Very cool forum! (sugilite)

[sugilite]

Hi all, I'm a new comer here, I found the forum after dickytoo sent me a excerpt about one of our past race bikes...I just found the flame warriors part of the site and read about forum newbies, thus I realized I prob should have posted in here first to introduce myself, so here is a bit of a blurb about my bikes and experiences I've had with them over the 23 years I've been riding. (I'm 38)
So here is my list of bikes.....you may notice my funniest moments are also my best crashes for some reason, go figure!

Suzuki TS185ER - looked mint when I got it-trashed in a few short weeks.
It was an immaculate red happy sweet innocent bike, pity it took me only 6 weeks to crush it's soul!:devil2:

Funniest moment and crash - Getting suckered along a steep, soggy, slimy pine tree infested hill by my mates.
I was on trail tyres, fell over at low speed and crunch went the indicators on the right!
Unbeknown to me the front brake lever had broken inside the rubber boot, I get bike up, it's ass facing down hill, go for said brake lever and no ones home, the bike rolls down hill hits tree with a brake light destroying crunch, in it's final act, the bike then falls over crunching the left hand indicators this time and burying it's foot peg into my poorly protected left foot, completing a 30 second concerto of destruction!
After that, I took safety gear very seriously! Also about that time shares increased in value for accessory indicator and brake lever companies!
Next!


Honda XR200RD 1983 - Great bike, shame about the shock, duct taped everything in sight from new, sold as mint, after I'd broken my femur in 4 places. DOH!
It was a great bike to have as a relative learner, enough power to take on most hills and to practice wheelies, was also good in the air for jumps.

Funniest moment/best crash - As mentioned the shock was well, a shocker, fortunately I was 16, so I still knew it all!
I figured, hey I'll just crank up the spring (looked suspiciously like a bic pen spring) with these ring thread collar thingies.
Time to test, I eye up one of the bigger jumps at on of the local Karori riding areas of the day (Parkside)
It was a do or die jump, come up short and enjoy the crunch, as it turns out, no worries, could have cleared it 3 times over, trouble was my shock mod then took effect and the back end kicked up violently!
Landing on the front wheel just over the balance point, revving the tits of it to try and get the centrifugal force to pull the rear back down, alas, all to no avail as the bike slowly, sickeningly even, rolled over forwards on it's path to doom, destruction and ultimately revenge!
I got spat of and thrown forward like a rag doll, with the revenge seeking bike chasing me down like an animal, the throttle dug in do the ground and the bike spun on it to full throttle, the back wheel ended up spinning on my back (I'd learn t though, so had chest and back protection, hah! still, it melted the plastic protector!) so I roll away reach around and hit the kill switch, where upon the next calamity made it self known!
The bike ignored the kill switch as if it was a teenagers nagging mother and continued on it's valve bouncing path to destruction. I knew then, I must pay further penance to the motorcycling Deity of pain!
There was nothing else for it, so I ripped the spark plug cap off the bike giving me a MEGA electric shock as punishment for daring to fiddle with it's posterior!:moon:
After discharging myself into the national grid for a healthy power credit, I got back on the XR, started it up, did 2 hard laps on it, then rode home slowly.
I did a bad job of faking to my parents everything was a box of fluffy ducks as my freshly tenderized and still smoking body seemingly gave the game away
I then retreated to my room and slept it off for the next few days while dreaming that afros might come back into fashion.:Punk:
Next!

Suzuki RM125D 1983 - The last 125 motocross bike made without power valves. That was not a throttle on the bar, it was a light switch! As a result, this bike taught me more than any other how to go fast!
esp as every hill was a do or die prospect, and there were no shortage of those around my riding areas!

Funniest moment - I bought this bike with my leg still in a cast, all I could do was look at it, that is till I worked out I could kick start it with my hand! About 0.001 seconds later I decided to go for a ride, I sussed I could just hold my left leg out and lean down to change gears with my hand!
So I head up to the end of my road and go for a loop over the hills using pylon gravel access roads. I get to the other side and decide to not take any more chances with the leg, it was getting tired after all.
I took the sealed road way back home, I'm coming down this hill and I see Bill, (Bill may pop up in some of my other posts from time to time he kinda looks like this emoticon... :Police: just without the smile!)
Bill seemed to belong to some sort of gang. The gangs colors seemed to be black and white back then, they also had red flashing lights way before these boy racers today started pimping out their rides with them.
Anyways, Bill took one look at me on me and just couldn't wait to come over and check my MX bike out and he probably wanted to sign my cast as well.
As per usual, I had no time to stop and chat with Bill, I mean, I had to go home to er, wash my hair or something.
At this point, Bill seemed to develop some kind of rejection issues as I madly changed up through the box with my hand!
Thanks to a kind guy in a very slow gardening truck and a handily placed furniture removal truck I got a break on Bill and made it home undetected.
Bill went to the trail at the end of my street and seemed keen to camp there for the night. I wondered if I should go and share my coke with him in the late afternoon sun as he meditated his way through his obvious anger issues and inability to just "let go", but nah, I really did need to wash my hair.:whistle:

Best Crash - Well, there were so many to choose from as my attitude was, if I don't crash at least once a day, I was not trying hard enough! As it turns out, I seldom let myself down in this respect, however the crash that really comes to mind is this one.... We hacked out MX tracks out of gorse on hillsides in those days (at times they left bulldozers up there hehehehe), so it did not pay to stray of the tracks, unless you like gorse that is!
Anyways, I went of one knarly jump into a gully and the back kicked around, usually no problem, except just then a notorious huge Wellington gust of wind shoved me over sideways about 4 meters, Thank goodness there was a very concentrated old and dry 5 meter high gorse patch to break my fall!
The local greenies got all excited when they thought they had stumbled on a new species of mammal related to the porcupine, they were well pissed when they found out it was only me.
I was picking gorse needles out months later and needed to go to a rehab centre to get over my stricnene addiction.:violin:
Next!

Honda ATC200X - I got his in addition to RM, an evil 3 wheeled death trap that tried to kill me on the 1st ride!
I proceeded to make it my mission to return the favour at sand dunes, bent an axle on the J U M P S, got a life time guaranteed axle and bent that on the 1st ride back, sigh!

Funniest Moment - Watching the hoon come out of my father...he used to race cars, had never ridden a bike, so I let him loose out on the ATC, blow me down if the old buggar wasn't pulling wheelies, putting it sideways and doing jumps within the 1st 5 minutes!

Best Crash - Wouldn't you know it, the 1st ride! I took it up into the hills, was riiiiiight at the top of a long steep valley, took the same line as my MX bike, bad move as one of the rear wheels ran off the edge flipping me off the trike, it then flips over my head, lands on it's tyres, bounces high and flips landing on it's tyres again, this time bouncing much higher and flipping many more times down into the valley startling the small animals and damaging the natural fauna along it's merry way.
An immaculate trike trashed in the 1st 25 mins, great going huh!

I noticed something on this machine though, I could ride past a group of people on my MX bike slowly and the looks on their faces were not pretty, go home, grab the trike, ride past the same group at a faster pace and they smile and wave!!!! :confused:
Next!

Suzuki 1984 RG250 My 1st Road bike. I remember scraping my boot for the 1st time, I thought I was Eddie Lawson! I may have to admit about pointing the toes down at the time too!
I cracked 160 k mph (the old ton) on this bike, I was very excited about that, then again, 17 year olds get easily excited!
I never crashed this bike, not from a lack of trying though!

This was an age for me where I had merged with my motorcycles as one! :grouphug:
I still had the RM125 and the ATC at the time and often rode all 3 in one day. Fortunately I had my fathers petrol account he did not use, as he caught the bus everyday, WAAAHOOO!
Also, fortunately just at this time I became an unemployed bum and rode from dusk to dawn every day for about 4 months, knowing I was destined to become a tax paying robot, er i mean rodent, or well whatever it is I've become, so naturally, I enjoyed it to the max!
I used to ride up to the top of the Karori hills at 6:30 am experiencing and reveling in the sense of freedom only a biker can know, and just watched the commuters down below pouring out of their houses and commuting into the city, it sure looked like a ant farm, hmmm.

Best Crash - None!

I sold all three and bought my next machine....Something that would surely quell my thirst for excitement!

As I don't know how large posts can be, I'll continue this later if If not shot down in flames for this meandering post!
This forum Rocks :rockon:

[SPORK]

Oh gosh, you don't do things by halves, do you? Welcome and enjoy your stay and don't feed the animals after lunch.


Nice to have ytou hear mann

[Colapop]

Welome....



Feed the animals go on .... feed them...

[zadok]

Welcome to K.B Sugilite. You going for the record of the longest post!?:wavey: :lol:

[phoenixgtr]

Holy crap. I think thats the most i've seen anyone write on here!!

Welcome :blink:

[sugilite]

I used just about every character allowable, I couldn't make a dent in the arcade scores, so had to try for an unofficial record!
The rest of my posts will be somewhat shorter hehehe

[phoenixgtr]

Well at least you got your head screwed on right :laugh:

[Colapop]

I used just about every character allowable, I couldn't make a dent in the arcade scores, so had to try for an unofficial record!
The rest of my posts will be somewhat shorter hehehe

Don't post any new threads just edit this and call them chapters....

[judgeshock]

Welcome along my man :headbang:

[skelstar]

Thats a good effort mate. Good to see ya!

[Sniper]

Welcome mate, and don't type so much, it makes some of us nervous

[Hitcher]

Welcome to Kiwibiker. Great first post.

[raster]

Sorry, I started fading out about the 10th paragraph.

Need to keep it large charactors and simple words round here.

Welcome.

[In The Breeze]

LOL! Welcome to KB:niceone: Enjoy

[crashe]

Welcome......

Now that was a mamoth read....
and yep it could well be the longest post.

[2much]

Damn, that's a good read!

Welcome to KB!

[Jabez]

Welcome....:)

[Maha]

Shit i only just make thru' ''that guys'' column in the Sunday Herald........
Thats a BIG effort mate, onya!
Theres some funny bastards on here.... enjoy!!

[sugilite]

Here is the next installment of my rambling bike history!

