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2017 WSBK picture show...


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  • Member Contributer

The next Nicky Hayden??? at 3 years old Jason loves riding his
electric powered bike and smooging with the girls...
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My friend Don works for American Honda... every year I twist his arm
about the new V4 but its "he he he what V4???"...
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Marv's ZX7R received a lot of love... not only are we riding buddies
but neighbors as well... all we need to complete our block of
homologated race bikes is for an Yamaha R7 owner to move in...
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Thanks to Russ Brown's booth we enjoyed a great gig...
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WOOF!!!
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American Honda's tribute wall that will be awarded to the Family...
fans signed with a mixture of tears and laughter... very moving...
motorcycle people are good people...
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In terms of engineering and money Ducati put the V2 on the moon but
its retirement is official in favor of a smaller lighter and more
powerful engine architecture...
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Vendors are a close knit family...
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Mercy Yamaha was the only manufacture to ante up a MotoGp machine...
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All nines Honda VIN identifies this CBR as a prototype...
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Alpinestars displayed one of Marc Marquez's suits...
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My friend Mike Canfield is JD Beech's crew chief... Mike frequents the
Busy Little Shop for any machine shop needs...
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Jake's Moto America crew...
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Jake Gagne stay on Nicky's CBR but didn't place where he wanted to...
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Kenny says he still has a V5 and a V4 from the MotoGp days...
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Bellissi Moto had one hell of a king size aluminum screw
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Yoshi from VFRD...
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Yoshi's Dad Tony
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Yoshi was very busy collecting sigs
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New found friends on Cannery Row
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Chris shipped his RC45 to me out of frustration... you see all of the
"top notch" Honda mechanics in his home state failed to resolve his
list of symptoms (hard start, high idle, dropping cyclinders).
it took me 72 hours of labor to sort it out proper... Chris and I meet
up every year at Laguna Seca...
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Chris is a Honda lover and sports a very cool Motorcycle Stable
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Oh what sound!!!
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  • Member Contributer

Item ticked off the bucket list.

My dad and I flew in from Cleveland to San Francisco to attend the race. We flew in Thursday night, picked up a rental car (2016 Fiesta, Yoshi approved), picked a motel, and called it a night. We met up with Larry for Breakfast before heading to the track and setting up camp. 

 

A word about camping. It was good. The hardest part was driving around trying to figure out where the general camping area was. Tons of people in RVs and 40ft tents set up with grills and coolers and everything else. Lots of people seem to go more to camp at the track than actually attend the event. We put up our 2.5 person tent and had our car parked right next to the tent, so secure place to store stuff. Not that I would really worry about that after attending now. There is very little flat ground in the area, and what of it there is, is taken up by campers and RVs, so bring an air mattress, and the smaller your tent, the easier it will be. We managed to find a shallow incline that fit the tent, and a thin air mattress was good enough. But it was worth it, to wake up at 7am, sit around as the sun rises, and have the track right there to catch morning warm up. No worries about traffic or anything. We were able to drive into town for dinner and brews, so long as we were back before the gates closed at midnight.

 

Friday was a good day to be there. Easily the best access to riders, as it's before the serious crunch time. Got to chat up Leon Camier a bit at the MV tent for a bit. Probably one of the coolest guys in the paddock. Says that the MV Brutale 800 is one of the most fun bikes he's been on, and really seems to believe in MV.

 

I also rented a couple lenses from BorrowLense.com. I had a really positive experience and would recommend it for anyone who is looking to either try out a new camera or lense before buying, or just needs a certain lense for an event. I'm shooting with a GX85 (not the best for action, but it's what I have), so I rented the 100-400mm lense for a week for $100 total. A bit pricey, but the lense retails for $1700, and for this one time this year, I'm game. So pictures aren't great, but I was really happy with the gear, and was getting better with the camera towards the end of the weekend.

 

Going to a race AN AN ENTHUSIAST is every bit as cool as you'd imagine. The sound of the bikes is absolutely awesome. You get to see so much more of the fine details of what the riders are doing, where they are struggling, and see how fast they are actually going. Did I mention the sound?

 

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Hayes pulling a wheelie coming out of the hairpin Turn 2

 

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Dad climbing the hill to the corkscrew, about 1/3 the way up. You can see 80% of the track from the hill. You need to be in decent shape to make the hikes everywhere.

 

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Tech inspection area. MotoAmerica bikes getting the once over.

 

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Sorry Bradl, you can't park your bike here.

 

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Follow the leader.

 

The Corkscrew was really cool to watch from and photograph. So many different angles to view it from, and it's different from each place.

 

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Buy motorcycle insurance.

 

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If you hit the wrong spot on the curb (right on the white line)

 

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You better have your brand placement in a good spot.

 

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Didn't do too bad for his first time out.

 

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Up and over the hill. All downhill from here.

One of the things that I never really realized about Laguna is the elevation. From the start line, there's the hill at Turn 1, then flat from Turn 2-4. Uphill from Turn 5 to the corkscrew. Then it's all downhill until the final hairpin. And it's a serious downhill.

