Track weekend at Jennings GP

Recently, my riding friend Ken Moore invited me to go with him and some of his friends to a track weekend March 19-20 at Jennings GP, a motorcycle-only track in north Florida. This was to be Ken's very first time on a track.  I had not been on the track since February 2009, when I was at Buttonwillow in southern California - my move from northern California to North Carolina at the end of 2009 put a damper on my track riding for a while. It was time to get back out there.

I decided to take two bikes, my 1998 Ducati 748 and my 2000 Aprilia Mille-R. The drive was long, about 8 hours, but the trusty Subaru Outback XT does quite well towing an open trailer. I took a Friday off to make the drive down. I met up with the other guys at the track, as they live a few hours southwest of me and there wasn't a good way for us to meet up on the way.

Jennings is a fun little track, nearly perfectly flat, but with lots of interesting turns. The pavement is typical Florida-style, with crushed seashells included in the mix. That makes it really tough on tires, so you should always go there with fresh rubber on your bikes. Here's a track map:

Seeing that I had not been on any track in a couple of years, I decided to run in the beginner group on Saturday so that I could learn the track. That was probably a mistake because even on my old 748 with only 90hp, I was being held up on every lap by slow riders. But I stuck it out and just tried to get around them whenever I could. My comfort level with track riding came back to me quickly. On Sunday I ran in the intermediate group on my Aprilia and even there I spent a lot of time trying to get around slower riders. By the end of the day I was one of the fastest riders out there in the intermediate group. I had only one "moment" when I went to pass on the inside and the rider I was passing made a sudden swoop across the track right into my line. I had to hit the front brake while leaned over in a turn - never a good thing. But only a touch of brake was all it took to keep from hitting him - we were both lucky!

Ken stayed in the beginner group, but his friends Dave S and Cris rode in the intermediate group with me. We had a blast chasing each other around on the track, as we were very closely matched. Dave was on a Kawasaki ZX6, and Cris was on a Triumph 675. Dave P is super-fast, none of us can keep up with him. He rode in the advanced group and was one of the fastest guys out there.

Here's a video taken with my old Contour camera mounted on the gas tank of the Aprilia:

Jennings GP on-track video

We put the camera on Cris's bike for a session and he followed me. For a while he was close, but then traffic caused him to fall behind:

Jennings GP on-track video from behind me

Dave S's wife Jackie took a bunch of great photos. Here are a few of the best ones:

This one is Dave S in front, then me, then Cris in the back. We ran like this for lots of laps!

Overall, my return to the track was a total blast, I felt comfortable and really enjoyed being back out there. I hope to return to Jennings again next year.

Riding the RSV4 Factory

I've now ridden just under 1,000 miles on the new RSV4 and all I can say is an emphatic "WOW!!!" The bike is just amazing, it is everything I hoped it would be and more. I took it on a nice ride last month with my buddy Bill, up around Lake Berryessa, over to Middletown, then to Hopland, and back over HW29 and HW128. The handling is superb, with the most confidence-inspiring chassis I have ever been on. Every corner is effortless, the bike seems to know what you want it to do with only the slightest bit of input. The front brakes are one-finger for all but the most drastic panic-braking, which requires two fingers. I could change lines mid-corner, trail brake without a second thought, and the bike never seemed the least bit unstable.

On this ride, the bike was not fully broken in so I had to keep it under 6500rpm. With this restriction, it was completely civilized even when I set the fuel map to the "T" setting (for "Track"). The power delivery is very smooth, almost deceptively so. It's very easy to get up a pretty good head of steam without realizing it until you glance down at the speedo and exclaim to yourself "D'OH!"

I let Bill ride it on a particularly twisty section of HW29. I kept seeing him shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head in amazement. When we stopped to swap back to our own bikes, he was just laughing and saying it was the most incredible sport bike he had ever ridden (and he's ridden a lot of different sport bikes, as have I). He even called me that night after he got home just to heap more praise on the bike. Yes, it's that good.

Finally - the Aprilia RSV4 Factory

After 2 years of anticipation, the Aprilia RSV4 Factory has finally arrived in the US. The RSV4 is being heralded as the most advanced liter-class superbike on the market right now. I was #1 on the waiting list at Scuderia West, the San Francisco Aprilia dealership, as I had put a deposit on one back in 2007 when I first heard a rumor that they were going to build a V4. I had always wanted a V4 but there wasn't anything out there that really inspired me. However, I knew that whatever Aprilia came up with would be top-notch, and I was not disappointed.

The bikes arrived at Scuderia on Wednesday but Don Lemelin, the owner, asked me if I would wait until Saturday to pick up the bike, as that was the day of their annual fall open house party and he wanted to make a bit of a production of delivering the bike. I didn't mind at all. So, on Saturday November 7, my friend Joe Hittner, who also had one on order, picked me up and we headed over to SF. It was great, Don had set up our bikes in front of the shop under a 10' x 10' Aprilia canopy, with red crime scene tape around it, and "SOLD" tags with our names on them taped to the bikes. They had one more on display in the showroom that people could sit on, but ours were off limits to anyone but us. There was a nice crowd at the open house and of course lots of people were drooling over the bikes. We milled around for a couple of hours talking to various folks, got some photos taken, and I did all the paperwork with Don and wrote that big check. It was fun - a bunch of people came out to watch the first RSV4 sold at Scuderia ride off into the sunset.

Riding the bike was simply awe-inspiring. It is surprisingly comfortable, the engine and the gearbox are silky-smooth, handling is effortless, and the exhaust note is throaty even with the stock exhaust and unlike anything else I've ever heard. I didn't get to ride much other than the ride home from SF to Oakland, as I had to wait until Monday to get the insurance coverage set up. I'll give a more complete ride report after next weekend when I can take it for a real ride on some twisty roads.

