Obese Trucks and Fat Guys at Racetracks

Warning. The first part of this post will be closer to entertaining. The second part will be wildly boring for the vast majority of people. Consider yourself warned. Now, on with the show!

Since acquiring our wee little Nissan a couple of months ago I can't help but notice that a Japanese full size 1995 pickup truck does not really compare in size to a current-generation American full size pickup truck, as seen here:



Granted, the Ford is an F-250, but the Chevy is just the regular-sized behemoth. The only thing I know of about it that is in any way larger than "standard" is that it is the quad-cab, which as we all know means that the guy wanted a truck but someone more clear-headed insisted on a station wagon. I think we can all agree on the inherent supremacy of the station wagon: it can carry just as much stuff inside as the trucks pictured above when it needs to, but it gets small-car gas mileage all the time. You can even add a hitch for those days when you need to get your motorbike to the racetrack (picture coming some day).

One day I happened to need a tailgate on the truck. As I believe I might have mentioned previously Edith did not come with one. It usually isn't a problem, other than the slightly lower gas mileage achieved by trucks without a tailgate. However, when it's time to move, after you have gotten all of the couches, beds, washers, dryers, pianos, tables, and other big stuff out of the old place, eventually you get to the stuff that is just too big for a box but not really big enough that you trust it to stay put while skidding around corners on the way to the new place. So I had to improvise:
Why, yes. That is an appropriately-sized corrugated box bungee-corded in where the tailgate is supposed to go. I have even tested it on the interstate a couple of times, just for fun. And yes, I did write "NISSAN" in permanent marker on the box. It seemed inappropriate at the time.

And now for the less-generally-entertaining part.

For Labor Day Jax and I went to Jennings, OK (just outside of Tulsa) for a track weekend at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit, www.hallettracing.com for those of you who care. It had been 2 1/2 years since my last trackday and 3 1/2 years since my last trackday at this particular track. I had a lot of street habits that I spent most of the morning of the first day fighting. However, since I have over 21,000 miles on the current bike, plus probably another 1,000 on the last bike of nothing but street miles, I wasn't terribly surprised by that.

But, I still had a lot of fun. Anyway, one of my friends managed to get some video of me on track so everyone can see how slow I look while I ride around in a big, convoluted circle. Maybe the video will even embed properly so you won't have to go to youtube to find it!



Just in case, here is a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUVrhY-5fR4

He catches up to me (fat guy on a blue bike with yellow trim and yellow leather suit) at about the 2:40 mark and follows me for the rest of the video. I think it was nice of him to stay behind me to try and make me look like I'm faster than he is. In reality though, he is significantly faster than me when he wants to be.

Anyway, I guess that's enough rambling for now. You may now resume your regularly scheduled life.