Motorcycle Road Racing: (CCS/ASRA / WERA / RRGNC / Real Roads / Etc.)

The images are by Joe Salas, and are being used with his permission.

Supermoto is a form of racing that combines on-road, and off-road, on the same track. The racers typically ride dirt bikes with road-racing tires. What if one were to take an SV650 bike to a Supermoto race? It’s too big, right?

Dan Sewell races for CODE4Racing, is sponsored by Twin Works Factory, and teaches for Z2TrackDays. Below are images of Dan racing an SV650 in Supermoto. When does anyone do that? This may be the first time!

The photographer, Joe Salas, gave us permission to use the  images here.  Joe photographs track days, and races, and makes the photos available at 4theriders.com.

2010 Ducati Monster 696 ABS

2010 Ducati 696 ABS ridden by Paul Danger Kile and Dr. Kay Ann Kile MD

• $9,995 MSRP is expensive compared to it’s closest big-four competitor’s models. That said, this is my favorite bike ever, and much less expensive than many dissimilar models.
• It is incredible easy to turn. It makes me think “this bike is telepathic, and goes where I think it should.” Are you bad at u-turns? Maybe it’s not all your fault? This bike helps.
• The seat is comfortable for a 5’9″ 220 lb. man. It reminds me of a Gold Wing in the way that my body interfaces with the machine.
• I never feel like I am putting weight on my wrists, and I never feel like I am doing pull-ups (between 0 and 85 MPH).
• The levers are adjustable, and my hands do not tire when using them.
• The bike is very short for a sporty bike, but possibly too-tall for some people that are five-foot-tall and shorter.
• The forks are not adjustable in any way, although they work for my 220 lbs. on the road: the track is probably going to be a different story.
• The shock is adjustable for pre-load only.
• It was initially difficult to use the sidestand while on the bike (due to its short length), but I can use the back of my boot to get it down.
• The battery is extremely difficult to access. Make sure that you install trickle charger wiring the first time that you do access it.
• The passenger footpeg holders look too large (they are functionally-fine, this is an artistic-design comment), but my 8 year old is occasionally a passenger, so they will stay.
• It is sometimes difficult to read the speedometer in bright sunlight.
• The bike needs (and now has) frame sliders.
• The bike needs luggage.
• I wish that more of the metal were the same color (except for the trellis frame, that _should_ be painted). Ducati lets many metals be their natural, non corroded, color. Apparently this is so that the magnesium parts on the more-expensive models stand out. In other words: it’s a tradition.
• The inside of the hubs rust (they are hollow). The rear brake’s return spring rusts.
• The acceleration is slower below 4500 RPM (but quicker than the other bikes in this list). The word “rocket” comes to my mind between 4500 and 8000 RPM.
• I hate all of those stickers the trellis frame. The stickers are annoying on most bikes, but some states have proposed laws about leaving the emissions stickers where they are, and I don’t want to.
• The English-language chapters in the manual replace “,” with “.”, and “.” with “,”. This is how it’s done in many countries: “1,000,000.5″ (one-million-point-five) is written as “1. 000.000,5″. It’s correct, but confusing to Americans.
• The manual has errors:
  • Redline at 800 RPM? I think not. They need to multiply that by 10.
  • The manual warns about leaving the headlight on, but also touts the bike’s run-down protection feature. I am nitpicking here.

2004 V-Star 650 Classic

This is a great cruiser for long distance. I spent the most time on this one. I added a fairing (to avoid the doing pull-ups feeling that you get when your upper body becomes a sail-in-the-wind) and hard luggage.

Paul Danger Kile’s 2004 Yamaha V-Star 650 Classic, at The Art of the Motorcycle: Memphis.

2007 Suzuki SV650S ABS

The non-S version is a baby bear bike; it is “just right” for most folks in every way. It’s a sportbike, but with a v-twin engine. I ride the S version: which goes a long-way towards explaining why I am happy to ride the Monster 696. I intended to install a tubular handlebars on here, but did not.

Gershwin Kile’s first motorcycle ride: we practiced in the parking lot that day.

2007 SV650S ABS

Harley Davidson Night Train

The Night Train is a Harley Softail model with a black crinkle-finish on the engine. The fit-and-finish is excellent. It pulls like a tractor at low RPMs, but costs around 2.5 times more than the V-Star 650. I did not purchase this one.

Harley Davidson VRSCR Street Rod

The Street Rod has mid-mount controls, inverted forks, and it is taller than a V-Rod. It was the sportiest non-Buell HD ever, but not as exciting as the SV650 or Monster. It also suffered from that I-could-buy-two-motorcycles-for-the-price-of-this-one issue. That’s my opinion; most Harley Davidsons are expensive, but obviously enough people desire them to justify the prices. I did not purchase this one. This model is no-longer available. The bike in the video has a custom exhaust system.

Kawasaki Eliminator 125

The Eliminator is fun, and inexpensive, but small. I rode this during an MSF course. The name “Eliminator” refers to drag racing, but this is not a fast bike.

Kawasaki Eliminator 125, image by Wikimedia user Museo8bits, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Suzuki GZ250 Marauder

This one is also fun, and inexpensive, but small. I rode this during an MSF course. The new TU250 is prettier.

Scooters?

My wife and I rented scooters in Fort Lauderdale. I am not sure what model they were. I like automatic transmissions in concept, but CVT transmissions are not as exciting as dual-clutch transmissions, regardless of engine size.

