Todays Race Results by China_Racer_1

[megaloxana]

I just made sense of your name...

Its really great you made such a good showing. Good to see you're not upset either. I would still be furious about the starting grid f'up.

CONGRATS

[China_Racer_1]

I just made sense of your name...

Its really great you made such a good showing. Good to see you're not upset either. I would still be furious about the starting grid f'up.

CONGRATS

I think being totally pissed off gave me the attitude to kick a bit of ass yesterday during the race ( Was on teh startign grid jsut befor eth lights turned on to start and was yelling "Ok thats how it is its on now you little Mother F**kers!" - Of course no one coudl hear me) but its China and after being here for 5 years I just took it in stride. Thats just the way things are over here and quite honestly this was a very smooth running event.

Its only the third time they did the "Shanghai Fesival of Speed" so I guess a small EF-up like that I can take as leason learned for such a young event. Ifound out later that the issue was I entered under my chinese name. So they gave my timer to someone else or some foul up and while I had a #10 spot on the grid, come race day they went with my English name...timer for that name was given to a slower rider by mistake during qualifying. Just a mistake so screw it. I plan to put my name in Chinese on both my new leathers and my bike next time ha ha

Arguing with the Chinese is like wrestling with a pig in the mud - Pretty soon you realize you won't win and the pig actually likes it ha ha. Plus there is the face factor. Chinese don't like to loose face and If I made them change in front of about 5000 spectators and delay everything I would have made the officials loose face. Not good being one of only 2 foreigners in the event out of all the cars, motorcycles, scooters etc. Did not want to be the Foregigner who efed up the event ya know.

So knowing that and the fact that I insrtuct at the superbike school and the officials bend the rules for us and let us practice after the track is officially closed some times..... Eh! more at stake than the podium.

Its all good. I am not pissed off anymore and still am pretty jazzed I dropped my time so much, I had a fun race adn really improved my passing ability. Man I stuffed some guys hard in the corner entries yesterday....really hard. Felt good to get a little pay back he he he

[China_Racer_1]

I just got a few shots in from my team manager.

These were taken with a small digital so not great quality but not too bad either.


Qualifying - ready to go out. Light rain-wet track



Concentrating on my game plan


Qualifying in the rain - Note the water spray comng of the tires. I am just crawling back on the bike after the turn


Marina - my impromptu umbrella girl and myself.


Me looking old posing for OYA Carbon Fiber my main sponsor. I purposly did not shave since I did not want razor burn distracting me from my helmet strap.
Also I cut most of my hair off last week due to the heat. A few weeks ago it was about 110 degrees with 85% humidity.

[PIMPMYFZR]

nice pics dude ... nice race and nice chiks ...

[megaloxana]

How did you end up in china exactly? You prolly live one of the most interesting lives of anyone on the board.

[China_Racer_1]

Actually how I got here is simple. My wife got a job offer from Porter cable tools and she took the job. This meant I had to give up my career as a project planner in the petro-chemical industry. Which really did not mind.

Once here in China I had to find a job. But its hard to get a jobhere if you do not have a work visa and do not have a college degree.

So I did what I love and started Grand Dragon Gear (http://www.gdgparts.com shamless plug, I know) I figured with such a cheap manufacturing base I could sell a lot of high quality items like rar set and leather for cheap since they are made here anyway and just pakcaged adn branded. joe rocket being one of them.

As far as the body guard work i used to be a Mercenary soldier for about 5 years hardcore and on and off up until 2003 I started back in 1982. SO I can handle myself even skinny as I am. Everyoen here seems to want to challenge me but after a few asskickigns no one asks me if I can fight my way out of a paper bag anymore.

Problem is my boss has to keep reminding me to take it easy since I don't know how to restrain people which is often required. I just know how to fight real, real nasty down and dirty. Like I would much rather shove my thumb in your eye and pop it out of socket than wrestle you to the ground. When your eyes hanging out... Fights over. like I said nasty. Ask any combat vietnam vet who went hand to hand. (Who wil probly never talk abotu it anyway) its a vicious life or death and very primative anamalistic experiance. thats what I needed to do to survive, so thats what I know. I don't know how to fight.

So I dont get used much unless it is a high profile client and they really nead protection, Like Tiger woods or some high end private clients. I leave the "Bouncing" to the muscle heads.

Bro - You got no clue what its like being a body guard for a private client here in China. This place is the wild west and anything could happen its very much an international community here and some of the things I have seen and inadvertantly been involved with....Holy Shit!. Guns are not allowed and we can not carry a knife so we improvise.

