Getting them hooked young and hooligan racing.

Good Sunday friends. I was out of town this weekend so this post is a bit later than usual. It was another good Motorbike weekend last weekend. The weather turned nice after an on & off week of rain. The rain around SoCal can be a blessing and a curse. We usually are in a state of needing rain, California is a desert state after all. The rain can wreck havoc with our roads and can do even more damage to the local MX parks. I kept one eye on my weather app and tentatively planned to get the CRF450 out for the day. I had big plans for Motorbike stuff and didn't want to see it all canceled. Luckily for me the rains stopped and the clouds parted.

With all of the water falling from the sky, the Flat Track at Milestone got some much needed moisture. This track is awesome. There are not that many practice Flat Tracks that can be used to turn some laps any time you want. Usually you have to get a group of people together and rent a race facility. That can be a great time, but getting a big group of riders all in one place at the right time can be a pain. Being able to show up and ride on almost any day of the week is fantastic. The downside of this track is that it doesn't get the professional level of preparation as those aforementioned race facilities. The race surface is hard packed with just a little crust of cushion. With some water, that cushion lends itself to a fast lap and great traction. That cushion disappears as soon as the sun comes out from the clouds or the winds pick up. The surface gets dry and slick with lots of dust. It becomes a good exercise in throttle control. The rain got a bit deeper into the soil allowing that cushion to last just a little bit longer before drying out. 

For something a little different I brought my oldest daughter out to the track with me. As any family man that has hobbies will attest, balancing family time with riding time can be a challenge. My daughter has been showing interest in motorcycling lately. I am not going to push my kids into my hobby, but if they show interest I'll gladly show them how I like to have fun. She was excited to have a mini-date with daddy. We chatted all the way to the MX park, about an hour and 15 minute drive. We chatted so much that we missed our turn and extended our trip a bit. We did get to see the Lake Elsinore area for the first time which was nice.

Once we got to the track, I got unloaded and set her up with some snacks while I got my gear on. There was so much for her to see between my track riding, the motocross guys on the vet track and the really good guys riding on a super cross style track behind us. Like any kid, after the first hour of motorcycles she was more interested in playing with dirt clods than the motorcycle action. Some other parents showed up to the Flat Track with kids a little younger than my daughter and they brought out some PW50s. Having my daughter see other kids riding on the track did pique her interest a bit so maybe she'll want to give it a try soon. The day was fun and it tuckered her out so the ride home was quiet for dad until we arrived at the McDonald's for lunch. It was a great day that I got to add riding to while spending quality time with my girl.  

The track time wasn't the only motorbike related event I had planned for that day. At Perris Raceway, there was a team Speedway competition and Hooligan Flat Track race going on. I had to get the two of us home, get the bike unloaded and get cleaned up to drive an hour back the way I had just come. All of the driving was worth it as the racing and the pit lane bike show was as awesome as always. There were fewer varieties of bikes. The Speedway bikes are pretty similar from rider to rider, though the colors of the bike covers can vary widely adding to the spectacle of the event. When you add a 500cc, two stroke, methanol burning engine to essentially a BMX bike frame without brakes or suspension you are bound to have a good time. These things are meant to ride sideways more than they ride straight up and down. On the other side of the paddock were the hooligan racers. One cool hooligan bike in attendance was this Indian Scout. When I test rode the Scout Bobber I found that I really loved the engine, but that the bike's cruiser style ergonomics just made the thing almost un-rideable to me. When you take the platform and turn it into a mid-controlled race bike, you have recaptured my interest. It didn't look like it was easy to get the bike to this state, but we'll see how the FTR1200 comes out when Indian releases it later this year.

By far the bike for hooligan Flat Track is the venerable Harley Sportster. They were the most abundant bike entered in the race. There were one or two of the Street 750 bikes as well, but I didn't get a chance to get a picture of one. Here are four of them that show a bit of the variety that can be achieved with this bike. Some were older, some newer. Some were fully customized like the Rusty Butcher bike below with its yellow frame and custom seat. The number 09 bike above belongs to Chris Wiggins, one off the hosts of the Creative Riding podcast. That podcast actually was the impetus for me to switch to Flat Track from Road Track riding. His bike had the most modifications to the foot controls of any bike which comes from his Speedway racing background.

Between the Harleys and the speedway bikes, the pit area was a glorious cacophony of engine sounds and smells. Call me a dinosaur, but if the electric motorcycle thing becomes the norm in the next 20 years, they will have to find something to make up for the lack of input to these two senses. Listening to a pack of bikes racing around the track sounding like RC cars just won't be as exciting as it is now. I'm sure capitalism will provide something to fill in the gap, but I know I'll be one of those old timers complaining about "back in my day..." to all the youngsters that are forced to listen.

Chris Wiggins was the organizer who did the heavy lifting of organizing the Flat Track races in conjunction with the Speedway event. One of the cool things he did was do a handicapped start to make the racing a bit closer. Basically, the slower you were, the closer to the front of the grid you started. The pic above shows you how close it kept the pack together for the quick six lap races. The fast guys were always able to get through the pack, but it did seem to give the slower guys a bit of a push to stay in front. Having ridden with buddies that were faster than me having them ride my tail a bit gave me the desire to ride a bit closer to my limits. The same thing happened here. The pack would eventually spread out some and the fast gas would get to the front. It looked like good racing and it was surprisingly clean and accident free for the essentially street oriented bikes and amateur riders on the track. 

There was a lot of racing going on. The Speedway event was running late and I didn't get a chance to stay through the end. Remember that part I mentioned in the beginning about balance? My wife was coming to the end of her understanding and I zipped home to help get the kids to bed. With this trip to Milestone I have managed to get out six times since starting Flat Track. The last two times I would say I was actually Flat Tracking. With those trips firmly implanted into my memory I have started to develop a plan to get the bike and myself ready to race later this year. I need to change the gearing, try some new handlebars and play with my suspension adjustments. New tires will be on the menu after I finish burning off the current older rubber I have on now. With as much practice as I'm doing at Milestone, I should accomplish that goal soon! 

Well friends, you can be assured that all of these projects will be documented right here so stay tuned for future updates. I have more days at Milestone planned and I am even going to take the FZ1 one out to Big Willow for a relaxed track day. I can't wait to get back out on a big track with the Yamaha. I haven't ridden her that much since getting into Flat Track and I'm eager to see how my track skills have fared since transitioning to dirt. Take care and ride safe!

Blue