Wintercycle Therapy at the Curtis Museum

This winter, Turtle worked his magic and we put a few bikes into the Curtis Museum for the Wintercycle Therapy show.  Thanks Turtle...next year, we need to do this again!

It was a good way to get the word out about Moped Racing in the north east....and Turtle even talked Tony into letting us put his TZ250 race bike (red and white on left) from his former racer life in the show....it was awesome!

Moped Mayhem 2 - Post Race

With the NEMA race fast approaching, and Moped Mayhem 2 a month behind us, I thought I should get a post out, before I end up with a backlog....

Moped Mayhem 2 was a blast...Tony, Miss S and myself took to the track for the event, and Turtle, Wayne, Laura, and Lanphere showed up for support.  It was great to see everyone at the track!

Our banners had shown up...but we still managed to forget the top to our tent...and the carpet this time too!  But still, we had a great pit area...and good eats!

Miss S ran in the Stock Class; while Tony and myself took on Super Stock and Pro classes.

Here is Miss S getting on the throttle....

Tony on his Derbi....

The Super Stock race was one I'll personally never forget.  From what I heard, it was great excitement to watch....Adam and myself had been battling the entire race, a 1st/2nd place battle, seeing us exchange positions on many laps.  Adam's bike had the great top end, so on the high speed portions of the track, he would pull past....my machine having the great low end pull would make it up in the tighter twisty portions of the track.

You can see the determination in my eyes...it was an epic battle!!!

On the final lap of the race, Adam had again pulled out ahead....

..but coming into the hairpin turn, I remember thinking to myself "he's coming into it hot this time"....then BAM, down he went!  I came around the turn on the inside, and kept pushing hard, bringing in 1st place.  What a great 15 laps!!!  It's great to have solid competition...I'm looking forward to racing with Adam again!

Onto the final race of the day...

I was able to pull out front and hold it for the first 4 laps...and I could hear a bike hot on my tail.  Taking Tony's advice after previous heats, I wasn't looking back...I just kept pushing and making good lap time.  There was one give away as to who was on my tail....I noticed the bike on my tail was shifting (definitely the Derbi....Tony was back there pushing me to keep the lap times up).  I was feeling good, up through lap 5, where entering the hairpin turn (which my competition in Super Stock went down in)....I entered the turn....and BAM..."where the hell did the bike go" I remember thinking!  I looked at it for a second thinking "what the hell, and it had to stall too???"....after picking up, hopping back on the saddle, and kicking the engine back to life, I had lost some serious time...and I had to live with the left clip on being bent back a couple inches...no first place for this race...but I wasn't giving up!

I spent the remainder of the race working to make up time...my goal now was to get back into the pack...and I didn't do bad....coming in 1/2 a bike length behind the leading pack on the finish.

On the bright side...working my way back up to the pack, I had discovered some better body positions and track lines that really stepped up my game....so it wasn't a loss....that crash brought on some lessons that I probably wouldn't have learned otherwise.  Pushing myself to get back up there was a huge schooling!

Still one 1st place finish in the day....who can argue with that?

Thanks to the team, and our friends for showing up, and a big thank you to Jesse Brosnan for sponsoring the event!  2 weeks till NEMA Race #1!!!!

Moped Mayhem 2 is right around the corner!

My team-mate Haas has given me a swift kick in the ass, and I'm actually feeling excited now...looking forward to Saturday!

We will be arriving with our secret weapons....and hopefully the top to our canopy this time!!

Shockingly, I took the ped out today, and the thing wants to pull wheelies from time to time....about time this thing showed some low end grunt!  Thanks MLM, the pipe is killer!

Mid-winter meeting

Das Psycho Racers got together for some wrenching and bonding time...it's been a cold, snowy winter, and we're trying to keep focused on the warm weather and racing!

Turtle brought along his whole machine, and stripped down more un-needed equipment, along with throwing on a new head.  This machine will be aimed squarely at the Jr class.  He also has a high performance ped in the works...but that's top secret.

I spent the day getting the caliper cut down for my machine.  It's a floating caliper off an SV650, and even with a spacer behind the disc, there wasn't enough clearance to the spokes to fit the caliper in there.  It's pretty beefy, so I took the hacksaw and file to it...problem solved (the inset picture shows the beginning of the cut).

Once Turtle had his ped back together, we gave it a run in the parking lot.  Turtle's inner 'dealer' felt the need to give out a "free taste"...Miss S (a potential team member), and Wayne (our paparazzi) will find they've become addicted to these things...just wait and see...ha ha ha....

Mr Sponsor worked on his 600cc track bike, and talked about how great his ped will be for next season.  It sounds like a hell of a machine...but mysteriously, we can't find it in the warehouse anywhere.....

Thank you Mr Sponsor for the use of The MotoWarehaus, and the pizza...and Turtle for bringing the heater!

Moped racing in a motorcycle magazine!

So Turtle decided to write into a magazine about our experience at the 2012 NEMA Championship Race...and it was published..."letter of the month" no-less!!!  What a great way to get the word out!

Honestly, when Tony first suggested 'moped racing', I laughed...but it's something I can't imagine not doing next summer!