Spanking the Cow- The continuing saga of an R100GSPD at the Races

[Gone-Native]

Originally Posted by Stagehand

I'm still working out a bunch of loose ends and details and crap like that but the gist of it is I might be riding a Paul Rooney Special in the Australian Safari Rally this coming September

I dont want to jinx anything, because I haven't sent in an entry form yet or anything yet, but I've had a conversation or two with Mr. Rooney by email and suffice to say its like I had a dream and it came true the next day.

Holy shit holy shit holy SHIT


The last sticker run was entirely free and for fun- Mario and I made nothing on them, but the next run might be for fundraising efforts

Everything will work out just fine! I can sense it(it's a Indian thing)

[Stagehand]

Originally Posted by Gone-Native

Everything will work out just fine! I can sense it(it's a Indian thing)

To the Finish... AND BEYOND!!!!




Seriously the word Kismet came up about 4 times, independently. FOr once I am going to take the universe at face value :lol

[bgoodsoil]

Alright picture this:



Make the guy on the right Stagehand, the guy on the left is a kangaroo

[KhaoSanMan]

Originally Posted by Stagehand

I'm still working out a bunch of loose ends and details and crap like that but the gist of it is I might be riding a Paul Rooney Special in the Australian Safari Rally this coming September

I dont want to jinx anything, because I haven't sent in an entry form yet or anything yet, but I've had a conversation or two with Mr. Rooney by email and suffice to say its like I had a dream and it came true the next day.

Holy shit holy shit holy SHIT

Dude that sounds very awesome! Can't wait to learn more about the bike and the story behind it.

Since we have a better gauge of the demand for these stickers/shirts we could probably order a run and skip the whole made-to-order route we did last time. That would reduce our cost for the stickers, allowing us to maintain the price while gaining funding for you and the team.

[hardwaregrrl]

Wow! Just wow!!! You're the luckiest guy I know and most deserved.

[Rapid Dog]

Stagehand Does Downunder!
....I may have to be sponsor on this gig...

[Airhead Wrangler]

Some Rooney racer porn for inspiration:

[Stagehand]

Yessir that is the bike in question

R65 bored to 850. WP 48's up front and YSS in back, 300 and 325mm respectively, I think. Looks dual plugged, with Flat slides. Tank is a 30L off of a DR650.

Simon Pavey was going to ride it in the Condo last year, (The other Australian rally) but a bad battery burned up the harness last minute.

I'm familiar with airhead tribulations, its always a risk. But I am fairly confident nothing of that nature will rear its ugly head... Mr. R wants to come along as the support mechanic.

That guy riding in the third pic down is Graham Grant, I think who rode the bike to respectable finishes in 2009 and 10, I think.

Reports suggest this rally can be finished if treated as an aggressive dual sport.... keeping the bike upright and maintaining 3/4 of my ability should get me to the finish, I hope.

Its a 4000Km race. over 7 days. Thats a lot of riding. 600kms a day.

Thats about 300 miles a day over shit that looks like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lii8j...eature=related

[Stagehand]

Originally Posted by KhaoSanMan

Dude that sounds very awesome! Can't wait to learn more about the bike and the story behind it.

Since we have a better gauge of the demand for these stickers/shirts we could probably order a run and skip the whole made-to-order route we did last time. That would reduce our cost for the stickers, allowing us to maintain the price while gaining funding for you and the team.

Hayduke (adv) does a lot of Tshirt and sticker production. Good to keep it in the family

[Stagehand]

Originally Posted by bgoodsoil

Alright picture this:


Make the guy on the right Stagehand, the guy on the left is a kangaroo

Thats pretty funny I like it

[pvangel]

I'm in for supporting Jason in anyway I can, sign me up for whatever were buying!
Those bikes appear to have real suspension on them so not sure how you will deal with that though.....

[Airhead Wrangler]

Originally Posted by Stagehand

Yessir that is the bike in question

R65 bored to 850. WP 48's up front and YSS in back, 300 and 325mm respectively, I think. Looks dual plugged, with Flat slides. Tank is a 30L off of a DR650.

You left out the most significant detail of that bike. Last time I talked to Rooney he said he had the weight of that thing down to 149kg. THAT'S 328 LBS!!!!! I'm not sure how he did it all, but wow.

[LoJack]

Crap! That looks like fun. I'm down for a t-shirt and sticker.

[Padmei]

Good stuff Stage. The safari is a great race. Start doing those push ups to build up that upper body
The only bugger is that Brotownboy will be along soon posting pics of his bloody rooney special - & HP2

[Stagehand]

good lord I havent committed yet... cant decide if its crazier to do it or not do it. I'd be crazy not to, thats for sure, but oh man it could be a big boondoggle.

But thanks for the support, this time I might need a push to the start that is, there will be NO PUSHING to the finish. Unless I have to. Haha. Two People have mentioned reliability issues.. but its my opinion that those are likely regardless of the bike. Specially any bike that I work on! Seriously this bike has finished the safari in at least '09 and '10, and done several others.[EDIT: CHECKING BACK THROUGH PAST RESULTS< THERE WAS A DNF IN 2009, and a WITHDRAWN (I THINK) IN THE CONDO750 2011.] HEll, my own bike has given me enough to worry about... And certainly Mr.Rooney's reputation as a tuner is above reproach, as far as I can tell from anyone. So is the risk of a mechanical DNF but having no shipping or rental costs plus mechanic equal to the risk and cost and hassle of prepping my own bike and shipping it?

I would have to say it kinda seems like it...would you agree?

Prepare for success! All I'm trying to do is finish, (as well as possible) so its the same game as always, right? It is a bit different if I'm out a couple hundred bucks to go race in South Carolina vs several th-th-thTHousands to go to the freeking antipodes, but worst case is I have a big old adventure, right?

This thing requires an FIM license and a medical checkup including an echocardiogram among other things.


oh yeah, Bike weight! He's saying its 150-153Kgs depending on setup.. I think for Safari its 153 before gas. Still, a very light machine and with outside dimensions of an R65, so its as tight a package as you can get.



What tires do you normally run? And how many get used for this? 2500 miles, I'm thinking three sets total... change em every other day? And are they Tubed or Moussed? How many oil and air filters? Very dusty... Probably need at least four or five of each.

What the hell else? holy crap, only six months to go??
HEy Paul if youre reading this- I'm going to more than likely do this anyway...Think I've got the entry fee covered as we speak. I'm just going over the dread fears and my heads all over the place Really very excited.