December 2007
As you might be able to tell, I got down about the 999 and I had no results to show for all the work and money! 2006 was about the worst year I had without crashing. It's nice that I didn't crash, but when it was all said and done, you spend about the same amount of money because you are going every month, buying tires, maintaing the bike etc. When you do all that, and then have nothing to show for the results, it sucks. It is now December 2007 and when I look back on the notes from March 2006, it is good to see some progress finally. In 2007 I finally went faster on the 999 than I ever did on the 748. Not by much, but I got down to a 1:27.034 which is so close to a 1:26 that I was finally feeling like things were going to start getting really fun again. The classes I race in now have everyone doing 1:28 or better, so this is what I need to be doing as well. But, it took a ton of effort. Dunlop finally made a tire I could use, and that helped, but I really could not get the head-shake problem fixed. On a good day with no wind the bike would work, but on a windy day it was a nightmare. In November of 2007 I changed the offset on the triples to 27mm, and finally that seems to have fixed it. The shakes seem to be gone, but both months were mostly calm wind-wise so I am still holding my breath. My lap times are slower but consistent at around 1:30. We will see how January goes.