 Italians, starting to mill about the shop and discussing the best strategy in Italian.

Nothing like being surrounded by a LOT of Italians with those Oh-my-god-so-sexy-Italian-accents. You know, like Valentino. Mmmmh.

First up is the KTM RC8. That isn't even available in the States yet, and I really like the look of it. It makes good horsepower, but not as much as the Ducati.

Next is the GSXR1000 which will make the most horsepower, as expected. I'm a real big Gixxer fan, having had a 1989 as my first 4 cylinder sport bike and then a 2001 GSXR750 as my daily rider, canyon carver and ultimately race bike. I just sold it because the miles were getting up there, and it was a little neglected over my new KTM 950 Adventure. I miss it, and my next sport bike will definitely be a GSXR again.

Anyway, next is the Kawasaki ZX10R. Decent power, although not as much as the Kawasaki Italy guy would have liked. He stays with me over all the tests, while the rest of the crew hangs out in the shop, outside with the bikes, making interviews and videos and pictures. I hear about all the happenings outside the shop later. For three hours the dyno is my little world, all science and no fluff.

The R1 I am having problems with. It starts out fine, then the graph goes haywire, it's loosing power. I re-strap it to the dyno, thinking that the wheel is slipping on the rollers. This time it makes less horsepower overall, 13hp less at its worst. I recalibrate the dyno, but no difference. I pull it off, since it has been on the dyno quite a while at this point, and I am thinking it is just getting too hot to make accurate readings.

Next up is the MV Agusta F4 1078. It makes beaucoup horsepower. That assures me that the dyno is reading accurately. The MV gets within a couple of horsepower of the mighty GSXR. The seating position is extreme. My shoulders are directly over my hands, and it does feel like my butt is over my head (which is how Harley Welch puts it later when I tell him about it).

The Ducati 1098 power graph is amazing, it rises like a rocket, although it cuts out at 10500 and has less power than the Japanese bikes, but that kind of power development is going to be a blast in the actual world. It better be with a price tag of $40,000.

The Honda CBR1000 has the smoothest power band but boy does it get hot quickly. I have to let it cool down a lot between runs to stay in the same heat range for accurate comparisons purposes.

The Ducati and R1 runs are somewhat questionable, the Ducati makes more power than expected, and the R1 less. But since they need to tour the City and make pictures to prove they have been here, I let them go and ask them to come back in the evening to repeat the tests.

After they make pictures on Twin Peaks and Lombard Streets, a couple of them return for the re-runs, which show the same result as in the morning. On the R1 issue, I think something happened, like a spark plug burnt, or the cap went bad. It's a big power drop, and it wasn't the dyno, because the MV showed plenty of power right after.

We are done around 7.30. I feel the pleasant tiredness of a fun day. I close the shop and go to the Ace Cafe on Mission Street to share my day and brag a little. Here are some pictures.

On Friday I'm going to Laguna Seca to see how the test is going. I'll be there for half a day, then I get back to the City to get a ride to Buttonwillow for the AFM races. It'll be going from the Il Grande Mondo di Motocicli back to our Mundane Greater Bay Area Motorcycle Happenings.

And I like my little Bay Area Motorcycle World. In my opinion: One of the best worlds on this planet.

Dayona on Tuesday - the race is on!

So that's me wrenching on the bike for final touch ups on the bike in the morning. I check and double check to make sure all the bolts are tight. Gas? Check. Tire pressure? Check. Tire warmers? Check.

Ready for first practice. I get on the pit scooter and speed though the pits to the banking and actually beat the race bikes there. It's a beeline for me, and all the way around the track for the bikes.

I want to get some pictures of Jim on the banking. The engine is holding, top speed is down, but hey, Jim gets to race.

When the flag drops, Jim keeps up with his main competitor Kevin Keith all the way through the infield, then he starts walking away. Not much though! Just a little bit every lap. With the big horsepower engine I think Jim would have had him covered.

He finishes second, in both races. Trophy time! Not bad for all the bad luck we had. I am very happy about it. 2 second places in Daytona?

What's more awesome than that?

AHRMA in Daytona

It's Monday in Daytona. 2 practice sessions, then the race. Jim's going good, faster than his main competitor, he's ready to race.

But when he comes in, the engine lost power. Worse, it's making a really loud knocking sound. Like a midget jumped into the fairings and bangs the engine with a steel hammer, as Jim puts it. That's not good.

