Something a bit different here. But it is a v-twin, even if it's Japanese and a 2 stroke. Apologies for length, but I'll start with a pic of my Monster carving up the track. This post also has a fair bit of a girl on a bike - though she is mine
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At the start of last year I bought the gf a trackbike, a 1990 Suzuki RGV250. Here's her testing it out for size.
I was a bit cunning about this, I bought it ostensibly as a track bike for her but also picked that specific model because it's eligible for some historic racing series here ('period 6 250 production'). Nice easy club racing and good to get her some extra track time. Ultimately I want her to get the skills to be able to keep up with me on the road and be safer but she's competitive and it's good for her to have an outlet for it. I'd like to have spent the money and time getting myself racing again after a long break but it's good to be a crew chief for a while.
Nothing special about the bike. We actually run it as stock engine wise. It makes 53 hp at the rear tyre, most of the ported and played with ones make 55 so why bother - really easy to go backwards with a 2 stroke and we're nice and reliable, others aren't. Good tyres (though still road legal - dunlop alpha 12s, not available in the USA but designed for small Jap 250s and 400s that run 18" rears), and really good suspension and brakes help though. It handles nicely and stops even better.
Oh yeah and we're doing this for fun. Her name is Stacey, and the bike originally was done up as a Lucky Strike replica. So we made it into a pink and white LUCKY STACE bike, which gets plenty of attention on the track. Here's me chasing her down and her making it a bit tricky for me:
In terms of 'getting attention', is getting Troy Corser to pop into the shed enough? He gave us about 20 minutes of his time over a race weekend to chat about things and stuff she could do better. Such a nice bloke.
She does suit the bike very muchly.
Every year a historic (well, 'post classic' and beyond) racing club runs a '1 hour' endurance race. She did her racing debut last year on the mighty RGV; I couldn't join her because of an eye issue rendering me pretty close to blind for a while (all good now, but). This year I got to team up with her.
She did the sprint championship races on Saturday. Had a spill in practice, just lost the front on one of the only left-handers on the circuit on cold tyres, had to do a few things to the bike to get it back out - new chain guard manufactured from a piece of plastic, ripped the swingarm pickup so had to bodge up the rear stand to work to put it on warmers etc. Got her out for qualifying (just in time), and she did 3 races.
Because it's about her I got her to do the 1st practice and the qualifying for the 1 hour enduro on the Sunday, I did 10 minutes practice and that was it.
She did well for her 30 minutes in the race, consistent times and getting more and more comfortable on the bike.... then it was my turn. Given I hadn't ridden this track since June last year (in the wet - last rode in the dry Nov 2010) and the bike since Oct last year, I really just wanted to keep it upright. Ended up settling into a groove and carving out consistent lap times, set my fastest 3 laps from the end. Would have gone quicker but then someone binned it just near the end so took it easy round that sector and bashed out 3 good laps to finish up. Ended up a touch faster than her but she's improving a lot - 18 months ago I rode her RGV, she rode my Monster around Phillip Island and I passed her and then lapped her in 1 session, and it had stock suspension and shit brakes at that time. She's improved a lot and that's what makes me proud
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Had fun, it was nice to be out and really racing rather than just doing trackdays. There's nothing like coming 4 wide into a corner, with only a couple of inches separating each bike. Admittedly I was often getting lapped but that's cause fast guys on racing 400s with slicks with A grade riders are a bit faster than a fat bloke on a girl's bike.
Proof I can squeeze myself onto an RGV.
I had a great day... almost made me wish I had more cash so I could have done some BEARS rounds on the Monster this year. Oh well, next year
. Need a new set of kneesliders, wore mine out in the race
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It also was excellent to finish with no issues, even if we were at the back of the pack. We didn't throw it away and the bike kept going, unlike a reasonable number of the competitors. And we both had fun, and that's really what counts in this whole game of club racing!
