First race of the seasn results - CRASH!

[sbutler]

Go for it Steve, & dont forget the pics.

[shredex]

Its a very fast track reaching speedds of 300 KM/h (Thats about 187mph)

ummm...yea
Thats like an R1's top speed.
what the hell are you planning on racing??

and what bike were you on when you crashed??

[China_Racer_1]

I was on a Kawasaki 636 when I crashed.

I will be on an R-6 so I guess I can only go about 285 from what my coach said with the grearing I have available. Its such a long straight if U gear it right you can whine it out.

Is that top speed on a stock R1? I am on a modified R6. FYI an built R6 jsut spanked a lot of R-1s, GSXR 100's and such on the last race I was on. I mean spanked the hell out of them.... Little bastards lapped me. But he is one of the best in Asia and rides for Yamaha Factory over here so oh well ha ha.

[China_Racer_1]

FYI - I just got back from the Shanghai International circuit. There were only four bikes on the track - 3 were 1000cc and I was on an R6. I got the thing up to about 290 km/m with the gearing I had. Thats about 182 mph - sick fast and then into a nice sweeping right hander- down to 5th and opened up lots of turns and lots of fun.

They do not have bikes on the track so we were the first since the moto GP. We conducted ourselves in a professional manner and they were happy with our safety gear and listening to their rules. So we are invited back. Lots of fun and worth the 200 bucks entry fee for a few 30 minute sessions. if we get more bikes the price drops of course, but again, there were only 4 of us out there.

The differance between a 1000cc and a 600cc was quite obvious. I did my best and it was the first time for me there so I am sure I can do better next time. Lots of fun. Pics on the way.

[China_Racer_1]

Hey I was at the Shaghai F1 yesterday and got clocked doing 183 mph.... yes that is fast. like way f*ck fast . holy shit that long straight away took half a heart beat to get to the end.

here are a series of pics from my crash a photographer sent me


Pushing hard to catch the yellow guy.


I am right on his ass can you see him in fornt of me?


I think at this point I knew I was down but still not wanting to give up I was trying to push down with my knee and get her back on two wheels


Game over - "Houston we have a problem" - nothing to do now but relax relax relax and go for a slide


coming to a stop


"Get up steve the race is not over!" I said to myself



My arm hurt too much to lift the bike and the shift lever was broke so of to the safe zone


OK game over for sure noew. two hours later Iwas on a plane heading back up to shanghai with a body full of Ibuprofen.





Well thats it for now. actually I was battling for NOT last place when this happened as the Kawi 05 636 I was on was skipping in and out of gears all race. going hot in a corner and then popping into neutral really sucks. takes the momentumm out of things and you tend to head toward the outside of the track. I had to do a quick upshift and safe my ass about 3 times per lap.

So I was just trying to finish the race at that point and gain a few points. The other issue was i would downshift once but it would go down two gears at a time which caused bad things to happen to the ass end.

Slipper clutch be dammed it woudld slide all over. all very distracating ha ha The fact I was racing with a chipped elbow bone, a broken toe and a fractured finger might have been bad enough but that shifting issue was more of a distration ,I think. funny how when I get on the grid its me the bike and nothing else. all pain is gone and I am focused 100% on whats about to happen. I hardly notice the umbrella girl even.

Some of the front runners are in the Asian Moto GP and are so fast I feel like a friging novice next to them. Kind of like racing against stoner or rossi. They are on full factory rides. I was on a no name companies rental bike thats been beat to shit for 7 year. Still a lot of fun and my sponsor is happy to have such good publcity and photos. so its all good.

The bike Spyder and I were building is about down then I can race for real.

[cad600]

All I can say is: You da man!!!

Heal up and start prepping for the next race man. I can't wait to see more pictures.

[haunter]

nice!!!!!!!!!

[rpgwestern]

Wow, I didn't even know you it was possible to rent a bike for a track day. I guess I'll keep this in mind if I ever decide to spare my own bike the risk of a drop at the track

I rented a pistol at a range in town a few years back b/c some friends and I just wanted to fire a pistol to see what it was like... It had definitely been abused, and on more than one occasion the gun jammed, and then just fired of its own accord a few seconds later. We were happy enough to get out of there with all our rounds ending up down range.

I hope you get well soon. And I don't mean for this to sound like I'm judging btw, I'm still learning to take right turns from stop signs without bobbling around like a 5 year old on a bicycle, so I have no room to talk on that...

[China_Racer_1]

I got a few more pics today of me but these were from Sunday at the Shanghai International circuit where they run the Motot GP. (Or Did anyway)


The weather was gloomy and cold. We had new slicks, no tire warmer time and just went for it after the first two laps figuring the tires were scuffed in enough and up to temp by then. We were the only four bikes on the circuit

I am on the yellow R6 the others were are on a gsxr 1000, an R-1 ,and a CBR-1000.


Heading out to get behind the safety car. One lap to follow them and figure out the course then we we were on our own for two sessions back to back. 20 minutes - 10 minute rest and 25 more minutes.



Out of the last turn and starting my run full bore down the long front straight



On the front straight doing about 150 mph at this point. The fastest part is on the back straight where my buddy barely over took me on his 1000 before a hair pin turn. he said he was doing 310 km/h when he passed me then braked. So we figure I was doign just over 290 KM/h.

He could not pass me in the turns but on the straights he kciked my ass royally. KM/h convertin to MPH is take Km/h divide by 1.6 .... so 290 km/h divide buy 1.6 = 181.25 mph.


Back into the pits safe and sound

[ragedigital]

Ever worry about wearing your glasses while racing? Do you have them strapped in the back?

[China_Racer_1]

Ever worry about wearing your glasses while racing? Do you have them strapped in the back?

No I don't give it a thought. I picked these out with my helmet on in the glasses shop so I know they fit tight in teh helmet, don't obscure my view and I never even notice them when I am out there. they are thin and light weight.

No strap either

[China_Racer_1]

My best mate freds, wife sent a few more pics to me today.


This is fred and me just before we went out on the Shanghai F1 track. Fred is wearing a custom suit I made for him. He is moutned on one of the most bad ass Honda CBR100RR's I have seen over here. he just dropped about 10K USD into it in upgrades this season.


A German Peter on the left on his R-1
A Spaniard Philip on his GSXR 1000
A Canadian Fred on his CBR-100RR
and me ,Steve, an American on an R-6

This was just after suiting up and getting ready to head to the pit lane




My tuner Uli Who Invented the Single sided Front swing arm For BMW back in the early 90s is giving me a few last minute tips on how to get the most I can out of the bike with the gearing I had, which was a few teeth to tall for this track.



This is what "f*ck Fast" looks like from track side



This is Fred entering the pits. Both hands clutched as he is yelling YES! In his helmet after the second session. He got up to 310 km/h (Thats just about 194 mph) He is so thrilled at this point the joy can be seen here. We all felt this way. It was just a great day


This is me and Fred giving a one finger salute to the other 9 riders who pussed out that day.

Freds wife played around with the color and black and white.


Here is a pic of Fred crawling up my ass on the front straight.