Prep & Mods (08/97)

Prep & Mods
08/97

Maintenance prep this month:

Full tune and maintenance by Curt Jordan at Jordan Engineering. The bike was starting to run a little ragged. Curt's tune-up brought the spunk back. Thanks Curt!

Mods:

We really didn't do much else w/the bike this month, other than slice open a couple of tennis balls to stick on the ends of the footpegs. I was getting tired of whacking my shins on the pegs - hey, I'm a klutz.

Most of the work this month was sponsor and image related. I ordered some self-adhesive water-proof vinyl sheets from Advantage Sign Supply and gave the do-it-yourself decals another try. They came out a lot better than with the Epson paper I tried a couple of months ago. The adhesive is much stronger, though I still have problems with the complex curves on the front of the fairing.

Instead of protecting the decals with clear Krylon spray, I tried some lamination sheets from the local office supply store.. Very nice. The only thing left to cure is the sun fading the colors. I've ordered some UV-coated lamination to try out next month.

Next on the list was building a sponsor board. We cut a piece of pine board to fill the back end of the truck. A week of sanding, filling, and painting (repeat, repeat, repeat .....) resulted in a great looking sign. I called on Terry at Tapeworks Graphics to supply the vinyl lettering - of course I ordered it with only a couple of weeks to spare and the UPS strike hit the same day. Terry busted a hump to get the lettering out and the good old boys in blue delivered it on time!

While were were in a wood-working mode (and looking for something else to use my new sander & saw on), Steve & I fashioned up a eight-foot flag pole to hang Old Glory from.

Why all the dress-up work? We're going sponsor hunting! The plan was to dress up the pit, highlight our current sponsors, and have Viewpoint Photography shoot some publicity shots. Of course I insisted that we get the shots done right way, at high noon on Friday with the desert sun baking our brains. Bright sunlight, lots of white paint, and a photo session don't mix! Viewpoint tried their best, but there was way too much light. I've included the best of the session here, but we're going to shoot a couple of late-afternoon sessions in August for the real thing.

Bob