Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Tracking: All Systems Go!

It seems that I've been absent with my ramblings here as of late. Leaving you all off on the note of happiness seems fitting though given the circumstances and events that have unfolded in the interim. As many of my readers (maybe all of you?) know, I've been working long and hard to bring my bikes and myself up to snuff for this new season on the track.  I had the privilege of being blessed with the help of one of my closest friends and most trusted authorities in the area of wrenching, and we spent a long and tiresome day in the garage pulling apart the Yamaha, checking valve clearances, putting it back together, checking valve clearances again, pulling the cams out again and fixing where we went wrong.  It was a seemingly relentless struggle that saw us laughing out of frustration, releasing little bursts of disdain here and there, and finally collapsing in our respective points of rest at around 12:30 in the morning.


Yeah, it's been a long winter with the bikes and although it seems unending, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Even in baby steps we make great strides and on February 16th it all came to a head with the season opening track day at Buttonwillow Raceway in the desolate central valley farm-scape.  Over the winter I had done the brakes, the fork seals, the valve clearances, and replaced the throttle cables.  I had gone over the bike several times to ensure that bolts were tight, pieces were secure and everything was good to go.  A few days beforehand the battery had died whilst I was delivering a "thank-you" gift to my friends at the local shop for all that they've done to help us local riders (can we say "irony?"), so I was half expecting to get out there and have the bike start having it's usual tantrums... but it didn't. 

Puttin' the God-son to work as my pit crew.
In fact, it didn't even so much as sputter or hesitate.  It ran like a champ and when we hit our first session out I was even surprised at my own confidence.  It was definitely the first time since CLASS back in October where my mind wasn't stuffed up with self-defeating frustration.  Quite the contrary... I felt as if I was being reborn again.  As I made my way around the track I was genuinely and wholeheartedly in love again.

The R6 is such an awesome bike when you're not working on it.  In comparison to my beloved ZX6R, which is 3 years older, the R6 is a nimble little spitfire that likes the throttle cranked, the RPM's high and it will reward you by doing most of the work when it's time to corner.  Truth be told, I could have carried twice as much corner speed but I was holding myself back because I didn't want to get too overzealous on the first day back to school. In holding myself back, I was obviously holding the bike back as well but it worked out.

The first session was a warm-up.  CaliPhotography was in charge of track photography for the day, having posted up in Cotton Corners during the first few rounds and I felt pretty good in reviewing the pictures of my body position and lean angle given that I felt like my body was much more out of practice than it really was. I was also happy to get some positive feedback from the people in the know. As I reviewed the track photographs, I revisited where my head was at in certain corners.  In the picture posted above I remember focusing on looking through the corners.  In the sweeper (pictured below) I had a lot more margin to make adjustments so I would consciously tell myself to kick my inside hip into the corner a little and/or weight the outside peg while doing so.  It was more of a matter of trying to get myself to develop the muscle memory than it was learning how to do it.  One of the things that sucks about commuting is that you start developing bad habits as you start to learn the urban-survival way of riding.  As a result some of those more technical performance practices get rusty if they aren't exercised in some form.

For some reason I felt compelled to pull my shoulders in... 
Still, my lap times were pretty low in the first and second sessions. I didn't feel defeated, I felt determined.  I felt happy, motivated, I deliberated, I calculated, and then I got on the track and just rode.  By the end of the day, I had shaved 20 seconds off of my lap time from the first session so that was pretty cool. My friend had brought her family out and that really added to my day as well. My God-sons are into bikes so it was a great opportunity for them to get an idea of what these bikes are meant for... even if they were convinced that I was officially racing and not just practicing (hah!).  I smiled in my helmet and let out a chuckle as I lined up on the grid and looked over to see my little pit crew standing in the tower, waving and giving me the thumbs-up all-clear as I returned the gesture, dropped the visor, and left it all behind as I accelerated onto the track.



There is something about riding a sportbike on a track that really brings things into perspective.  The smell of the morning air dusted with exhaust, rubber, leather, and dirt.  No matter how many times you go around a track, no two laps are ever the same.  In many ways the track is the blank canvass on which you leave a fingerprint; where you write your story - where are you strong?  Where are you weak?  Where are you wrong?  Where are you right?  Some people might hold off on braking in one corner where others are more timid.  Litre bikes, two strokes, 4 strokes, twins, singles, 4 cylinders, super-motos, touring bikes, vintage bikes, Goldwings, old people, young people, humble people, cocky people, everyone is in it together and yet everyone is in it alone... on their own ride, perfecting their own craft and actualizing their own potential... making their own music, dancing their own dance. It can be overwhelming at first, especially if you're not used to riding in groups, especially if you're not used to being so free.  But once you get used to it, that's when the magic happens.

