The Boys Win Baja Again!

2013 Baja 500x Team

Well, the current 50 class champions in Baja Off Road racing down in Mexico scored another victory at the 2013 Baja 500. The team of Marc Prince, Doug Smith, Dave Potts, Steve Williams and Bob Johnson rode a calculated race taking one step closer toward keeping their 500X (#1 in 50yr old class) plate for another year. Not only did they win the class but rode fast enough and made so few mistakes that they caught all of the 40 year old teams and most of the 30’s!    I was told Steve was about to overtake the 40 class winners when he came across a rider down and pinned under his bike so he stopped to make sure the guy was ok and get the bike off him. Says a lot about the people on this team doesn’t it?  

                    

I had to sit this one out with my thumb in a cast from a motocross mishap. So #33 had to watch from the sidelines as they commenced to whippin’ some butt without me!

They all did a great job!  I am proud of them and glad to have such a great bunch of guys to ride with. It is always a lot of fun because of the people on the team. The commitment and enthusiasm of all the riders and support crew is often hard to find when you put this many people together to work toward a common goal. This is one race in a series of 3 races and that is why I appreciate the time and effort everyone puts out to pull this off.

I am now out of my cast and working on rehabbing my thumb to get back on the bike in a couple of weeks. Maybe if I get myself back in riding shape they will let me come back and ride with them!

Fantastic job guys!   One more to go, Baja 1000 November 2013.

Lefty (at the moment)  aka #33

“It’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years!”

Garage Mechanic Extraordinaire

We all know professional mechanics that make a living working on bikes at the local shop. But what about the guys that do it in their garage for the love of wrenching?  They spend hours tearing things apart and rebuilding things, usually on friends’ bikes.

With the current swing toward 4-stroke engines a lot of people are left out in the dark when it comes time to rebuild a blown motor or just freshen up a tired one. This is when the local wrench that does it for the love of wrenching can end up being your savior. He more often than not does it for dinner, a pass to the local track or a new tire or two. When you compare this to the shop rates being charged these days it makes the garage mechanic look like a bargain. Another bonus is that you don’t usually have to drop your bike off and wait a week or two until they can “get to it” since he usually only works on things for people he knows.

There is just such a guy named “Alex” in the Sacramento area that likes to work on bikes I believe as much as he likes to ride them. Whenever I stop by his place he always has a couple of things he is working on. Unlike a Honda or Yamaha shop that only works on that brand Alex seems to tackle almost anything that is ridden off road. I have seen Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki’s in his garage. Alex has done top end rebuilds on a couple of bikes for me on different brands of bikes. He has done steering heads, linkages and fork seals on many of my friends’ bikes.  But I am always impressed at how well he does on graphics installing. That is something you either have the knack for or don’t. Unfortunately I don’t!  Alex usually gets the graphics on very nicely and rarely has any bulges or bubbles.  He seems to have that graphic install gene!

So if you have been around long enough to have wrenched on 2-strokes and find yourself a bit intimidated by the current onslaught of thumpers you may want to start searching for a local guy with a bit of experience that just loves to work on bikes. If you can’t find one then give me a holler and I will set you up with Alex/Garage Mechanic Extraordinaire.

Catch you later, I am off to change………….my spark plug,

#33

“Remember, fast is relative”