Yamaha RZ500 1984 - Sold the RM, ATC and RG250 to buy this object of desire. There were only 20 in the country at the time, it was faster than the 1100's of the day. It had the most character of any bike I've ever owned.
The funny thing is it was not on my shopping list at the time. To rare and unobtainable I thought.
I just wanted something faster than the RG250. So it was off to Wellington Motorcycles, 1st up I test rode a GSX750ESD, it was slow bloated whale.
I jumped on a pop up headlight Katana, and took it out to their Lower Hutt branch they had in those days.
That was more like it, great acceleration, but it signed off too early for my liking.
Due to my height, the tank splayed my legs wider than a star struck rock band groupie!
Hmmm, what to do I pondered as my test ride was drawing to an end.
The answer as it turns out was sitting up on display in the window at the bike shops Lower Hutt branch window. It was lust at first sight!:devil2:
I'd only just finished reading the day before how it won the Aussie six hour.
Bob Toomey was the sales man and he did not seem to keen to get it down out of the window for a 17 year old. I showed them the color of my money and it was done.
By 2nd gear, I knew I was buying the bike!:Punk:

16 inch wheels on rough winding back roads were not cool, so I bought a steering dampener for it in the first week. This transformed the bikes handling and composure. After that the steering was always light and nimble, yet rock solid. The power for the day was stunning. The sound of the V4 motor with induction roar and 4 screaming pipes was a sound to behold!:woohoo:

Funniest moment -
I got to do a number on a text book 80's Mitsi cordia turbo driving yuppie.
I'd come up against him before on my 250 and been beaten. Being pipped by the gold chain laden hairy chested smarmy faced yupster was a bitter pill to swallow!:angry2:
I'd had the 500 a few weeks and who should I see at the head of the queue at the now deceased Porirua traffic lights on SW1. Xmas had come early and I was keen to open my present!:yes:
I sidled up beside him, he gave me his trade mark yuppie smirk and takes off, I make it look good, keep it in the lower gears and get right down on the tank and just inch it in front of him really putting on a show of trying hard, once in front I flicked my choke on, simultaneously the 4 pipes billow out 2 stoke smoke and I start to pull to the side of the motorway as if to pull over and note the yuppies hearty laughter as I do so.
Right, I let him get only so far away then I flick the choke off, The bike clear her throat then lunges forward running through the gears, shrieking for revenge and who am I to deny her!
He saw me coming and floored it.The timing was sweet, the bike was just edging into redline in top as we sucked the doors off the yuppies cordia. Revenge is sweet as they say!:2guns:

Best crash - Just one on this bike, was doing a lap of the Lyal Bay/Airport GP after night shift, come off Onepu road on to the fore shore ans straight into a massive sand drift from the southerly storm the day before. The upside was, very little damage as it fell in quite deep sand.

Suzuki RG250 1986F - I decided to go racing, a respected member of the racing fraternity tells me 250 is where I should start, bad move I'm 2 meters tall FFS!:angry2:
the 1st practice day I saw the writing on the wall, I spent the day passing loads of riders on the corners and getting dusted by them down the straights. So I never raced this bike.
To broke to upgrade for a while here...I do spend a lot of time crashing this bike and learn a lot about mid corner speeds and fairing repairs!
I tried to put a RZ350 motor in it, but the shop I got to do it stuffed around for way to many months, so next!

Funniest Moment - I went on a ride with mates to do the fielding, Kimbolton, Taihape road for the 1st time.
I was having fun and pulling away from the group. I came across a group of about 8 or so Ducatis pulled over on the side of the road, I'd never seen so many Ducatis on the road at one time, in those days most lived in workshops lol
Anyways, picture this ...I'm on my multi crashed, painted, crashed, painted, crashed painted (different colors each time if course) RG250, to call this bike rough was at best being charitable!
They asked where I was from, told em Wellie, so they said ahhh, so you do the Rimitukas? After saying I did, they told me, "this road to us, is what the Rimitukas is to you." So off they went, I was happy because I figured I'd have expert lines to follow. the 1st few were way to slow, so I passed them and so on and so forth till there was clear daylight in front of me. I stopped at the end and everyone of them rode by like I did not exist! I felt as welcome as a blow fly on a wedding cake.

Best Crash - Hmmm, soooooooooooooo many to choose from!
I was out riding on the Akatarawa road , there was a cool temporary bridge there at the time, the fun jump on and a jump off type, it was wet this day so I was just cruising, I come up onto the wooden bridge and there is diesel spilt the length of it, I dont touch the brakes and pull in the clutch, all to no avail, I instantly go down. As I watch my latest week old paint work (a tasteful gloss black with gold pinstripes) be ground away into oblivion I thought, at least my riding partner will see this and have a chance, just then his bike slides past me inches to my right, :doh:

Honorable mention - The claytons crash, it's the crash you have when your not having a crash!
I was near the top of the South side of the Rimitakas, a car comes around the corner on my side of the road, My right handle bar and brake lever smash through his side mirror and monsoon shield, this puts on my front brake which locks and twists the front tyre into the side of the car. I instinctively use a technique picked up when playing the ram your mate into gorse bushes whilst riding dirt bikes (both giving and receiving lol) I give the bike full throttle and once the bike was clear of the car wrench the bars straight.
It had smashed my knuckle into the middle of my hand, but at least I had not gone down.
So who won?
The bike - scraped bar end and brake lever end broken off.
Car - broken side mirror, smashed monsoon shield, Dented driver and passenger door as from bikes front wheel and a rent near the length of the car from my brake lever and resovoir....The bike wins!:motu:
Not that their insurence company did not try to tell me it was my fault they were on my side of the road. Told em where to go...

I really did want to get to the race track, so with this in mind, I went and purchased my next bike....to be continued....

[cowpoos]

hmmmm.....more freash meat.... :shake:

[cowpoos]

I really did want to get to the race track, so with this in mind, I went and purchased my next bike....to be continued....

getting sick of waiting for the sequil!!!! come on bro!

[Fatjim]

The rest of my posts will be somewhat shorter hehehe

Tui ad!


10 chars

[Lil_Byte]

War and Peace was a shorter read.

But welcome anyway:scooter:

[sugilite]

Gawd, we have a thread resurrection!
OK then, just for you Poos LOL

Suzuki GSXR750F 1985 - As Suzuki were prone to doing in those days, they dumped a load of cheap GSXR750's from Aussie on the NZ market. I picked up a red and black one.
As mentioned I was keen to get to the track, so with original fairings n all I rode to my first race meeting at Onekawa in Napier. On the way I stopped behind a van load of Vic club members who were going up to race. As I was talking to Anthony McCarthy I heard my bike being started up, I turned around just in time to see a drunk Dave Hicks wheelieing my bike up the road, he turned it around and wheelied it back landing it with a fork crunching thud, does another u-turn and promptly drops it, I always did think that guy was a jerk :tugger:

Anyways, it was pissing down at Onekawa and slippery as hell, I can remember passing Anthony McCarthy on his GSXR1100R then him running on in the next corner and straight into the side of me leaving big tyre marks on my swing arm, thankfully I'd been riding my motocross bike the day before, so stuck my foot out put her in sideways into the corner and made it! Anthony crashed, poetic justice one might say. I cannot remember where I finished, it was not 1st place, so :whocares:

2nd Race meeting was Gracefield, fark, that place was dangerous, I was fearless at 19, but I sure respected that track. I got top 5 finishes, and was up against names like Holden, Toomey, Kattenberg, all on GSXR1100's. The only thing I can remember was in race 2, Anthony McCarthy's girlfriend coming up to me as I was on the start line and whining in her nasal voice, "Well Anthony, Dave, Jim, Anthony and Jason have all crashed, so I guess it is your turn!" How did she know that was just what I wanted to hear? Not! :ar15:

Best Crash - None! Amazingly, I never crashed this bike.


Suzuki GSXR1100H 1986 - I went to Wellington Motorcycles to buy a helmet and ended up riding out on a GSXR1100, how did that happen!
Both Robert Holdens and Bob Toomeys race bikes had come up for sale. I liked red and black, so bought Roberts one, bad move as it turns out! It was a missile for 3 days, but then the war head blew up! After an 8 week wait it was fixed, while running it in, it blew up again! (at 6000 revs) stranding me at the top of the North Island. After another 8 week wait it was fixed again, this time it had a whole new top end and strangely was only as fast as other GSXR1100's now. hmmm :shutup: :shutup:

I raced it at manfield 3 times in the then winter series, I was getting 3rd places on it straight away in F1 and by the 3rd meeting was giving 1st and 2nd places a real hard time, was lapping in the 1:14 to 1:15 range. The track was billiard table smooth compared to the condition of it these days.
I can remember pushing the front end on this bike so hard that I had to save it on my knee three laps in a row on the Manfield hairpin, to say these bikes were forgiving is an understatement! :yes:

The 6 hour endurance race was approaching and I was keen as mustard to do it, I enlisted the help of one Terry Stevenson, he was an experienced racer who had been fully sponsored by Wellington Motorcycles. I let him ride the bike for a race meeting to get used to it, in the 2nd practice session he pushed to hard into the hairpin and crashed it. The impact bent the crank :angry:
He was a bike mechanic and said, "no worries" I'll pay for the crank and fix it. He did neither, though did come around to help put it back together, snapped a bolt in the head, fucked off and I never saw him again, yep another :tugger:

I got it fixed up, but by this time I had, had enough and decided to buy a brand new bike.....

Best crash:The brakes were always a issue on this model even with the 750 master cylinder my "production" bike seemed to have come with! :shutup:
Anthony McCarthy (that man again) said, here spray this stuff called brake clean on your disc's and just leave it. So I did that, went out for the 1st race and coming into coke, hmmm, no brakes???? Squeezed the lever harder and POW I was off and sliding up the track at about 200 kph, buggar!
My mate lent me his RG500, it was straight of the street, we taped up the headlight, took the mirrors off and called it a race bike, the plugs had not been out in over 7000 km's and I was adjusting the clutch lever down the back straight! I lined up at the back of the grid in F1. by the finish of the 5 lap race I'd worked my way up to 3rd place against full house formula one bikes, passing names like one Sean Harris down the front straight (proving what I'd said all along, RG500's were faster in a straight line than the GSXR750's) I was cornering so hard I was levering the rear off the bloody ground on the pipes, oh for a 17 inch front wheel!

