Four Dudes, a vintage Honda Twin, and the 2012 Mexican 1000

+1. If I didn't live on the other side of the pond I'd love to have attended the show. The bikes look great. Maybe someday I'll manage to see the mighty SL in the flesh (my in laws live in Yakima WA).

The rest of the pics are here

OC, showing the spirit.

Fantastic Photos as always Allan!

My Dad and I had a great time at the show as well and as said, the crowd on Friday night was insane for sure! After a few too many PBRs and/or Hamms, I'm sure the show might have felt a little like this for some :



The bikes on display were awesome; so much cool stuff... I looked for you guys, but had no luck finding you all Friday night We did find Lonnie the next day though:



He's one heck of a good guy! It was awesome to finally see the OSR SL350 in person; it's looking great, keep up the good work! The CZ, Honda C110 and Doodle Bug were looking top-notch as well:

Twin, I love your OSR Shirt!! Thanks for flying the colors at the show!!! Sorry we missed you.

My pleasure OC! Team OSR's T-shirt is the most bad-ass 'cycle shirt around, and as an added bonus, it makes vintage Honda twin carb adjustments a breeze!



I'm sure I'll run into you guys again eventually... If I wasn't going to be down in So-Cal that weekend, I'd totally hit up the Desert 100!

Paul mentioned that it would be good to report our race preparations, and I am reminded of an old axiom "when performance is tracked, performance improves, when performance is tracked and reported, improvement accelerates", so here goes a report (which I will update on occasion to keep myself honest) on my race prep and hopefully by reporting I'll be spurred on to greater efforts.

Like Kootenai reported above and Paul has also pointed out to me, conditioning is huge and relying on my old skill set to pull me through a couple races a year with no prep or practice is just not gonna fly in Baja. I also have to admit that in the few races I've run the last couple of years, the skill set was there but by the end of motos (especially second motos) I've been out of gas and under-performing to a large degree. Age is also a factor and although blessed with good DNA, at 57 it is time to get serious about conditioning, especially cardio. Oh yeah and then there is diet. I have traditionally not eaten very healthy, but over the last couple years have been reducing fat intake and adding more protein.

I have been taking small steps at first and gradually ramping them up. Where I work we have a recreation room with walking machines, rowing machine, weight machines and stationary bikes. At home we also have a stationary bike and stepper. We used the stepper a few years ago when we were prepping to climb Mt Hood. I hate that thing but am gonna get on it anyway!

During my morning and afternoon breaks, I go to the workout room and walk briskly for 1/2 a mile, then get on the rowing machine where I am now up to 110 strokes in five minutes (I like the rowing machine because it feels a lot like when you are going over a series of whoops), then I move to the squat machine where I'm gradually ramping up the weight and reps. I've also started hitting the lift bench and fly machine to fill out my break time and am planning to start going at lunch time as well. At home I ride the stationary bike when watching TV and am planning to have my riding time at one sitting up to a full hour by the Desert 100. Even though I get home fairly late each night, with the advent of Daylight Saving Time I will begin riding (the TTR 250) as many nights as my schedule will allow and also on the weekends. Again I will report in a few weeks on progress and that will keep me working hard.

In addition to physically preparing for the MK1, there are many other factors to consider; prepping the TTR 250 for the D100, prepping my SL350 for VMX this summer, getting all the proper safety gear, learning Spanish (I'm in my car two hours a day commuting, what better way to spend my time?) and of course there is prepping OC's bike, planning to assist on the Pathfinder prep (one of the chase vehicles), getting my passport (just getting ready to turn that in) and hunting for sponsors or assistance in any way possible. It is never dull and OC keeps us on our toes!

Stay tuned!

Rick,
We've actually nixed the Pathfinder from the equation, so no prep needed there.

Our chase Vehicles will be a 2005 Toyota Tacoma (Ladybug's) and a 2010 Toyota Tacoma (Jr's) So we'll have two identical rigs other than colour.

Sometimes you just have to put down the wrench and go ride. This weekend was typically busy and about noon yesterday I realized if I didn't just stop working, I was never going to get some saddle time. I called my buddy Don, an avid off-roader and riding partner for many years and asked if he had time for a ride? He said sure and since he lives nearby he was at the house and ready to go on his 450 Honda in about 30 minutes. I grabbed my TTR and up the hill we went. For a while now I've been thinking that riding from Scappoose over the mountains to Buxton would be a good training ride and although not as grueling as the Tillamook Forest, a lot of medium speed fire roading and it sure felt good just to get some miles under my belt. We rode about 21 miles and were just on the outskirts of Buxton and onto pavement when we turned around and headed back over. The top five miles of the route were snow covered and provided for some adrenaline moments when the bikes would pitch sideways, but other than that and a few stops to warm our hands it was great!

Looking good. Any work on the sponsorship packages (shirts, etc)?

+1....What's the status shirts and stickers??

