Fat Guy Follies

In Koolies defense, he did a lot of behind the scenes work that Race Dog and Lizard were not aware of. Much like Tiger Woods took a big risk a few years ago, and re-designed his swing, Koolie helped me be re-defining my riding style. He found a perfect mentor to teach me the Mexican way, leading to the infamous Mono Volador de Deseirto.


Above is a picture of Ronaldo my tutor. We spent many hours driving around behind him taking notes on his riding style. Notice that even after he is completely through the intersection, his feet have still not landed on the pegs, rather they are in 1/2 outrigger position. If you look at some of my pictures you will note the outriggers at the ready. Keeping your feet off the pegs is crucial to keeping your butt on the seat. Also notice that he is not shy about eating the proceeds, a trait I also emulated.

Dan has completed the race analysis.
He sent me this analysis:

At check point 1 I had given up 5 spots, and after starting in 25th position, we were in 30th place on adjusted time. No excuse other than I am just plain slow. That, and it was stupid to take the goggles of, ride 60 miles, then stop again to pull them out of the back pack to clean and put them on. I remember counting three guys pass me when I stopped the first time. Sucks. In fact, Dan Walsh, 3X, was viewing the trackside photos on-line, and sent me an e-mail asking me "what the hell were you thinking".

After handing the bike to Brent, by check point 2 we were in 34th place. It is important to remember that Brent had 15 minutes added to his time due to my riding around trying to find him (after check 1 and before check 2 at our exchange point), even though he had told me he was going to try to make it to Mag 7 pit. However, even after subtracting apprx. 15 minutes for this, it did not change the results.

At check point 3 the bike was in 27th place. Pretty darn good. Brent made up some real time, gained back all the spots he lost, plus 3 more. Even with 7 crashes. Crazy S.O.B. I'll race with him anytime.

At check point 4 we were back where we started in 25th place. So that would indicate you and Brent reeled in a couple more between Simpsons and San Vicente. Not sure if this was due to speed, or them crashing/mechanical, etc.., but it does not really matter.

Average Speeds:
From start to ck 1 = 29.1 mph
From ck 1 to ck 2 = 26.0 mph
From ck 2 to ck 3 = 35.0 mph
From ck 3 to ck 4 (includes installing lights) = 28.8 mph
From ck. 4 to mechanical dnf = apprx. 41.3 mph

Some other thoughts. Roughly the top 10 guys in our class would have finished mid pack in class 30 pros. This has always bothered me as sportsman class should be reserved for just that, sportsman - in my opinion. When the top 10 of the sportsman class are moving mid pack into class 30 on adjusted time, something is amiss.

Also, based on overall results, clearly the 650 was not the bike for this course, regardless we did O.K. Top finishers in most cycle classes were on 450x's.

Looking at your section, turns out you were right on pace. Hate to say I told you so, buy I told you that you are faster/better than you give yourself credit for.

Minus my slow start, all in all I am very pleased and proud of our effort.

Don't want to over analyze this or find unjust reasons to pat ourselves on the back, but if you take out the 10 fastest guys in our class (who should not be there anyways), we would have been top 25% of the true sportsman.

Personally, I think Dan is being way too hard on himself. I have seen him ride at race speed. He kicks my butt all over the place.

Pit Area where Brent passed the bike to me

Terrible Herbst leaving their pit.

A couple more prerun pics also

I have not looked seriously at the helmet cam footage yet. I should be able to get a couple of short videos for your amusment out if it. I know I had the camera running when I crashed in the sand. Keep checking back for updates or use the RSS Feed to be alerted when we update the blog next.

Cheers
MVdD