The Latebraker.com blog

It seems like forever since I’ve been able to ride motorcycles on a racetrack. The most recent time was in early November, not that long ago I suppose, but when it’s freezing cold and you can’t ride, it sure seems like a long time.

Since that time, I got the transmission repaired on the Honda, and have been building my Ducati 848 racebike for the upcoming season. I’ve been watching the calendar for a couple of months, with my eye on two potential trackday weekends, February 27/28 at Thunderhill in northern California, and March 6/7 at Spring Mountain (Pahrump), near Las Vegas. Both are about an 11 hour drive from my house each way, so it came down to weather forecasts, and ultimately my work schedule dictated that Thunderhill would be the better option.

It turned out there was a trackday at Thunderhill on Monday as well, and the forecast looked better for Sunday/Monday, so I drove down Saturday from Idaho. It was a long drive, as always, but I was so excited about riding that it wasn’t so bad at all. I’d hoped a couple of my friends from Idaho and Utah might be able to make it, but it looks like they’ll be going to Pahrump instead. I did see a few familiar faces at Thunderhill, and the weather turned out to be quite spectacular both days.

Of course, my fantasy scenario was that I’d immediately be up to speed on my first session, with lap times as good or better than the ones I finished last season with in November. Ha! Not quite. But, because I was taking the Ducati out on track for the first time, it was understandable that I wouldn’t be pushing it to the max until I got it dialed in and figured out. The bike did immediately feel very comfortable, probably due to the amount of time I spent riding and racing the 1098S. My only complaints were way too much sloppy freeplay in the throttle, and occcasionally the bike would sputter a bit like it was hitting the rev limiter (although I wasn’t close to the redline). In later sessions I was more conscientious about not resting my foot on the quickshifter, and the sputtering stopped, so I suspect that may have been the problem.

Both bikes ran great, and I had an absolutely fantastic time on the track. Thunderhill is a really fun track, with great variety, elevation changes, and tremendous grip. I was surprised initially when my lap times were almost identical between the two bikes, despite the fact that the CBR has about a 40HP advantage! I looked at the data from the laptimer, and found that while the Honda would pull away on the straights, the 848 would catch it in the corners. As I alternated between bikes in the various sessions over the couple of days, I began making it a contest between the two bikes to see which one would ultimately prevail with the best lap time.

On Monday morning in the first few sessions, I rode the 848 and was feeling more and more comfortable pushing harder. The Ducati surged into the lead in the laptime contest. The next few sessions were on the Honda, and it began asserting its horsepower advantage, cutting about 1/2 second every session. After lunch, I tried again on the Ducati, but just couldn’t quite match the Honda’s result. As it should be on that particular track, I suppose. Ultimately, the Honda’s best laptime beat the Ducati’s by about 1.5 second.

In the afternoon I worked with suspension guru Dave Moss, and we got the Ducati’s setup just right. The bike felt very planted, turned really well, and the tire wear was perfect. It’s all set up for the racing season, and hopefully another trackday or two before the racing season starts in late April!

Thanks to Joe and the crew from 4theriders.com for the photos.

Once again my buddy Tyler Cenarrusa has done a beautiful job painting my race bodywork, this time on the 848. It used to be all black (http://www.latebraker.com/blog/?p=365), which looked nice, but of course I decided that I had to spice it up a bit.

I had the red tail section I’d saved from the 1098, so we carried that red band through, and added some gunmetal gray trim to match the frame color of the bike. Tyler put together some nice “bwhip” graphics and numbers for the bike, I added some other decals, and I think the end result is quite eye-catching, especially with those nice gold Marchesini mag wheels.

I’m really looking forward to getting her out on the track, where hopefully she’ll ride as good as she looks!

