Hello, all. My name is Christian and I live in the TC area of MN. Been riding street and track for about 3 seasons over the span of 3 bikes during that time. The new-to-me 4th is what has brought me here, as following a track crash on my current bike prompted my wife (with the huge help of my friends--one is a BIG Honda nut: seperate 600RR streetbike and track/race bike along with a '74 CB550) to surprise me with a track/race bike so I can begin racing next year on something not so spendy to repair.
Just a warning: LIFE STORY ALERT...
I made the decision to get into bikes in late '09 after oh...27 years of being deathly afraid of these 2 wheeled instruments of death commonly referred to as sportbikes. So, I spent all fall/winter buying gear, books & dvds, and basically becoming a sponge to absorb everything I could learn about riding. Finally began riding in 2010 on an '09 Ninja 250R after getting my MC endorsement via HD's Riders Edge MSF BRC program. Made it all of 500 street miles before finding my way to the track @ DCTC (local Community college with a short 1mi long/17 turn road course that hosts a few organizations' Advanced Rider Courses), and that was all it took to get me hooked. Street accident at the tail end of a 6+ hr ride into WI (tractor w/ hay trailer turned left in front of me) ended my short time on the 250 and I decided to take the rest of the season off and come back to riding the following year.
I picked up an '08 GSX-R600 during that winter. Did a few bolt-on mods and got about 1,000 street miles on it before bringing it to DCTC.
Thirst had grown and I now wanted to try a bigger track, so I signed up for my first trackschool thru our largest trackday organization (ZARS) at Brainerd Int'l Raceway early last season. Got back in contact with an old friend (who brought some of his other riding buddies along) to make that trip to BIR happen. Learned a ton and confirmed I was a track addict.
I was excited to do more trackdays on the GSX-R, but then one of the friends made me an offer I couldn't refuse on his bike (as he let me test ride it at BIR)...an '08 848 with the exact same miles I now had on the Suzuki...for the same price I paid for the Suzuki. Gixxer was sold the next day back to the dealer I bought it from when he texted me that I had first dibs on the Duc. A few mods later, a couple thousand street miles, and I was signed up for TrackSchool2 at the final trackday of the season @ BIR on the new-to-me bike, but a leaky radiator (even though my friends tried their best to patch it up....passed tech...but opened up again once the bike got up to temp/ pressure) forced me to sit the the Labor Day season-ender trackday out and only be an observer.....
Fast forward thru this season and I've done a bit: Levels 1 & 2 of California Superbike School @ Infineon Raceway aboard their S1000RRs to start the year off in April.
Tons of mods...
~13k miles...
and a few trackdays at RA & BIR....
Road America-ZARS TS2 (5/28/12)....first time tracking the 848
BIR-ZARS (6/9/12)....new wheels/brakes/tires....learning day
BIR-ZARS 2-day (7/21-22/12)....getting comfy
BIR-Ducati Minneapolis trackday (8/31/12).....finally meshing with the bike
....and then I fall down go BOOM!! Ran off in T7, hit sand for an instant lowside @ 45-ish, and broke my fall with the top of my X-12....
Which leads me to now, lol..
I have no recollection of the crash, nor the trip to the hospital, or getting back to my friends' parents house in nearby Garrison. 6 hrs gone, only way I knew was by watching the GoPro vid of that session (only one I recorded, go figure).....AND I had to miss the ZARS Labor Day season finale @ BIR that following Monday for the 2nd year in a row. Totally depressd and thought my 2012 riding season was over.....as most of the OEM plastics were trashed and I had no excitement towards rushing to pay dearly for replacement fairings to keep riding on the street for the remainder of the season.
A few weeks later they hunted down a CRA-prepped (our regional racing organization) '03 CBR600RR that already has quite a few nice mods on it. Arata full Ti exhaust w/ PC3, Sato rearsets, Racetech fork cartridges & Penske rear shock, Ohlins steering damper, Puig DB windscreen, frame sliders, NRC & Woodcraft case savers, Stompgrips, and uncrashed bodywork. Upgraded the grips to Renthals, levers to ASV F3s, put on the Rizoma barends from the other bike shortly after I got it. I just got the bodywork back from the painter today to kind of change the look/make it my own.
Extremely anxious to try it out this weekend, as I'll be heading down to Barber with 3 other friends for NESBA's season finale weekend, and will give me a good idea on what setup changes I'd need to make to it for next year in CRA. Going to take me a while to adjust after a year and a half on a twin....new-to-me bike, new-to-me track, new helmet.....but I'm excited. I'll be there with great company for a chill weekend riding bikes. :)
Thanks for reading. I can already see there are wealths of knowledge available on the site. I hope to be a contributing member of the site!
-Christian
