Death Race 4-16-2011

GoldenMotor.com

Rookie

New Member
Apr 6, 2011
17
0
0
Orange County, Ca
I would like to say Thanks to Musselman Honda Circuit for hosting the Death Race 2011. You have a pretty nice track to race on, great job!!
I also would like to thank everybody- racers and audience for being so damn cool, friendly and easy going to talk too.
Unfortunately on heat 1 race b I blew out my rear hub for some reason and pretty much ended my night. I had a blast out there and I cant wait for the next race.

Oh there was a couple of photographers on the track during the heat races, does anybody have any idea how we can get ahold and/or see those pictures?

Rookie
 

bairdco

a guy who makes cool bikes
Aug 18, 2009
6,537
264
63
living the dream in southern california
yeah, i came in 2nd in the China class, and 5th overall.

BiMoPed, that "track rat" as you called him is a local named Tim that's a pretty bad-a$$ racer, as well as a funny guy. i started from mid-pack and had to battle my way through everyone. i shoulda snaked up to the front at the start like all the winners did. but it was a blast passing everyone in the corners. i'm happy with how i did, and just really stoked to have had this experience, so i'm not gonna make any stupid remarks about "home field advantage" or how i never raced there, or whatever other BS. i did my best, had a blast, and am looking forward to the next one.

i've got a video of my entire race, and i'm not much further behind the winners then when i started. if i woulda been up front running with them off the line, it coulda got really interesting.

i'm having some trouble getting it off my camera, though. i'm tired, and a little irritated by someone who kept calling me and bugging me, even after i told him to leave me alone so i could sleep...

the track was amazing, though. i started off the day just cruising it, thinking i was gonna get smoked, since i never really leaned way into corners on the street, but by the final i was diving in and out of them with ease, and loving that fear of sliding out at any moment. it also taught me what i need for my next race bike...(winky face)

it really was a killer experience, and i can't wait till the next one, or the california one, or any one, for that matter. i'm hooked on it now...

my bike ran great, too. everyone else from california was re-jetting, using different fuel ratios, trying to make whatever adjustments they could to tune them up right, but mine ran so good right outta the truck i even took my supertrapp muffler tip off and screamed it around the track all night with an open exhaust.

if anyone says these chinese motors can't take the abuse, i got a 10,000 mile little powerhouse i'd like to show 'em...

i'll post some more stuff up later, i'm gotta get some more slep before i get really cranky...:)
 

Dave31

Active Member
Mar 1, 2008
11,199
47
38
Aztlán, Arizona
Man i had so much trouble, I found the track very slick and it felt nothing like I had ever experienced before.

I was sliding all over the place all night, but my fall in the practice was my doing though. I was trying to see how tight and fast I could make turn 8...well i found out i cant go as fast as I tried lol.

My bike went under me faster then i could react and then my pedal hit the pavement and so did I shoulder first. And for some reason I never let go of my bars and me and my bike slid what seemed to me the entire width of the track. Had to be cause it took forever before I stopped! Or maybe its because when I started sliding on my butt everything went into slow-mo?
 

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Amberwolf

New Member
Jan 21, 2011
11
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56
Phoenix, AZ USA
(note I had to break this into several posts due to the 5 image limit of the board, which apparently includes smilies)

I'm alive, though I'd like to hacksaw my right leg off just about halfway down the shin. :( It got caught under the bike as I went down, I think, twisted backwards based on the bruises (which happen to match part of the frame). I am having trouble remembering exactly how everything went down once the crash began. LiveForPhysics' (from ES forum) jacket and gloves saved me from severe road rash, though, and my minimal and old knee/shin protection saved my from much worse damage to my lower right leg. I hope I didn't tear LFP's stuff up; I never got a chance to look at them after I took them off to check myself out.

Race was fun while it lasted, but I didn't even make it two laps into Heat B1 (the first one I could ride in, as we arrived too late for the early ones or any practice runs). After the crash I wanted to get back in but couldn't do it.

The problem is (as LFP pointed out in the ES thread when he talks about trying to ride it) the steering, adn there are two independent problems that resulted in my crash, really. He had his GF take a couple of pics of him on CrazyBike2 as he was rolling in the pits, and you can kinda see him decide something in the second one--probably that it is called Crazy for a reason. :lol:

Note all the pics are hosted over on ES, so if you can't view them you might have to log in there first (I don't have anyplace of my own to put them yet, and don't see a way to attach to MBC's forum directly.



 

Amberwolf

New Member
Jan 21, 2011
11
0
0
56
Phoenix, AZ USA
(continued from previous post due to image limits)

I screwed up the geometry when I hurriedly added a second larger headtube for the 1-1/8" threadless Suntour fork I'd gotten the day before (day of? I forget already), being in too much of a hurry to think right, I guess, and just putting it parallel to the original, instead of pointing it down more (angled farther forward at the top).

So I have to cut it off and reweld it back on at the correct angle (which I will have to see if I can measure off the old setup that I have to put back on tomorrow so I can ride it safely to work Tuesday). If I can ensure the contact patch ends up in teh same place as the old one, theoretically I think it should steer the same as it did before I messed it up, or at least not get the shimmies.

The other problem is the steering tie rod angles/distances from centers. Basically I accidentally increased the steering ratio, so that it takes much less handlebar turning to cause the front wheel to turn a lot, like having power steering in a car vs manual. So it is far too twitchy and reactive now. Plus when LFP was going to ride it, the tie rod front end was loosened at the eyebolt stem into the rod, and it wiggled a LOT, making eerything worse.

Combine the two problems and it results in a nearly unrideable (very unstable) bike, which I kept on the track by brute force for almost two laps, losing control as I braked hard right at the harpin entrance to turn 13 (same place I slid out in the gravel at Undead 2010, when I was going way too fast to make the turn). I wasn't even going maybe 20MPh right at that moment, decelerating still, when I lost it. You can see me tapping the brakes trying to control it just before the turn where I lost it, in Dave's (Dave31) video linked last page or two of the thread. (yes, I have brake lights :))
 

Amberwolf

New Member
Jan 21, 2011
11
0
0
56
Phoenix, AZ USA
(continued from previous post due to image limits)



At first I was just gonna get up and go again, but I couldn't put any weight on the foot, and the way it had been twisted under me I thought I'd broken my shinbones or something and just couldn't feel it yet, As I was helped off the track, I could start feeling the bad stuff. By the time I was back in the pits and trying to get the gear off and then my shoe and sock so the guy (sorry,c an't remember his name :() could see it, it was hurting enough I couldn't even get myself off the bike even with my cane. Wasn't very swollen yet, and there was no apparent external injury at all.

Man, I wanted to just get back on the bike and go back out there, but I couldn't. I knew that if I had to put a foot down for any reason, it would be the right one, and I'd snap it off like a twig (or wish I had). :( I spent quite a while trying to decide if I could do it anyway, but it only got worse, then the actual race was called and I couldn't even hardly get out of the chair, and thus had it decided for me (even though I think I'd already given up).

The bike itself is basically fine, although a piece of brakelight cover plastic broke off (took a while to actually come off):

Plus the mount of the headlight cracked so it wobbles around:

and I scraped up the right edge of the fork crown pretty deeply (at least a mm or two of material is gone in those spots):
 

Amberwolf

New Member
Jan 21, 2011
11
0
0
56
Phoenix, AZ USA
(continued from previous post due to image limits)

I might've bent the right crank a little bit, but I can't see for sure and it still clears everything, so I don't care. :) This bent cargo pod rail is more serious, but once I am able to use a crowbar or long tube to lever it back outward, it'll be fine too:

As hard as I went down I'm surprised there isn't more damage to me or the bike. :shock:


Right now I can't actually move the foot itself more than about half an inch in any direction. Well, if I use my hands to move it I can, but that is a very bad thing. :( I'll live, though. I started out the day of the race walking on a cane already, but left needing a wheelchair, really, and not even having crutches.

Evoforce (from ES) loaned me his while we were back at his place troubleshooting his battery problem that kept his big pack out of the race, and until we were done and back at my place where I transferred into a wheelchair I picked up from Freecycle a while back (knowing I'd need it eventually). Gotta dig out my own crutches (originally bought from thrift stores/etc. to make things out of hte tubing) tomorrow, so I can at least walk while at work.

Never been on crutches or a wheelchair before, and I gotta say that they both suck; the crutches are ok but hurt after a few minutes, the wheelchair sucks because I can't maneuver it inside my house mostly due to dogs in the way and too little space to turn around in, etc., with all my stuff arranged the way it is (where of course I can't move most of it now).
 

Amberwolf

New Member
Jan 21, 2011
11
0
0
56
Phoenix, AZ USA
(continued from previous post due to image limits)

This is as of an hour ago, before I laid down, finally, after getting home about an hour before that, and placating a bunch of viciously slimy-tongued dogs that immediately assaulted me upon arrival.



Ibuprofen is helping a little bit, as is swapping ice/heat in and out every 20min or so, but it still feels like I have an SLA on my leg instead of a foot. Or rather, like I dropped one ON my foot so hard that it melded with it.

I dunno if I can do my job at all like this, and am still trying to decide if I will use a walker, crutches, or wheelchair the first day or two (at least), to get around the store.

Still, I'd do it again (though if I could do it over, I'd just leave the stupid fork and headtube alone and use the crappy junk I started with on there--at least I KNOW that worked fine, even if the fork legs wiggled back and forth during braking inside the suspension tubes).


Great fun meeting everyone that was there; wish there had been lots more time to talk (and less noise as I couldn't hear over the engines most of the time). I wanted to talk to more people; didn't get there early enough--there were a few of the gas-powered bikes I wanted to find out more about, but I don't know whose they were; didn't have time to stop and ask anything until I was hurt and out of the race, but then I couldn't get up and walk around to do the asking. :(

And thanks to whoever gave me the trophy anyway, despite not even actually making it to the race; though it doesn't quite feel right since it does say "best finish" recumbent...I didn't finish and it sure wasn't best. :lol: Sorry I don't know who gave the awards; I could not walk enough to get away from the trailer at that point, and couldn't hear or see anything from there. First trophy of any kind I've ever gotten. (well, 2nd place I think it was in the CA state science fair back in 1st or 2nd grade, but that doesn't count)

I hope I didn't forget anything or anyone; I'm still so tired but can't sleep yet. Dogs will keep me up for a while just glad I'm back since I am hardly ever away from them more than a few hours at a time (for work, mostly). Now if I can just keep them from trying to sleep on my foot/leg....
 

Dogman

New Member
Apr 22, 2010
52
0
0
Las Cruces NM, USA
My crash in heat 1 was also in the same corner Dave did his slider in.

My sincere apology to the guy I took out with me. My kooky line left him passing me on the outside. Of course, passing a kook on the outside might have been a bad idea too.

My riding coat, which has tons of hard armor hidden inside made my slider pretty comfy. Best money I ever spent getting that, even if it is a bit warm for wearing in Tucson. My crash in lap two of the heat ended my video for the night, but I will have both front and rear cam views of the crash up on you tube by dinnertime tonight.

In the main, after fixing the crash damage, I simply could not corner the bike at all. Turns out I ran the main with an un noticed flat tire. I had about 5 psi in there. I brought so much power, the electric motor melted down by about 6 laps anyway.

The bottom line for me was I did bring winning speed, but am not a winning rider. I finally had a bike fast enough to podium, but was not up to diving into the corners as fast as I was doing this time. Fortunately laying it down is something I've practices plenty in my youth, so I took a good slide with not even a bruise. I was past the limit of the motor anyway. Quite a few of us Ebikers brought the heat, but got greedy and flamed our motors.

