Baja Party!

The 2010 Baja 1000 has come and gone. But the Party just got started!

It was arranged and put on by Jim Dizney and Doug Smith, the two main instigators of this team who also rode on the winning 50+ team, who by the way finished an incredible 7^th overall.

The celebration party was held in Monrovia, Calif at a place called “Area 51”.  No it is not the Area 51 of desert and alien fame. It is a secluded warehouse turned into a banquet facility with more racing nostalgia that you could ever imagine in one place.

When I walked in and glanced around it was so packed with cool stuff that it overwhelmed me at first. From perfectly restored classic cars to classic motorcycles, autographed photos, trophies, and all things pertaining to racing.  There were posters of races long gone, from Lions drag strip and Ascot raceway to Hopetown GP. Some of you younger guys are thinking, “huh?”, while the older guys are thinking and reminiscing about what they read or even time they may have spent at any of these venues.

Left to right, Doug, Dave, Paul, Jimmy, Steve, Eric, Jim.

Steve McQueen’s helmet was even on display! But there was so much racing history I knew I wouldn’t remember a fraction of it so I included some photos to share with my riding/racing friends.  There was even a men’s room in a metal hazardous materials cabinet for the guys, Really!

We had a great evening bench racing (aka exaggerating), visiting and having a catered dinner at this wonderful site. I hope you enjoy the pictures, I also snuck in a photo of the riders that rode on the team.

We had a great time!

#33

How would you like to make your bike last longer for free?

 The other day I was following up my air filter cleaning with the last step before I re-oil them.  A friend of mine was visiting and watched me perform my last step then asked me if I had ever shared this with anyone. I said No, I had never thought about it. So here we go and I hope you get the same benefits I have for the past several years.

Try this with your air filters next time you are ready to reinstall them on the bike. Take a sheet of paper, any kind of paper you would write on and lay it on the workbench or any flat surface. Run your hand over the paper before you begin to feel what it feels like when it is clean. Now take your CLEANED and completely dry air filter and bang it against one hand while holding it with the other hand. Do this over the clean sheet of paper you just laid down on the workbench. Bang  it for about 10 to 15 seconds and then check to see what fell out of your supposedly clean filter by running your clean hand over the paper.

 I think you will be surprised!  It will probably feel like you shook out a beach towel the first time.  I usually have to do this 6 to 10 times to get the results I am looking for. Wipe the paper clean and do it a second, third or however many times it takes for you to get the results that make you happy. This seems to dislodge the leftover hard particles that remained in the filter before it is used again. We all know that dirt is the worst thing we can do to our most prized possession (well mine anyway) in terms of engine life. Pistons, rings, valves, bearings will all go much longer without this little bit of dirt/grit being overlooked.

As a testimonial to this being worth the extra couple of minutes it will take you to do this, I had a KTM with a factory speedometer and hour meter. This extra step was done on this bike throughout the 2 years I rode it. The motor never was never taken apart (except for clutch plates) until the speedometer showed 7,000 miles and 220 hours on it. Then it got rings!

This bike was ridden on a motocross track, at cross country races, used as a pre runner in Mexico for Baja races and trail ridden. So it was not gently used!

Hope this works for you! Now go out and ride!

#33