Fat Lazy Bastard Racing

Remembering My Brother – Brian “B” Joseph McLane

Today would mark the 37th Birthday of my Brother. Brian “B” Joseph McLane

I seldom talk about the events that shadow that cold morning in January of this year. In fact, I don’t think, I have ever spoke of it at all outside the small circle of friends.  Sometimes I forget, it will slip out, and people will stare at me, not really knowing what to say, or if what I said was some sick morbid joke.

However, for what it is worth, it is not.

Today, August 11th, 2009 would have been the 37th birthday of my Brother.  I am not sure why I don’t speak of it, maybe it is still something I try to believe never happened.

Maybe, even for a moment, I don’t want to believe it.  Sitting there, in the passenger seat of my pickup, was a photo book I had just had made, and picked up the day before, to be delivered to my brother that very Saturday.

It was a photo book of my year chronicled of my racing. He always wanted a few photo’s, and I had decided to instead have this book made for him.  I never got the chance to give it to him. Instead, that day when I made my trip down to his home, I instead gave it to my parents.

Their is, rarely a day that goes by, that I do not think of my brother. Sometimes, I still think he is here, and I forget. I catch myself mid sentence of sometimes speaking.  He was a mechanic, someone I would pick the brain of once in awhile when I had problems with my pickup, or a friend had problems.  I have caught myself, even still, reaching for the phone to make a call. It pulls at me, still.

Today is your day, however. And although I am late in writing this, know, I always will miss you.

Happy Birthday B

Granite Memorial Stone I had made for my Brother to be anchored at the base of a Memory Tree planted in his honor.

Hard Decisions – Calling it a year

After much time sitting around, deliberating over it, and putting the scenarios in my head, while staring into the nothingness, I have decided to wrap things up and call it a year.

We all know track day and race attendances are down this year, due to the sluggish “economy”. Some good friends of mine decided to take the year off, others lost their jobs early on, and were not able to make it out this year. Myself? Everything seemed fine, and I had put aside a bit of play money for this year, enough to last a few months, knowing I could make up the rest of what was needed by the time I ran out of that.

But, like more times than not, things didn’t go as planned.

Earlier this year, I was hit with a pay decrease, but I still had my job. I realized at that point, I was going to have to really cut back in order to continue to enjoy this sport.

So I moved out of my place I was living in, got a roommate, and figured all would be good.

A couple miscalculations here, a couple of blunders there, and here I am.

It has been an amazing season for me really. I enjoyed every day of it, even the slight “mishap” I had during round 4.

Along with this, I have decided to sale the track bike, which is a “very” hard decision for me as I had originally planned on keeping it for eternity.

The Bike that Ebay Built, a name that it was coined by some friends of mine, after I had made the decision to build it piece by piece from ebay auctions. It started with a frame, than a swing-arm and rear shock. Next came front forks, and a front wheel, than a rear wheel,  finally an engine. It went together, it roared to life, and it put a smile on my face knowing I accomplished everything I set out to do. The first day I took it out on the track I was filled with fear. Fear that I may have “Missed” something, after spending 8 months of scouring ebay, and piecing it together.

That first lap went by, than another, than another. The day went on, and I had the biggest smile on my face.

Just over a year later, I never would have dreamed I’d be making this decision, but there are more important things financially I must tend to now.

My ultimate goal is to be back out next year. I hope that I can get everything squared away, and feel comfortable that I can purchase, or who knows, build another bike to be out for the first race of 2010. Or who knows, maybe be back out on an 07 R6, as my Street Bike is just that. I just don’t know at this stage.

For those interested in the track bike who may read this, feel free to email me at memclane at gmail dot com.

07 R6 – Stock Engine, Stock Exhaust, Armour Bodies Body Work,  ASV Levers, Motobits Rear Sets, SBS Dual Carbon Front Pads, an extra set of wheels, spare frame, spare swingarm, spare subframe, spare triple clamp, spare radiator, spare airbox, spare throttle bodies, pitbull front and rear stands, yade yade Too much to continue listing. I’ll have a For Sale up soon :p

I would like to thank everyone who came out and supported me this last year, as well as Troy of Pennell Powersports/Bridgestone. Also a big thanks to Mark of 2-Fast and his crew, as well as Mario with Adrenaline Freaks and his crew. Both these local guys put on amazing track days for us, and we are fortunate to have them.