 

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Track support is not impressed

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  • Member Contributer

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Danny doing his thing

 

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Hauling over in Turn 10

 

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Look Ma! One foot!

 

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Victory Lap

 

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Autograph session with almost ALL riders.

 

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Bike teardown for tomorrow. Never got the reason for the rains, other than the chance of dew on the track in the morning.

 

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For sale. Track day tires. Only used one time.

 

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Ducati Final Edition unveiling.

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  • Member Contributer

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Top of the hill. Motorcycling Hollywood.

 

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Shake Shake Shake

 

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This doesn't seem that hard

 

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Single MV mechanic working on his solitaire game

 

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Marco Melandri being a rebel in the garage Saturday night, not wearing the team issued shoes.

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Squeezing in Turn 3

 

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Practicing a little dirt biking

 

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On the finish line straight

 

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I was SUPER lucky to catch both Alex and Shane Byrne at the exact same time to sign this image. Picture of Lowes overtaking Shakey in the rain on the last lap to win the 2013 BSB Championship. Alex had to take a few moments to look at the image, then we talked a bit about that year. When I asked if he knew where Shane was, he said he should be around here with the Eurosport guys, then pointed out he was about 15 feet behind me talking with a small group. Didn't talk with Shakey much as he was in a 'work' discussion with some guys, but was kind enough to give me a moment and sign.

 

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I've had this image saved for years, and tried for months to track down the photographer and get a high-res version of it. So it was getting printed and brought with me to Laguna. MASSIVE shoutout to my dad, who, while I was in line for autographs, chatted up the guy who was going to cut off the line to a couple people in front of me, and persuaded him to cut the line off after me. I didn't know this at the time. A Kawasaki Team member came up to me, and asked to see my poster. Showed it, and he loved it, and then stepped behind me, and announced that he was the end of the line. When I got up, Rea seemed like he was taken completely off guard by the poster. Him and Tom were signing away rapid fire the provided posters to a ton of people. He stared at the poster for a while, not saying anything. I wish I knew what he was thinking. I told him it was my favorite pic of him at the Mountain years ago. He snapped out of it, signed away, and gave me a smile, and then him and Tom were on their way back to the pits.

 

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The group image was also pretty good. I got a ton of smiles and laughs from it. I think they like that A) it was a really cool shot of everyone at PI this year, and B) it wasn't just the generic advertisement poster that was given out everywhere. My favorite was from Jodi, who signed on the side, then wanted to make sure that I knew he was in the back center, but he signed over here. Pretty sure Jodi is easily in the top 5 for riders you'd want to hang around with for a laugh. Fores is up there too.

 

Big shout out to Pippa Laverty. She is as sweet and cool as she is pretty. I bumped into her in the paddock, and she just started chatting me up, asking if I wanted to meet Eugene and making other small talk about the race and area. Paddock Pass Podcast has an episode interviewing her which is worth a listen.

 

When I finished hunting down Melandri and Bradl for my last two signatures, I came back to the food court to find my dad sitting and drinking with a table full of Dorna officials who were working the timekeeping system. My dad is very much an outsider and green to the motorcycle racing world, but they still had a good time talking about Croatia and Italy and what goes on the tracks over there on a normal basis.

 

I also learned that my calves are too big to be a world class motorcycle racer, among other non-qualifications. Everyone's legs were the size of my forearm.

 

Getting a view to watch the race was pretty easy. Lots of places where you can see a good part of the track, especially the hill. From the hill, it's really cool to see how fast they are able to move through the track.

 

Overall, it was a fantastic time. There were free demo rides you could sign up for, Groms and other 125s to take around a little track, kids on their YZR50s laying rubber down. Go kart track with a lot of action, and a decent sized vendor area. However, it really didn't seem like there were that many people there. The grandstands were at best half empty. Maybe of all the people who spent the time in their RVs watching on TV came to the track it would have seemed fuller. Think the released number was 65k people for the weekend.

 

I stopped at the Road Racing World magazine stand to sign up for a subscription. Started chatting up the girl there about racing and working the stand. When I asked what got her into the motorcycle area (since she didn't ride), she simply said her last name was Ulrich. I had no idea who that was. This was Natalie, John Ulrich's daughter. I knew nothing about John, and was pretty much embarrased not to know. Still left with smiles at least.

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  • 1 month later...

Nice pics everybody.  So cool.

 

So, I wished I had joined this forum earlier instead of VFRworld.  I asked on that forum if anyone was going to Laguna Seca, and no one replied.  So, having never been, I went solo, camped off the bike for 10 days and did the 2,000 mile round trip by myself.  By stroke of circumstance and a weird string of events, ended up working security in pit lane.

 

I will put the full ride report in the "Ride Report" forum.

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Oh wow!  That WAS you!  So cool to meet you in person before joining the forum.

 

I had an epic time.  And by the looks of it, so did everybody else.  Definitely going back next year.

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