Baby, you got my number!

July is fast approaching. What is so special about July? Well July is when I plan to start racing and enter my first race with SCFTA. Since I bought the CRF450 Flat Tracker, I have made it to the practice track 3 times a month. April is already shaping up to have plenty of track action. I will be getting out to Milestone later this month on a couple of weekends for more practice. There is a race I might enter in May and with as fast time has flown, I had better get a handle on finishing up race preps. I have made good strides in dialing in the CRF Flat Tracker as mentioned in last week's post. This week I did something just as important to get me race ready. Take a look and see for yourself.

After working with a slightly unresponsive customer service department trying to find my package, this big envelope finally arrived at my door. It took 11 days for it to get to me, an unfortunate thing in today's instant tracking way of life. It was especially frustrating as the envelope was marked "2-day Priority" mail. After getting home from work to find it waiting for me, I made myself a drink and settled in for a night in the shop.

Here is what the pack contained. I got a set of custom color number graphics for the bike! I got them from Decal Works. The website allows you to design the graphics in real time and get a preview of what you'll be getting. The cost for just the front and side number plates was around $35, with another $18 for shipping. The shipping seamed a bit steep, especially since it was not guaranteed within a certain time frame at that price. They did send me a tracking number, but as I alluded to before, that tracking number turned out to be useless as was their customer service when I asked them to clarify the shipping method. I tentatively opened the package halfway expecting the order to come out wrong, but to my pleasant surprise it was all in order.

Included in the pack were the front and two side number plate graphics. They were printed on a thick, flexible vinyl. The actual number plates pretty much mirrored the online preview from their graphic designer system. Also included were some extra pieces so that I could do more of the side plate than just the number plate area. There were 10 smaller stickers with my chosen number and a squeegee too. My choice of number was simple, my daughter choose the number because "384 is bigger than 84". The number 84 being the number of the racer that owned the bike before me. I couldn't run his same number if I wanted the bike to truly be mine. The color choice was an tip of the hat to my favorite MotoGP racer, Valentino Rossi. I hope to invoke a bit of his speed when I finally get out and race.

I did some quick comparisons to the stock plates to make sure the sizes would line up. To the credit of Decal Works they looked to fit just fine. The front plate looked to be the easiest one to apply the graphics as it was the flattest of the plastics. I used some masking tape to see how the red, yellow and blue color scheme would look. I think it works and it should stick out a bit at the races. This will be a good thing. All of my adoring fans will be able to find me easily enough. Of course I'll have to make that easy for them by being out in front of the pack. Once I knew that everything would fit, it was time to bite the bullet and get to applying these overgrown stickers.

Since I needed two hands for most of the work and three hands for the rest of it, I didn't get any shots of the work as I was doing it. You can see that it went well. The front went on very easily with no issues. The side number plates were a bit more tricky with a couple of compound curves. I started at the top of the number plate around the hand area cutout. In retrospect I should have started in the center along the curve that runs down the middle of the plate and worked my way outward to each side. I did get a couple of wrinkles at the very bottom of the plate. I was able to use my heat gun the next day and get them worked out. The surface of my number plates were rashed and cracked in a few places so I have a few bubbles and bumps. The dark Navy Blue background color hides those imperfections very well and from close up, the whole thing doesn't look bad at all.

From a distance, the bike looks fantastic! I think the color combo really works well. The font and size of the numbers makes them easy to read in low light conditions. Since the races always finish under the lights, this will be good. I want to find a way to get an MX jersey to wear over my leathers with the same colors and get it screen printed with the same font. I will eventually be getting some fender, cowl and swing arm decals done up in some My Motorbike Obsessions livery to really make this bike my own race machine. Once I find an inexpensive (read free) graphic designer to help me, I'll get right to it. With the new numbers on the bike, the plastics don't look as beat up. This will keep the costs low as I don't think I'll be replacing them any time soon.

This was quick project, but it made a very big visual impact. I am feeling confident and ready to try my hand at racing very soon. After another month of practice and a few more tweaks to the bike, I should be set up to go out there and go bar to bar with the other guys on the dirt. Other upcoming work will be new race brake fluid and coolant. I want to get a coolant overflow bottle and a new radiator cap. I also want to possibly try a new handlebar and I'll be getting new tires before I do my first actual race. As I finally pit myself against the field, you'll be right there with me. I can't wait! Ride safe friends.

Blue