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This all began innocently as most things do, I was in the kitchen making a Sandwich on Thursday night when my cell phone rang. It was my cousin Dennis, I kind of expected him to call since this is the time of the year, we are roughly 2 months away from the Sandy Chapel Church Ride and it is time to start our planning.
But this call was something else entirely.
"How's the scooter running??" He asked. "Like New" I said.
Well they are having a ride from Clanton to Talladega Saturday and we wonderd if you wanted to go.
Hmmmmm ride motorcycles to Talladega and take a look (possibly a tour of the track too?) at the cathedral of racing in the State.
"Sure" I said.

Fast forward to Saturday. {59}

"Hey are you ready to go?" "No", I thought to myself "I like standing in the yard by my warming up bike before daylight just for the grins and giggles of doing it."
We took off to Clanton and met up with his Dad, my Uncle Raymond and roughly 150 other bikers running the gamut from the standard cruisers with all the bells and whistles, to the crotch rockets Hayabusa class on down, A Can Am spyder and one angry confused old Kawasaki.
Let me take a moment here and say that I don't particularly care for these big rides, they are slow and just stop and go riding.
Not if you have a couple of troopers on bikes escorting you. I can see how and why the Governor has them for escorts. We went stands up and didn't stop till the first gas stop in Calera. Then up went the stands yet again and like a low flying freight train on to the track we went. Upon arriving we were escorted in and given our pre ride briefing. (Yep we were going to ride the track1 excited) Here is the pre ride briefing for those of you who were not there.

*Do not go above the 2nd white line in the turns. (For those of you who don't know this track the turns are banked at 43 degrees)

*Do not pass the pace car,in the turns.

*You may not go any faster than 80 mph in the turns.

*There is NO SPEED LIMIT on the back straight and in the tri oval.

You can ride the apron at the bottom if your not comfortable on the track.

*Have fun. Oh and we will take the track in groups of 50.


Since my bike is only a 750 twin and roughly 30 years old and slow anyways I was a little apprehensive and elected to ride in the second group.
Also how can I slow down to 80 mph? I can barely hit 80 mph. I'll admit it, I was slightly nervous. What was I going to do if I fell off of the track? It would be totally embarrassing.

As we waited for the pace car to take us out onto the track I wisely swapped my place in line with a guy on a new crotch rocket. I let him have the outside line while I planned on taking the low inside line and basically doing a slow shakedown run with the bike, ease up to speed and see how it would hold up.

Stupidest idea I had all day.

By the time we went from pit road to turn one I was screaming for the slow cruisers to get out of my way.
I discovered something amazing on that track. All you have to do is point the bike down it, then twist it till the throttle stops. Also despite having the physically slowest bike on the track if I would stay at or on the white line (per instructions) the people of lesser testicular fortitude on the bottom of the track were easy pickings. Of course they would twist the grip on the back stretch and blow by me like I was a cow grazing beside the road on the straights. But in just a few seconds we were back in the turns and the table turned my way yet again.
I also learned that when your running 80 in a turn that a crotch rocket can and will pass you from above or below, which ever way they feel like it, just hold your line and everything will be all right. I also learned it is quite aggravating when you are beating your old Kawi like a rented mule down the track and some graybeard geezer on a full blown touring boat blows past you with his wife on the back and Garth Brooks blasting on his stereo like they are cruising to the beach.
I also know now that it is cool to listen to troopers with a radar gun talking about the guy who is doing 190+ on the 'busa down the front straight.
I also know it is possible for a guy to have a catastrophic blow out on his rear tire @ 150 and ride it off the track and safely park it. An excellent display of riding skills if I do say so.
I also know riding home in the rain after a day like this is not a problem at all.
Mark your calendar and plan on making this ride with me next year. It was amazingly cool.

That was an amazing story! Well told, and sounds like you had a blast (and showed some folks a thing or two about these "old Kaws"). I envy you, what an experience!

Wildh2oskier wrote: I also learned it is quite aggravating when you are beating your old Kawi like a rented mule down the track and some graybeard geezer on a full blown touring boat blows past you with his wife on the back and Garth Brooks blasting on his stereo like they are cruising to the beach.

I am so, so sorry. These guys are everywhere in SoCal. They are terrible.

Yeah, this was the third year they have had this. I'm pre registered for next years ride. But there must be some personal changes and I have one year to get it done.

1) I must obtain and rebuild a bigger faster bike. I was there on the oldest bike, the cheapest bike, and probably the only one brought back from the dead in its owners garage. There was a bit of pride to be had in those facts.

2) A Go Pro camera setup is not just wanted, it is a necessity.

In the meantime after I posted about this on facebook I got an invite to basically the same thing except it is going to take place @ the Barber's Motorsports park later this summer. I can't wait.

I hope this picture thing works.
i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p631/Calvin.../CalvinTalladega.jpg

Great Story!!!

I know what you mean by being blown off by a Goldwing. That happened to me at the track in Ohio. I was really setting the next turn up,had my body position and entrance down pat and this Goldwing with two people blowed by me like I was on a 250. I had to laugh at myself.

Where about in Alabama do you live? Beautiful state. I love the Lake Gunter area. Roy

A good lesson in not underestimating a 750 twin! It warms my heart to hear this story, I'm gonna go read it to my '79 750 twin to give it a little inspiration.

Centreville Alabama, Center of the state middle of no where.

An aerial shot of the track


where the pic of my bike and I that I posted was taken (minus the cars going around 200)


These turns are banked @ 43 degrees. Get out a compass and see what it looks like. Its like riding into a bowl. It messes with your mind when you first do it, but the awesome meter goes off the chart when your doing it.

Great story, I'm envious. I regret not ever taking my Ninja to a track before I sold it. 2x the hp of my twin and 100lb lighter. Funny thing is the torque is pretty close.

sweet! next time give me a shout out. live in ga. but only 45min. from daga,would love some of that. not to change subject but are u in relay? could use some help in middle alb. to carry.i know black zr1 wouldent mind alittle help. might see u at barbers plan to go this year.

Great post!

I think I have more fun on a slow, old bike with the throttle pinned, than a fast, new bike with the throttle barely cracked open.

enaz1 wrote: sweet! next time give me a shout out. live in ga. but only 45min. from daga,would love some of that. not to change subject but are u in relay? could use some help in middle alb. to carry.i know black zr1 wouldent mind alittle help. might see u at barbers plan to go this year.

I haven't been on this site in a while so as of now I'm in the relay, but I will check it out and maybe join up. It sounds like fun. I'm going to be @ Barbers for a day or two (you are talking about the Vintage meet right??). I'll be there with a bunch of amazingly cool riders from bamarides.com/ride/index.php Even though your in Ga. you ought to join up, heck its free and if there is any riding of any kind in Ala Bamarides will have someone there probably.

loudhvx wrote: Great post!

I think I have more fun on a slow, old bike with the throttle pinned, than a fast, new bike with the throttle barely cracked open.

It has me itching to bring an old, big bore GPZ back to life just for this.