Time for dogman to slow it down, and just enjoy riding on the track and finishing in the middle of the pack on a bike I can enjoy riding instead of one that scares me silly to corner.

Maybe I could make a badass big wheels trike, and win a trophy in the trike class? That could be fun to ride at 15 mph. LOL.

Paul brought heat, but not too much for his motor, and took the win. Way to go!

Other ebikes had other mechanical problems, like derailurs wrapped into the rear wheel, broken drive trains, etc. Stuff you gas riders are all too familar with at the DR.

Thanks so much to the sponsors for the prizes, and Dave for keeping the race alive.
 

Dogman

New Member
Apr 22, 2010
52
0
0
Las Cruces NM, USA
Forgot to mention about my melted motor. It's designed to handle 500-1000 watts of power, so 1 hp. I was shoving about 3500 watts, or 4.5 hp through it. Yep, they heat up fast that way. Kind of like if you ran your gas motor at 4 times the rpm it was designed for.

Fun as all get out though, to run it till flames come out.
 

DaveC

Member
Jul 14, 2010
969
1
18
Boise, ID
As many have found out(some the hard way) street tires are really no good for racing. However, there are products called "tire conditioners" or softeners that would make them more applicable to racing.

SpeedwayTire.com - Racing Parts - High Performance Car and Truck Parts

The one's for internal tire application wouldn't help much at all but the $24.99 can would do a lot of tires. Odd thing is the tires last longer with the softeners and with the lower cost products they wear out fairly soon but last long enough to race, especially if you treat more than 1 set for a race, like holding your best set for the main.(this is from a guy that has had 10 wheels custom made for his race car :p )
 

RebelHellbilly

New Member
Apr 22, 2009
222
0
0
Salisbury,North Carolina
i wundered how the event went over the weekend. liked have been out that way..maybe 1 of these days i will. it should be a pro like deal..ya know like the AMA(american motorcycle assocation) or ABA(american bicycle assocation) but then again MBs are worldwide lol
 

culvercityclassic

Well-Known Member
Sep 27, 2009
3,115
177
63
Culver City, Ca
I want to give a big thanks to the Organizers and Sponsors. I had a really good time and enjoyed meeting all the new people. It was nice to get out of L.A. and hang with Friendly people. Magrider and his family very cool people, I do think he was the man for this race…too bad for the tire problem. Next time. Oh, I forgot to mention it was fun hanging out with the Piston Bike crew and Me Me Me, i i i , Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda the whole time. What was his name?

Nice to see Scotto and his bro at the race...nice talking to ya...

I am looking forward to the next race. It was a bummer that my carb broke off the manifold right at the staging of the final. I was able to install a back-on but the race was already started. Still Fun.
 
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Dogman

New Member
Apr 22, 2010
52
0
0
Las Cruces NM, USA
.bf.

Short clip of my crash, and somebody eles crash in heat 1 here. Watch Dogman 5018 for the whole lap and a half that I lasted later today. The clip doesn't really show so well, that I slid right under the wheels of the guy in the white shirt with the kawasaki logo. Sorry about that dude, you can really see how I entered way too fast and squared off that corner. His bike was unrepairable after I stupidly took him out.

I didn't leave him any choice when I dove inside and slammed the door on him. He was screwed then, stuck on the outside with nowhere to go. But I have other vid that will be up later, that shows him doing to others the same thing I did to him.

YouTube - Dogman5018's Channel
 
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Dave31

Active Member
Mar 1, 2008
11,199
47
38
Aztlán, Arizona
Just want to Thank everyone who came out and supported Death Race, just by showing up you guys helped out. Here is a little info for next one, although this info may be for next years DR.

We just might...and I mean a slight might have a ourselves taped for a future 1/2 hour TV show on a very popular motor sports channel. Yep! they noticed us and I am working on it guys. A bigger turn out would have helped our cause but it did not kill our chances I dont think.