Well, I’m in the final stages of preparing the new (to me) 848 for the upcoming racing season. The bodywork is over at my buddy Tyler’s shop (http://www.censportgfx.com/) being painted. I think the design we’ve come up with will look really nice. It should be ready early next week, and I can’t wait to see it.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks since I got the bike back from MotoCorsa doing final preparations. I’ve drilled for safety wire, and wired it up. I bled the clutch. I adjusted the Ohlins suspension components to a nice baseline setting recommended by Dan Kyle, so that it’s ready for fine tuning at the track. I installed the new Marchesini magnesium wheels, and put my rain tires on the old ones in case there is a need (I hope there isn’t a need!). I installed the frame sliders and fork sliders, and ordered some bar end sliders. I also ordered a Nemesis quickshifter, which hopefully will arrive later this week.

I also did some prep work on the CBR1000RR, which I’ll still use this season for trackdays and the occasional Formula 40 race, and I have a good friend from Canada who will probably come down and race it in our series at Miller, which should be lots of fun.

The Ducati is starting to look pretty nice, even in its nearly naked state:

I’m hoping that the weather will allow me to take the bikes to the track in the next few weeks, either at Thunderhill or Pahrump. April is still WAY too far away.

After my initial tests with the MK IV were less than spectacular (probably mostly attributable to me not completely taking advantage of various settings, and being a little out of practice), I’m happy to report that now that I’ve had a bit more time to test and fine-tune, the results are starting to make me very happy.

Today I decided I needed to test with the 600mm f/4 IS, as this is one of my most frequently used lenses while shooting motorcycle roadracing. I took a quick series of shots of some Canada Geese at a pond near our house, then took pictures of cars moving toward or away from me at 60 MPH, generally focusing on their license plate. I also did some panning on the cars with my 300mm f/2.8, at 1/400.

The car photos were consistently in very good focus, using an aperture of f/6.3, and just slightly less consistent at f/4.

Here is a sequence from the shots of the geese. I don’t really have the time or patience for bird shots normally. Today I showed up, took the camera out of the car, walked over to the side of the pond, and the geese suddenly decided they didn’t want to be there anymore, and flew to the pond across the street. I started firing when they took off, and this was the sequence. That’s it. No other practice or setup. Very minimal cropping, all keepers as far as the AF goes. As you can see, there are shots included in the sequence with a tree between me and the geese, and others with trees in the background. The auto focus worked extremely well!

My little point-and-shoot camera, the Canon S90 (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/s90.shtml) continues to impress me, with its capability and versatility, in such a compact package.

Mrs. Whip and I flew down to the Palm Springs area for the weekend for her sister’s wedding. I decided I didn’t really need to schlep my big DSLR and lenses down, and that I’d just take the S90 along. While there, I carried it around with me most of the time, looking for photo opportunities (other than just at the wedding).

While waiting for Mrs. Whip to get her hair done before the wedding (and waiting, and waiting…), I wandered around the parking lot, and saw a few flowers that had gotten a nice sprinkle from some showers that had just passed through. I decided to test the macro capabilities:

On Sunday morning, before we flew back to Boise, we drove out to Indio, where they are having a major horse jumping competition. I decided to see how well the little camera could capture action shots:

I’m definitely impressed with this little camera. It sure is great to be able to put something so capable in your pocket.

The first race weekend of 2010 for our Masters of the Mountains racing series at Miller Motorsports Park will be on April 24 & 25. I can’t wait!

Like last season, I’ll be doing both photography and racing. Hopefully this year the racing will go a little better than last year, when I seemed to have an endless parade of mechanical breakdowns and other mishaps (not to mention a bunch of rain).

Through the winter months I’ve picked up a new race bike – my 2008 Ducati 848, to go along with my 2008 Honda CBR1000RR. I don’t think I’ll be racing my supermoto bike (the 2007 Aprilia SXV550) this season, as I’ve decided to sell it. I love the bike, but just haven’t found it reliable enough for the type of racing I do.

At this point my racing plan is to focus particularly on a couple of the twins classes – Twins GTO and Super Twins. I’ve always found the twins classes to be a lot of fun. Very competitive, but not quite as gonzo as some of the other classes in which I’ve raced 600’s and 1000’s over the years. There’s a chance a friend of mine will be racing on my Honda this season, so I’ll be “sponsoring” his race effort somewhat by providing the bike for him. I’ll still have the Honda for trackdays, and who knows – maybe a Formula 40 race from time to time if I feel the urge.

