A story brought to you by Knolly and several bottles of Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale:
Last weekend I had an awesome time at the track.
I taped up the headlights on my Striple and set out. I had gone through a ton of effort to install full Ohlins forks and an Ohlins rear shock, Brembo brakes, the whole deal. I wanted to see just what my street bike could do on the track. I had a blast, despite being reserved because I really REALLY didn't want to crash my baby. I even had a "moment" when my front tucked but I saved it, stood the bike up, and coasted into the grass.
What I'm trying to get at is that I taped up my headlights for the track, because that's what you do.
About two sessions in, I realized that the group decal was actually melting from the heat of the headlights, so I pulled apart the gauge cluster (which is a huge *****) to unplug the headlights. I discovered a spider was living in there, complete with a huge cobweb. I flicked it away, undoubtedly introducing a new species of spider to the Indianapolis area that i had brought with me from Kentucky.
I put the gauge cluster back together, which took roughly 30 minutes because what the hell the front "beak" and the rubber grommets it goes into are not even close to the same size.
So then I got back on the track. I rode throughout the day and loved it. The next day, I let my street bike rest and relegated track duty to my Ninja 250. I then loaded both bikes onto my sweet trailer and hauled them home, stashing one in a storage unit, and the other at my apartment. The only incident I had in the return trip was that while I was in the drive thru of the world's slowest Taco Bell, I looked into the rear view mirror and realized that the Ninja 250's seat had "departed" the motorcycle at some point while I was on the highway. I'm sure that's fine though.
Today I decided to get my Striple ready for the street again so that I could go for a ride this weekend. This mostly would consist of just removing tape and replacing the rear fender/license plate mount, but I had some other LED turn signals, a rear hugger, and some other trick parts to mount. So I started the process by peeling off the tape from the track.
Oh.
Oh what's that?
Oh, did my ****ing headlights melt?
Oh yeah, they did.
I don't know if this is because I used black tape which traps more heat, because the 13+ headlights are plastic rather than glass, or just because I have crap luck, but yeah, turns out if you have these taped up for two 20 minutes sessions then you need yourself a new headlight.
Morale of the Story: Learn from my jackassery. Open your gauge, become friends with the spiderbro inside it, unplug the headlight, and go out and pass some superbikes. Don't assume it will be fine because apparently life isn't that kind.
Last weekend I had an awesome time at the track.
I taped up the headlights on my Striple and set out. I had gone through a ton of effort to install full Ohlins forks and an Ohlins rear shock, Brembo brakes, the whole deal. I wanted to see just what my street bike could do on the track. I had a blast, despite being reserved because I really REALLY didn't want to crash my baby. I even had a "moment" when my front tucked but I saved it, stood the bike up, and coasted into the grass.
What I'm trying to get at is that I taped up my headlights for the track, because that's what you do.
About two sessions in, I realized that the group decal was actually melting from the heat of the headlights, so I pulled apart the gauge cluster (which is a huge *****) to unplug the headlights. I discovered a spider was living in there, complete with a huge cobweb. I flicked it away, undoubtedly introducing a new species of spider to the Indianapolis area that i had brought with me from Kentucky.
I put the gauge cluster back together, which took roughly 30 minutes because what the hell the front "beak" and the rubber grommets it goes into are not even close to the same size.
So then I got back on the track. I rode throughout the day and loved it. The next day, I let my street bike rest and relegated track duty to my Ninja 250. I then loaded both bikes onto my sweet trailer and hauled them home, stashing one in a storage unit, and the other at my apartment. The only incident I had in the return trip was that while I was in the drive thru of the world's slowest Taco Bell, I looked into the rear view mirror and realized that the Ninja 250's seat had "departed" the motorcycle at some point while I was on the highway. I'm sure that's fine though.
Today I decided to get my Striple ready for the street again so that I could go for a ride this weekend. This mostly would consist of just removing tape and replacing the rear fender/license plate mount, but I had some other LED turn signals, a rear hugger, and some other trick parts to mount. So I started the process by peeling off the tape from the track.
Oh.
Oh what's that?
Oh, did my ****ing headlights melt?
Oh yeah, they did.
I don't know if this is because I used black tape which traps more heat, because the 13+ headlights are plastic rather than glass, or just because I have crap luck, but yeah, turns out if you have these taped up for two 20 minutes sessions then you need yourself a new headlight.
Morale of the Story: Learn from my jackassery. Open your gauge, become friends with the spiderbro inside it, unplug the headlight, and go out and pass some superbikes. Don't assume it will be fine because apparently life isn't that kind.