OK, in my next post, and it will be another long one, I will cover just one bike, so you can sux on another Tui Fatjim! :nya:

[skelstar]

That showed them eh Ant? :)

[chanceyy]

still laughing here Ant .. gawd you have such an eloquent way of putting things .. awaits for the next installment .. :D:rockon:

[2much]

Great stuff Ant. Finally, a worthwhile resurrection.

[gijoe1313]

Good gosh magolly - excellent tales of biking madness! A tale of extroverted riding and madcap explorations on two wheels of freedom - entertaining read and leaves me :gob: Dead impressed and can only :2thumbsup :killingme :not: :slap: :thud: :banana:

Keep posting your eloquent tales from the saddle!

[babyB]

ar Sugi, has been a long day for me & reading ya stories so far has just made my morning :2thumbsup
thanks for a wonderful read:hug: ....
but now awaits for ya next entry:corn:

[Edbear]

I used just about every character allowable, I couldn't make a dent in the arcade scores, so had to try for an unofficial record!
The rest of my posts will be somewhat shorter hehehe




"Please review your post. Maximum lenght is 10,000 characters, you have written 10,335". :yes: Didn't know that before...:done:

[steved]

Love it. Great stories.

[sugilite]

Suzuki GSXR1100K 1988
I had decided I liked this racing lark and wanted something that was reliable.
Buying the GSXR was a no brainer. I ordered it site unseen and I duly received the 1st one to arrive in NZ. I was so excited to ride away from Wellington Motorcycles knowing I was the only one at that time in the country to be on one. (well for a day or two anyways)

My road riding partner James was a onto it fellow and told me to make sure I come up to his place as soon as I had picked it up. I duly did so and he whipped out a camera before I had a chance to crash it, like I said, he was onto it! (see photo attachment)

After my usual running in ride to the top of the North Island and back it was time to order the race fairings and turn it into a racebike. I switched it backwards and fowrds from race bike to road bike often back in those days.
For the next year I raced it at the respective Vic and Manawatu Orian club winter series. I'm quite sure I took out both championships as I won every race, I have a trophy from the Manawatu Orion club for 1st place, I don't think the Vic club were big on trophies in those days :oi-grr:

I do not remember that much about the races as I felt I did not have that much competition, so did not rate my race wins as anything special. I remember Eddie Kattenberg and Russel Josiah developing 750 super bikes for the impending World supers that came to NZ. I beat them both all the time on my production 1100, I was not impressed with the 750's so did not begin to even think about building one myself.

Eddie Kattenberg was one for mind games and intimidation. He used to threaten me with lines like "don't even think of holeshotting this race, if you do I'll punt you off the track" (I still holshotted) or the ever popular "did you see the oil in turn 2?" One of the rounds they ran reverse direction, he came up to me and goes "This is a whole new track reverse direction and you don't know it. I'm gonna kick your arse" Race one I beat him by 30 meters, race 2 100 meters, race 3 by 1/3 of a lap so as you can guess, I took absolutely no notice of him. See the 1st post in this thread, I grew up in a culture of you took out your buddy where ever you could and he would return the favour, so to this day being leant on, shown a wheel or being barged into does not phase me, just business as usual. :laugh:

About 1/3 of the way through the series, a fatefull event occured. I worked for a comapany called GCS (Government Computing Services, now EDS) as a Network Controller running a mainframe computer network. It was in a concrete bunkar type setup with no windows and heavy security. This fatefull day I received a note on my desk next to my bike mag. It read something like "I see you are into bikes, me too, give me a call on extension blah blah signed Richard Leong.
I thought sweet, I'll lend him a bike mag and charge him a ZX10R in 2006 in return! :devil2:
Little did poor Richard know what he had just got himself into! I rang him and mentioned I was into racing bikes. He told me he would like to come and watch the next race. I said yeah sure. I don't think I mentioned I was winning them at the time as it was not a big deal to me due to the lack of competition. I think Richard got a surprise, I do know he got his hands dirty changing my tyres right away lol. Richard had been an aircraft engineer specializing in the aeronautics side of things before getting into computers. I remember it only used to take him seemingly 5 seconds or less to diagnose and fix any electrical fault! We hit it off and became firm friends and a enthusiastic team right away. With out Richard, my racing career would probabyly have stalled after the winter series. His help was invaluable and we had a lot of laughs which helped keep my stress level down! :killingme

A year had passed since buying the 1100K. They had received a reputation in the press as the worst handling of any GSXR made. I with James help had managed to fix the handling quirks and it was primo.

Richard and I decided we would play in the big boys sandpit and enter the nationals. So I borrowed a shit load of money and off we went! By this time the FZR1000 exup and GSXR1100L had been released and the big boys had those. The biggest advantage they had was 5 1/2 inch rims and 180 tyres, I only had a 4.5 inch rim and which were designed for 160 tyres dammit! Worse still, the exups were faster in a straight line.

Pukekohe was 1st up and my hate/hate relationship with that track started with me dropping it on a damp patch in the hairpin on the warm up lap of the 1st race, a great start to the season, sitting on the side of the track with a broken master cylinder, Fuck!
Paul Gee leant me a master cylinder for race 2. I cannot remember where I finished, something like 7th I think.

Next up was Manfield, I think I got top 5 finishes.

Then it was off down south, Ruapuna was 1st up. (the racing photo in this post was taken at the dipper) I got a bad stomach bug and my day went kinda like this, get out of van for race, spew, get on bike race it, get off again, spew lie down in the back and repeat the process. I think I got a 6th and a 7th.

Next up was Timaru.
Practice went really well so I was looking forward to the race. About 3 laps in I got taken out and the resulting high side was a doosie! I was thrown so high up I can remember looking down at the up turned face of the flag marshall, I came down with a thud and of into the grass. The bike had smashed the engine cover and spewed oil over the rear tyre. Later spectators were coming up to me and saying "Man, when your body hit the track it bounced up off it again" Great, I was well on the way to discovering safe sex, I had the fucked and rubber componants down pat and just had to find the way to combine both for pleasure, actually I'm still trying to work that one out!
I ran round like a blue assed fly looking for a spare engine cover so I could front the 2nd race of the day, I finally was leant one by a visiting pom that had stayed over after the world super round, Suzuki had given him a bike. The cover as it turns out was for a 750 and was just a little off, so we araldited the gap that was left with 10 minute araldite, 10 minutes before the race! I had got as much of the oil of the rear tyre as I could using brake clean, though I did not realize the hot tyre had soaked up the hot oil.
I pushed the bike to the dummy grid and the marshalls told me "We know about the araldite, we will check your bike on the start line" Me too I thought!!! On the warm up lap I was flying down the back straight putting my hand down by the motor checking for oil, there was none, so sweet!
I got a conservitive start and into the 1st left hander, holy hell the back snapped straight out and then did the same for the next left hander, and the next, and the...well you get the idea.
It was a 16 lap race. by lap 6 I'd spun up the tyre enough to wear the oil off (yes even with fresh memories of the high side!) trouble was, I was tail end charlie, as I was coming onto the back straght, the next guy in front was exiting it. I thought to myself, shall I go for it, or just take it easy and nurse the sore body?
I took the go for it option! I got my head down and seemingly in a few laps caught the rider in front, then I started slashing my way through traffic, passing big names like Bernard along the way. On the last lap I'd got up to 3rd and was right on 2nd and 1st places tail at the finish line, oh for one more lap! I'd smashed the lap record and got my 1st podium in a national race. Richard thought I'd just gone crazy, I said I had not and when we later checked my laptimes, they were the same as my practise times. So sweet, it had been a calculated charge through the pack and not a throw the brain away ride.
The reality of the situation was, not changing to a new tyre had cost me my 1st race win at nationals level. Thats what you get being a green inexperienced rookie. :baby:

The last race meeting for the nationals that year was at Invercagill.
Yep, another race track I'd neer seen! I got another two 3rd placings with the 2nd race being a real hammer and tongs fight between Brian Bernard, Robinson and myself. You could have thrown a blanket over the 3 of us at anytime through the race and at the finish line, we were that close! I can remember the flag marshalls clapping us around the track on the cool down lap.
The race officials impounded my bike after the last race. I had heard of grumblings from other riders assuming a rookie on a out of date bike must be cheating to be getting those sorts of results.:psst:
Personally I was rapt they had impounded it as Richard and I were running a straight ship all the way. They only had the bike 10 minutes and came out the shed laughing, they could tell I'd never even had the motor apart (the inside of motors scared the bejesus out of me!) and everything else was straight as, so vindication, yay! :woohoo:

I sold the bike shortly after that meeting. You would think with those results that I'd have distributer backed teams bashing my door down?????

Best Crash: No doubt, the Timaru high side.

Funniest Moment: 3 incidents involving the same :Police: Hilarious shit, but I've seen the KB PC brigade in action, and besides, it is a different World out there now days, so I best not say any more about that other than I'm quite sure he still has angry sleepless nights over that bloody black bike.:shutup:

[sugilite]

The racing photo was at the dipper at Ruapuna Christchurch

[cowpoos]

and is that where the story stops or is there another sequil?

[k14]

Man thats awesome reading. Can see how you were doing so well on the ol 750. Look forward to seeing your results on the new zxr.

[2much]

Funniest Moment: 3 incidents involving the same :Police: Hilarious shit, but I've seen the KB PC brigade in action, and besides, it is a different World out there now days, so I best not say any more about that other than I'm quite sure he still has angry sleepless nights over that bloody black bike.:shutup:

Don't let the tree huggers spoil our fun.... otherwise they've won. Fuck them, just post it anyway (or pm it to those interested ;)).

Great stuff btw.

[sugilite]

and is that where the story stops or is there another sequil?
Hell yeah, I'll get onto it when I get a chance, get your violins and tissues out, things are going to take a turn for the worse :cry: :cry: :cry: :brick: :brick: :cry: :cry:


Don't let the tree huggers spoil our fun.... otherwise they've won. Fuck them, just post it anyway (or pm it to those interested ;)).

