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The off season skills

13K views 29 replies 9 participants last post by  Paul_E_D 
#1 ·
What does everyone do?

Myself I am waiting on the return of the ice. I found it very much helped me with moving my vision quicker.
Ice tracks are new every weekend and sometimes change during the day so memorizing the track and having a lot of laps can't substitute for basic vision skills.

And its a lot of fun.
 
#20 ·
Am I the only one still stoked on off season training? This non-winter means MX season has come early. Spent the weekend dialing in the new bike at my home practice track. SAND. It's brutal, but great training.
 

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#21 ·
Yep. your it.
Our ice has long gone. We have 30 or so days to get the track bikes and all the related gear ready for Barber. I am hoping to have the motor for my Aprilia RS 250 ready to go back in the frame this coming weekend. The triumph just needs a good going over and fresh rubber.

Bring on the Puck scuffage!
 
#22 ·
Yep. your it.
Our ice has long gone. We have 30 or so days to get the track bikes and all the related gear ready for Barber. I am hoping to have the motor for my Aprilia RS 250 ready to go back in the frame this coming weekend. The triumph just needs a good going over and fresh rubber.

Bring on the Puck scuffage!
Nice. I enjoyed racing RS 250s nice handling bike. Good luck at Barber
 
#24 ·
No, but I raced with some guys who did the Aprilia cup. I was a 125GP guy. Mostly focused on LRRS, but I made occasional USGPRU races. Raced (and was competitive with) guys like Josh Herrin, PJ, when they were 16 etc. Those were definitely fast days for the small 2 stroke classes.

The local scene fell apart and I stopped racing in 07. Since then no one has come within 3 seconds of the pace I had when I left.

I would imagine it is similar for the RS250. They were just about an even match for a 125GP bike lap time wise. I raced one in a handful of endurance races, and had two close friends who ran them.
 
#25 ·
Cool I have a few friends who were AMA 250 guys, and some who did the 125 thing at local-ish USGPRU dates. I saw one of Rocky Stargels RSW250s at Autobahn when the usgpru ran there. A friend had a A kitted 2004 TZ250 and said he felt the wooooosh as the Ape went by.


Oh the good old days. It's a shame most folks will never know what riding a GP bike is like. I chuckle when folks talk about how great a R6 or Daytona handle. If they only knew. I tested a 98 Honda RS250 and that was amazing.
 
#26 ·
Cool I have a few friends who were AMA 250 guys, and some who did the 125 thing at local-ish USGPRU dates. I saw one of Rocky Stargels RSW250s at Autobahn when the usgpru ran there. A friend had a A kitted 2004 TZ250 and said he felt the wooooosh as the Ape went by.

Oh the good old days. It's a shame most folks will never know what riding a GP bike is like. I chuckle when folks talk about how great a R6 or Daytona handle. If they only knew. I tested a 98 Honda RS250 and that was amazing.
THere is no doubt. I feel like racing the RS125 while there were deep fields of both older fast guys and up an coming youth talent was one of the greatest things I've experienced. Riding those bikes at that level was like nothing else. I wish the 250s had been a viable step for me, but big money and dying grids meant it didn't make sense. I got to ride a few in anger though. Probably the best bikes I will ever ride.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Aprillia Cup side note

Back when the Cup race was full on I was racing at Pocono around 1998??Gary Rothwell was tearing up the front straight while I was drinking a beer with Dave Sadowski.
There was a Cup race there and had a lot of young kids ripping on them. There were two standout's there. 1 and 1A #1 was a 15yearold Ben Spies and the only way I know that is because I watch him race with his mother. 1A- She was the real standout at the time. Great woman to be hanging out with at a track, and better to gawk at too. She was hot and had a Texas accent that made a full package.
2nd standout of the Aprillia Cup at Pocono was a kid there that had a write up in a motorcycle Mag after the fact.I say that only because it made me laugh when I read it. It said from what I can recall from memory something like... (His name here) was racing the Aprillia Cup Challenge in Pocono Pennsylvania. He was doing very well till he had a bad crash in the Busstop turn. The good news of the crash was he did not break his back and become a quadriplegic. The bad news is he was already a Paraplegic.
This was true he raced with Velcro rearsets that were flat sq plates with his boots Velcroed to the rearsets. He had an air shifter setup for the up/down shifts. He started at the back with his crew members holding him upright till the flag waved. Ya remember flags being waved. It was truly one of the best weekends I've had racing.
It's the storylines like that, that really matter and stand out showing just the true nature of what it is to be a biker. Ride no matter what and it will make your pain leave you while you ride. After is a whole other can of worms. I also raced with Doug Henry at Loudon after he broke his back but before he broke it again. Look up his gyro bike on you tube.
I love the sound of the wingding and the blue puffs of race gas and oil purifying the racetrack air before morning practice. The death of the 2 strokes is sad. Now back to my cookies for my offseason
 
#29 ·
Back when the Cup race was full on I was racing at Pocono around 1998??Gary Rothwell was tearing up the front straight while I was drinking a beer with Dave Sadowski.
There was a Cup race there and had a lot of young kids ripping on them. There were two standout's there. 1 and 1A #1 was a 15yearold Ben Spies and the only way I know that is because I watch him race with his mother. 1A- She was the real standout at the time. Great woman to be hanging out with at a track, and better to gawk at too. She was hot and had a Texas accent that made a full package.
2nd standout of the Aprillia Cup at Pocono was a kid there that had a write up in a motorcycle Mag after the fact.I say that only because it made me laugh when I read it. It said from what I can recall from memory something like... (His name here) was racing the Aprillia Cup Challenge in Pocono Pennsylvania. He was doing very well till he had a bad crash in the Busstop turn. The good news of the crash was he did not break his back and become a quadriplegic. The bad news is he was already a Paraplegic.
This was true he raced with Velcro rearsets that were flat sq plates with his boots Velcroed to the rearsets. He had an air shifter setup for the up/down shifts. He started at the back with his crew members holding him upright till the flag waved. Ya remember flags being waved. It was truly one of the best weekends I've had racing.
It's the storylines like that, that really matter and stand out showing just the true nature of what it is to be a biker. Ride no matter what and it will make your pain leave you while you ride. After is a whole other can of worms. I also raced with Doug Henry at Loudon after he broke his back but before he broke it again. Look up his gyro bike on you tube.
I love the sound of the wingding and the blue puffs of race gas and oil purifying the racetrack air before morning practice. The death of the 2 strokes is sad. Now back to my cookies for my offseason
Nice. I have to agree on all accounts. I also raced against Doug at Loudon. It was the very beginning of the sumo rise. It was really just Doug Henry, Jeff Wood, and a couple of Jeff's friends who were riding them. For this reason, they slotted them in the 125GP class figuring 4stroke unlimited singles were comparable to the full on 125 2 strokes. Turns out they were very evenly matched at loudon.

One of my all time experiences was chasing Doug on his factory Yamaha 450. He rode foot out even in the fast corners and I was getting showered with molten titanium the whole time. It was going down my leathers and burning my chest, so I HAD to pass. He got SUPER sideways going into T3, so I placed myself inside his sliding bike and shut the door as we exited up the hill. I pulled a gap and held it to the checkers.

I went to chat with him later. He's a legend. He was there by himself with his factory bike in a pickup truck. Nicest guy and very humble. I will never forget that day.
 
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