Times up

Dave Balfour and I will be leaving for the Sebring 24 Hour (www.bikesebring.org)in Sebring Florida tonight, along with Dave's girlfriend Becky and my parents as support crew. You can check out the track here http://www.na-motorsports.com/Tracks/FL/Sebring.html The videos give you a pretty good idea what I'll be riding around all night. Should be pretty fun.

The trailer is tested, loaded, and ready to go. Graphics came out well.

My streamliner is functioning now, finally. Worked through a few bugs in poor chainline and draggy components, as well as a few ground clearance issues. Scrapped the dolly wheels when they bent at the end of a test ride, better off without the added complications and weight anyway. No Rotor cranks for now, replaced the Primos with Comp Pools, new chain and derailieur, eliminated the chain rub, the bike is much faster now.

The shell isn't as pretty as is it was, now that it has holes carved in it for a dolly wheel system that is no longer being used, and now it has foot holes in the bottom for starting and stopping. I hacked the top off to make it more streetable for the Sebring 24 hour, as the all the daytime riding will be on public roadways. I would say the bike now fits into the HPRAs Superstreet category better than the Streamliner category, but it was built for ultra events and that seems like the better route to go for that.

I did my first streamlined ride last Saturday. About 75 miles in 3 1/2 hours. Hilly route, 12-14mph winds gusting to 22mph. Kinda like a cross between sailing and bobsledding, pretty fun. The thing just coasts forever and 30mph is rediculously easy to hold on the flats. My current gearing has me spinning out at 37mph and grinding the steep hills at 9mph, fine setup for my local river valley riding. I should gear it up for flat course racing but I figure I'll leave it this way for the 24 hour. If I finish the race averaging above 25mph I will be more than happy, especially considering the number of long rides I have done in preparation.

It'll be fun scaring people on the night loop. I should be moving considerably faster than most people and the HID lighting may have them looking for a car to pass them. Lucky for them it's only a Twinkie on wheels.

So lets see if I can break 500miles in 24hours, eh?