There was a thread started by madboy on runners, here are my thoughts on them in that thread..
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showpost.php?p=584876&postcount=167

Though in my next post in this thread, I will relate a dream I had and it seemed so real, one would think it actually happened :innocent:

[cowpoos]

Hell yeah, I'll get onto it when I get a chance, get your violins and tissues out, things are going to take a turn for the worse :cry: :cry: :cry: :brick: :brick: :cry: :cry:



fuck are you serious!!!! fuckin hell!!!! I guess I'm fucked then....I can't play no bloody violin or tissue...........

[gijoe1313]

Legend mate, absolutely legend. Another great read about the inner workings (or demons?) devoted to the need for speed in a "safe" environment and the back story to them. Keep it coming! :rockon:

[chanceyy]

:love: the stories

got muh :corn: and muh :drinkup:

while awaiting the next installment worthy of a :clap:

[skelstar]

A great read as usual Sugi. Cheers bud.

[babyB]

:2thumbsup way cool Sugi... dont stop there wanna read more:corn:

[90s]

Wow - looks like we are in for a treat as all those crashes and bikes by the time you were 18. How mqany bikes will there be (guesses anyone?)

Keep posting the mamoth chunks - great reads with a nice turn of phrase:

"Thought if I didn't crash I was not trying hard enough! As it turns out, I seldom let myself down in this respect" - I LOVE it when a plan comes together!

[SPman]

fuck are you serious!!!! fuckin hell!!!! I guess I'm fucked then....I can't play no bloody violin or tissue...........
Can ya play a comb and tissue.....?

[justsomeguy]

Though in my next post in this thread, I will relate a dream I had and it seemed so real, one would think it actually happened :innocent:

I think it's time for that next post now.:yes:

[cowpoos]

what O fella....[said in english posh accent]....time for the next installment of this great story of triumph over adversity :)

[skelstar]

Sugi has been slacking off a bit recently (so have you poos).

[justsomeguy]

Though in my next post in this thread, I will relate a dream I had and it seemed so real, one would think it actually happened :innocent:



I think it's time for that next post now.:yes:

Still waiting.......:mellow: ????????????????

[sugilite]

1990 FZR1000A Exup.
After podium finishes in the previous Nats in my rookie year I was hoping for some serious sponsorship, unfortunately for me the Suzuki, Honda and Kawasaki distributors pulled out that year, bad timing dammit! Yamaha had Paul Paveletich and Chris Haldane, so I dipped out. :mad:

I had the racing bug real bad, so sorted out some more finance and went shopping. I rang up a Kawasaki dealer and just asked how much for a new kwaka and the next thing i know I'm was reading I'm riding a Kawasaki in the nats in the next issue of Kiwi Rider!
I actually decided to go for a the FZR1000 and got the bike at dealer cost, so that was at least something.

I did my by then usual trip to my mates in Kerikeri to run it in and on the way back home to Wellies I had this strange dream session! It started with me leaving Turangi heading into the desert road, I picked up a cop further back, so "stretched" him after each corner till I could not see him any more. I was right down in the pit of one of those 3 winding gully sections when I looked up I could see another cop up where the tanks train. I thought "sweet, I'm not even speeding in these twisties, so I just cruised past and checked my mirrors for the next 10 km's. After seemingly being in the clear, I set the cruise control back to about 160 odd. I had just got onto the plateau when a car coming the other way flashed it's lights at me, I thought, uh oh and looked in my mirrors and sure enough about 300 meters back was a cop with lights a flashing ranging up on me. I instantly opened the taps to full and when it got to redline in top, I thought, SHIT, what now? Going for it had been a reflex action and now I had a sure road block waiting for me at Waiuru. About that time I passed what I think was a ZZR600, I just about sucked his fairings off, and I remember thinking, "don't chase me sport".
I came off the plateau and down onto the smaller one, then at the end of that was a left hand sweeper dropping down another layer, well I had a spinicher challenging moment as I went about 30 km's to fast around it, the whole bike was wallowing, slipping and sliding all the way through at over 200 kmh. Just as I was approaching Waiuru and certain doom, I saw a left hand turn off, I had the back end waving around and then I just threw it into the corner and did a good speedway impersonation on the exit, I saw another left hand turn and running on pure intuition I took that, shot up to the end of it and a most unusual site greeted me, it was a bunch of dirt bike guys in an area full of garages! Straight away I spotted these guys with a garage door open ushering me to go inside! Once parked in the safety of the now closed garage they laughingly told me that had been listening to me coming for an age and were astounded that I'd made my way straight to them!
I gas bagged with them about bikes in general. I told em I had a KX250 and they invited me to the big desert storm trail ride the following month. after about 45 minutes I did the usual reverse jacket and multi colored duct tape stripes on helmet and was off again. The lads escorted me through the army camp, we were riding down foot paths and all sorts and low and behold we popped out past Waiuru just beside the museum. And what do I see but a cop with that poor ZZR600 rider giving him a ticket. They both looked at me, the ZZ rrider with a knowing look on his face and the cop with a confused "where the hell did that guy come from" look on his face lol. The cop left me alone and off I went. I woke up just after the dream had finished and I seemed to have tele ported to just before Taihape, go figure! :innocent:

When I turned up to Desert storm, my saviors came up to me and said, read this article. It was freaky, there was an article that read just like my dream. two speeding motorcyclists chased, one was caught and the other just "disappeared" much to their displeasure and astonishment, something about last seen exceeding 220 kmh, hmmm in my dream it had been redline in top at over 270 kmh! kinda reminds me of the reports I read these days...officers broke off from the chase when the car they were chasing exceed 140 kmh in a 100 zone, big fat bloody Tui add there!

In between running in my bike and desert storm, Richard and I had converted the FZR to a race bike. The bike shop that had supplied the bike gave me the specs sheet for the forks and we duly put in the stated fork oil levels and so on. When I tested the bike at Manfield, I thought the front end was a bit naff, but figured it was just me so pushed on. The next weekend it was desert Storm on my KX250. I had a major crash, I'd been pre jumping these table tops on the course and came round a corner to find a guy who must have found the only mud bog in the desert that day! You could only see his handlebars sticking out the bog, so I stopped my bike, tuned the gas off lay it down (no side stand on motocross bikes) and helped him drag it out. I then got on my bike again and took off. I saw another big table top coming up, so pre jumped the lip on it, pre jumping a lip means you squash your suspension down and then give it a big handful of gas as it unloads and pow you fly up into the air and clear the entire table top, problem was, I'd forgotten to turn on the gas and when I went for the all important big handful, all I got was a little wet fart leading to the MOTHER of all flying W's over the bars while I was a good 4 meters above the ground. I even had time to think "Well Anthony, this is why you get the good safety gear" before my decent to Terra firma proceeded. Damn the rules of gravity I say! CRUNCH went my body. I got up, and my shoulder was real sore and the rest of me was pretty battered as well! I got back on and just took it real slow and easy back to the van.:(

Moving forward one week and I'm heading out for the 1st practice at Pukekohe for the 1st round of that years nats. I scream down the back straight and grab a big handful of brakes for the hairpin and HUH? my left arm was locked in place, but my whole body kept moving towards the bars, only then it dawned on me I had broken my collar bone from the desert storm crash the weekend before!:gob:
Needless to say, I did crap on that weekends racing. Then it was off down south and my collar bone was still quite bad at Ruapuna CHCH where I also had a huge crash (more on that later). By teratonga it started to get better, but I was still having problems with the front end of the bike. I just figured all FZR's were like that and I was just riding like a pussy. I was to proud to ask another FZR rider, just kept on blaming my riding.
I got to Levels, my fave racetrack and I had a huge crash after losing the front end, So another crap round. At the final round at manfield, I was still struggling big time with the front end, The fork seals were leaking a little, so I figured there was no point adding oil to them. So another crap round. I still finished the series well in the top ten, but I was devastated and feeling like I could not ride a bike anymore. I blamed myself all the way. :spanking:

Now, the class I was racing was called senior production. The bikes had to stay standard, you could change gearing that year, oils and that was it.
There was a lot of cheating going on, and I knew it, but to me, if I cheated and won, I'd get no satisfaction, so no point in my book.
There had been consistent rumors about the guys bike that won the championship that year. Even his own team mate had on the quiet been begging other people to protest his team mates bike!!! Rumors of a OWO1 clutch, gearbox, no exup valve, frame cut and pulled in one degree, many motor mods and the list went on. I thought, na, thats just crazy, no one would get away with that shit.
Now this guy came up to me after the last race of the season had been run at Manfield and I quote said to me "Are you racing next year?" I said "I hope so" He then said "Oh good, the series needs the "little" guys like you to keep it going" Nice. He was so bloody lucky I'm not the person I am now, to this day I regret not going and protesting his bike, he would have been fucked and not got that overseas ride he secured directly off the back of his NZ championship. You see, I found out he was cheating and all the rumors were true. By a funny twist of fate, I sold my bike to my mate in Kerikeri and his friend bought the cheater bike, which promptly had problems. So the guy took it down to the local shop and what do you know, it did not have a exup valve, the frame had been cut and welded and there were still unusual non standard clutch parts, as in OWO1, I guess to match to the freaking 6 speed box that must have been there before it was sold. In my book, CHEATING SUXS :spanking:

And the crap front end? well after the last race had been run, I found the bike shop had supplied me the bloody wrong model FZR1000's fork specs and I'd been running around with only 2/3 the required fork oil. The leaking oil had escaped the seals due to wicked fork flexing. The whole time I'd been blaming my riding!

I had one more ride on it, the Gladstone hill climb, then held on the tight and winding part of Admirals road, one road south of the cliff hanger hill climb road. Yes Skelstar, the road you made disparaging remarks about, humphh! The other riders laughed when I pulled out the FZR from the van, they told me I'd never get out of 2nd and I was on the wrong machine for that road. They were right on one count, I never did get out of 2nd gear, but wrong on the other as I whopped their butts by over 3 seconds on a 30 second run lol

to be continued...

