Page 33 :-) Drags!!!

Hi again to my faithful readers, glad to see you're all still with me! Amazingly I see my view counter is picking up again, even after such a long time of no posts! Last weekend was a long weekend here, and I went to one of the countries biggest automotive shows for two days, the first being a show 'n shine day, followed by a day at the drag strip.

I decided last minute to take my bike to the drag strip after talking to the officials at the show, and I'm really glad I did! Late registration was at 6am, so we (my partner and I) had to get up at 4!

Arriving at the drag strip still in darkness, I got my registration forms filled out (thanks to Adele from the 4nR crew!) and got set up. Because my bike is now a dedicated 'track' bike, I was put into the exhibition class, with other race bikes and cars. My first pass was held up a little bit due to a technical fault - the starting lights were playing up - so I had to sit on the start line for about an hour waiting for the problem to be fixed. Once that was rectified, I ran a 14.39 second pass! Friends had told me before the event that I'd be doing well if I got into the 14's, so as you can imagine I was pretty stoked! All in all I didn't really stand much of a chance against much higher powered vehicles, but my best time of 14.263 wasn't too bad I thought! Remembering that my bike is 23 years old and only a 250cc! Anyways, after all the classes had finished, we were allowed to run a few grudge match passes. I was lucky enough to meet a few other bikers there, who gave me heaps of encouragement throughout the day, and I was even luckier to be allowed to have a few races against a Repsol CBR600RR in the grudge matches. Of course, I got my butt kicked, but I wasn't stressing nearly so much by then and managed to get my launch sorted a little bit better. All in all, I had a blast, definitely planning on going back again once I have a proper drag racing license, it's so much fun! Oh, and the bike ran pretty much faultlessly again, apart from one minor incident of a sticky throttle (easily fixed with some cable lube.)

Huge thanks again to all the 4nR crew for putting on an awesome event, and the fellow bikers that calmed my nervousness and shared their knowledge, as well as my lovely partner Abbee for putting up with me despite the sunburn!

Next event, Big Bike Day Out, on the 24th of February, can't wait!!!

Till then!

:-)

Page 32 and a half...!

Sorry about that, had to go pick Abbee up from her work. Things are going really well on that front too, by the way!

Now, where was I... Oh yeah, progress of the last couple of months... I've applied for a 3 year degree course at Uni, looking forward to hearing if I've gotten in! Abbee has been accepted to the vet nursing course she applied for, it'll do her good to follow her dreams... Everyone has been telling me for ages to get into something to do with "writing", so now I can finally say Thank You to everyone for pushing me to follow my dreams too! Bit nervous actually, it's been a long while since I've been in any classroom type situation, I hope my brain hasn't deteriorated too much over the last few years!

Other than that, I've successfully completed my very first Advanced Rider Training (or A.R.T. for short) day, and I have to say, I had the best time ever!!! Only had a couple of very small issues with the bike, nothing I couldn't fix between track sessions. The chain was fractionally tight, and the clutch was a bit tight too. Basically, at high revs, the motor was over riding the clutch, causing too much slip. Loosened it off at the adjuster on the lever, problem solved! And the chain, obviously, was easy enough to loosen slightly too, with the help of a friends rear stand. Went back out onto the track for the second session, and Bazinga! no more problem. :-) So yeah, very proud of my little 250, and the fact that she still hasn't let me down, even after more than 20 years of service! And to anyone interested in riding on the track, I say Do It!!! You won't regret it, that's for sure!

On the job front, I've started back with Traffic Management NZ again, working for my old boss that used to run the Hamilton office. Today was my first day back on the truck again, and I loved it! Being outside, working with a really cool bunch of people, makes the factory work I was doing seem like hell! The story with that was, the pay department wasn't going to pay out our holiday entitlement, so arguments ensued, then I got accused of "threatening behaviour", and dismissed for serious misconduct... Long story short, they didn't follow proper conduct in the way they fired me, so now I'm talking to a lawyer about it. Early days yet, but from what I've heard, I've got quite a strong case! So glad to be out of there in any case, it was doing my head in. I mean, the work was fine, and I enjoyed the technical side of the factory work, but certain individuals made it unbearable... Why is it that some people just feel they have to act all queenly, and make others feel like crap every day? I'm glad Abbee only has 4 and a half weeks left before her course starts! I feel guilty for leaving her to cope with the old hags on her own, but I'm sure she'll be fine, especially knowing that she's gonna be handing in her notice soon enough. I know she'll be happy once her course is underway! :-)

So, as I said, things are progressing very well so far for 2013, despite small tedious issues, the cloud is parting ways to show it's silver lining more and more every day...! Sorry again for the lack of posts, hopefully that will change for the better from now on, now that my head isn't stressed out with dramas. And I've discovered an 'app' for my phone (Samsung Galaxy S3, sooo much better than my old Sony Ericsson!) that plugs me straight into my blog too, even though I got a new laptop for Xmas I still haven't quite got it up to speed just yet. Blogspot, some free advertising for you here, good work on your app! Nice and easy to use, 5 stars from me. Thanks!

To everyone out there still reading my dribble, thanks for bearing with me and keeping me on the right path. Look forward to seeing you all out there on the road or at the track sometime soon!

Till then...!

:-)

Page 32, a long time coming!

Wow, I never could have imagined how things would change so quickly in my life, seems like only yesterday I posted up here saying sorry for not posting for so long! Well, things as I said have changed, I've just started another new job (after being fired from the factory over the Xmas break... long story, don't ask...), the bike has been completely transformed into a track bike, with new parts galore, been to my first proper track day, and I've applied to university for a journalism degree!

Haha just typing that, I'm still amazed myself at the progress I've made in life in the last couple of months! Anyways, the bike is finally finished, completely rebuilt from the ground up, with powder coated frame, swing arm and sub frame, the motor has been pulled down and given a good going over from top to bottom, balanced and put back together to the exact manufacturers specs, front shocks stripped and rebuilt, new bolts front to back, new paint on all the bits that needed it, fairings, tires, brake pads, cables, hoses, lines, etc etc etc... I'm really quite proud of how it's all come back together, if I do say so myself! Only problem is, now I've got nothing to do with my free time! It got to the point that every day I had more than a couple of hours to play with, I'd go down to the garage (my workshop) and no-one would see me for the rest of the day! Now I don't have anything else to do on the bike, I'm struggling to keep myself busy with my free time! Lol well, if that's all I have to complain about, things can't be too bad, huh?

Whoops, just realized I've gotta go pick up my partner from her work, will post more in a few minutes...

Till then...!