Here's a picture of Joe and me in front of Scuderia with our bikes. Do we look happy or what?

Here are a few pictures I took of the bike after I got it home:

Now this is what I call attention to detail. Notice how there aren't any loose wires, everything is wrapped and clipped into place. Very nice!

Even the bolts that hold the bodywork on have "Aprilia Racing" etched into them!

 

Unbelievably Good Luck!

Wow, did I get lucky. My previous post was about destroying the rear fender on my BB1 on its first ride after finishing the repairs. I was certain that I'd have to pay someone major bucks to custom-make a replacement for me. Well, as it turned out, the guy who bought all of the Bimota parts stock from the previous Bimota US importer found a brand-new BB1 rear fender in his pile of parts! And it didn't cost me an arm and a leg.


Here it is installed on my bike:

I'm quite pleased with how it came out. I took the bike for a nice 120-mile loop on Mines Road with my buddy Bill on Labor Day and it was a total kick to ride on the twisties! Bill was following me and he said it looked like I wasn't even trying even though we were riding a nice brisk pace. Of course, when we got to The Junction to have a snack, all the motorcyclists there gravitated over to check out this bike, as very few people in the US have ever even seen one in person. Everyone thought it was a very cool little bike, myself included!

Bimota BB1 Exhaust

I've had a number of inquiries about the custom exhaust that is on my Bimota BB1, so I decided to post some information about it. One of my Bimota mail list friends, Anders Hørtvedt in Norway, sent me a bunch of information about the history of my BB1 (he knew the original owner). The custom exhaust was actually fabricated from a section of a sailboat mast. Yes, you heard me right - a sailboat mast! It's amazing how you can find unusual things from which to fabricate custom parts. Here are a few pics of the exhaust. On the left side you can see the channel where the sail fittings slid up and down the mast.

 

 

 

 

Unbelievably Bad Luck

Okay, this is unbelievable. I took the BB1 for a ride over to San Francisco yesterday, only about 15 miles each way. I was coming out of the toll plaza to get on the Bay Bridge (which connects Oakland and San Francisco) and I apparently ran over something metal that I never even saw. I heard this loud scraping sound and then some clunking. I was in the middle of about 12 lanes that merge down to 5 so I couldn't pull off the road, and once I was on the bridge, there was no shoulder and stopping would have been seriously dangerous. The clunking stopped, but the bike started handling kinda funny - weaving a little bit. I slowed way down, and once I got across the bridge, took the first exit and stopped to discover that whatever I hit took a chunk out of the rear tire, and ripped a huge section out of the entire length of the carbon fiber rear fender. The tire was completely flat but luckily the rim never touched the pavement. I couldn't leave the bike where I was, as it would have surely ended up stolen. So I rode a few miles on city streets in first gear to get to my local Bimota dealership. Luckily they had a tire in the size I needed and mounted it up for me (I had to wait a few hours). 
 
Is this bike cursed? When I last rode it in September I got hit by a car. Then after the months of time it took to get it all back together, this happens on the next ride. I'm almost afraid to take it out again!

I'm going to try to find someone who can take the rear fender and make a copy of it. I've gotten a couple of referrals to check out.

Here are a couple of pics of the carnage:

Bimota BB1 Finally Finished

At long last, I finished getting the BB1 back together with its new paint job. What an ordeal that was. I had all sorts of problems with the fuel tank. The first time I put it back on (which is an absolute bitch of a job), no fuel was making it into the carbs even though I could hear the pump running. After removing it I tried to remove the fuel pump to make sure all the hoses were connected properly and it turns out you can't get the fuel pump out of the tank, at least I couldn't even with the help of my friend Mark Ellsworth. But we were able to see that the hoses were all intact, and put it all back together. We tested the fuel pump by putting some gas in the tank and running the pump with a battery, with hoses feeding back into the tank. Everything was working fine. I put the tank under the bike and used some longer hoses to connect it all up with the tank just sitting on the floor. The bike started right up, but then I discovered fuel dripping from the carbs right onto the exhaust - not good. I suspected this could be due to a sticking carburetor float, and tried the old mechanic's trick of tapping on the float bowls with the plastic handle of a big screwdriver. Voila - the dripping stopped! So I reassembled everything and filled the tank all the way. Later I noticed a very strong gasoline smell in the garage, and looked down to see a huge puddle under the bike. Aaaaarrrrrggggg!!! Started all over again, removed the tank, emptied it into a gas jug, and removed all the fittings - there are 3 on the top of the tank, one for the wiring that goes to the fuel pump, one for the fuel level sensor, and one for the fuel line connections. Two of these are sealed with o-rings and one with a rubber gasket. I discovered a tiny tear in one of the o-rings so I replaced that. Just for good measure, I used some RTV on the two o-ring seals and reassembled everything. I waited overnight and then filled the tank to check for leaks, and there were none. So once more I reassembled the tank to the bike, and in the process added a quick-disconnect to the main fuel line where it goes into the carbs, so that this job will be easier in the future (hopefully never again). 

Next was to re-fit the fairing and the seat/tail section. The fairing was a challenge, it's a really tight fit. The tail is an even bigger challenge to get it over the exhaust without scratching it up, and then getting it into position for bolting into place. After a lot of sweating and swearing I finally got the whole thing together. I fired it up and took it out for a quick ride just to make sure everything was in order. Anyone who knows these bikes knows that they vibrate like there's no tomorrow. So, of course one of the bolts holding the bodywork on vibrated loose and fell out, along with the fancy custom-machined aluminum bushing. I'll have to get another one made (I really wish I had a lathe of my own). I'm thinking Loctite should be used on every bolt on this entire bike!

The good news is that the bike runs great and looks better than it did when I bought it. Here are a few pics of the finished product: