Click on the image to go the Gunsmoke site for the story of how this bike came to have its stripes.
No, it isn't mine, mine is still stock blue.

Riding out of the parking lot yesterday I noticed a young lady standing next to her car, watching me accelerate towards the street. She had a nice smile and was pretty easy on the eyes. Then it hit me, she's conveying that she likes the bike! Hmm, she's standing in the way that women stand when they are in the early stages of flirting. Oh my, this is fascinating.

If I wanted to strike up a conversation with her, I would be in trouble. It's not like I'm gonna do a stoppie. I don't know how, and even if I did, that wouldn't be cool. I can't even turn around and wave because I'm heading towards traffic and I'm not willing to risk a quick look. If I were really cool, I wouldn't be ruminating about this in real-time. I would have the presence of mind to to wave over my head without looking back, downshift, gun it and wheelie out. - Ha! not likely, nor even possible.

I've spent 24 hours thinking about what was less than a 5 second encounter. Plenty of people have come up to me when I've been on or standing next to my bike. They want to "talk bikes" or talk to me about riding, but they aren't flirting. The young lady in the parking lot was sending a signal and I felt it. Did she know that I'm female? Frankly that doesn't matter to me. I'm just basking in the experience of someone flirting with me because I'm riding a motorcycle. So this is why guys think about whether or not a bike will enhance their chick-magnet quotient. Fascinating.

I've been spending too much time at the office, working on a project that I'm passionate about. That means that I'm not riding much.

We are just at the beginning of the track season, and some of you are deciding whether to attend your first track day. Here is something just for you.

John Merlin Williams sent this picture of him riding the track at Barber Motorsports Park. I asked him if he remembered his thoughts from this day, and received this response (reprinted with permission), which I hope you will enjoy. [more pictures of John]

I remember that whole weekend very well - it was late September in 2004 at Barber Motorsports Park just outside of Birmingham, Alabama. When this picture was taken I was probably just thinking "SWEET! - I am flying!"

I'm from Ann Arbor, Michigan, started club racing at age 49 with a group called GLRRA (Great Lakes Road Racing Assoc. - now disbanded) in 2000, and know a handful of tracks in the Midwest. Most of them have pavement ranging from just okay to marginal. If it's not ripples from the cars braking hard into corners, it's patches and seams, or poor drainage and water trickling across the track sometimes for days after it rains. But we love those track days anyway!

I'd heard so much about Barber, the track layout, the pavement quality, and the awesome museum with 700+ restored motorcycles, I had to make the pilgrimage. We went down that fall in what was only the second year of Barber's operations. Even then, George Barber was such a perfectionist about the racing surface that the track had been repaved twice again, since the original paving, to meet his standards.

It is really hard to describe the level of perfection Barber has achieved in everything from the track itself to the grounds and of course the museum - that alone would be a destination for someone like myself. My first motorcycle was a Moto Guzzi 125 Sport. I've never even met anyone who has heard of this bike, and Barber has two of them in his museum, not to mention hundreds of truly priceless rides.

But the track is so sweet. I love tracks with a lot of elevation change and lots of rhythm - big braking, short acceleration zones, lots of hanging off and fast flowing direction changes. When I get in the flow, these tracks give me the sense of flying. The bike disappears and I am master of my own flying dream. Well Barber is a track that does that to me. There is so much motion in all three dimensions, I just grin and grin. The safety planning is also just outstanding.

The picture in question is taken at about the apex of Turn 15, the last turn before coming on to the front straight. It ought to be a very easy corner to master. It can be taken very fast, about flat out in 3rd gear for me (I just have a 5 speed tranny) - about 95 - but I was spooked early on because it comes at the bottom of a pretty steep elevation drop. Maybe it was because the bike accelerated so fast going down hill my instinct was to hold back. I don't know. But it took me about three full sessions to realize how fast you can put it through there and how far you could lay it over. I had one handicap which were the tires I ran that weekend. I had switched from Dunlop 208 GP Stars to Bridgestone slicks. The slicks were about 1/2" narrower than the Dunlops and it was just enough loss in ride-height (cranked over), even with ride-height adjusted to the max, that I was dragging the header pipes on this turn and in Turn 1 (another downhill, sharp left-hander with a bit of positive camber that can be taken very fast).

Last observation: the track surface was so perfect. Here's my first recollection. At most tracks when your knee puck hits the track surface, there is that satisfying "vr-vr-vr-vr-vr" sound - that kind of lumpy, vibey, buzz that says you've made contact. The first time my puck hit the pavement at Barber, I was a bit startled because the sound was "s-s-s-s-s" - the asphalt aggregate is so fine and the compaction so tight that it hisses. And it has traction without chewing your tires to shreds in a single session. Since then I've wondered what the surface is like at Laguna Seca.

I've encouraged John to come to California and give Laguna Seca and Sears Point / Infineon a try. I don't think the surface of either track will compare to what he describes on Barber, but both tracks certainly have the variety of rhythm and elevation that make riding a track such a thrilling experience. I've put Barber on my list.