Since the dealership wasn’t able to get my bike up and running for the weekend, I wasn’t really looking forward to this weekend. It was wonderful and flattering that people offered me bikes to use for my races. But really, it’s just not the same.
I ended up using Daryl’s SV, which is a fun bike, even if it is 1/2 the hp of mine, has interesting brakes, and the suspension feels like that of an old caddy with shot shocks and partly because of all that it was a blast to play on. I can’t thank Daryl enough, for letting borrow it. I even managed to drop my lap times down into a range that was respectable. I learned a few new things riding it, like it is possible to go into a couple of turns so much deeper then I thought, and I can stuff it up under others without problems when I have no other choice.
The new configuration CW is a lot of fun, and it is a whole lot more tiring then the std config. Maybe it was just because it was so hot, but I was wiped out and I didn’t ride as much as I usually do. I’m sure that part of it is that the 675 is so much easier to ride then the 13 year old SV. I managed to drag hard parts for the first time, and my toes a few more… even though I kept pulling them farther up on the pegs.
I really should have practiced a launch or two on it before sunday. It didn’t even occur to me to do that until I was heading to the grid for the Nov GTO race. I almost didn’t make the race, I missed the warmup lap. I didn’t hear any of the calls for the race, funny since I even had a radio… So had one of my worst launches in a long time, and was pretty much last off the line. I managed to get back a couple of spots so I was pleased and I was feeling much more comfortable on the bike after that too.
The Am GTU race went even better, still didn’t have a great launch, but I finished even better so, again over all I was okay with the result. The Nov GTU race went even better… hum… pattern… 🙂 I actually had a good launch and I finished a little better, if I had had just a little more hp I would have been able to finish better in all three. So riding that SV was a great lesson for me. I found that I was able to carry some really good corner speed, but my drives out weren’t as good as they could have been.
If we hadn’t gotten rained out again in the afternoon, I bet I would have figured out just how to ride that bike faster.