BEARS 14-10-04 (Aka Kickaha oh so close)

[manuboy]

Ahhh... hiya ladies and gents, riders and pillions, smokers and non-smokers.

I know kickaha normally brings y'all the full match coverage, but i thought i'd bring a differing perspective to the days events at Ruapuna for the final round of the BEARS.

Being a technical sort of bloke, this should be interesting (or not).

Ummm, I arrived, and kickaha had this sort of bike thing running in the buckets. At least i think it was a bike. It had all of the necessary attributes...wheels, buzzy thing below the fuely thing... but it didn't look much like any bike i've ever seen. Could be because of the gn140 (ex 125) motor in gn chassis with gsxr250 forks + front breaks and swingarm. Did i get that right? Not that it matters, cos as kickaha has wont to do, he killed it (gently) after 1.5 races anyway.

Mental note, never buy a 2nd hand ANYTHING off of kickaha. Uh Uh.

Things started okay. Kickaha and his dodgy wrist made it out for the first race, as did Neil (Diesel Pig) with his dodgy shoulder, as did Glen (i think - i'll call him that anyway) with his dislocated shoulder / ripped bicep, and Glens hard case mate (just a good beer pot). Hard southern men these blokes. Hard.

Anyway, Glen sorta seemed to have the edge, and proceeded to clean up on a very similar bike to Kickaha's but with a dr125 buzzy thing, in slightly better mechanical nick than Kickaha's. Kickaha came in and immediately ripped the carb-u-rettor from the other bit, throwing one of DP's "137.5" jets in. That was gonna "make it all better". Yep... it made it better - at sitting round for the rest of the day. In fact that isn't 100% true, the bits falling off (some of them essential for containing mineral goodness INSIDE the engine) and the fact that i'm sure sure he forgot the fluffy dice had a lot to do with it.

I think Kickaha then borrowed the "club stead" also known as "the shitter" for the rest of the day. Glen won the next race, after completing 90% of it stuck in 6th gear, using the clutch. Fairly impressive on a machine of such immense power i thought. Kickaha came last or 2nd to last (as expected on the shitter), the upside being he was slow enough up the front straight for me to get good photos! Yay, thanks Kickaha.

For the last race Glen donated the speed demon to Kickaha, and heres where things got good. He got off to a bad start, but then expertly carved his way through the field. Coming onto the front straight, Kickaha thought he had it all under control and was "coasting" to the finish, only to have the sleek(!) form of DP ride unnoticed straight past him, beating him by 1/2 a bike length. The sight was DP yahooing it and shaking his arm as he passed Kickaha was memorable. I would've got a photo but iwas too busy pissing my pants. Apparently Kickaha never even knew he was there......

Other notable stuff as the guy i talked to from nelson on the no 55 900ss that had homemade underseat twin pipes made by his mate, seemingly being faster through the twisties than the guy on the Aprilia RSV, but then being "hunted" down and canned on the straightways lap after lap. It was almost upsetting to watch, but that's racing!

I left as everybody was heading to the prizegiving / bar for a beer or two and an evening of polite chat with no b/s stories at all.....

[Kickaha]

I spent Saturday afternoon doing a few little jobs like replacing a leaking fork seal and reassembling the top end, after leaving out the chain tensioner guide and having to pull down the top end yet again to fit it the job was all completed, it was about then that I realised I’d left my battery 30km away at work so I couldn’t fire it up and check it was all ok, but I thought it’ll be right it’s always gone every other time

Sunday morning got up and lock wired the oil drain plug and put the bottom engine mount bolt in as I’d done a quick check over and found I’d left it out when I refitted the motor, shot into work on the way to the track to pick up my battery and filled the bike up with gas on the way, the weather report was already saying it was 21 degrees, got to the track and unloaded, topped up the oil and waited around till someone arrived to do sign in and scrutineering, rider briefing all completed it was on with the practice and being the Premier class the Buckets are always first up

Before going out on the advice of Lee I had rejetted my bike and gone up a few sizes as last time I had run it the motor was showing symptoms of being to lean on the main jet, having just installed new rings I was being pretty gentle with it and it seemed to be going ok but it still felt a bit lean so after practice I went up one more size on the main jet, Glen managed to break his throttle cable after a few laps but with a bit of help from Steve Rae and Stephen Batchelor soon had it repaired

