but not as slow, and there's now time to start thinking about the 2010 season and maybe even getting ready for it.

During the past season, I have done what I could to stay involved with WMRRA and motorcycle racing.  My involvement has come as a technical inspector and corner worker.  The most recent round was no different, although it provided an example of why I corner work when I can't race.

On Saturday morning, I did technical inspections on a number of race bikes, including going to a few paddock locations to tech bikes at the riders' pits.  These inspections were generally for teams or riders who have been racing for a number of years and can be counted on to be well prepared.  They were as meticulous as ususal, and I only found one set of pinch bolts which needed to be wired up.  One of the teams I visited for technical inspections was a husband and wife team who race 125 GP bikes, a 250 GP bike and a 160 vintage bike.  The wife rides a 125 and the 160, while the husband rides a 125 and the 250.  Both are excellent riders and very fast.  We got into a discussion about how a 2-stroke can lubricate itself just with oil in the gasoline.  I can understand how premix lubricates the top end, at least up to a point, but I'm still at a bit of a loss to understand how the crank keeps from siezing up.  It's some research I have to do, and they both laughed about knowing it works but not being sure how or why either.

During the 125 race, the wife fell off in the corner I was working.  She lowsided, and it would have been a fairly routine get-off, except she went headfirst into the air fence.  The air fence did it's job very well and prevented major injuries, although she was clearly in need of medical attention even before I got to her.  As a person with some CPR but no medical certifications, I could only open her visor, make sure the ambulance was on it's way, talk to her, and hold her hand while it got called in on the radio.  She had a very sore wrist and ribs, but seemed OK otherwise.  Without the air fence it would have been ugly, but it was there.  She could move everything and had her wits about her, so going into the air fence, even head first, was a whole lot better than the alternatives.

The EMTs got to her very, very quickly.  I have a lot of respect for the whole organization, because the safety aspects of things are first rate.  She was able to explain what hurt and managed to convince the EMTs not to cut any safety gear off of her.  They usually cut everything up, from gloves to racing leathers, so keeping everything in one piece was a huge victory.

She was at the track on Sunday with her arm in a sling.  It was a bit of better living through modern chemestry, as she put it, since the pain killers were keeping a whole lot of soreness at bay.  She had a compression fracture of her right radius bone and some bruised ribs, but was otherwise just sore.  She said it really helped to have a familiar face get to her after the crash instead of a stranger.  Having her say that made my day.

I'll be doing the same thing at the end of the month, during the next round of racing.

WMRRA round 5 was in Spokane over the weekend, and I went across the state for tech and to corner work.  It's pretty tough to inspect bikes and then just watch all weekend, but at least technical inspections and corner working get me to the track.

I headed over early on Friday morning, since I was meeting with an entrepreneur who wanted to discuss his latest venture.  It was a worthwhile meeting and his venture is fascinating, but it was all done with by a bit after 2:00.  So, I checked email and got a few things done sitting in a Starbucks near the track in Airway Heights, then headed over to the track to spend the next couple of days.

The previous round at Spokane was the first time I had ever paid much attention to drag racing, and it was fascinating.  So, instead of hanging around, telling lies, and drinking beer all evening, I decided to try it.  The van hauls bikes, hauls band equipment, serves as a hotel room at the track and is my work vehicle.  It's now my drag car, too, and I have the Spokane County Raceway Park license to prove it.

I didn't expect to get so keyed up at the start line, but it was exciting every time.  The van amused just about everyone who saw it, although there were a few who didn't seem to get the joke.  Too bad, since I had a blast.  My last run was finally against another guy who was there on a lark.  He had an ancient 4WD Toyota or Nissan pickup.  Even it was a bit quicker than the van, but we were both laughing all the way down the track.  The van is very, very consistent.  With a bit of practice on starts, I think it would be an outstanding bracket racer.  Consistency is all that matters, and as long as nothing breaks, it should run about 20.15 second all day and all night.  I don't drive it much more than 65 mph on the freeway, and 65 is it's top speed in the quarter, too.

So, now I have another way to burn gasoline in the pursuit of having fun.  I would like to thank all my sponsors for putting up with me.  It's not exactly what they were expecting, but I'll advertize any way I can.

I made it to the track for WMRRA's round 4, but didn't race.  The project I'm working on is in start-stop mode, and I'm not sure what they are really going to do.  So, cash flow isn't happening.  No cash means no racing.  It's temporary, since the economy will pick up, but it's been a pain.  I keep saying the same thing, and it's true, but it still gets old.  I'm not the only one, and it hurts everybody.