We tear off the tank, the valve cover. Everything looks good, and the cam chain is tight. We take off the compression release valve which is the only thing that looks suspicious.

Back on the roller to start the bike. Nothing has changed. If anything, it got worse. Somebody comes by and suggests the lower end bearings of the con rod. The noise it so loud and high pitched that it either is the cam chain or the rod is about to stick itself out the case.

Either way, it's definitely in the engine, and it needs to come out. Fortunately we have a spare engine in the truck. So we get out our measly supply of tools, and beg and borrow more special tools together, and yank the engine.

Draining the oil shows golden debris. Pretty? Yes. But it means that the engine needs a full rebuild when we get back and it is indeed the lower end bearing. The only thing that is golden in the engine. We feel lucky that it didn't lock up on the banking causing Jim to crash...

We swap the engine, run into a couple snafus, and don't make either race. But we get it running by 6pm. Which means we are ready to race tomorrow. Awesome!

This engine is stock though, down more than a few horsepower from the Biggen that Jim's brother Joe built, and we have big doubts if this engine will make it through practice and the race.

Daytona is notoriously hard on engines, with the tri-oval banking being half of the track, wide open, for close to a minute every lap, and there are 6 of them.

I'm nervous, Jim is nervous, if the engine lets go again and locks up - that cold result in a crash.

We leave the track for food and margaritas. It's Jim's birthday today after all, he's turning the big four-O...and after wrenching all day we all deserve a good meal! And a good night's sleep.

Race is on tomorrow!

Going to Daytona

This man here is Jim Hoogerhyde, racer par excellence, with his race bike, on the way to race Daytona Beach.

The bike is a CRF450 Honda engine in a RS250 frame, hoogertuned by his brother Joe, and supported with parts and technical knowledge by Werkstatt.

This picture was taken in front of the shop to show it off in all its glory one more time before it hits hopefully not the ground but rather the race track, first the one in Savannah, Georgia, then Daytona Beach, for the first two AHRMA races of the season.

Today were the races in Savannah, and Jim took a first and second in Supermono and Supermono II, respectively.

Congratulations, Jim! You are now leading the championship with this season opener. Hang on to it!

Next stop: Daytona Beach. The famed bike week at Daytona Beach also hosts the AHRMA races, flat track races, AMA races, and then a lot of hubbub that I don't care too much about, mostly Harley related.

But I'm going for the races! Can't wait, I'm very excited.

I'm flying out tomorrow night on a red-eye to meet Jim there and help out. My bags are packed.

I got the wear-black-at-the-track-so-the-dirt-won't-show outfit for daytime when there may or may not be a lot of wrenching (as much as I love wrenching, I am sincerely hoping that I won't have to deal with too many emergencies), I got the what-am-I-going-to-wear-to-the-banquet outfit, and I got the umbrella-girl outfit. I'm set!

The Daytona race is the season opener for me, as Werkstatt Racing will be supporting Jim as part of the SFMC (San Francisco Motorcycle Club) race team this year. We will also sponsor Eric Schiller and Mickey Fimbres, part of the SFMC race team, and John Willenborg, who is racing a KTM in Supermoto USA this year.

So I'll try to update this adventure during the time I'm there if I have time, otherwise when I come back! Keep posted!

Mexico Bound

So I'm leaving to Mexico on Thursday. Riding through Arizona to Copper Canyon, over to the ferry from Los Mochis to La Paz and then criss-crossing up through the Baja California.

Three Women, three motorcycles, three weeks, 4000 miles.

I'm taking a KTM950 Adventure that I bought a couple months ago. Or so I hope.

It blew the water pump on me for the second time. After investigation of why that actually happened again, I found out that the cases are misaligned, which potentially could have damaged the crank, which would make the engine blow up eventually. Now that would be fun. I got all the right parts to fix it for now, but am running out of time to give it a good shakedown run.

I'm nervous about the reliability now. I might take my traveling buddy's brother's KLR instead. I have one day to decide on that. I need to think fast. I know the KLR will make it there and back without a hick-up. The KTM on the other hand is a little more comfortable and just nicer, but I'm not sure if I can trust it yet.

Anyway, I will keep a separate blog for this journey where you can find updates during my travels. You can find it here:

http://motorcyclefraulein.blogspot.com/

The shop will be closed over Christmas, so no new tech blogs, but I will be keeping a journal, and posting to that blog while traveling , internet access permitting...

Keep posted!