MY old stoner tee shirt guy had issues with the screens

He called me today and said that Monday he will have the print done...then I can show you what we have and start putting an order together I think we may make stickers out of the graphic if it lends itself to doing that. The tee shirt run will start next week.


Big progress today, but since I am tired of posting up pictures from Lonnies shop..so I didn't even take any. But Luke and I both rode the bike through the streets of Bay City!

Tomorrow, Rick, Lonnie and I will get some saddle time on the SL up on some forest roads...hopefully Allan will get some nice shots. Luke hurt his ankle while running to get in shape for a race. How sad is that; he can't train for his motorcycle race because he hurt himself running down the street. Sad.

Big update tomorrow night...lots of things happening! Check back!

Talked to Paul Saturday night and he, Luke & Lonnie had essentially finished the bike, no longer just a trailer queen/show bike, she is ready to get down and dirty. Paul wanted to meet at Jordan Creek, and ride the SL350 along with our modern bikes, but the weather decided not to cooperate.

On the way to Tillamook;



When I arrived, the new plan was to spend a little time on the bike, rechecking valves, cam chain, etcetera and then we would go RIDE the bike and take pictures and video. We made all the adjustments, and gave it a good once over, then decided before we headed out to get some other chores done, including making Lonnies twin shock XR500 run and also cleaning and prepping the spare SL350 motor to be crated for the trip to Mexico.

Here is the spare motor after some vigorous cleaning;



And here is pic of the SL350 after a short run around the block to check it over, before heading for the hills for photo ops;



We headed out of Bay City and into the surrounding hills on some old fire roads, Paul set up various cameras and gave me instructions to ride up and down the hill while he filmed. I had the best end of that assignment! The bike ran and handled better than expected and the brakes work better than any 350 twin I've ever ridden, there is just no substitute for a disc brake, awesome!

SL350 and the lucky rider;



Paul should be posting some pics and videos soon, hope you all enjoy them as much as I enjoyed riding the bike!

I will try to get up some video today, but I'll post up a few photos for now




Since the One Show, the only real thing holding us up were the front and rear brakes...as in, we did not have any!

Motion Pro made me up a custom rear brake cable which is 2 inches longer to accommodate our now longer swingarm. They did an amazing job with about a 10 day turn around after I sent them the original for reference. The cable came in this week and it took less than 5 minutes to install and fits and looks like it is a stock piece (I forgot to snap a photo). They charged me $40 which I thought was very reasonable, so I got two, so we'd have a spare for Mexico

Next up was the front brake. For the One Show, I just slapped on the old broken caliper that came with the forks I bought. However, our own ADV FF Beechum was selling a bunch of XR600 parts so I was able to score a complete front brake system from lever to pads for a very good price. Beechum kept the system intact so when it arrived, we simply cleaned it up, and mounted it on the SL. We will replace pads and fluid before the big race, but I just wanted to be able to start testing the motor and suspension. Turns out, the front brake system works just fine...Thanks Beechum!!

Then Rick diagnosed some noise issues (with a wooden dowel pressed against his ear and the motor)

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Talk about old school.....

Rick adjusted the valves and cam chain tensioner and we topped off the oil (Luke and I had already adjusted the clutch, brakes, fork height and installed front wheel bearings, spacer and oil/dust seals on Saturday) and we were ready for the first real test ride. I had decided to just run the same pipes I ran last year, as clearance was not an issue and I know that they are strong enough to handle the abuse. They also help to keep the bike looking like it did last year....which I loved.

The bike ran great, sounded awesome and still felt like an SL. We have not had a chance use the bike on anything other than gravel roads and pavement, but I can tell you that Alex at Konflict set us up right...and I expect this thing to just be an eye-opener on the rough stuff this year!












I had Rick do a few passes so I could get some video. By the end, he was taken the corners pretty fast, and I presume would have taken them even faster if there wasn't any traffic on the road to worry about. When I rode the bike, it felt tight and crisp. The motor has a lot more torque and the power seemed to be there. The brakes are like a night and day difference over the old double leading front drum. The front brake feels like one on a modern bike.

Overall, the bike was very confidence inspiring...and I could get the wheel up in three gears. And when she came down, the forks soaked it up and there were not thunks, bangs or other concerning sounds! The bike handles much better than it did last year....handles closer to a lightweight adventure bike than a 40-year-old dual sport. Even Lonnie liked it, saying it just felt "right" with no issues. Lonnie also noticed an improvement to torque and the linear power band.

I cannot wait to get the bike on some tougher terrain, so we will be planning trips out east to Bend and Juniper now that she is a runner!!








PS - I hope to have the Tee Shirt graphics up today for those who might want a funkedified motocycle racing shirt!!

Based on this statement, you're saying riding motorcycles is SAFER than running down the street? I am so using this to my advantage.

No, compared to my get-off at Starvation Ridge a couple of years ago, I'd say it's about equal.

Running would be way safer in moto boots. Or at least with a flashlight. The good news is that although my foot is still zombie colored, I'm not walking like one anymore.