I was well out of the points after a crash resulting in broken schapoid at Rd 1 meaning I had missed a complete meeting so I was using this to tune the new flat slide in preparation for the Nelson Street race after new year, Glen was going into this round with a slender 3 point lead from Rod and with Brent running 3rd,Glen was also riding with a fractured arm after a off on the trail bike two weeks ago and Rod was getting over a big high side on his TZ250 the Saturday before which left him bruised but not broken and Neil (Diesel Pig) was riding with a broken collarbone from high siding a bucket 4 months ago that hasn’t healed, so it was a race of the walking wounded

Race 1
Well it was pretty short for me after 1 lap I felt it start to slow turning off the straight so I pulled the clutch and coasted off the track, watching Glen go past in the lead I noticed his gear linkage dangling beneath his bike and thought to myself “that must make it rather hard to change gear, maybe I didn‘t do that bolt up tight enough“ as it turned out it had fallen off early in the race and he only had 5th gear, in the meantime Rod had trouble of his own with his gear linkage trying to unwind itself and him reaching down and winding it back up as he came along the straight on each lap, a little way behind them Brent and Tony were trading places each lap but Glen takes the win from Rod, and Lee turns up on his RX125 after the race finishes to tow me back to the pits and save me a bit of a push

Race 2
I thought my bike had seized due to hammering it to hard to soon and so took out the spare club bike known as the club slut (as everyone gets to ride her) this is a MB100 proddy bike, starting off the back I trailed young (14yrs) Keegan for a couple of laps before pulling in front to show him some better lines about ½ distance Glen came past closely followed by Rod and I knew the rest of them wouldn’t be to far behind, soon a few more were slipping past and with the meagre HP of the MB I couldn’t even get enough speed up to slipstream them, another win to Glen and the Bucket Championship as well, with myself finishing about 10th in an 11 bike field

Race 3
With the championship decided both Glen and Rod packed their gear, I borrowed Glens GNDR140 and Diesel Pig borrowed Rods MBRS100,the flag drops and into the first corner I was 5th with Diesel Pig leading the way followed by Brent, Darryl and Tony after lap 1 Diesel Pig goes wide into the dipper and we all blow past, I then pass Brent going into the sweeper slipstream Darryl down the straight and then pass turning in off the end and set off after Tony after chasing him for a lap I pass him up the inside into the sweeper, every lap after that he’s trying to go around the outside of me on the same corner but I’m holding him out and when I don’t see him pull alongside on the last lap I know I’ve got him, just coming down to take the flag and Diesel Pig who I’d forgotten about and had recovered rather well from letting 4 bikes past pulls out and beats me by a bike length, but a very satisfying race after my previous crappy start to the day

Pulled the bike down as soon as I got home and see the cam has got a bit hot and rooted a rocker arm, I’ll have to look further but suspect I may have inadvertently blocked an oil feed to the head with a bit of gasket goo, still I’ve got two months till Nelson so there’s plenty of time to get it sorted and I’m sure I wont leave it till the last minute!

[FROSTY:Me]

Great story Kick -lets hope it aint too major

[Her_C4]

That was gonna "make it all better". Yep... it made it better - at sitting round for the rest of the day. In fact that isn't 100% true, the bits falling off (some of them essential for containing mineral goodness INSIDE the engine) and the fact that i'm sure sure he forgot the fluffy dice had a lot to do with it.

Goddam Kickaha - I woulda lent you my B4 ones!!! All big and pink and fluffy!!!

Kickaha came last or 2nd to last (as expected on the shitter), the upside being he was slow enough up the front straight for me to get good photos! Yay, thanks Kickaha.

Wow - so thoughtful of him...

The sight was DP yahooing it and shaking his arm as he passed Kickaha was memorable. I would've got a photo but iwas too busy pissing my pants. Apparently Kickaha never even knew he was there......

:spudwave:

I left as everybody was heading to the prizegiving / bar for a beer or two and an evening of polite chat with no b/s stories at all.....

uh huh - yeah sure

PMSL - Bloody good write up guys

[manuboy]

Good story kick, seeing as i video'd 20 minutes of my right foot, took 30 blurry photos, and got the names, dates, times, places and details all wrong, i've been fired as junior raceday reporter. May as well get hold of a shitter of my own and get out there eh?

[Ms Piggy]

I’m sure I wont leave it till the last minute!

Yeah right!