[sugilite]

All in all the FZR was a good bike, but despite having my funniest dream and best crash ever, I did find it somewhat bland compared to a GSXR1100.:zzzz:

Best Crash EVER! : Some people still talk to me about this one. I'm the only one I know that has managed to crash, or more fall off a bike hit the deck and the bike itself did not hit the ground!!
WTF you might think! Read on I say!
I used to be a demon starter in my early GSXR days until I had two really nasty cold tyre incidents which curbed my enthusiasm somewhat! Tyre warmers were nor around in these days! Anyway, Richard and Steve were my pit crew and they were giving me shit about my starts. I'd been practicing with a 130/70-17 front which was AWESOME under brakes, but slowed the steering down somewhat, so I decided to go with the usual 120/70-17 for the race. I got a less than stellar start and approaching turn one after the 1st lap I decided to make it all up under brakes in that corner, I grabbed a mega handful like I had been in practice and the next thing I know, I'm still in my racing crouch, but um, er, my bike is now beside me and I'm not on it anymore! I landed on my back sliding feet 1st, the friction of the track undid my zips on the arms of my leathers but that was the least of my problems, my now riderless bike was heading straight for a wall at over 200 kmh! why I was still sliding along the track, I clapped my hands on my head as I watched my bike about to be made 4 foot shorter, then the hand of God intervened and a large gust of wind blew my bike so it just glanced of the wall face and headed on it's merry way to the end of the straight where it rolled up and over these piles of gravel that was there to stop any errant drag cars, the bike performed a MONSTER jump and hit this thick wire mesh fence about 8 foot up and it punched it's way half way through the wire and just hung there like a fish caught in a net.:gob: it did not even have the decency to hit the ground in sympathy with me. And yes, if course that all happened on pit straight with shit loads of spectators looking on! So there you go, thats how to crash yourself, but not your bike!

After we left the track, I drove Richard nuts by insisting we drive around the local plant shops looking for aloe vera plants to treat my wounds, mainly my left arm which had lost skin from my wrist to my elbow. I duly found some, split a leaf and spread the goo like a salve over my arm. It seals it up and kills infection. I raced the next day in over 30 degree heat and the wound did not even leak! The scab came off in one piece about 2 weeks later and it left no scar. Aloe rocks!:Punk:

So anyways, there i was, end of season, totally broke, confidence at an all time low. What would I do the following year?:weep:

[Hawkeye]

More.... WE NEED MORE...:yes:

[skelstar]

Woo hoo I made into a Sugi-story!

I only made remarked disparagingly about all of the friggin dirt on Admirals Rd (and it was raining).

Great story though...love the dream sequence.

[MSTRS]

Just remember, folks, that when the book comes out, you read the draft copy here!!!
Brilliant stories, Sugilite:rockon:

[dickytoo]

And yes, if course that all happened on pit straight with shit loads of spectators looking on! So there you go, thats how to crash yourself, but not your bike!




But I got to do the "ride of ignominy" - the ride back to the pits past those rapt spectators on the back of the trailer, while you were hiding back in the pits! :slap:

Fun times, indeed.

[dickytoo]

Anthony,

I think you would be remiss if you didn't pass on little pearls of wisdom that we picked up on the way. The first and most important of these for those would be racers is:




DON"T PISS OFF THE SCRUTINEERS!!!

I'll let Anthony explain that one!:D :thud:

[dickytoo]

1990 FZR1000A Exup.


And the crap front end? well after the last race had been run, I found the bike shop had supplied me the bloody wrong model FZR1000's fork specs and I'd been running around with only 2/3 the required fork oil. The leaking oil had escaped the seals due to wicked fork flexing. The whole time I'd been blaming my riding!

l

to be continued...

To be fair on Anthony, the fork oil thing was my fault entirely. You see, in workshop manuals, there's them things they called appendicies where they put all the info on the later models of the bike. Just never figured to look at it, maybe because it was a crappy photocopy and the index and table of contents was crap. Anyway, I looked at the specs on the front of the manual and went from there:no: :weep:

[ajturbo]

Thanks for the insight, life and times of a looney racer!!!:sunny:

[babyB]

way cool .. thata another darn good read... & a perfect accompanment for da mornin cuppa:2thumbsup
:hug: sugi keep them commin
agrees with MTRS; can i have my copy signed plz:yes:

hay Dickytoo.. dam u must have a sence of humour:not:

[dickytoo]

hay Dickytoo.. dam u must have a sence of humour:not:

yeah, we had some fun times! I think anthony had the best of it though because every time he pissed off a scrutineer, I had to fix something! He must enjoyed watching the veins pop in my head:shit:

I learned my lesson and put a gag order on him whenever we were in scrutineering.

Don't let anthony forget to tell you about Wanganui and how we nearly missed the entire race because we were asleep in the pits!:eek: :laugh:

[sugilite]

Woo hoo I made into a Sugi-story!

I only made remarked disparagingly about all of the friggin dirt on Admirals Rd (and it was raining).


Watch the video crasherfromwayback posted and get your self a can of harden the fuck up! LOL
Kidding dude, you a hardcore biker you are!


Just remember, folks, that when the book comes out, you read the draft copy here!!!
Brilliant stories, Sugilite:rockon:

I have no ideas of grandeur on my writing ability!


But I got to do the "ride of ignominy" - the ride back to the pits past those rapt spectators on the back of the trailer, while you were hiding back in the pits! :slap:

Fun times, indeed.

I was riding with you, I was just slung underneath holding onto the axles so no one would see me! with ya all the way pardy!


Anthony,

I think you would be remiss if you didn't pass on little pearls of wisdom that we picked up on the way. The first and most important of these for those would be racers is:

DON"T PISS OFF THE SCRUTINEERS!!!

I'll let Anthony explain that one!:D :thud:

The thing that really peeves me about scrutineers, is they do not appreciate being told how to do their job and what to ignore. Go figure!:doh:
(Though even you will agree the bay park one needed a shallow grave to be dug for him!)


To be fair on Anthony, the fork oil thing was my fault entirely. You see, in workshop manuals, there's them things they called appendicies where they put all the info on the later models of the bike. Just never figured to look at it, maybe because it was a crappy photocopy and the index and table of contents was crap. Anyway, I looked at the specs on the front of the manual and went from there:no: :weep:
You owe me a ZX10 R ride for that snafu, oh wait.....


yeah, we had some fun times! I think anthony had the best of it though because every time he pissed off a scrutineer, I had to fix something! He must enjoyed watching the veins pop in my head:shit:

I learned my lesson and put a gag order on him whenever we were in scrutineering.

Don't let anthony forget to tell you about Wanganui and how we nearly missed the entire race because we were asleep in the pits!:eek: :laugh:

The sleepy time Wangas story is scheduled 2 segments for now when I cover the OWO1 days, or is that doze!

Though since we are airing all the dirty laundry, in the next segment I'll be recounting your design and execution of creating a 500 cc vibrator that would get even the likes of Margret Thatcher off to a roaring orgasm!

[dickytoo]

Though since we are airing all the dirty laundry, in the next segment I'll be recounting your design and execution of creating a 500 cc vibrator that would get even the likes of Margret Thatcher off to a roaring orgasm!

I just thought you needed hardening up!

I'll swap you the story about your first attempt at jumpstarting the ZX9R.

Just thinking about it now makes me want to laugh out loud!

More:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[dickytoo]

You owe me a ZX10 R ride for that snafu, oh wait.....





You got the lease on a certain OW01 for that one. Hang on, that means YOU owe me one, now. You should quit while you're ahead!:laugh: :bleh:

[chanceyy]

lmfao .. funny arsed shit .. keep it coming .. pretty plz

[sugilite]

I just thought you needed hardening up!

I'll swap you the story about your first attempt at jumpstarting the ZX9R.

Just thinking about it now makes me want to laugh out loud!

More:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Hey, Dirty pool!!! Besides you still have not stopped laughing from when it happened! OK, I'll see your ZX9 jump start story and raise you, your liking for guzzling gas in the pits! :shutup: :shutup: :shutup:


You got the lease on a certain OW01 for that one. Hang on, that means YOU owe me one, now. You should quit while you're ahead!:laugh: :bleh:

Thats not fair, you were paid a titanium conrod for that! You know how rare those are? You go around the local neighborhood knocking on doors and asking, I bet you will only find about seven others that have one!

[babyB]

oh stop teasing you two & just spill da beans will yas:love:

[sugilite]

Kawazuki RGV500
Yeah, some pussy named Kevin Shwantz was not riding hard enough so Suzuki gave me the ride, yeah right! :dodge:

After two seasons of doing the nationals, my finances were well and truly exhausted. I still had the racing bug REAL bad, so I decided that it would be real cool to get a cheepie F3 racer built. I dreamed up a strange concoction indeed, putting a air cooled KX500 motor in a RGV250 frame! :gob:

Now, funnily enough, it was because of this bike, that I found Kiwibiker as White Trash started a thread about it and dickytoo sent me a link to it.
So pretty much my 1st post involved this bike.
Hence I'm shamelessly going to rip off my own thread and post it in here lol
For those interested, White Trashes post is here...
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=18859

OK, heres a few of my favorite yarns concerning the bike.
Originally it had a aluminum frame cradle, and this combined with Dickytoo deciding the top engine mount was way to heavy to use, made for a mind numbing 1st and last lap! Thank God it was a practice day, I was sharing the track with a porche at the time, as I came down the back straight the alloy cradle fractured and it vibrated so much that even Margret Thatcher would of achieved orgasm, hell multiple orgasm's even! My hands literally started opening by themselves, it felt like a massive electric shock! It belatedly dawned on me to pull the bloody clutch in and stop the show! After that, we had a steel cradle made and it took care of a lot of the vibration, now I know that will raise the eyebrows of those that had it after me :killingme

Though Daiman built the exhaust and fitted it into the frame Dickytoo did a lot of work on it too. With the limited budget, things were tough!

The 1st time I took it racing was at the Masterton street circuit. I remember taking it down the straight waiting for it to hit the power and I blew a bite sized chunk out the piston, spat every bit into the exhaust, I guess I was expecting a bit much from it...poor thing, it was not it's fault that I'd just stepped off my FZR100 proddie racer :brick:
We bored the keihn carb out from 38mm to 40mm. It ran much worse, moral of the story is NEVER bore a oval shaped carb throat lol
From there, it only got better.
We fitted another 38 off my KX250 mx bike and it went much better, said 250 also donated ignition and other goodies hehehe.
Anyways, we took it down south to the Ruapuna round of the nats. On the Friday I qualified around 15th fastest, that night Dickytoo fitted the 2nd RGV disc brake and fabricated a airbox for it complete with crude ram air! what a difference!!!
Saturday Morning I qualified 2nd fastest, only a fraction of a second behind Tony McMurdo on only the 3rd lap of practice!!! unfortunately it lost 3rd gear on the 4th lap lol. Hell who needs 3rd anyway, shifting from 2nd to 4th still kept most of the hordes behind me, though we decided against racing it as other gears were getting pretty suss too. Turned out to be bent selector forks.
I notice it was written elsewhere here that the handling may have been suss due to weight distribution, the only comment i can make is it handled bloody well when ridden at class lap record pace :yes:

Unfortunately I never got it to Wanganui, I reckon it would have kicked butt there!

