Barber 250's

Here is a shot that shows the kind of weather we had this weekend at Barber. The rain clouds were a constant presence and caused a mad scramble for rain tires on Sunday morning for practice. The joke of course was that it dried up for the races and was beautiful. The danger at Barber after a rain is water running across the track which caused a few wrecks on Sunday. During the rain on Saturday, while I was cornerworking the Museum turn, there were at least 40 falls including Charles and Jim in my corner. Their wrecks cost them less than $75 each, sweet!. Barber rocks though I know if I had tried to learn it on my 10r I would have crashed it for sure. After the races on Sunday, Brad and I drove through the night to Kyle Texas and an Elite track day. Moira rented all the bikes and let her people give them a rip. The reception was great except for one guy who was overly impressed with the acceleration of his zx10 which he "improved" with -1, +2 gearing. He said it was hard to ride. I guess so 'cause I smoked him on a 250. The total trip was 1800 miles in 4 days with 4 days at tracks, whew! thanks Brad!!!
Here is the address to the a couple of vholdr videos of Barber that I took;http://www.VholdR.com/node/27806
please let me know if this works on your 'puter.

Here is another Barber renter Jim H. He took the Ed Bargy school on Friday and took advantage of the fact that when you rent; you rent for the event! He was easily convinced to take in a race (or 3) and fully experience a weekend of racing. Jim rides over 30,000 miles a year on streetbikes and used this experience to take a well deserved 5th ( midpack) in his first E superstock race. Jim is a tall man and will give testamony about fitting on and the ease of operating the 250 at speed around a race track. He also slept in a tent a Barber with a torrential down pour trying to float him out of Alabama ,so perhaps he is nuts.

Charles J.

Here is Charles J. on his way back to the pits after one on his victories on the 250 at Barber Motorsports Park. He is actually making money on the 250 by winning races. He is winning $150 per race in Michelin cash as well as a few other contingencies if he is filling out his tech. As I learned at Daytona; always fill out your form, you never know when lightning will strike.

An unhappy Don

Here is Don R. pondering the error of his way. He has just fallen victim to NPRs turn 4. This is the slowest turn on the track and most novice riders choose it to crash on. My theory is that due to the turn's slowness, people feel confident enough to push their limits, leading to more crashes in the same place. Fortunately, Don wasn't hurt too badly and his crash bill was about $150. This was for a rt. handlebar, rt handlebar switch and a rear brake pedal. I shudder to think what the same wreck on his Duc. would have cost.

Here are Jacques and his buddy Christian. Christian had not ripped a bike since his dirtbiking past faded into marriage. He had a blast and was able to go pretty well on the 250. C. also promised to donate some cold seal for the roof of the bus and an A/C for summertime comfort. This will work well with the upcoming tint job that is going to darken the bus nicely.

This Dwaine getting ready for a rip at the May 17th NPR track day. He has parked his CBR 600 and gotten his work done on a RMN 250. That is not a look of terror or concentration on his face but a look of pleasure, a common expression on those who ride 250's.

Houston Dirt

Within the TWS road trip I stopped and visited 22 bike shops including Orange, Houston, Kyle, Austin and San Antonio. Houston is an especially busy city that took me most of a day to cover. This shot shows the crazy dirt pattern that was imprinted into the white primer of the HotBodies bodywork during this part of the trip. The strap seems to have had a wave effect making the dirt land in this decoratice pattern. Jill figured out that a Mr. Clean magic eraser works great at general motorcycle cleaning. Notice also in the picture the GSXR damper that makes these bikes race legal.

Focus at TWS

These next couple of photos are of the Focus and a few bikes at Texas World Speedway. At first glance the scale of TWS might make a Ninja 250 ride less interesting. There are however over 14 turns in which to focus on getting the most of your cornering speed . Here there is a great dependence on acceleration and top speed on big bikes, on the 250 just let her rip! and don't slow down too much. The Focus returned over 28MPGs towing the 2 bikes at 65MPH this allowes me to just show up with a bike or two and still be "profitable"