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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater Tue, 25 Mar 2008First off, no one was hurt, and there was no damage. If you've been following along, you'll know that I've been preparing this old Honda CL175 for racing duties. I'll be racing in the Vintage 160 class. Last night, I finished off the seat (which looks much better, with about an inch of padding, a bum-stop, and mediocre quality vinyl covering the whole thing). But I noticed as I was working on it that my hinge arrangement leaves something to be desired, and was already torquing against the seat uncomfortably. I worked on it, and worked on it, but couldn't seem to make a difference. It was like I was staring at the problem, but couldn't work out the solution. Then, it was time to race. I got myself set up on the bike, and took off in a roar of engine noise. For some reason, I was alone on the track, but I figured it was alright, I was probably just the first person there for that practice session. It was all going well, but then in the middle of turn 2, something went very wrong, and I found myself sitting in the brambles at the side of the track. I couldn't remember how I'd gotten there, exactly -- one moment I was riding around the track, and the next I was in the weeds. I was alright, but my Aerostich suit was ripped. Someone, who was helping me up, mentioned that surely I shouldn't be wearing a textile suit on the race track. I agreed, but what could I do? There was a big flap hanging off the suit, but I was unharmed. I tried again, but once again, the bike mysteriously ejected me on turn 2. There was nothing on the track, that I could see. There didn't seem to be any problems with the bike, but I was on the side of the track again. No one would tell me what had happened to my bike, they were more worried that I was hurt. But I was fine. Of course, around this time, I woke up enough to realize that I was having an anxiety dream. I seem to have anxiety dreams all the time, although it's much more common for them to focus on how I've slacked off on a college class, and now it's too late to go join it again. I probably have that dream once a night or more. Lately, there have been a lot of trips to Edinburgh involved, and invariably I end up skipping out on 3 of the 4 classes I signed up for. What's interesting about this crash dream is that this is the first-ever anxiety dream I've had about motorcycle riding. I don't feel especially anxious about being on the track, but I can't shake the feeling that the other racers could be a problem. I know they're not -- I've watched vintage racing for years. It's just one of those "tackling the unknown" things that seems to crop up. A very positive aspect of this whole racing experience (he said before actually doing it) is that it's challenging my conception of myself. I'm not a competitive person. I don't like being in contention with other people. Yet I'm taking on this role of racer, where the whole point is to do better than others. Of course, when I say, "I'm not a competitive person," what I really mean is that I'm fiercely competitive, and I don't like that about myself. I keep it from coming out in almost any situation. So this whole racing thing embodies a kind of rock-and-hard-place situation for me. I'm interested to see how that turns out. I'm fully prepared to come in last. I'm also secretly prepared to shock everyone by winning my first time out. Riiight. Stay tuned. The racing starts this weekend, and I'm sure I'll have some kind of report early next week. Posted at 14:49 permanent link category: /misc I don't normally post link-fests, but I just read through this article, and found it interesting in that grim, Schadenfreude sort of way: Hype Machine: Searching for ZAP's Fleet of No-Show Green Cars [Wired] Posted at 10:12 permanent link category: /misc Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. |
