A friend of the Dukes and fellow Baja 1000 nut, Jay Sherman, just started a new social network using ning. It’s called RacerSpace and is “for everyone who enjoys powersports, racing, and being a fan! Motocross, Racing, TT, bikes, quads, racers, fans, whatever!”
If you haven’t seen it, check it out. Also, visit the DOFB Racing section.
I just ran across the work of an amazing photographer named Pieter Hugo. He has a number of series, but I was particularly drawn to these photographs taken in Nigeria of men who have taken wild animals as “pets”. Who doesn’t want a Hyena running around the house? Wild stuff! Check out the official site.
The 2007 F1 season was one of the most memorable seasons ever due to some of the most bizarre events off the track and some great driving. A spying scandal between the top two teams Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes, a $100,000,000 fine, Lewis Hamilton, a rookie driver almost took the F1 championship and spent the whole season sniping with bitter rival and teammate Fernando Alonso.
Well this weekend brings us to the Island of Convicts, otherwise known as Australia, for the start of the 2008 Formula One season and a whole new year of driving and intrigue.
Some major changes this year are Fernando Alonso has left McLaren to race for Renault, Heikki Kovalainen is now racing for McLaren, the Spyker team is now Force India F1 and Traction Control has been banned. For those who do not know what traction control the simplest statement I have seen is “Any device or system which notifies the driver of the onset of wheel spin is not permitted.”
Below is the schedule for the 2008 season, which can be seen here in the US on Speed Channel.
If you are new to F1, it is never too late to start watching, myself being a late convert and if you think of auto racing as one big left turn, than get NASCAR out your head and set your DVR for the 2008 Formula Season.
One thing I learned on our recent training run in Utah is that not all chest protection is created equal. I was wearing a pretty typical Roost Deflector along with elbow guards.
We were headed due West into a blinding, setting sun. I couldn’t see and slipped out of the rut I was driving in. When things go wrong, they go wrong quickly. In a split second, the bike was down and I was lying on my right side. I was only going around 20 MPH, but the impact was intense. I took the force of it on my right shoulder and head. My head was fine, but my shoulder was seriously bruised. It’s been a week and I feel like I was in a car accident. My shoulder is incredibly weak and sore. The long and the short of it: typical chest protection does very little to protect your sides or shoulders.
That was all I needed to explore other options. I’ve settled on a more comprehensive solution by Thor called an Impact SE Rig. It has chest protection and an articulated spine, along with shoulder caps, elbow guards and forearm guards. It even has a built in kidney belt which is a must when riding whoops.
There are a number of these systems out there by great manufacturers like Fox, Axo, EVS and Six Six One.
We plan to use my 2007 FJ Cruiser as a support vehicle in our bid for the 2008 Baja 1000. I’m particularly excited because it affords the perfect opportunity to turn the truck into something out of Mad Max. Make it so mean, it’d make a freight train take a dirt road.
I decided to start with a K&N 77 Series High-Flow Air Intake System. It’s a cheap way to add 10hp to the truck and the design is resistant to dirt and sand. Let’s all take a deep breath together.
06 Mar
Posted by Graham as Baja 1000, Electronics, Gadgets, Motorcycle, Travel
One of the pieces of gear we’ll bring to Mexico for the 2008 Baja 1000 is a SPOT Satellite Messenger. This device can alert your team and send GPS coordinates if you run into problems, but a really cool feature is something called ’spotcasting’. SPOT can acquire and send your GPS coordinates to your account every 10 minutes. This information can be ported to Google Maps so everyone with access to the Internet can keep up with your progress.
I tried this functionality out for the first time on our Utah training run. My biggest mistake was putting the unit in a padded pocket deep inside of my Camelbak. Without a clear line of sight, this unit only works intermittently. I expected to see hundreds of waypoints, but only clocked 37 over the course of three days. Stupid is as stupid does. On our next training run, I’ll affix the unit to the outside of the backpack. I expect this will solve the problem and I’ll be able to see an accurate reflection of the course I travelled. It was cool to check out the waypoints we did capture in Google Earth. Take a gander…
If you’re like me, you probably waste and hour or two each week on Facebook. If you have the bug, go ahead and join the Dukes of Flatbush group.
I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I’ll have to chalk it up to dark forces. I got a crown last Monday, unfortunately the type you get from a dentist, not the pointy gold variety that sits atop your noodle. I relaunched heavy.com on Wednesday. Woke up on Thursday with a high fever and massive stomach cramps, then boarded a plane for Vegas to spend the weekend in Utah and Arizona training for the 2008 Baja 1000 with the Dukes racing team. What a week…
I’m happy to report that we all survived the first training run. Most of us have a ton of road experience, but much less time riding off-road so this was literally a ‘crash course’. We rode around 150 miles over three days, spending time on a variety of terrain: roads, double track, single track, washes, river beds, silt beds, shale, gravel, dirt. You name it, we rode it.
Big props to Jesse Kimball who hosted the event and was our fearless desert guide. This was an incredible step towards our goal of completing the 2008 Baja 1000. It really put everything in perspective - we’re going to need a lot of riding time and will redouble our efforts in the gym, running, biking, whatever you got. This race is going to require absolute dedication.
I’ll post a few pics here, but check out this photo gallery and this photo gallery. Around 100 pictures in all. Great stuff. I’ll also follow up with a gear review in case it helps anyone out with similar pursuits. Enjoy!
I wanted to alert everyone out there that one of my favorite races of the year is coming up soon. The NYRR Scotland Run 10K
This race always includes some world class runners, real nice gift bags, a 10am start and bagpipes. Not really sure what else you could ask for in a 10K.
If you are reading this now then you still have 25 days to prepare for this race, so get yourself in gear. It is only a 10K - 6.2 miles for the metric phobic
DOFB