Until Next Year,

Michael McLane #812 (The Fat Lazy Bastard)

#812 Michael McLane Turn 8 Pacific Raceways - June 3rd, 2009

The “Well, There’s your problem” edition

Well Friday ended up being a productive day! Not because I had it off, but because I was able to finally resolve the issues with my bike.  I am finally glad this little chapter is coming to a close, as it was really starting to drag on me.  I really wasn’t sure I was going to do if this didn’t work (even though I was positive it would).

Check the Fed Ex Tracking number, shows my throttle bodies assembly is out for delivery! Weeeeeeee

So I wait around the house (Had the day off), and it finally shows up just after noon.

I boogie on down to the storage unit, and decide what plan of action I am going to take.

I decide… That I am going to just replace the throttle side TPS, just to see how things respond.

So I do that…

I put the bike in Diagnostic Mode…

And everything Actuates!

I then adjust the sensor, tighten the bodies down, and get her all buttoned up!

Then I realized I forgot to put the side tank bolts on!

And I was running behind and am supposed to meet some people at 4:30…

Which means I need to run home, grab bike, and then hit the meeting spot…

So I just leave.

Yesterday I went ahead and finished it up. Started her up, and she runs! (good sign!)

So yay!

Oh, and on an unrelated note, I finally found my camera, which means I can start taking pictures for updates now! God I hate moving, I always loose stuff for long periods of time!

Bucket of Bolts – The “It’s Broke, Guess I Should Fix It” Issue

Turn 8 Pacific Raceways

I’ve got to say.  I’m pretty confident when I get around to fixing things.  I will dive into a job, work on it, think I’ve got it done, and it usually works in the end.

The R6 is no different.  After the WMRRA Race Weekend, the next day I dove into the bike, and started tracking down the issues.

Since I was already aware of where to look, I went straight for the throttle bodies.  Now, this is something I have gotten extremely good at doing. Pulling the bike down to the throttle bodies.

Maybe it’s the fact I built my bike? Nah, this is the first time I’ve had the tank off since I put it together (Minus when I clean the Air Filter… Which I should probably do more often :p ).
Or it’s because Chris Sarbora always tends to give me a reason to pull his bike apart…

No, that’s not it either. The reason I’ve gotten so good at doing this, is my Street Bike, which I have pulled apart and put back together multiple times as well.  It is also an 07 R6.

Well, back to my Race Bike.

So I jumped into it, started running diagnostics, and found out the throttle side TPS was out of whack a little.

I adjusted it, started the bike, reved it up. All seemed to work.

Wednesday night, Troy, the Bridgestone dude, called me and told me to come down to Portland for the weekend.  After some thought, I went ahead, and signed up for the Cascade Track Time Friday Date, took the day off from work, loaded the bike, and down I went.  I had already planned to go down to Oregon that weekend, and without towing a trailer, my pickup gets the same fuel mileage with the bike in the bed of it.

So Friday, I get prepped, I get ready, and I go out, and……….

Bike ends up unresponsive….

It’s probably a good thing I ended up just buying a Half Day.

It wasn’t a complete waste though.  I ended up going out for 1 session on Troy’s bike… Then it started to rain buckets…

So back here at home, I pulled it apart again, and went back through the throttle bodies.  I put the DVM (Digital Volt Meter) on it, and started to check things over again.  Nope, everything checks out still.

This is when I started to realize, it is possible that it is something other than the throttle bodies. A thought that really started to scare me.

See, I started to realize, that there are 2 other things it could be. The wire Harness, or the ECU.  I can test the wire harness, and so I did.  Everything made it’s way back to the ECU.
I got scared… Realizing it may be the ECU, I also realized that would probably be the end of my season if it was.  I was depressed, and down.

Finally, while talking to Chris about it, he came up with a brilliant idea… Test the Throttle Bodies on his bike…  Errr, DUH!  Why didn’t I think of that!

And it was extremely easy to test as well, as I still have his bike torn down to the throttle bodies! (Putting the Bazzazz back on).

So I hooked them up, went into Diag mode, twisted the throttle…. And………. (Suspense, I know!)……. Nothing!

Never in my life, has nothing made me feel so good!

