Race preps in the New Year
My New Year's celebrations were as they have been for the last several years. Mostly napping on the couch as I try to ring in the New Year. After turning in at the late, late hour of 11pm having totally ignored the big televised party I got up well rested and hit the shop. I have a small whiteboard that I use to track the top five current to-do list of preps that need getting done on the Ninja. Up on Friday's list was more engine degreasing and the flushing of the cooling system.
My new shop clock tells me its time to get going. My lovely wife helping to feed my Obsession by getting my this novelty clock to decorate the walls of the MMO shop space
The roll in wheel chock that I talked about in a previous post came in handy as I had removed the kickstand and the center stand of the bike by this time. Friday's work gave me a chance to see how I will be manuervering around the pits during a race with no stands on the bike. I have the roll in chock and both front and rear stands. Some combo of the three will let me get off the bike without dumping it after a hard fought race when I get back to pit row.
In this shot I have the bike strapped down to the chock and have emptied 3/4 of a can of degreaser on the engine. I have removed the wiring harness and have covered all of the vital openings and parts to prevent water from getting where I don't want it to. I moved the front wheel stop of the roll in chock two places nearer the flip stop to accommodate the 16" wheels that are 3" smaller than the V Strom's 19" wheels. The chock holds the bike well and the straps really make a solid platform.
After all of the washing and scrubbing was done, I left the bike to dry. While I was rinsing off the degreaser I pulled out the thermostat and ran a few gallons of water through the engine to rinse out the water jackets. I wanted to ensure that I don't have any ethylene glycol coolant left in the system. I will refill the cooling system with distilled water and an race track approved water wetter. The bike looked much better once I got it back in the shop. I needed to take a rag and cleaner to a few stubborn spots, but I'm ready to get back into putting thing back on the bike.
Since I had plenty of light in the shop I set up a few of my GoPros to make a time-lapse movie of what I did. Here was my stationary camera with the Lime Fuel extended battery pack that I mentioned in another post. I also had a slow panning camera set up at a different angle. I am editing the footage right now and will get it up on the site soon.
For the rest of the holiday weekend I mostly finished up doing things around the house before my time off ended. On Sunday the 3rd I got out for a ride. I fully intended to stop and take pictures so that I could add a post to the Travel page of the blog. The only picture I got was of the very generous breakfast that I had before hitting the road. I would like to say that I didn't eat it all, but I did. It fueled me so well that I did the full 225 mile day trip without stopping except to relieve my bladder and get some coffee to warm my hands. I was back in the shop yesterday and will hopefully be getting back into a rhythm updating the blog so stick around to see whats coming.
Blue
My new shop clock tells me its time to get going. My lovely wife helping to feed my Obsession by getting my this novelty clock to decorate the walls of the MMO shop space
Speaking of the My Motorbike Obsessions shop space, it was such a nice day here in Southern California on this the first day of 2016 that I had to get the garage door open to let some light into the shop. The little Ninja sits on a variety of jacks, a jack stand and a front fork stand as I continue the preps. For today I wanted to get the bike back into being a roller so I could wheel it outside and get to work removing the last of the built up nasty coating the bottom of the engine.
The roll in wheel chock that I talked about in a previous post came in handy as I had removed the kickstand and the center stand of the bike by this time. Friday's work gave me a chance to see how I will be manuervering around the pits during a race with no stands on the bike. I have the roll in chock and both front and rear stands. Some combo of the three will let me get off the bike without dumping it after a hard fought race when I get back to pit row.
In this shot I have the bike strapped down to the chock and have emptied 3/4 of a can of degreaser on the engine. I have removed the wiring harness and have covered all of the vital openings and parts to prevent water from getting where I don't want it to. I moved the front wheel stop of the roll in chock two places nearer the flip stop to accommodate the 16" wheels that are 3" smaller than the V Strom's 19" wheels. The chock holds the bike well and the straps really make a solid platform.
After all of the washing and scrubbing was done, I left the bike to dry. While I was rinsing off the degreaser I pulled out the thermostat and ran a few gallons of water through the engine to rinse out the water jackets. I wanted to ensure that I don't have any ethylene glycol coolant left in the system. I will refill the cooling system with distilled water and an race track approved water wetter. The bike looked much better once I got it back in the shop. I needed to take a rag and cleaner to a few stubborn spots, but I'm ready to get back into putting thing back on the bike.
Since I had plenty of light in the shop I set up a few of my GoPros to make a time-lapse movie of what I did. Here was my stationary camera with the Lime Fuel extended battery pack that I mentioned in another post. I also had a slow panning camera set up at a different angle. I am editing the footage right now and will get it up on the site soon.
For the rest of the holiday weekend I mostly finished up doing things around the house before my time off ended. On Sunday the 3rd I got out for a ride. I fully intended to stop and take pictures so that I could add a post to the Travel page of the blog. The only picture I got was of the very generous breakfast that I had before hitting the road. I would like to say that I didn't eat it all, but I did. It fueled me so well that I did the full 225 mile day trip without stopping except to relieve my bladder and get some coffee to warm my hands. I was back in the shop yesterday and will hopefully be getting back into a rhythm updating the blog so stick around to see whats coming.
Blue
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