Enough whining.  Just being at the track is great.  A couple friends are getting much faster every round, and I'm going to have my work cut out for me to keep up with them when I get back out there.  it's fun seeing people's abilities progress and improve.  The new (to WMRRA) AMB timing system has had a few bugs to work out, but it's a whole lot better than the old system already.  Technical inspections have been an interesting way to keep involved, since I get to inspect the condition of everyone's bike.  There sure are a lot of different ideas on what's OK!  Most bikes are so clean you could eat off of them, but a few look like they just crawled out of a pig sty.  It makes me want to disassemble my bike completely and clean everything, just so I'm one of the clean bikes, not one of the ones you want to throw back into the mud.

The magneto is still in limbo.  How could this be?  Customs isn't user friendly as far as I can tell.  It's somewhere in the US, but probably buried in a warehouse.  Oh, well.  The bike is worth the wait, but it's getting very frustrating.

There's a reason I haven't been doing much updating lately.  I haven't had any work, like a whole lot of other people.  The first few WMRRA rounds have been sparsely attended, including the Spokane round.  I went to Spokane to do technical inspections and to corner work, but it was frustrating to watch some great racing and not be out playing on the track.

Fortunately, things change.  I picked up a few months of work at the end of last week, and already have close to 70 billable hours in.  By next Friday, the number of billable hours should be more like 100, and even though I haven't been paid yet, I'm probably going to sign up for a track day on Friday and race at least a couple classes over the weekend.  My son graduates from high school next week, so my plans may get changed.  Not showing up to his graduation because I went to the track wouldn't go over too well.

If I make it there, it's going to take quite a bit of work in the mean time.  I still haven't completely assembled the bike, and I don't have a fairing stay which works properly yet.  Sharkskinz bodywork on a 1999 SV650 takes a very specific fairing bracket, and I don't have an unbroken one.  If I can find one, I'll pay for air freight in order to get out on the track.  The bodywork is painted and finally looks great.  Last year's tires still look OK, and the brakes are all reassembled.  I haven't torqued anything down yet, nor have I bled the brakes properly.  This will be a busy weekend to get the bike ready, but I'm very excited to think about getting back on the track.  Even if I can't get it together in time for this round, I am sure to be out racing this season.  I had almost given up on the idea, but now it looks like it's going to be possible.

I just talked to George at Uptite Husqvarna.  He says the computer is telling him the magneto is in shipping.  He's as skeptical as I am about how much to belive what a computer says, but if it really is on it's way, the Husqvarna might be running again soon.  It would make me very, very happy, since it would also mean I can start thinking about motard racing and dirt riding again.  It's the perfect Swiss Army knife of bikes, although it's hardly perfect for anything.  I sure hope I haven't lost anything critical in the long wait.

On an unrelated note, I spend about half the day yesterday reprepping the SV's paint where it wrinkled up badly.  It's still misbehaving in spots, but I don't know why.  I guess it has to be sanded down once again, reprimed once again, and then shot.  One of these days, I'm going to be an outstanding rattlecan bodyman.  For the time being, it's not happening yet.  I have decided rattle can cheapness is preferable to spending money, especially if I can get it to eventually turn out OK.  There was some pretty awful looking paint at the track last weekend, so I'm not going to have the ugliest bike in the paddock, no matter how ratty it is.  It's not going to be ratty at all if I can help it.  Rattiness is my leather's job now.

One last thing I have come to understand.  The reason I didn't get along with the Gixxer was most likely a tweaked swingarm.  It would fall into left handers but resist right handers.  Once I dropped the front down far enough to get it to turn right, the front got really sketchy turning left.  It felt like riding on a bucket of greased ball bearings to me, and another (really fast and slightly nuts) guy rode it and said he noticed it's resistance to right turns as well.  He's crashed everything he ever touched, so nothing bothers him somehow.  It treated him OK, but he could understand why I had problems with it.  It's kind of nice to find out the problems I had all season last year weren't entirely due to bone-headedness!

This isn't exactly about racing, but it's what's going on.  I have spent the last few weeks working on getting the company started.  I now have a company website, and I'm signed up for all kinds of lists with local governments who use construction management services.  Being a pathological optimist, I'm convinced the economy has hit bottom and there will be work again soon.  The website, chipman-martin.com, is still in the development stages, and it's probably going to evolve quite a bit over the next few days.  It's probably going to change again completely soon enough.  But, for now, it's what I do and the kind of work I'm pursuing.  I haven't figured out how to work motorcycle racing into it, but I'm open to ideas.  Risk management, perhaps?

I'm really happy with the logo, too.  A friend who is a graphic designer did it for me, an did some really great business cards, too.  I don't see a way to put it here, so if you want to see it, you'll have to look at the website.  And, if I can start generating work, it's a built in sponsor.  Can't beat a built in sponsor!

I expect to miss the first half of the season getting off the ground.  If I manage to pick up some billable work, I may be able to salvage at least part of the WMRRA season.  Endurance racing is absolutely going to happen, although it's all in Oregon at PIR.  I like the track.  It's not ideal for an SV650, but racing against other SVs evens things out.  There aren't too many endurance teams who are serious about it anyway.  Hooptie Corsa will be using my bike, since Jason's is still in multiple pieces and Jerome's season is a bit sketchy due to outside obligations.  His bike is the pink Hello Kitty bike, and I'm not convinced Jason would ride it anyway.

