Some more update-ey stuff. Here's a pic to show just how big it is. The handlebars come up to my shoulders. The weird angle is because my hand moved and shook too much at arm's length (okay, okay, I think it looks pretty cool too).
Full view of the bike in black plastics. I put them on because I won't feel as bad when I scratch them up.
**Dave, by the time I had seen your post, the kill switch had already been ordered, but thanks for the offer :) It's people like you that keep me riding.
After riding it around at the farm a little, with the brother and the dad, we discovered this:
Bent rims/wheels both front and rear.
Loose spokes.
Needs new wheel bearings/bushings? (I ALWAYS get these two confused).
And it DEFINITELY needs new fork seals!
The doctor said I could ride (but NO jumps and NO crashing). So I had been taking the faithful little 80 to races..one of these days I'll post some of those adventures.
I figured "what the heck" and we tagged as much as possible together, and fixed what we could in the couple of hours we had. This included tire pressue, trying to tighten some of the spokes, without over tightening them, and lubing as much as possible. I changed the oil...and found that the previous owners probably had never changed it *cringe*
I soon found myself headed to the exact track I broke myself on, with the big black beast in tow. Really, it is in such tough condition, that riding it 8 laps, with no jumps, isn't going to hurt it any more than it already is.
I pulled in, almost late for registration, and paused by the main trailer to get things lined up. People had noticed the bike even before I had hopped out of the car. "Hey girl! Nice bike!"
Soon after, when they got a lot closer, then the comments started coming. "What happened to the sprocket?!? I've never seen a tire so treadless! Your fork seals are leaking. You need new front brake pads. It's huge! Can you even touch the ground?"
By doing a LOT of hopping, I can manage the bike as is at a standstill (starting the bike and shifting into 1st). As for the rest...it needs a LOT of TLC.
I found a spot to park, and went to change into my riding pants before the porta-loos got all...disgusting and smelly.
When I came back to my trailer, a very slightly used rear tire and a pair of starting blocks were standing there. It took a little asking around, but I finally found the trailer of people that had gifted the tire, and loaned the starting blocks to me. I couldn't thank them enough. The people I race with, are downright awesome!
Practice came very quickly. A lot of people laughed at my antics while waiting in line. They especially laughed when I threw a leg over the bike to wait. It didn't even come close to reaching the peg on the other side. It made me look twice as small as I normally do.
Practice was very interesting. Being it's first time on the track for a while, the big CR was not exactly paying attention to what I told it to do (I'm not used to the powerband on this bike...and with the sloggy jetting, things were interesting). I took it very easy the first lap, getting used to the super wide bars, and differences in turning.
The second lap, I opened it up a little more in the straight sections. To my surprise, my left hand grip was rotating, making it downright impossible to hang on. I decided that I had better sit down and hold on with my legs a little tighter to try counteract falling off the back.
Here's where things got downright silly.
Gripper seat + pants looser than you thought + your butt trying to slide off the back of the bike = you nearly - pants.
(If that doesn't make sense, well, I NEARLY LOST MY PANTS!)
Apparantly I wasn't the only one who noticed. I had a few guys come up and thank me for making their day. I didn't stop, but I did slow to frantically grab at my low riders and jerk them into proper fitment again. And...it did take more than one try.
The first moto went actually quite well, and we snarled up and down the straight sections, braking for jumps, and all in all, finishing in 8th out of 10th place. It was extremely fun. I had to use the ruts, as trying to turn anywhere else meant a lot of fishtailing and close calls.
The next moto was not so good, and I lost all front brake power in the 3rd corner. I had to slow down a LOT, and ended up 9th for the day. It was even harder to not do any jumps. Talk about scarey. As I rode to load up the snarley machine, I glanced down, and noticed that I had a lapfull of fuel. "Great...add a new gas cap to the list too..."
There is the short version...now begins the long haul of work.