Ducati Monster Forum

The first round of the AFM season is kicking off this weekend in Buttonwillow.  Despite lingering threats of rain, the latest I've heard is that they plan to go ahead with the races.  Tigre's had a bit of a rough start and blew his freshened up motor--he'll be running a "tamer" motor (his words) this go 'round. 

Go get 'em, Tigre!   [beer]

i randomly saw him in SF back in January.. Just driving through traffic, he ended up behind the truck I was in. He did a wheelie for us :) I'll have to post the pics, it was super cool! :)

<fingers crossed>

G'luck, Stevo.   [moto]

Here's to another season!  [wine]

Good luck, Tigre!

Is Tigre the guy with the tiger bike... I've seen it at Desmoto Sport and around the interwebs.  Sorry I'm kinda new to the scene.  In any case goodluck to you

yeppers, that's him

GOOD LUCK TIGRE!!!!!!
Tamed tigers are still lethal!  [thumbsup]
 [bacon]

Report from BW is that it's not raining, the big bike is running (for the first two sessions at least), and Tigre has some good on-board video of him nearly highsiding.  wOOt!

 [moto]

Sweet!!! Go Tigre go!!!
Glad that highside was a nearly......& I wanna see the vid  ;D

.

 (http://www.youtube.com/v/btPJPFnesV4?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/btPJPFnesV4?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="349"></embed></object>[/url)

Only took ya 56 tries to get that posted.   [cheeky]

This has nothing to do with racing.  It's just super-cute.  Well, it's super-cute if you know that it's a mama with her baby and they're playing.  I guess it could be a daddy getting ready to eat the baby, and that's not so cute.  But it's not.  It's the mama one.  Pretty sure.  That's what the website said. 

(http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o131/etoile_polaire/Totally%20Random/tiger-with-cub_27540_600x450.jpg)

rawr
(http://i53.tinypic.com/260ra09.gif)

You mean this guy?  Yeah, that's him.

(http://treesandthehouses.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/tigerman0re.jpg)

Go get 'em, Tigre!

<threadjack>
Where's the details on Tigre's motors?
</threadjack>

<threadjack>
Bamboo stick + charging tiger = EPIC fail
</threadjack>

A coincidence that you picked a photo where the guy is wearing Spiderman panties?  I think not.   [puke]


Git outta here with your on-topic b.s.   

Oh, and Butt-on-holio has a 100% chance of rain tomorrow according to The Weather Channel.   [thumbsdown] 

sorry.  had to find the right e-cock to suck before it would work.

Good luck Tigre! Hope you brought an umbrella dude.
...and umbrella girl!

They just moved the races up to this afternoon.  Assuming it doesn't rain.

3rd.  Gogo got me.   By 1 tenth.  I had a shot at him.  Made a two tactical errors.

B I utdid turn in one of the fastest laos of the day with a 1:51.5.  Given the track temperatures is about 70, I was pretty happy with that.  More than 3.5 seconds faster than this race last year and more than 1.5 off my personal best from friday when the weather was good.  Also about a second faster than gogo's best.

Hey--third!  Not a bad start to the season.  And you were on your B bike or B motor or what?  So is your race weekend over?

ba geebazz gaaawdddaamm. That's not bad. You improved a leap. Think of those percentages if that was money!
W00000! that'd be a nice weekend.  ;D
 

I was not on the "a spec" motor (that blew up on Monday).  I was on the "b spec" motor.  With a bit more juice in the hopper, I most likely would have had him.  Alas...  But a 1:51.511 was fast enough to be over an average of 100mph for the lap.  That's a nice stat!

GO-STEVE-GO!
GO-STEVE-GO!

No worries Tigre that makes Gogo the 1st loser of the season.

I look forward to catching one of the thunderhill races this season!

'Belle felt hurt I didn't give a bigger update, so here you go:

Well...  I will give an update.

Feb 22, rode at bw.  Bike got through half a day and wouldn't start.

Back at bw on Feb 28th.  2 sessions and would not start.

Back at bw on Mar 5th.  4 sessions and then would not start.  Hopped on the 749 to get some riding fitness in, and pulled off an *epic* double win in the 3 lap sprints for the Keigwins club racing school (i swear I was going to let one of the customers win the second one, but he rode off into the dirt...  Guess he felt too much pressure and knew I was coming!)

Back on Monday at BW the week of the race.  (can you guess where this is going?)  Not a full lap into the third session and the motor blew.

Desmoto made calls on Monday and had parts overnighted in.  Motor went back in the bike thursday afternoon.

Showed up Friday at BW for open testing..  And the bike ran flawlessly.  I turned 3 clicks of suspension after the first session and then just focused on riding.  Got down to 53.1 in practice and was happy to have finally gone faster than my 2008 best from my 749.  The motor was noticeably weaker... but it made it through a whole day!

Saturday morning and I was on the pointy end of the time sheets.  Then the board made a decision to run the races on Saturday due to impending rain.  I went to go mount up fresh rubber.

I got a decent start--was third into t1 after pat blackburn pushed gogo wide.  I missed a downshift going into 2 and gogo got by me.  He went after pat right away and started pulling a gap.  I got by pat a few turns later, but had my work cut out for me as Gogo had eeked out a 1.5s gap on the first lap.  He pulled a little more on the 2nd lap.

Laps 3 and 4 he maintained about a 2 second gap.  On the 2nd to last lap it seemed like he was fading.  When I smell blood, the afterburners kick in.  I closed up on him going into 3 behind a lapper going into turn 3.  He tossed the lapper grenade at me over the top of turn 5, but I was able to get through without losing too much ground.

I pulled in close through riverside.  He took a tight blocking line through lost hills and I pulled him hard coming toward the sweeper and passed on the inside going into the sweeper.  I missed a downshift going in, and he leaned on me and established position from the outside so I had to back off going into the esses.  I thought about lining it up for a pass going into sunset but didn't get a great drive.  I had one last shot on the drive out, but he sat on the apex and blocked my drive and got me at the line by one tenth.

Randolph won.  Turning 49s.  Gogo 2nd with a best of 52.9.  I was 3rd with a 51.5.  Personal best by over a second and a half from Friday.  With the weather as cold as it was (ambient about 59 and asphalt at ~70 degrees) I was happy with the pace.  Gogo hadn't faded like I had thought--he did his best lap on lap 5 as well.  He actually turned very consistent laps the whole race.

I made a few mistakes in the race, but I am in the hunt.  GoGo will get faster as he gets more time with the RC8R, but so will I!  With a weak motor and the lack of time seat time on my bike this year, I was encouraged by the results.