Shane - Superlite (#43)

 


In December I was going to do the Suzuki Series round at Hampton Downs then decide if I wanted to go on and have a stab at the NZSBK round in Taupo this year but, unfortunately, I got bowled by a nasty chest infection followed closely by weeks of neck pain so bad I blacked out at work. So my plan through to the end of March had been ruined but I decided I might as well have a go at the NZSBK round anyway.

At the ...

 


The Cliffhanger Hill Climb is a great fun event. Unfortunately this year we lost a good man at it. Kevin "Wharfy" Waugh died of injuries sustained in a crash while competing. He was a gentle, decent, sincere man who was willing to stand up when he saw something wrong. He was passionate about injustices, political and environmental issues. Respected by friends and loved by family but for me Wharfy was an inspiration because he ...

 


This year's Paeroa had been a lot of fun even though it was cut short. However, I'd had to set the bike up so that it was stable as I don't have a steering damper and the last time this bike had been to Paeroa it had suffered from lots of head shakes.

To quicken the steering I lifted the forks up through the triple clamps by 8mm then measured the static and rider sag, adjusting preload as necessary. However, it ...

 



Paeroa's street races are a blast. It's such a fun event because of the great atmosphere, the weather is always good, the local businesses and residents get right behind it and we get to do stupid speeds down the main street without losing our licences. It's the only event that I want to do every year if possible and the only event where I don't care where I finish as long as I finish. My first time was in 2011 on the ...

 


I'd been looking at the weather reports and it looked like the Friday & Saturday track days at Taupo were going to be wet. That and the fact I'd been horribly ill so I hadn't even been near my bike for nearly 2 months and had lost any sort of fitness I ever had meant that riding 3 days in a row would probably be a bad thing. For those reasons I took a day of annual leave and headed to Taupo on the Wednesday for the open test day ...

 


What a great day for riding!!

On the Wednesday I'd done the test day at Taupo after having swapped out the left side brake disk because the bike had picked up a nasty chattering under brakes. I'd taken the front mud guard off and ridden down the street in second gear and could look down through the fairings and see the left disk wasn't straight so the Wednesday test day was useful to firstly see if the braking was ...

 


A couple of weeks ago I took the CBR over to Gary Pendleton for a dyno tune. Each time I've put a bike on the dyno I've gotten a great result and this time was no different.

Once again we'd gotten lucky with the ignition curve as not only did we find a few more horsepower we also cleaned up the power curve so it was no longer rough and lumpy, it was now much smoother and the holes were filled in. Usually Japanese sports bikes ...

 


The weather reports for the Sunday were looking like it would be appalling weather to race in, but thankfully the weather a mind of it's own and doesn't listen to the weather reporters.

The usual pre-race routine went out the window because my wife and I went and stayed with her sister over near Miranda. It's closer to Hampton Downs than Hamilton is, but not by much. It was, however, a great chance to catch up with them ...