So, why do I still have faith in the concept? Well, On my KX500 Supermotard bike I've lapped Manfield at a 1:18 flat, and that is with my slow cast iron liner barrel on, at least 7 to 8 hp down on my nikisil barrel, so it's safe to say I'd crack a 17, now thats on a motard bike with all the aerodynamics of a brick, so imagine what a water cooled motor in said rgv chassis with a ram airbox would do! (go project cowpoos!)

The weird thing is, I moved from Wellington out rural 25km's from Dannevirke, and what do I see in the local garage...said bike! The guy was running it without the airbox. I told him to run it, but as yet, it is still sitting in his garage, go figure!
The bike was actually being raced at the Taupo race just run. It was a 1st time racer who had borrowed the bike, so that would of been fun for him....hmmm, wonder if the current owner would lend it to me for Wanganui...Would need to fit the airbox 1st though!

I toyed with the idea of buying it just to torture Dickytoo with, but figured he had enough of a job keeping the ZX9R going! I'd better keep on his good side, as he has just about single handedly turned the ZX9R from a heap of steaming crap into a bloody great racebike.

While we were down south, a kind bloke let me go for a spin on his fully worked ZXR750. It was a unusual bitter sweet experience. Sweet, because it was a awesome bike, bitter because I was very close to the pace for superbikes and I knew I really should be riding in that class, not in F3. :cry:

Would I realize the dream of entering the Superbike class the next year? Find out in the next long winded installment!

[sugilite]

Oh yeah, the photos were taken in the very early stages of development.

[sugilite]

So young, so innocent, then I had to go and crash it! :lol:

[dickytoo]

Thats not fair, you were paid a titanium conrod for that! You know how rare those are? You go around the local neighborhood knocking on doors and asking, I bet you will only find about seven others that have one!

I still haven't figured out that deal yet, 1 relatively pristine GPz900A5 in exchange for a much loved, very used titanium con rod. I know I'm not the sharpest tack around but methinks I've been diddled!


You, know, after losing the old Ninja, i tried riding that Titanium conrod around but it wasn't very comfortable, especially after the KY wore out! :shutup:

Funny thing, i still have that con rod in one of the boxes in my basement.

[dickytoo]

I Like this picture. Looks like someone shrunk your bike!

And here's something I had a lot of practice in - fixing up the bikes after yet another prang! This was the one Anthony was talking about before where the FZR1000 launched itself into some wire netting.

Others in the picture, Anthony McCarthy, Paul Mcquilken (?) Juan Pearson and Tony Rees (in red jacket) walking away from us in disgust after seeing what Anthony had done to a fairly innocent Yamaha

[babyB]

:clap: lov the shrunkin bike pix
cool way to wind up a day

[dickytoo]

So young, so innocent, then I had to go and crash it! :lol:

So that's what a shit eating grin looks like! I've always wondered:rofl:

Before I met anthony, i had never been refused entry into any food establishment. After we started touring together, it was no longer a surprise to me and I got used to eating at greasy spoons. Sad to say, this is a true story.

[sugilite]

So that's what a shit eating grin looks like! I've always wondered:rofl:
Huh? :confused:


Before I met anthony, i had never been refused entry into any food establishment. After we started touring together, it was no longer a surprise to me and I got used to eating at greasy spoons. Sad to say, this is a true story.
Well the Invercargill one did us a favour barring me, when I did get in the next year they served the worst meal I've ever had at a resteraunt!

You should have seen Richards face at the CHCH one, They took one look at me and said "we are full tonight" So I looked over the top of his head, and said, "no ya not!" (the place was near empty :lol:)

He seemed to be embarrassed when I gave granny of grannies tea rooms in Putaruru a bit of a serve too, go figure!

Now our roles are reversed, he is a speedster driver and I get to play the good cop now!

[dickytoo]

Huh? :confused:




look at the picture of you on your xr honda!

[sugilite]

Thats more a relived smile, knowing I'll soon be on a Suzuki, It would have been a shit eating grin had I been upgrading to a Kawasaki!:yes:

[Deano]

Kawazuki RGV500
Unfortunately I never got it to Wanganui, I reckon it would have kicked butt there!


Uh oh - Fizzerman has recently scored himself a Yamasaki YZ490 KR1-S and is racing F3 at Wanga's.

Looks like I'm in big trouble.

[chanceyy]

damn Ant .. still waiting for the next installment .. got nuffin else to read bud .. get them fingers typing :D


(waiting for my weekly laff)

:dodge: :done:

[sugilite]

With the next nationals season coming up, Richard generously donated his GPZ900 and we were able to lease a OWO1 of Andrew Stroud. It was his ex Super Angel Race bike he had raced in Japan.
Andrew is legendary for being laid back to the point your wondering if his consciousness had called in sick that day.
I'll never forget the day we picked the bike up, We passed him the $$$ he gave us the bike. He did not even ask for my address!

The bike was fairly tired but had some pretty trick pieces on it, unfortunately they are what turned out to be the problem. The oHlins forks only used 2/3's of their travel and the trick $25,000 magnesium carbs (thats not a typo folks) did not come with any jets (special to those carbs) so as a result the bike only ran well at one track, Teretonga at Invercargill.

I vaguely remember doing the Masterton steet circuit as my one and only shake down ride before the first round of the nats at Puke., and I think it was only running on 3 cylinders for that meeting. :slap:

Traditionally I have never had a good time at Puke, and God forbid that I break with tradition!
In the 2nd free practise session on my warm up laps, this guy on a RS250 decided he needed my line more than I did and took me out. I remember Andrew Stroud sidled up to me nervously and said "you will look after the bike eh?" Personally, I cannot see what he could have been worried about? :innocent:
I have no recollection of how I went in the races, so was prob not that flash.

The next round was the now defunct Baypark racetrack over at the Mount in Tauranga. It was only the 2nd time I'd seen the track and the 1st time I'd ridden there, I only got a few laps in on the KX/RGV500.
Lucky it was only 4 corners eh!
Turn one was my kinda corner. A fast bumpy sweeper that tightened up on the exit, where coincidently the largest bumps resided! I basic two wheel sledged coming into it and spun up the rear on the exit, fun! I seemed to have gathered a little fan club there, one of which I'm quite sure was Goblin!:sunny:

The other turns were pretty much just one line wonders. (unless your Jason Mcquen on the Britten, in that case you could ram it up on the inside of the harpin on a line that us conventional bikes could only dream off!
I got a 6th and a 5th and butchered a sure 4th through a last lap race craft error, real 101 stuff too. :brick:
I did beat Tony Rees riding a Ducati on his home track though hehehe

There was a now funny incident with one of the scrutineers. The guy that scrutineered my bike looked suspiciously like he was the guy that planted the trees that went on to make Noahs ark.
He got to the Brembo floating front brake disks and immediately took issue with the fact that the floated and thus moved around. Shock Horror! It however was a pretty serious situation as he was going to fail the bike. Eddie Kattenberg was on hand and told him "Nah mate, that is how they are sposed to be" It was still not good enough for our crusty scrutineer.
Now normally Richard carefully hid sharp objects when I was taking issue with yet another scrutineer, but this time, I'm sure I saw him sharpen up a screwdriver and leave it within easy reach. Fortunately about that time The late great Robert Holden came through and gave his deity like opinion on the brakes, yep he just repeated what Eddie had said. The old soon to be retired in a bloody coup nazi general still was not convinced!!!
Lucky for him he got to avoid a pending shallow grave and draw the pension for what could surely be only a very short time more, by Robert Holden using a pretty harsh tone in his voice and repeating himself again, where upon the scrutineer finally relented and passed the bike, whew!:sweatdrop

The next race was at Wanganui. Richard and I being the gun works team we were got to the pits early, got the bike out the van and then, erm got back in the van and fell asleep! I woke up just in time to get my leathers on and get out onto the track as they were just closing the gate on the 1st practise session! About lap 4 I was starting to get in the groove. I remember exiting turn one on a good line and then, hello what is this nurse doing looking down at me? And yeah if course i know my name ya stupid bitch! (she was actually a lovely person)
Turns out some guy had tried to out brake me but failed and ran straight into the side of me slamming me against the bales.
This being NZ where the "She will be right mate" attitude is king, they still let me race despite being knocked out cold a hour or so earlier. I only lasted one lap though as I'd fucked my shoulder well and truly.

Ruapuna in Christchurch was next and I rode injured, I have no idea where I finished.

Round after that, as far as I can remember was Teratonga. Richard and I arrived there on the Thursday night staying at the campground that was right beside the track. We had what was referred to as the F1 blues and we were feeling pretty down. That night it was COLD, being the poorly prepared guy I was, I had a light weight sleeping bag and Richard being the organized chap he is had the artic special. I wanted the heater on and he didn't and before we knew it, world war three had broken out.

Richard was going home the next morning and I decided I would go home too. This was no fun! Anyways, I'm like driving down the road and I see this hitchhiker on the side of the road that looked decidedly familiar. Well, anyway, I picked up Richard and we had a good talk (I bawled my eyes out being under pressure of F1 and personal family issues) and decided to get to the track and have some fun and not get so serious about things.
As it turns out it was one of the best days of my racing career, erm even though it was just a practice day! We were quite early still (We were quite fortunate we had had the handbags incident at dawn, rather than the afternoon)
We set up on a patch of grass and over the next hour all the other top F1 teams set up all around us, cool!