The Ducati has been over in Portland for a while getting some tuning and upgrades from my friends at MotoCorsa and EDR. The Nemesis ECU is a great system, but there aren’t that many qualified tuners, so I have to travel a bit to find one. EDR certainly has the skills in that department, with a great reputation for being high-performance tuners.

We grabbed a few bits off my (moment of silence) parted-out 1098S for the 848, and I’ve been having a few enhancements done while the bike has been in Portland. I’ll do the final installations when I get the bike back next week, and then we’ll upgrade the paint job a bit, and she should be good to go.

Here’s a list of what the bike had when I bought it:

Full Leo Vince Exhaust System
Nemesis ECU
Nemesis Toggle On/Off Switch
Yoyodyne Slipper
Ohlins / Kyle Steering Damper kit
Yoyodyne Fairing Stay
Sharkskinz
Woodcraft Rear Sets
Woodcraft Clip-Ons
520 Supersprox Conversion Kit
ASV Levers
1098 Ride Height Adjuster

Since buying the bike a few months back, we’ve made some more improvements, including:

Ohlins R&T forks
Ohlins TTX shock
Kyle shock link
Sato ride height adjuster
Yoyodyne aluminum subframe
Kyle 30mm offset triple clamps
Kyle clip-ons
Kyle needle bearing throttle tube
Brembo adjustable master cylinder
Spiegler brake lines
Marchesini magnesium wheels
SpeedyMoto frame sliders
Lightweight battery
Upgraded crank bearings

I’m pretty sure that’s it. I hope so, as I’ve spent enough money for now! I’ve got a nice paint scheme in mind, and I’m sure my buddy Tyler Cenarrusa (http://www.censportgfx.com/index.html) will do a great job for me as he always does.

I’m hoping to get some track time in before the season starts on both the Ducati and the Honda, maybe in late February or early March, in either northern California or near Vegas.

Hurry up, April!

Last week I picked up a new (used) lens, that I’ve heard great things about. It’s the Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS zoom.

Earlier today I took it out for a spin, taking a short walk with Mrs. Whip and one of our Golden Retrievers, “Groovy.” This lens has a reputation for being very versatile, fast-focusing, great for portraits and action, and able to produce very sharp images with wonderful bokeh. Based on the few photos I snapped today, I’m really impressed with it, for all of these qualities!

Groovy has lots of energy, as you can see!

The sun came out today, for the first time in a while. It was nice! I noticed that in the empty subdivision next to our house, there were dozens of geese hanging out by one of the ponds. I decided to try taking some bird pictures.

I definitely don’t have the patience for bird photos, and have lots of respect for those that do! I’m good for about 20 minutes or so of waiting for them to fly around or do something. That, plus the fact that they get so skittish even though I’m pretty far away from them and only want to take their picture.

I did manage to get a few that I liked, including some of a circling hawk. It’s definitely challenging keeping those little guys in the frame with the big (600mm) lens. It was just fun to see sunshine, and to get out and shoot some photos!

Yesterday our company sponsored a big family tubing event at the local ski area (Bogus Basin). Although conditions for photography weren’t great (snowy and foggy), everyone really seemed to have a great time.

I definitely found that if I tried to take photos of anything that was more than about 15 feet away, the snow and fog between me and the subject would really obscure the photo, so after a while I just concentrated more on shooting a little closer in. I put away the 300mm f/2.8 and used the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 instead.

It was really fun to go back through the photos and see all the smiling faces! Full gallery is here: http://www.isiperforms.com/events/fillthehill110/

Here are a few I particularly liked:

I’ve gotten into the habit of carrying around my little pocket point-and-shoot everywhere with me, looking for opportunities to take photos. It’s a pretty amazing little camera!

Today when I was leaving the office for lunch, I bumped into one of our Superintendents in the lobby of our office, and his little friend Brutus was along with him. Brutus is pretty cute, and looked like he might be pretty photogenic! I tried to snap quite a few pictures of him, but every time I lowered the camera to shoot a pic, he’d come wandering over thinking it was something he should check out or eat or something.

Finally he plopped down for a couple of seconds, and I managed to shoot this photo of him.