As many of you know, my last trackday @ BIR (8/31) on the 848 didn't end so well. Lowside in T7 ended my season (or so i thought), and left me with busted OEM plastics, broken CRG rearset (which is TONS better than broken frame tabs), hurt pride, a now unuseable X-12, and a 6 hr memory swipe.
Before things went south...
About a week later while resting to go in for work my wife wakes me up to say you NEED to check your phone: unread text msgs and FB comment icons took up the entire top line of the phone. She hands me a title and simply says "Happy early birthday". I check texts and FB to find my wife (with the help & persuasion of my friends) had found and bought me a CRA racebike. Reasoning was they knew I wanted to race next year, and point blank, crashing a Ducati can be expensive.
Wife of the Year award. SERIOUSLY. Husband crashes his Ducati, so do what any other wife/gf would do and buy him a racebike.....
I was completely floored.
So, once I got back from my Friday/Sat load, I went up to my friends place to hang out and check out/ pick up the new bike: '03 CBR600RR. Came with a few goodies: Arata full Ti exhaust w/ PC3, Racetech internal cartridges & Penske double-clicker rear shock, Ohlins steering damper, new D.I.D. 520 chain, Sato rearsets, Stompgrip, Puig DB windscreen, frame sliders, Woodcraft & NRC case savers, and uncrashed Armour Bodies plastics.
First day home with the Duc....
They wanted me back on the track before the season was over and after deciding not to go to Mid-America, and not really digging DCTC (hadn't been there in over a year, and overall just dislike the course layout/track), I got a wild hair up my butt and decided that I was going to go to Barber for NESBA's season ender on 11/10-11/11. I'll be heading down with 3 friends on Thurs afternoon.
Did a few changes: Fairings & tail in white, ASV F3 levers, Renthal grips, used the Rizoma barends off the 848, used the Vortex mirror block-offs I still had laying around from my former GSX-R600, and added a few decals....
All set for Barber! Going to be trying DOTs (D211 GPA) for the first time.....so this should be interesting. New track, new bike, new tires, new helmet, and haven't really been on a bike (maybe a combined hours worth of riding) in 2 months. I'm looking forward to trying this thing out, but know it take a little time to get used to considering I've been on a middleweight twin for a full year (13k+ miles & 6 track days). It should be a great way to see if there are any setup issues I need to address during the off-season (I'm riding both Sat & Sun) before CRA starts up next season in June when I go for my race license.
Christian
New-to-me track/race bike all ready for Barber!!
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