Skip to main content

2014 is Here!

While the race season for me is still a little ways off, the preparations have seriously began. I ended 2013 with a very strong desire for a newer bike - still far from needing a fancy bike, but something a little newer that worked a little better with my riding was becoming more of a need if I wanted even a remote chance of being competitive.

This had me perusing the classifieds in search of "the" bike that fit what I wanted. Of course, my heart was kind of set on the Triumph 675 after riding my pit neighbor's last November, but I was open to looking at others, but either way I was not in a rush as I saved up my pennies. While looking through BARF's sale section, I happened across an ad for basically the exact bike I was dreaming of, in the price range I was hoping for. A 2007 Triumph Daytona 675. Oooooh. On a "hey, what's the worst that could happen" whim, I PMed the seller and explained my situation. As it turned out, he was more than happy to work with me!

Long story short, look what came home with me :)

My biggest concern was that this bike was set up as a standard shift - I've been riding GP shift for years, and have a VERY strong preference for it on track especially. Asking around initially everything said it couldn't be done, but a little digging after a few juicy tidbits where people had supposedly managed it, and I found a thread describing how to convert it with the OEM rearsets. Took me a few minutes to find the happy spot for everything, but I made it work and took her out for a test spin down the street to see if it worked in action, and it's awesome! Woohoo!! $400+ saved there for the time being!

Of course in order to test this I had to pop it up through at least a couple gears - and OMG, I'm SO in love with the power on this bike! Bwahahahaha! It pulls hard, but smooth, powerful but manageable. *giggle giggle*

I'm in lurv!!
 

This will definitely make the 2014 season far more exciting! My plan is to hit up a couple trackdays before Round 2 and get used to the bike, get it dialed in and make sure I know what it likes and the nuances of riding it. I'm SO friggin' excited right now!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WERA Cycle Jam - Road Atlanta - May, 2024

Road Atlanta rapidly became my favorite track on the east coast thus far. Even though I've only been there a few times, I was excited to head out there on a race weekend and see if racing lit more of a fire under my tail.  This track has tons of elevation, is extremely fast, and has a nice variety of corners with opportunities to catch a breath or two in between. All things I love after "growing up" on the northern California tracks. Coming in to the weekend I was excited, but also a bit nervous. I have never raced here, none the less at Cycle Jam which brings in a ton of riders and overflows the entire paddock, shelf, and beyond. I knew my times here were still slow, but if I found a little time I wouldn't be dead last - there are some fast people around here, but figured another couple seconds would at least give me some good battles. Coming in, I had some specific goals outside of just have fun - I wanted to work on some of the feedback I had gotten at the end of t...
Post a Comment
Read more

AFM Round 7, 2018 - End of a Season

If you’ve followed my race reports at all, you know there have been some struggles. If you’ve talked to me in person, you probably have a better feel of just how much of a struggle things have been since I decided to move on the ZX10R. Between my leg and mechanical issues, it’s been a rough two years. Things were finally sorted out, at least for the time being. The leg is what it is at this point, and I’m familiar enough with its shortcomings that it’s not much of an excuse anymore. The bike is running well and is no longer actively trying to kill me, so that excuse has taken a hike. The last part was bike set up. On these big bikes it just really seems like proper set up makes a massive difference, and little things that are unknown or missed just crush (at least my) confidence. This has finally started to get moved in the right direction, and with a quick re-spring on the front this weekend, I felt like things were finally “getting there.” Coming into the weekend was a rush...
1 comment
Read more

Back at the Track!

2014 track season has officially started for me! After making a few small modifications to the Triumph 675 (such as new brake pads and the switch to GP shift) I was ready to go. It worked out that Pacific Track Time had a trackday that worked with my schedule, so I signed up and got prepared. This was a Monday trackday, so I spent Saturday and Sunday prepping, packing and then Sunday afternoon picked up my carpool buddy and we headed up to Thunderhill. Upon arrival, I went to see If I could sneak in for a baseline prior to Monday morning with Jason Hauns at JPH Suspension, my go-to suspension guy. I love his work, and have been VERY happy with the results. He had room, so I ran over and unloaded the bike, hooked up the battery, turned it on - and nothing. Well, almost nothing. I had backlights on my display, but that was it.Try to bump start it, but no go there. One of the very nice gate guys at THill lent me his battery charger to us, so, figuring that was the issue, threw the bat...
1 comment
Read more