CB desert sled

Take lots of pictures! Or better yet get somebody to take pictures of you screaming by on your new rocketship!

Can't wait to hear about and maybe see footage of the new top speed. Another 5* ought to do something. Hope the bottom end is ok.

Have fun, I wish I was going.

Thanks for all the good wishes; this weekend went great!

Allan and I drove up to Odessa on Friday and got settled into the ADV cattle chute corner camp. Directions were basically "go to the SE corner, look for the white pickup with the white toyhauler and KTMs parked near it".

We found it.






There was a poker run on Saturday, we were originally going to sign up for the Family Run but the Ironman t-shirts looked cooler, so we signed up for that instead. None of us had street legal bikes, so the Dualsport ride was out. Since the hard parts of the Ironman course are usually included in the race it was just as well that we try it.

Here's a video from the Ironman course, it's a bit of narrow trail that runs between the river and a railroad bed. This part is usually in the race but was cut out this year. It usually causes a huge bottleneck and a drowned bike or two.

<iframe width="960" height="540" src="http://contour.com/stories/railroad-trail-desert-100-poker-run/embed?map=false&width=960px&height=540px" frameborder="0"></iframe>


Getting the bike through rocks didn't always go so smoothly:

I gained an inch of ground clearance on Saturday. More towards the edges. I did drop the bike a few times; a couple of times from stalling it, another couple of times from running out of clearance on sidehills. The bike took a bit of getting used to; line selection is different- avoid sidehills and big rocks but steep grades are no problem.



I gave Don and Rick a worry on the Poker run. Towards the end they went ahead of me then I stopped for a guy that was stuck, he'd broken his clutch cover, lost his oil and was pushing. I didn't pack the tow rope thinking someone else would need it but it worked out. It took a while to finally catch up.



After we got back we made some repairs; adjusted the idle mixture to help with the stalling and replaced the tires and rear sprocket.


The rear brake boiled during the poker run even though I wasn't using it much, the bungee in the picture is an improvised return spring that fixed the problem.




We also put in some more plastic to keep dust of the air filter.



Sunday was race day. It rained overnight which was great, it stopped the dust, but it made some parts a bit slippery. The fresh tires were great.

The weather forcast had been good, and there was a huge turnout. Somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand racers.

Don and Rick:


Paul:


Yours truly:








Being in the vintage class, I started in the second wave, which was half the size and far more sane than the first wave. The lack of dust was wonderful.

Beginning:


End:




Here are a couple of video clips from the race itself. The first is a bottleneck; the course went into a box canyon and out the two corners. This was my only drop of the race. The video's a bit dull for the first 30 seconds, I was caught on some sagebrush.
<iframe width="960" height="540" src="http://contour.com/stories/d100-bottleneck-climb/embed?map=false&width=960px&height=540px" frameborder="0"></iframe>


Here's a clip of some trail that wasn't all whooped out.
<iframe width="960" height="540" src="http://contour.com/stories/d100-sagebrush-singletrack/embed?map=false&width=960px&height=540px" frameborder="0"></iframe>


It was a good weekend.



Now all I have to do is get ready for Mexico. :eek1 It's a huge boost to have the bike do well at the Desert 100, it's short but much rougher than Mexico.

Ah, congratulations Luke! Happy to hear the weekend went so well.

So where are the finisher shirt, sticker and Iron Man shirt pics?

How is the top speed working for you? Happy with the gearing?

Can you imagine someone unfamiliar with your project trying to reconcile the soundtrack to the action in this video?

we always knew when it was Luke behind us, there was no other bike that sounded like his, not even close!

Every time Luke fired it up in camp you could see heads snap as people tried to figure out what that was

Awesome! Great video clips Luke and fantastic photos Allan!

I love the soundtrack of the CBZR...

It looks and sounds like everyone had a great time!

Thats some good stuff!

Nothing like a serious trial run close to home!

A few pics and comments, Luke can weigh in later with a more full report.

This Saturday morning a very good friend and someone who has helped on many projects over the years came by for the day to work on my vintage twin. As Randy is 6'5", It ocurred to me that it might be interesting to have him sit on the CBRZ-650 for perspective;



Looks like it was made for him!

We got to work on our project and a little later Luke and Corey rolled in and got right to work. I must have been awfully preoccupied, it seemed like in no time I turned around and all that was left of Luke's bike was a pile of parts;



They did some welding on Luke's bike and even jumped into do a bit of creative metal work on my frame;



Then they got busy cleaning, grinding and sanding on Luke's frame and all the various parts he had fabricated or modified in order to give them a few coats of paint;



If your wondering what Luke has in his hands, it's a can of paint and heat gun;



Corey painting a myriad of exotic hand built parts;


Looking forward to seeing the bike painted and all put back together!

Jebus

The last time I was there I rode that bike, now it is a pile of parts

Well at least we have 11 days before tech inspection

Luke's long journey back to the MK1 is nearing completion.

When I returned home from work yesterday afternoon;







And then this morning, went out to check his progress from the night before;



It is really looking good with it's battleship gray (appropriate name) paint!

Going to Mexico and riding the MK1 is probably going to seem like a vacation after this build!

When I got home last night, there he was working away, but still smiling.

Here he's building the front mounting plate for electricals;



A little later in the evening, plate is on and wiring is proceeding;



This morning, lots of progress was made;



Closeup of wiring and roto packs, front to back;







Mag 7? Luke don't need no stinkin' Mag 7, just look at those roto packs!

Man 'o man, awesome progress! I dig the Rotopax "saddle" mount and the paint looks great.

Good luck guys! Viva La CBRZ!!

It is a lot further along now. I left my camera at home.

Well Yesterday we did a bunch of work on the bike, with any luck it will be ready for next Saturday

When I got there these were sitting on the table.



Just a little more fab work













Just about ready

Best desert sled, bar none! The filter shrouds look great!