Shane - Superlite (#43)

Talk about wet!! The ducks have more brains than motorcycle racers cos the stayed home.

5:30am is a ridiculous time of the night (even though there's light it's ridiculous to call it morning) to do anything, but that's the time I set my alarm for. A short while later I was out of bed and making a coffee for the road. Throw the rest of my gear into the car and I'm off to McDonalds for the traditional grease-fest that gets me through a race day.

Pulling ...

AMCC Round 1 at Hampton Downs signalled the start of Summer racing and the first race for me since Paeroa in February, 8 months ago.

This time I planned to get an unusually early start so that we're not rushed even if something doesn't quite go as it should so I'd set my alarm for 5:30am. That's an insane time to be awake. On the average work day my body might be walking around but my brain isn't awake until about 10:00am. Even then that's only after some breakfast ...

I finally got around to putting my bike on the dyno and did we get a surprise!!

Sunday I hooked up the trailer, loaded the bike up and got things ready to go visit Gary Pendleton. I swiped the mother inlaws Garmin because I wasn't exactly sure I'd find Gary's place without a little help and then watched some rugby.

Next morning I was up far too early for a Monday (I don't work Mondays, they're evil), into the car and off to McDonalds. Can't go anywhere without ...

I'd been meaning to get down to the Sidecar's Have a Go Day for quite a while now but every year something else got in the way. This time though, Drew piped up with the offer to pick me up on their way through and as plans had changed I was actually free to go on the Sunday.

My alarm went off exactly when it should and I turned it off (not even hitting snooze) and rolled over. I was knackered. I'd had a fairly tiring 3 days and hadn't gotten to sleep anywhere near as early as ...

Paeroa was one of the reasons that I started racing. I told my wife that I wanted to do Paeroa (and maybe Wanganui) and that was the justification for doing other race meetings (rules say you have to do at least 3 track events to be eligable for the Streets).

Because of the tight time constraints with a Street Race, sign-in and scrutineering for Paeroa are on the Saturday so that Sunday morning it's straight into the riding as early as possible.

I ...

Racing can be a total bitch sometimes.

Saturday was the practice day so the wife and I headed down to Taupo so I could make certain that the bike was fine and that I was in the right frame of mind.

Pretty much as soon as I got there I caught up with Lewis who was sorting out a pit shed. I was keen go to halves so I parked up beside his vehicle. Sign in and scrutineering were a breeze so I got the bike on the tyre warmers and went for a wander.
...

So, the problem with the throttle sticking open has been found and fixed.

The cause of the problem goes back to the round at Hampton Downs where the throttle was originally sticking. The throttle cable would slip out of the adjuster (similar to the pic below) when I opened the throttle and would then catch on the edge when I closed the throttle, causing the throttle bodies to stay open.

Because of where this is located (between the frame and engine) I couldn't see the ...

Frustration. It's a very annoying word. A bloody nuisance when it applies to an entire weekend.

Metvuw said no rain so, thankfully, the wets kept collecting spiders webs in the shed.

Steve picked me up, we picked my bike up and hit the road. The drive down was uneventful and we got there in time to leave the trailer at the track so we didn't have to fight for a space the next morning. A burger and chips eaten on the bonnet of the car and we were ...