I headed out for the 1st session and holey shit the bike was quick! Yep, the jetting was right for once!!! I felt so relaxed and cleansed from bawling my eyes out earlier :crybaby: that riding the bike really quick was effortless!
At the end of the day we had set the 2nd fastest time just behind Jason on the Britten, sweet!
The Britten team even lent me a tire for the race, hoping I'd beat Russell Josiah and let Jason gain some points. Nice plan I thought! 1st race on Sunday, about 3 laps in, I was in the top 3 and looking good, until I hit my one and only false neutral at a mission critical time and ran into the dirt and went for a big tumble! Damn!
The bike was quite damaged and the crash sent us home early.

The final race was Manfield. In the very last practice session on Saturday I lost the front end coming in the esses. I had done nothing different from the lap before.
It is the only incident in my illustrious career in crashing that I have no idea how it happened.

So ended my racing career, even though Richard had financed the bike, such were the costs of doing F1, I had nearly bankrupted myself. All at the tender age of 25.

I did the family mortgage thing for more than a decade only making one cameo appearence at a 2 hour endurance race cajoled into it by my friend Sean Aitken. We got 5th. It was the 1st time I'd done the extended manfield circuit, so that was fun!

During retirement I bought a roadbike and later my ultimate dirt bike...will cover those next, when ever that is.:shutup:

[cowpoos]

u racin this weekend fella?

[Kornholio]

Would this thread be avaliable as a 'Book on tape' From what I read was awesome but attention span is too short to read whole lot.

Well done tho bro...see ya at Coroglen sometime soon :D

[sugilite]

u racin this weekend fella?

Nah man, the "plan" is just to do selected rounds of the actrix series on the 750

[cowpoos]

Nah man, the "plan" is just to do selected rounds of the actrix series on the 750
furry muff!

[Goblin]

one of which I'm quite sure was Goblin!:sunny: Yeah that woulda been me. I remember that meeting well!:yes: Not the best pic but a fond memory all the same.

Thanks for the most excellent read today! Love your work!:rockon:

[Keystone19]

Awesome write up again Ant! Thanks!

[chanceyy]

great write up as usual Ant ...


hmmmmmm since winter is just around the corner, hopefully we will not have to wait 4 months for the next installment ;) :shutup: :innocent:

[babyB]

:clap:
way cool again sugi. dose enjoy the read. but dont leave it so long b4 the next

[sugilite]

Now I was a retired ex racer I decided to really embrace my lot and bought my next bike, A 1988 Honda VFR400 NC24 off a work mate for a paltry $1500. It had a fair few K's on the clock but seemed to be sound enough. As is Hondas way they had naff things on it such as this weird fucked up primitive anti dive that did not really work and also had the effect of making the brakes feel like the proverbial mushy peas! :no:
My fix was to simply put in some fat looking washer I had lying around which prevented the anti dive from kicking in and hey presto acceptable braking was now available. :Punk:

I'm not a big fan of Honda, but I must say, this thing thrived on neglect, handled just fine and sounded pretty decent for a 400!

I commuted on it for about 8 years or so and apart from frying two rectifiers, it never missed a beat.

I did race it twice, complete with commuter spec tyres!
The first time was a vic club hill climb, aptly on Mount Victoria. I cannot remember that much other than I had fun and was the fastest 400 on the day.

The second time was on the Wellington Street Circuit the V8 super cars used. The Vic club had somehow got a permit to run a bike meeting on the track. I entered just to help make up the numbers. Somehow I won the 400 class!
I remember losing the front HUGE and the fear of splatting on the armco helped me encourage the bike to stay upright and not crash! I guess commuter tyres were not the way to go, and racing at the pointy end of the field was probably not the best place to go for, but hey, after getting a good start it was my duty to throw the brain away and pin it :lol:

As mentioned I mostly commuted on it. I used to drop off and pick up the kids from Kohanga and later school on it too. I always used to say to them, you wanna go straight home, or the "motorbike" (read more corners) way home? Naturally it was always the motorbike way home, even beating out the dairy/lolly laden normal route!

Once every 3 or 4 years, I'd venture up the Rimutakas for a thrash and go back home wondering where the quick riders had all disappeared to!

The most fun I had on the bike was going to the Takas coming up against a friend of mine (also name sake of my nephew) that had come 2nd in the F3 nats a few times. He lived in Martinborough and commuted on his NC30. He had ex race tyres and I had my commuters on (still!)
I figured since he was a foot and a half shorter than my 6.6 frame put him at an advantage too :lol:
We went hammer and tongs up both sides recklessly punting our bikes to at least 100 kms an hour in places :innocent:
I only just pipped him both directions, but our HUGE grins said it all:first:

Best Crash Amazingly after 8 or 9 years that I had it, NONE!

Best near crash, On said Takas assault with Jeff, I lost the front end huge, it was right of the ground whilst fully cranked over. I believe this was the same corner Jimbo600 lost his 1st GSXR600. It was as close as it gets, whew! :sweatdrop

I knowz this installment was probably not as exciting as my other ones, but hey it was my commuter bike after all! :finger:

[cowpoos]

cool bro!!! keep the installents rolling!!

[chanceyy]

lol . can just picture the kids eggin you on .. not hard to do though huh .. hmmm so how long til the next chapter .. this would have to be the slowest book ever .. :whistle: :killingme

[sugilite]

Yep, the kids still like to go for rides, the youngest Anahera will be the racer, watch out for her, and I mean that, she has talent! :yes:
I've got the KX250, KX500, ZX9R and my current bike the ZXR750 to cover. We can't rush these things, the writing about them, not the riding them! :lol:

[MSTRS]

Man, that first photo is an old one...you've grown a bit since then:innocent:

[T.W.R]

I've got the KX250, KX500, ZX9R and my current bike the ZXR750 to cover. We can't rush these things, the writing about them, not the riding them! :lol:

great read Anthony :yes:
This last list of what's to come has a distinct pattern to it though :shutup:
mite have to hold off on the ZXR till it's matched up against a sibling in red 7 black though :blip:

[merv]

Man so you're a decent bloke after all having owned an '83 XR200RD and VFR400.

As for the rear shock on the XR well I found mine perfect at the time, but then I'm over a foot shorter than you and weight would be quite different, so I guess they just didn't build those bikes for you.

[sugilite]

Heyya Merv, Yeah, well I was a lot shorter when I was 17, barely 6 ft then. I did tend to hit big jumps holding it flat in the upper gears, that might have been it :lol:. I was always looking for big jumps on dirt bikes, did not really get into the speed thing till I got my RZ500 :yes:

[merv]

Yeah love those XRs, these we me 1983, bike must have been near new then.

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23989&d=1137291510

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23990&d=1137291510

[sugilite]

Hey Great pics Merv, wish I had some action ones of mine.
Yep, bought mine brand spankers from the old Honda Center in Taranaki St Wellies :yes:

[sugilite]

OK, it's been a few days since my last post on this thread :laugh:
Kawasaki 1989 KX250
I bought this as a trainer bike for road racing to get fit and brush up on skills, esp pushing the front. I purchased it off my mate and it 'was' a minter!

It was a great all rounder with enough power to get me in plenty of trouble, and good handling to get me back out...for the most part! I never raced it, so no stories there, but yeah, I did have plenty of adventures on it! so here's a few of those.

Richard and I went to a beach close to Levin. I'd ridden there before a few years prior in the sand hills, it was an awesome spot! This time however, I saw a sign saying no riding in that area as they had planted it out in some sort of local sea grass. So I carefully picked my way through the clumps without running them over and went on to a different area. I'd been riding there a while when the police :Police: turned up with a couple of Maori guys. They asked me had I seen the sign n that. I mentioned I did not run their sea grass over and came to this spot. The cop said it was still a no go and to leave. Which we duly did. I was fair knackered anyways. When I got to a river crossing to get back to the van, I rode through what I thought was the same patch from whence I'd come and opppps, no, I found a nice deep hole and promptly fell of the bike, I was on my back spluttering like hell trying to keep the bike upright, and thus not drowned using my feet:laugh:. I think Richard came to the rescue and got the bike out the river. About that time, I noticed the van looked at an odd angle. Turns out those kind Maori fellas had dug all the sand out from under the van tyres and it was on it's belly pan!
Richard came up with a plan to get out using the jack...as we were working away, the Maori guys came back and said "I spose you want us to help you" An offer we declined. They started to hassle us really spoiling for a fight, unfortunately I let my young big mouth get away on me and instantly paid the price! These guys were not small and one kicked me in the side of my stuffed knee and I went down like a ton of bricks....Richard was freaking he was going to have to save me...the kicker backed off and I got up and went back to packing the van up, as I had my head in the back, the other guy kindly slammed the back door on my head :doh: We finally got back into the van and some local kids gave me there names, which I passed on to the cops (they could not find them) and off we went with me muttering threats of coming back to spray there gardens and lawns with roundup to bring the beach closer to them...naturally I did nothing about it. Looking back on it, I could of avoided the whole thing by going to another beach, and also keeping my big yap shut! <_<

Another incident, my mate and I were both training on the bike at a local track in Porirua, quite far in the wops though. He disappeared on it and did not reappear in a timely manner, so I went looking for him. I found him crashed on the side of the track with his foot stuck between the rear tyre wheel and swingarm at a sickening angle, he was in massive pain. I did not have the right tools to get the wheel off and knew his ankle would be useless anyway, so I set off on foot in full motocross gear on a blazing hot day. I got to the nearest house and called the fire department and they also called the ambo and as it turns out the helicopter. I got back to my mate and as he had been trapped a while was in agony. At the time I was doing a lot of healing using crystals, but had none on me...so I put my hand on his shoulder, as we were right by a stream and in the bush, the sounds of nature were prevalent. With my hand on his shoulder I emptied my mind (a fairly short process by all accounts :rolleyes:) and just filled my consciousness with the soothing sounds of nature. Then seemingly all hell broke loose with both the ambulance, fire brigade and helicopter all arriving at once, the noise was hellish. They had tools and removed my wheel and a few other bits and then loaded my mate into the helicopter and they all vamoosed, just leaving me with my bike in bits and the sounds of nature once again, it was a freakish surreal feeling. Interestingly enough, when I went to visit my mate in hospital an hour later, he was feeling sheepish as his ankle was not broken (I put it down to his flexibility through karate training, he is a black belt) and he said to me that the best he felt through the whole thing was when I had my hand on his shoulder. So that was good. Energy is an interesting thing and not everything in this world is as it seems.