Problem with my business is no one knew me and I could not sell shit. I worked my ass of for about 3 years and quite honestly I count it as a failure. So decided to go try something else. But check it out here I am in a set of leathers made custom fit and custom mde to my specs.... my cost is cheap enough that I can sell a custom set for about 800 USD thats low ball for a custom fit custom logo and desing patches added, names, the works. Titanium shoulder and elbow. knees as well if you wish. But no one knows Grand Dragon Gear or SYA Leathers which I tried to market. so they don;t want to buy them. teh owner of the company used to work for Arlen nes which are made south of here. So he decided to open his own shop. Same craftman same quality. Low ball price.

(See Photo below)

Its a efed up situation. I can offer a lot of distributors bigger profits but again no name so no sale. go figure. I mean these leathers were designed and ready to go but a large order came in from Taiwan so my buddy set mine aside. He these made in 24 hours before my race, stayed up all night long to do it for me. I put them on and qualified in them in the rain in a brand new set. perfect fit, never paid them any attention they fit so well. Where you going to get that done in the States?

Acting came up sicne I am white and while there are white people here they are not actors and most of them can nto get time off work. I could being unemployed and make casting calls and such, plus if I don't mind saying so.. I can act.

Thats why I got the gig in the National TV series. They were using Russian exchange students who had no talent as extras and when I came on set I could act having been in a few movies before and commercials I had a pretty good handle on it. So they wrote me in the series.

Right now I got 3 more days of shooting and I am out of the series. They make a series here for a set number of shows. Not like in the USA where they pray its picked up again next season. Here there are no seasons its just one mini series (10-20 shows) after another. When its done its done unless its a huge success. But our series has defined ending so no chance.

Maybe it will lead to some other job for me but I just took a full time job/partnership in a company so I doubt I will have time now for any of the fun stuff (Except racing - of course)

Here is a picture of my agent who was at the race the other day to support me. Her Husband took the pic....notice where my right hand is grabbing......nuff said. I don't think he noticed he he he



OK well you asked so there it is.

[Luke-a-Tron]

Well now that you've laid it all out there, yes you do have quite an interesting tale to tell. I'm even more envious now (except for the mercenary bit, I'll pass on that).

As far as hawking your custom suits, if you had a front man here in the states to show up at track days and such, I bet you could start building a customer base. I think lead time would have to be pushed as low as humanly (or whatever they consider the limit in China) possible. One of the biggest turn offs here will be the sense of detachment the consumer has from the end product. What you need to do is promote the idea that you are actually making one off custom suits by hand. If you can produce a quality product (from the pictures of yours, I have no doubt) for a killer price and there are no obvious detriments from the fact that it comes from China, I think you could quickly develop a following. There is no shortage of riders who do not fit the meathead mold all the off the shelf gear is cut for. As a skinny guy yourself, I'm sure you can relate.

[China_Racer_1]

Luke, Yeah I was a Merc but I have done a 180 and am totally a peace nic now. Not so mucha treee hugger just againist armed conflict of any kind (While still supporting my fellow soldiers 110% )

I work with Z Cusotm Leathers in Califonria.

We have developed a local manufacturer as I said ,so I am not all the way over here. Adolph would like to make both off teh shelf leathers as well as cusotm suits from here. If you know of Z leathers - http://www.zcustom.com - you wil know that Adolph is anal about rider safety. I had to make 5 samples before he would put his name on it.

Z leathers will do any waranty or repair issues. so safe to purchase with no worries about where they are originally made.

So with that said I can not sell direct in the USA I need to go to Adolph.

His off the rack price is about 850 USD for a quality suit. His custom price is higher as it is his bread and butter and contractually and morally I will not go behind his back...However I can sell to anyone in the wolrd not on US soil.

[Luke-a-Tron]

Word. Sounds like you've got your bases more than covered in the marketing department. Too bad your guy here is putting so much mark up into it. Not that I can blame him or anything, but I would think you'd have a pretty easy time scavenging new customers as we all more or less expect to get raped when buying leathers. I've found some decent prices here and there but the quality has always been scaled accordingly with the price. Oh well, business is business I suppose.

[China_Racer_1]

True but I am also thinking about disolving our agreement due to the fact he has never really made any lareg orders with me. I spent thousands developing vendors and if he cannot get it together by the end of this season all bets are off. I wil sell to anyone.

Maybe sooner than that. Will keep ya posted.

[Luke-a-Tron]

Finally I might be able to afford some leathers that I can fit my junk into. LOL2

I'm sure you could make a decent start on this board alone if you decide to go that road.