So let me take a moment to talk about why before I said everything checks out, and now nothing is happening.

See, before I put my throttle bodies on his bike, I tested his out in Diag Mode. Something I was not aware of prior (Since I’ve never messed with it in Diag Mode much, except when I built the bike), was that D01, actually allows the throttle bodies to be controlled. You can open and close them with the throttle like you would while out and about on it.

With this bit of knowledge now, and the fact that they did nothing when I hooked them up, I am extremely happy!

So home I came, ordered a new Throttle Body assembly off of Ebay, and it should be here on Friday!  Just in time for me to work on it over the weekend!

Hurray!

So even though something is broken, somewhere, I can’t figure it out. Both sensors test out.  Maybe one of these day’s, I’ll pull the sensors from both sets and test and see.  Maybe it’s the servo motor as well? Never know!

That’s my little update on things.  Later!

Bike Update – OMRRA Update

So Monday Night I tore into the bike.

First thing’s first. Pull Seat, Tank, Airbox.  Ok Great, can get to the throttle bodies now.

Check the connections?  All solid. Crap, not a “Click it and fix it” type of ordeal going on.
Start the bike up in Diagnostic Mode.  D-01 is reading 16 closed (12-21 is acceptable) and 87 open (97-106 is acceptable).

So TPS looks like it is either bad or needing adjustment.

While i’m in Diag I check the other TPS on D14 and D15. Both read within acceptable ranges.  13 closed, 102 open.  That’s what I want to see.

Yamaha in their complete greatness, decided to put 1 TPS on the throttle bodies, the right one, using security bit’s. This happens to be the TPS I need to get to.  So I had to ditch my efforts Monday Night, due to not knowing exactly where my Security Bit Set Is (I just recently moved, stuff is still packed away in places I have no clue about).

Yesterday (Tuesday), after work, I head down to my Storage Unit, and start digging through some box’s and finally come across my Security Bit Set.

Up to Tony’s I go, and get back to the Throttle Bodies.

I loosen up the TPS, put it in Diag Mode again, and move it a little.

Finally get it to settle at 20 closed, 98 open…

Hrmmmm Very close. I think I’ll need to change it eventually.

So I get everything back together, take it outside, and start it up. Run it a bit, twist the throttle all the way, rev her up. Seems to be working.

Put it in gear on the Rear Stand, and do the same thing.

So it seems fixed…

However, I have made the overall decision, NOT to do OMRRA this weekend. Just too much at stake (money wise) to go down, get in a lap and have this happen again at practice, a track day, or in the race.

I want to get a track day in locally (Possibly Monday with NESBA) and test it out first before doing anything.  Also, I am going to ebay a throttle body assembly.  That way I have a spare laying around with a couple TPS’s on it.

Anyways… That’s my Update…

New Helmet

I decided to get a new helmet.

After the first Track Day and Race weekend of the year that I attended, I remembered why I hated my helmet so much.
My Standard Race Helmet has been the Scorpion EXO700.  It’s a good crash worthy helmet that I have seen personally take the impart of a head first dive bomb into the tarmac, so I don’t question its ability to protect the noggin.

However, I have problems with it over 130mph in the straight.  I would get a blast of wind straight into my eyes, causing me to tear up, and have blurry vision going into turn 1 and 2.

So although I can hit just over 150 down the front straight, I was keeping it throttled back during the race due to this issue. Something that probably effected my lap times just a tad (probably not a whole lot).

So comes in my new helmet.  I took the feedback that Tony gave me of his new helmet, one that we both tried on last year, and really thought fit extremely well. That helmet is the Bell Star.
This helmet, is the lightest I have picked up. Not only that, it fit so dang well.  After the feedback from Tony, I jumped on a good deal and got mine for 250 bucks (he got his for 200, but they were out of that style in my size).

My first time using it was at ORP, in the hot desert heat. I must say the few things I really love about this helmet.

I love how the shield locks in place

I love the ventilation

I especially love the face shield and the fit.
Time will tell if it really works well at Pacific in the straight.  ORP doesn’t have a long enough straight for me to get up to 130mph or better to try it out for that. So this next Track Day I do at PR will definitely be a good day for testing.

Hears hoping it works out well!
Right now though? 2 thumbs up. This helmet rocks.  I’ll get a photo up when I have time to take a peeksure.