Being a technical inspector means I'll be at the track flying the flag for sponsors, one way or another.  I'll take the bike to the track as a display, if nothing else, and my van is well decorated.  Motard racing is still a possibility, assuming I can ever get a magneto for it.  I picked up some wiring diagrams, so I'll be able to repair the butchered up harness over time.  None of it ever saw the inside of a Husqvarna factory, at least not as it is now.  It's another adventure, and I love it.

I have gotten massively frustrated with rattle can paint on the bike.  It can be done and done well, but I am out of patience and plan to take the bodywork to a shop recommended by a friend for professional paint.  It will be whatever the darkest blue they have is.  I'll do the paint for number plates, since I'm certainly capable of doing a decent paint job.  I have done it in the past, but I don't have proper respirators, the fuel resistant clear coat I found is extremely toxic, and I don't feel like doing something really dumb to save a few dollars and have a decent looking, fuel resistant bike.  The costs for rattle can paint start to add up to the same price as a professional paint job fairly quickly anyway.  The plastic and tank have all been repaired, so all the shop has to do is scuff it, do the final filler to make sure there are no residual pits or scratches in the substrate, and shoot it.  They can use fuel resistant paint in one shot, eliminating the need for clearcoats and any other messing around.  It won't be quite as nice as a clearcoated paint job, but considering what the bike is intended for, it doesn't matter too much.  I'll get a nicer job on the ceremonial plastic I plan to save for display purposes.  That way, I'll always have a good looking set to put on the bike for shows and the like, no matter what happens to the plastic use on the track.  The idea is to make sure the bike has the chance of being shown as much as possible, along with all of my sponsors' logos.  I have to do something to make sure all of them get something for their support this season, since I'm still not sure how much racing I'll be able to do.

The Husqvarna magneto is STILL hung up in customs.  What an amazing saga this whole winter is turning out to be!  Good thing it's spring.  Things always get better when the sun starts to come out and the daffodils bloom.

The brake calipers are back together again, and the bodywork is in primer.  It doesn't look too bad, and filling the dents in the tank turned out better than it had any right to.  It's flat gray primer for the time being, so it may not look quite as good once it's shiny, but it's better than it was by light years.  The white background for number plates is started, but I'm not completely happy with the way it covered or the texture, so I may do some more sanding and redo it.  More sanding means smoother, so it will look better.  It's a theory, anyway.

Once the bodywork is done, it will be time to finish the front end of the bike, get all the dust cleaned off of everything, and then put on the bodywork.  Round 1 is coming up, and my intention is to have the bike ready to go whether I can race or not.  I'll be taking it to the track with me as long as it's ridable.  If the first round includes the traditional snow, hail, and a downpour, I'll do technical inspection duties and then just hang out at the track.  I probably won't even unload much of anything.  Maybe the canopy and a couple chairs, but I don't see the point in spending the money for rain tires so I can freeze my tail off and risk a crash which would end the season immediately due to the cost of rebuilding anything at all.  When I start landing clients or find other work, it's a different story, but for now, caution is the unfortunate and uncomfortable order of the day.

I finally got the chain sorted out and squared away.  I was beginning to doubt my competence.  The brakes are completely apart now and soaking in Simple Green.  I thought the Gixxer's brakes were a mess when I got them apart, but these are worse by a whole lot.  The pistons had rust inside and were scored on the outside.  The rubber was OK, but it's out now anyway.  There was crud UNDER the rubber on the outer seal.  I don't know how it got there, but it can't be good.  The calipers were clean outside, so somebody cared, but once they were pulled apart, it was pretty obvious the inner parts hadn't been cleaned in a very, very long time.  Everything was baked on and will take a good soaking and a good scrubbing to get as clean as they should be.  The pins looke a bit worn, so it's only a matter of time before I replace both front calipers.

I also pulled off the old front fairing stay.  It was pretty well twisted up from my one crash on this bike last year.  It's going to be a challenge to find a way to mount the choke so it's easy to use, but really, once the bike is started, it doesn't matter much for the rest of the day.  So it takes three hands to use the choke and start the bike.  It takes about eight hands to deal with all the spacers, the chain, the brake caliper and the rear wheel.  I probably should pull off the rear caliper as long as I'm doing all this, since it will get a new brake line anyway.

With the front of the bike disassembled, I cleaned the headstock which didn't look too bad.  It wasn't the same kind of mess the swingarm was.  Next cleaning stop will be under the airbox.  Then it's time to refinish the bodywork and put it all back together.  I have a goal- get it ready for the first round in April.  I may or may not race, but I would sure like to be ready to race.