A pop and a bang. An interesting practice session.

Getting out to Milestone MX Ranch for some flat track practice is always a good time. I've met some great people. I've seen my skills go from non-existent to kinda-there. And best of all I have fun. My last practice day was an interesting day. The weather has finally turned here in SoCal making for much more comfortable conditions. I was invigorated and ready to work on ways of upping my speed around the dirt oval. Little did I know that the day would give me a little more than I bargained for in the way of excitement. Scroll on down to see how it went!

This day started off very overcast. It is a sign that fall is coming when the skies over Southern California remain cloudy well into the afternoon. Our summer weather, especially out in the desert areas, gives us brilliant blue skies and sun burned skin. When the clouds stick around, the time spent outside is much more enjoyable. I was eager to see how the overcast sky would affect the track. Usually when it is sunny, the track conditions change very rapidly. If the water truck is on the ball, we can have a good day of traction. If the truck driver is sleeping in the shade, the track can get dry-slick and stay that way all day. When I arrived, the track had been well watered and it was looking quick. I got unloaded while chatting with a few fellow riders that came out to practice and then hit the dirt.

And hit the dirt I did! I wasn't the only one to take home some souvenir mud with me that day, but I'll get to that later. As you can see from the picture above, I op-checked the Helite vest. This was the first time I've actually had the air bag go off. It was a very interesting sensation. I heard it go off almost immediately. It sounded like a large firecracker went off and the vest inflated immediately. It worked as advertised locking my helmet to my body across my shoulders. I stood up and killed the bikes engine. I got the bike off its side and was trying to get it into neutral, but had trouble with my dexterity as the vest felt like a blood pressure cuff around my torso. I pulled the clutch and pushed the bike to the infield and managed to get it started and back to my pit area. One of the other riders at the track met me at the track exit. It just so happened that I was answering his questions about the vest right before the session started. He saw the whole slide and said the vest inflated instantly. Maybe Helite will give me a commission if he picks one up!

Here is the culprit. You can see that the wet dirt packed up my tire tread blocks making my tire a virtual slick causing the front end to wash out and send me sliding. It all happened so fast that I didn't even have a chance to try and save it. I was sliding fast enough that I immediately separated from the bike causing the air bag to activate. My lower tire pressures might have also contributed to the lack of traction as well. Apparently when you lower the tire pressure too much, the tire compresses causing the tread blocks to squish together to form a temporarily smooth tire right at the contact patch. This was after the third session of the day. I had one good session and one abbreviated session. I was waiting for the water truck with the rest of the riders as the track was getting hard to control. After the water was added, we had to wait a good 25 minutes since the overcast skies kept the track muddy slick. Maybe I should have waited another 10 minutes like a few of the other riders did.

This is what you have left over. The tether was still attached to the bike. The CO2 cartridge was cool to the touch from the sudden evacuation of gas rushing into the air bag pockets. I pulled out a 6mm hex wrench and my spare cartridge and set about changing the the CO2 canister. As soon as I pulled out the old cylinder, the remaining air in the vest rushed out. Changing the CO2 cylinder was easy and in no time I was ready to get back out on track. While I was finishing up the vest, I turned back to the track. A veteran rider/racer was out with his soon to turn pro son working in the track. As he was speeding down the back straight I heard a bang and saw him fly like superman over his handle bars. A couple of us rushed out to the track to find him laughing about blowing his engine. He had a good set of protective gear and only had a small bruise to show for his short, but exciting flight.

As soon as I was able to notice, I could hear the vest starting to deflate. It was gradually getting softer as I made my way to my truck.The vest definitely would hold a protective amount of air until well after an accident was over. Before I heard and saw the blown engine incident, I was pondering if I should bother reloading the vest. I figured that low sides wash outs are low impact and a waste of the vests capability. After watching the other rider get chucked over his bike with some violence, I decided that the cost of a spare cartridge at $25 is an easy cost to bear. I wouldn't want to have made that choice only to go high siding myself to the moon one practice day. With my middle age body, that kind of accident would put me out of the game for too long. Good safety gear isn't cheap, but it is worth every penny you pay for it.

To finish off this post I'll recount my races from last weekend. Well they didn't happen. I was all set to go racing up until I got home from work on the Friday before the Round 7 SCFTA races on Saturday. For some reason I was beat and the idea of getting ready to race and the whole process of loading out, setting up and getting home after a full day of racing jut didn't appeal to me. Instead I re-planned my weekend to get a bunch of things done as well as have some fun with the kids. I also got the Yamaha FZ1 out for some twisty canyon road action. I hit up some roads I haven't ridden in a while. After getting out and getting some curves under my belt I realized that I have been pushing myself too hard to get my racing started. I have been pushing so hard that I was starting to feel less enthused about the whole thing. In the last two years I have been hauling bikes all over California to attend track days and races. A good deal of money has been spent and all of it very worth the effort and cost. I will take a short break from race activities this month, but will be back at in October.

Well readers, I hope you enjoyed this week's content. This upcoming weekend I plan to do some flat track or maybe some supermoto at Apex. I also plan to let the FZ1 get some air in the mountains for a bit. I have been missing Ventura county's plethora of coastal roads and pine forests. The weather this weekend back east looks bad. Stay safe out there everyone.

Blue