Some background: I live about 10minutes ride from Phillip Island and my neighbour's been hassling me to come along to a track day on The Island. I've managed to resist his attempts at persuading me to get trackside for a year or two, but after getting me free entrance to a corporate tent on Hoonda Corner for the GP a couple of weekends back, I feel I owe him and agreed to attend the next time he was going - early in the new year. Perhaps a strange way of repaying a debt?
So I need to decide which bike. Gotta be the TRX, but the rego is about to expire and I've been procrastinating about whether I'd renew it at all. I hadn't even ridden it for 3 or 4 months! It's not easy when you're a vehicle collector/hoarder.
Anyways, got the cover off the TRX and chucked the charger onto the battery. All good. Did an oil change - good, no petrol in the oil. 10 seconds of cranking and the old girl fired straight up. Lordy what a delicious sound. Is there anything better than a TRX on Staintunes? Tyre pressure test and adjust and what was meant to be a quick test run around the block ended up in a decent half-hour refamiliarisation over the hills out back. Why the hell don't I ride this thing more often? I'm friggin crazy.
Ok, so it's confirmed, this will be my tracky. Couple of things I need to sort:
- Steering head is a tad loose, need to dismantle and adjust.
Bit of a flat spot just around 4k5, but then pulls strongly after. Carb balance? This is Stu's old spare motor and it's done that from the word go.
Power shifter. Need to get the ignition module sorted and put back in and the shift sensor wired up. The sensor is in place, but that's as far as I got a year back. (Pretty slack you might say for an electronics engineer, but when you spend all day doing your job...)
Belly pan back on. One of the mount points disintegrated with age. I'd got this repaired a year back, but intend to paint it blue instead of its current black. Rattle-can job in a - hopefully close - approximation to the blue metalflake of the rest of the bike.
I need some leathers. No textiles permitted and must be either zip-togethers or a onesie.
It's still months into the future, but already this track-day virgin is looking forward to the day with an interesting mix of excitement and pure terror.