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Well, I couldn’t get the job done this weekend. I thought I had a working solution to my bent caliper flange, but as the pace heated up, it became apparent that I hadn’t. The bike was still too unpredictable to trail brake near the limit. This problem has been especially tough to digest, because a new fork is $$$ and also NLA, so I wanted badly to remedy the one I have. It turns out the problem was terminal…
In practice I was able to click off a fast lap if I had clear track, which led me to believe things were OK, and it was all in my head. I was compensating for the problem though, and in the race it became all too apparent.
Eric Yoo got out front and Zack and I had 2 motards to contend with. Zack got lucky and they left the door open to him in T3 and he set off after Eric, I wasn’t able to outbrake them in the bowl, because I couldn’t trail brake much without the front end just twisting up and unloading in a most stressful way. They weaved across the line through 7,8,9,10 and I couldn’t pass til Turn 11. By then my race was as good as over. I put my head down and did some stressful 17s, but the leaders weren’t coming back to me. Turns out they hit 16.5, which was a personal best for both of them. To their credit, they put on a HELL of a show, dicing back and forth at a searing pace for the whole race distance. All I could do was watch them disappear. I finished 3rd. It bummed me out.
Soooo, I needed to fix my problem. I found someone with a spare 95 bike, and borrowed a fork for Sunday practice. Even without the right internals, I was immediately more comfortable doing 17s in traffic. A couple clicks of the adjusters and I did a 17.1 in 2nd practice with no drama. Phew! It wasn’t in my head… I struck a deal to swap fork legs with the guy, and I’m looking forward to the next race. I really have to prove myself now. The points gap I had is gone!
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