For this trip to the track, we purchased the new GoPro Hero Wide for some testing. We are now dealers of the GoPro products and would like to begin to promote business at events like this. We shot about 2 hours worth of track time, and even sold one video to a guy that had a good battle with me. He out powered me in the straights, but I held stronger lines and corner speeds to keep up! I also had a good chase with Hollifield during the next session. He stayed behind me for quite a while, then he finally out braked me into turn 13. I was able to play chase though and kept up with him the rest of the session. YouTube doesn’t like me posting these videos due to length, so once I can find the best way to get them online, then I will put them up.

The weekend was mostly a success. Late in the track day on Sunday, the CBR600RR began to act up and would not run properly. Hollifield had to drop out of the last two sessions. The GSXR600 started out strong on Saturday morning, but by early Sunday it had the throttle issues again. I had no top-end acceleration whatsoever. It was still a great time. We had planned to ride Monday, but were too tired (as were the bikes) to do so. That gave us Monday to fool around with the bikes. We cleaned out the gas tank on the GSXR600, and tried to fiddle with the CBR600RR, but no luck.

Tuesday, we took our time to get up and out as our flight wasn’t until the afternoon. We ate lunch at Bojangles’ which is a treat for all three of us as there is no Bojangles’ in Gainesville or Albuquerque.

All photos here: http://www.tonyfugere.com/gallery/v/trips/2008/jennings_10-2008

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A Perfect Endo to a Perfect Day – Watch more free videos

I am still working on compressing video. Until then, I will go over the weekend. The Gixxer’s wiring harness was finally repaired after sitting at Motorsport of Albuquerque for almost 4 weeks. It had become frayed somehow and shorted out. When it shorted out, it the high amount of current burned up a few of the connectors.

After picking up the bike from the shop, we went to Cycle Gear and picked up a mountable video camera called the Hero by GoPro Camera. It came with a few different mounting options:

• 2 - curved bases
• 2 - flat bases
• 1 – bicycle helmet mount
• 1 – head mount
• 1 – single axis tilt attachment
• 1 – two axis tilt attachment

The bases came with strong 3M double-sided tape. We mounted a curved base to the nose of Hollifield’s ’04 CBR600RR. Then, we used the same fasteners from my VStrom handlebar project to mount a flat base to the Gixxer. We did a few tests and had a big problem with the camera. It recorded our first run around the block just fine. Then, it wouldn’t record anything. It would stay on for a second then turn off. After a bit of deduction, we figured out it was the batteries. We figured the batteries that came with it were trashed, so we just put new ones in and moved on our way. I’ll come back to the video camera in a bit.

Did I mention that Hollifield got to ride his new toy for the first time? We sold his ’93 CBR600F2 and found a smoking deal on an ’04 CBR600RR on Craig’s List. It was previously owned by a former SMRI racer, and is a fantastic bike! I have not ridden it on the track yet, but Hollifield loved it. I even had a hard time keeping up with him during the morning sessions! I was not 100% comfortable with my riding. Thus, I took it slow. When the sun came out after a gloomy morning, I felt much better. I’m not sure if the cloudiness/moisture around the track psyched me, but I think it did.

We started in Group 3 (Novice) to warm up our tires as we barely got there in time to get on the track for the first round of sessions. Then, we rode Group 3 one more time before we realized that we were too fast for it. So, we bumped ourselves up to Group 2 (Intermediate). That was a much better pace for us. We got the camera out for this session, and tried it out. It appeared work perfectly for the entire session. Then, we broke for lunch.

We decided to go home (I live 20 minutes from the track) and get Hollifield’s laptop for viewing videos in between sessions. As expected, the video recorded fine. However, when we checked the battery strength, they were dead after one use! After lunch, we put new batteries in and recorded that session. The good news was that I picked up my pace and was able to keep up with Hollifield. Then, we tried the camera the session after that without exchanging the batteries and it died! The camera is destroying batteries…

Upon arrival to the track, we saw another guy with the same camera and he said his batteries last all day. We were obviously not experiencing the same results. We were able to capture two full sessions that I will have posted into this article soon. I will be returning to Cycle Gear for an exchange and hoping that it was just a fluke. The camera’s quality is really great; especially for the low price of ~$170. I will test it out the next time Tamara and I ride the VStrom.

All in all, it was a great day at the track. No hitches, no problems, nothing! I think my tires are just about done for though. They were started to slip a bit in turns…

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