OK, the part you have all been waiting for - Best crash!
Hmmm, soooooooooooooo many to choose from! OK, check out the photo attached (hopefully) to this post. That is above Horokiwi quarry in Wellies, by the old Newlands dump. I call it the jump to nowhere, as on the approach to it, all you can see is Wellington harbour. I used to be the only one to do it, as to get to it you had to come down the devils staircase, which none of the other locals could get back up...unfortunately, the quarry guys bulldozed the staircase and suddenly everybody could get to that jump. It was crazy this day, so I went around trying to get everybody to go in a loop to avoid prangs. As I approached the jump, I went really slow, as in about 5 km's, not enough to get airborne, or so I thought! The last thing I remember seeing was 2 guys flying up towards me. Apparently I was knocked out cold for about an hour, weird thing was, when my brain came online, i had already somehow got to my feet and was walking around, talk about disorientated! I'd been shoved back from the jump by more than 25 meters. The other guy had very little safety gear and he had all sorts of broken bones. So I scored a free ride in the back of an ambulance. I cannot express the relief after discovering the other guys injuries that I had quality safety gear and I had spent the bucks on a top of the line helmet. other than a sore knee and head, I got away largely unscathed, whew! :sweatdrop

The next dirt bike I bought was my dream dirt bike, and the one I still have to this day. I'll cover that, at some stage! :bleh:

[chanceyy]

bout time we got another installment .. gotta watch them beaches around here :lol:

[sugilite]

I'm using this thread as a light hearted bibliography of the bikes I've owned. I just found a awesome site ( http://www.bikepics.com ) with loads of owner photos and managed to get photos of all my model bikes in correct colours. I've used my own photos when I had them. photos run in correct order of ownership. Spose I should do a write up on the KX500, as thats next in the dirt bike queue :yes:

<div align="center">
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1a-ts185er.jpg" width="640" height="480"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Suzuki TS185ER</b></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1a-xr200.jpg" width="640" height="596"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Honda XR200RD</b></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1b-rm125d.jpg" width="640" height="480"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Suzuki RM125D</b></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1c-atc200x.jpg" width="640" height="428"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Honda ATC200X</b></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1d-rg250.jpg" width="640" height="478"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Suzuki RG240W</b></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1e-rz500.jpg" width="640" height="428"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Yamaha RZ500</b></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1f-rg250-1986-1.jpg" width="640" height="480"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Suzuki RG250F</b></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1g-gsxr750H.jpg" width="640" height="480"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Suzuki GSXR750F</b></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1h-gsxr1100h.jpg" width="640" height="480"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Suzuki GSXR1100G</b></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1i-kx125-85.jpg" width="640" height="480"></p>
<p><b><font size="4">Kawasaki KX125</font></b></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1j-rg400.jpg" width="640" height="480"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Suzuki RG400</b></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1kk-gsxr11005-brand-new.jpg" width="640" height="579"></p>
<p><b><font size="4">Suzuki GSXR1100K</font></b></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1k-kx250.jpg" width="640" height="480"></p>
<p><b><font size="4">Kawasaki KX250</font></b></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1l-fzr1000.jpg" width="586" height="640"></p>
<p><b><font size="4">Yamaha FZR1000W</font></b></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1m-vfr400-nc21-1988.jpg" width="640" height="426"></p>
<p><b><font size="4">Honda VFR400 NC21</font></b></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1n-kx500.jpg" width="640" height="480"></p>
<p><b><font size="4">Kawasaki KX500</font></b></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1o-zx9r.jpg" width="425" height="640"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Kawasaki ZX9R C1</b></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1p-ZXR750.jpg" width="640" height="482"></p>
<p><font size="4"><b>Kawasaki ZXR750 H1</b></font></p>
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<p><img src="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Esugilite/jpg/kb/1q-zxr750h1.jpg" width="640" height="426"></p>
<p><b><font size="4">Kawasaki ZXR750 H1</font></b></p>
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[sugilite]

I'll never forget the 1st time I rode a KX500, I was about 21, had been racing big road bikes and had a load of dirt bike experience. I'd like to say it was the bad brakes that needed a good bleed that made me shit myself, but no, it was the raw totally untamed power that did that job! I had no excuse, I rode the bike on my home track that I'd done a squillion times. Straights that had been 3 gear changes long on my 125, suddenly became a challenge to get the throttle to the stop in one gear before getting to the end of it! Needless to say, I was totally awestruck by the bike, and I told myself that while I was no where ready for one at that point, I would learn to tame one in the future, or at least die trying! This was the only bike I've ever ridden to date, that actually scared me. :shit:

Fast forward to when I'm 34 and I decided to take the plunge and get one, enter one crasherfromwayback with his personal immaculately prepared bike for sale and the deal was done. I just started to get to know the bike in a gentle easy does it manner. It still nearly caught me out though, it never sounded fast and I caught myself rushing into corners faster than I anticipated at times. When I moved to my current location, the bike was put to regular use, both on the high terrain farms I'm surrounded by and the 50 km dirt road loop complete with 7 km hill climb!!! I know your all waiting for a spectacular best crash incident here, but up to this point, I'd not had any crashes really worth talking about. All that was about to change, as it was 2003 and a fledgling supermoto scene was emerging in New Zealand.

Supermoto Mayhem!
Supermoto was a class that really interested me, so I built the bike into one by lowering the suspension, adding a 6 piston caliper and 320mm disc, and had a set of 17's made up. I hooked up with a few other supermoto fans, and we got things moving in the lower north island, I helped on a national level and built the supermoto website. We ran at cart club tracks and Manfield. My 1st race set the scene for what was to follow, I crashed 3 times at that meeting! The problem was the initial power pulse, it had the ommphh to unhook the back and spit me off faster than the blink of an eye. I tried to tame it by cutting a old set of reeds in half and putting them over the existing reeds, added a sealy flywheel weight and a few other bits and pieces, it all helped a bit, but it still had large and nasty teeth, which it sunk into my arse with monotonous regularity :facepalm:

OK, I have a funniest moment, and a best crash to relate, well technically three crashes!
Funniest moment (as usual, for others, not myself!) I was at Manfield about 2004, with a sleeved barrel for the 1st time. It was noticeably slower. I holeshotted the start, with Dennis Charlotte on a 600 Husaberg slotting in behind me, coming out of the hair pin, I got a bit frisky on the throttle and the back end did it's thing and spat me off, I ran over and got the bike picked up and started and off I went again. It was a 5 lap race and I started to reel in Dennis in a big way, I was just coming up on him down the front straight as we started the last lap, I started to get excited and wondered how many people had crashed and still won in a 5 lap sprint race. My bike sensed I was about to have a great moment, so promptly shit itself and seized, naturally in front of everybody down the front straight. :facepalm: One consolation is, I set a 1:18 flat (on the slow motor!), a supermoto record broken only last year by a 4 stroke, I think?

OK, best crash, or two! I rolled up to a one off meeting at a new suburb in Upper Hutt. Crasher from way back was there on a 4 stoke suzuki. I holshotted, came around the last corner and bike did it's thing yet again and I was on my ear, someone rammed their front wheel into my head and my visor came half off. I was a bit stunned and the ambo guy came running towards me bag in hand, I then noticed they were doing a restart, so got the bike up, banged a few bits straight, and got on the bike in time for the restart, boom we were off, I holshotted again even having time to rip my dangling visor right off, but I was a bit gun shy in the 1st corners and crasherfromwayback took me, coming up on that same last corner, my bike decided to give everyone a action replay of the 1st crash and this time it spat me over the high side! I was pissed and sore, so loaded up and hit the pain medication and trundled off home! I still have this bike, and will never sell it. I love the challenge it presents, and all the reasons why people avoid these bikes are the exact same reason that draws me to it, like a moth on the path to self destruction! :lol:

[merv]

Great read Anthony. Crasher talks about the KX500 but I never knew until now you ended up with it.

[sugilite]

Crasher talks about the KX500 but I never knew until now you ended up with it.
Mate I'd rather buy a low hour bike from Pete than a brand new one! His bike prep and maintenance is 2nd to none :yes: Best condition 2nd hand bike I bought, ever!

[chanceyy]

One of the best reads on KB I reckon, Enjoying your biking experiences Sugi, really do make me :laugh:

can we not have so long between installments thouugh :shutup:

[Howie]

Gawd, we have a thread resurrection!
OK then, just for you Poos LOL

Suzuki GSXR750F 1985 - As Suzuki were prone to doing in those days, they dumped a load of cheap GSXR750's from Aussie on the NZ market. I picked up a red and black one.
As mentioned I was keen to get to the track, so with original fairings n all I rode to my first race meeting at Onekawa in Napier. On the way I stopped behind a van load of Vic club members who were going up to race. As I was talking to Anthony McCarthy I heard my bike being started up, I turned around just in time to see a drunk Dave Hicks wheelieing my bike up the road, he turned it around and wheelied it back landing it with a fork crunching thud, does another u-turn and promptly drops it, I always did think that guy was a jerk :tugger:

Anyways, it was pissing down at Onekawa and slippery as hell, I can remember passing Anthony McCarthy on his GSXR1100R then him running on in the next corner and straight into the side of me leaving big tyre marks on my swing arm, thankfully I'd been riding my motocross bike the day before, so stuck my foot out put her in sideways into the corner and made it! Anthony crashed, poetic justice one might say. I cannot remember where I finished, it was not 1st place, so :whocares:

2nd Race meeting was Gracefield, fark, that place was dangerous, I was fearless at 19, but I sure respected that track. I got top 5 finishes, and was up against names like Holden, Toomey, Kattenberg, all on GSXR1100's. The only thing I can remember was in race 2, Anthony McCarthy's girlfriend coming up to me as I was on the start line and whining in her nasal voice, "Well Anthony, Dave, Jim, Anthony and Jason have all crashed, so I guess it is your turn!" How did she know that was just what I wanted to hear? Not! :ar15:

Best Crash - None! Amazingly, I never crashed this bike.



Thought I'd resurrect this tread again for you. Heres a couple of pics from Onekawa in 1986 with you in them. Your #171 if I remember correctly.

[JustNick]

I'm loving the stories mate keep them coming!