Thanks to all of my friends, Let's Ride Track Days, and Buttonwillow Raceway for opening the gates to another magical experience. Thanks to CaliPhotography for capturing the moments for me to review.  Here's to hoping for a successful and awesome season of track days.  Here's to chasing the apex and living the dream.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Happiness: The Perfect Apex

What makes you happy?

In a series of small, unrelated coincidences, I decided to take the ninja out for a motorcycle ride after having recently checked the valve clearances.  I wanted to make sure that, unlike last time, I wouldn't start losing oil from the valve cover again.  I've owned that bike for quite some time now (since 2006) and it's still one of my favorites.  I took it easy at first, you know because if anything major is going to happen, it's best to happen at a speed that you can modestly walk away from.  Once nothing fell off I picked up the pace a little, rolling on the throttle and feeling the pull of the motor as I listened for inconsistencies.  We made our way out to the backroads; a series of long sweeping curves that weave their way through some foothills and out to a small man-made lake that I frequent as a thinking spot - you've probably seen pictures of it posted up in previous posts. 



Me and the ZX: Happy Times!
As we made our way out, I felt out the bike: the suspension feels a little off, probably because it is overdue for a fork service.  I'll be doing the brake fluid soon too as I plan to replace the brake fluid reservoir, but otherwise the bike feels good. It helps that she is still quite a beauty as well.  Most people who see it ask if it's a literbike and I have to humbly confess that she's a 636.  It was good to be back out on the road with her and as I rode along at a modest pace, listening to the wail of her Sato full system, I cracked a little smile in my helmet as a squeal of happiness escaped my lips.  This bike has carried me over tens of thousands of miles and every time I ride it, I feel happy... for the most part ha ha. 

Which carries me into the main focus of this post: happiness, what is it?

I've been thinking about this one a lot lately as I work to resolve some uncertainty in my own life.  I've already addressed the question of meaning, and many folks (myself included) would argue that a life with meaning is a life with happiness, so long as the person knows how to manage it... but what the hell does that mean, exactly? 

Sometimes, happiness is ice cream on a hot day with a good friend...
When I got home from my ride I plopped down in front of the computer and saw an article shared on FB penned by Russell Brand.  Now normally I don't lay a lot of stake into these articles but the two people who shared it were somewhat reputable for sharing decent quality stuff so I took a gander at it. The title was pretty straight forward: "My Life Without Drugs" and it was a subject that I am pretty familiar with given my career path.  I've worked with a lot of substance abusers in my time and I've become pretty familiar with the culture of substance abuse and the way society responds to the epidemic.  The entire article was beautifully and eloquently written but one line in particular jumped out at me: "Drugs and alcohol are not my problem, reality is my problem, drugs and alcohol are my solution." 

I read that line three times over and chewed on it for a bit in my brain.  It made me consider an important aspect of this whole happiness thing that I've been putting so much thought into and it can best be illustrated by pointing out that in my time working with substance abusers and their families, I've always been intrigued by society's insensitivity to a very serious problem that plagues us all: reality (or: what causes substance abuse?).  After all, as Brand says, drugs and alcohol are the solution to the pain of the reality that so many people are trying to escape.  But you don't have to be a substance abuser to be an "addict" and you don't have to be a substance abuser to take an abusive or destructive solution to the problem of the reality you are trying to escape. Every day people who are unhappy go home and beat their wives or husbands, people who are unhappy in the marriages or relationships that they are in, cheat on their partners for a quick fix or an ongoing affair that takes them away from the pain of the life they've created (or willingly participate in). These behaviors perpetuate the cycle of unhappiness and create an even bigger painful reality for the victims who experience this abuse or betrayal and those people, in turn, react accordingly.

Sometimes happiness is a good cuddle with your best friend...
Of course, reality isn't always bad, right?  Every day we have moments of of happiness, of satisfaction, of euphoria and accomplishment, and all of the other great feelings that make life worth living. In fact, I would argue that reality is neither good or bad, it is everything.  Reality is that there is love, happiness, destruction, despair, pain, laughter, indifference, boredom, anger, hate, tragedy, justice, injustice, inequality, victory, failure, loss, gain, and everything else you can think of but again I will say this; beneath it all, there is meaning.  And when we are not taught to evaluate meaning in our lives, or learn how to problem solve or understand emotions then when bad things happen, we wind up with a society full of people who are emotionally incompetent, and subject to resorting to abuse and addiction as a method of escape; abuse or addiction of and to drugs, alcohol, sex, relationships (yes, that ever persistent need to have someone else in your life to validate you), adrenaline rushes, control, etc.  As a result, we become driven by our ego and doomed create the very cruel realities that we seek to escape. 

So what is the answer?