Gershwin Kile’s first scooter ride: Gershwin Kile, Paul James, and Amy James: KYMCO is a sponsor of James Gang / Hoban Bros. Racing. They provide the pit bikes. The photo was taken during the 2009 AMA Pro roadraces at Heartland Park Topeka.

Harley Davidson Biases

In the plus column

• Great build quality.
• Beautiful Bikes.
• Paul James Harley Davidson’s Director of Communications is extremely generous with his fans. There are videos, articles, images, and essays, about Paul James’ and Jeff Johnson’s race team (James Gang / Hoban Bros.) from in-the-pits and on-the-track. This does make me think positive thoughts about HD.

In the minus column

• One of the salespeople at a Texas HD dealer was only willing to sell me a Heritage Softail. He showed me a picture of his girlfriend, and told me that women like-that only date HD riders. Bad experiences affect our feelings about the brand.
• At another Texas dealer they said that I must have broken my defective goggles by mistreating them after admitting that they had quality issues with that particular product. HDs are so desirable that bad salespeople can still get sales. (Does this belong in the plus column?)
• Expensive
• Buell, Buell, Buell, Buell: did I mention what they did to Buell? Some of the HD dealer salespeople that I met apparently hated Buell. HD forced decisions on Buell. HD killed Buell instead of selling the engineering, branding, etc., to another company. Yes, Buell’s market share was low, but that wasn’t entirely Buell’s fault.
• The exclusivity attitude that some riders have. HDs are extremely comfortable, and easy to ride bikes, but some owners think that they can only be ridden by big bad bikers. (Wait… does this belong in the plus column?)
• The 100% American branding of a product that is assembled from parts that are manufactured all over the world: even by some Japanese companies. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)
• Harley Davidson bought MV Agusta, improved their process engineering, and then sold the company: presumably at a loss. That’s right, Harley Davidson briefly owned the world’s most beautiful superbike, and offered it for $18,500 MSRP, which is competitive with the big-4′s prices (Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki). If you suspect that the company is being run by a guy from the air conditioning business, then you are correct. I leave you with the F4: a bike that I may never get to ride, because it won’t be part of any HD US demo fleet.

2010 John McGuinness Video

Don Emde shared an Isle of Man TT video on facebook. This one is a 2010 video of John McGuinness! Yes, Mr. McGuinness is that good.

2009 Videos

Don Emde shared this beautiful Isle of Man TT video on facebook, and mentioned that he wants to go as a spectator in 2010. The music is “Now we are free” by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard, from the movie Gladiator. It was uploaded by Mirko Guzetta. Thank you Don and Mirko!

Isle of Man Tourist Trophy 2009 Steve Plater Onboard:

Scott Harwood shared this 2009 Isle of Man TT video with us:

Scott also shared a video from this year’s TTX with us:

Story used by permission of Sean de Fraine— Sean is the Web master for www.blarneyquick.com and the Kevin Schwantz School – Official Page facebook page.  For more about Kieron and Sean’s Schwantz School Experience see “Kevin Schwantz Laps Barber Motorsports Park”.

Kieron Mooney, Kevin Schantz, and Sean de Fraine. Image linked-from, and linked-to www.blarneyquick.com. Click on the image to go to www.blarneyquick.com.

This was my third year in a row. What can I say, I am totally hooked. But this past combination of first participating in the 2-day Kevin Schwantz School and then being hosted by the school for three days at Indy for MotoGP was a life long dream fulfilled. Barber Motor Sports Park is the best racing facility I have ever seen. Just driving into it made me feel like I was at a golf course – everything is so manicured. The track was very technical with lots of sweeping corners, not as fast as years past in Road Atlanta. The school was excellent as usual, Lee Acree was lead instructor in the classroom with the man himself chiming in and answering any questions. I knew all of the track instructor except for one, so it was like seeing family again. Marnie Lincoln: the boss; had everything well organized and she always had time for everyone. I returned to the school with another 3-peater – Sean de Fraine. We drove 2200 miles overall. Went through 10 states – read Sean’s piece on the trip. He describes every detail real well, so I don’t want to be repetitive. There were 9 guys in the A group and everyone rode well. We were all better at the end of our 2-days with Kevin and his crew. Sean in my opinion improved the best – he’s the guy in the fancy Rizla leathers.

I brought my Suzuki GSXR 750 down with me and it preformed brilliantly. There was a Suzuki film crew at Barber taking segments for the 25 the Anniversary of the GSXR Superbike. They filmed everybody, so hopefully some of us will make history. The A group guys all became friends and all meet back up at Indy for the experience of a life time. Kevin was going to ride his 1993 World Championship RGV 500 just before the start of MotoGP. Kevin is a huge fan favorite and he was showered with attention. Marnie pulled off a great location in the paddock. We were at Garage 4, right beside Yamaha and Honda catering. So we really never had to move to meet all the past and present stars – they basically came to us. We all took hundreds of photo’s of just about everything – I even managed to take a few of the famous brolly girls. We meet all the riders and were brought into LCR Honda’s garage and also Rizla Suzuki. This kind of access is unheard of. I meet Valentino, Jorge, Nicky and all the riders, but for me it was the old school boys like Kenny Roberts, Wayne Rainey and Kevin that impressed me most. They were very cool to talk to. We even went and watched Kenny Roberts Ride his TZ 750 dirt tracker at the Indy Fairgrounds. We were afforded so much in such a little time. Corner 9 seating was great and the VIP club house was first rate. The Racing was exciting and I don’t think it could have been better. Thanks to Kevin and Marnie for this GP Experience Package – one I will never forget.