Before I get into the bike swap-extravaganza, here are a few things to note. The Scrambler is stripped down and is getting the wheels powder-coated as I type, and I had my buddy Ricky Howerton cut down my stock Tiger windscreen. The cutdown is definitely an improvement on the wind buffeting, but the cosmetics of the bike changed. If I were to re-cut the windshield again, I probably wouldn’t have been as dramatic about it.
Here is the story about the bike swap.
Bike Swap #1: Black Tiger for the Hypermotard
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is putting together a street team of three riders armed with Ducati Hypermotards. Two of them are headed down for the Honda Hoot, and one was left back at the track. Of course, I offered my services to break in the machine so I was able to take the bike home for the evening. I only put 26 miles on the bike, but it was enough to really “test” it – unlike my previous test ride at the Ducati dealership.
Like I said, I only put 26 miles on the bike, which means my test ride was pretty much to and from work this week. I took the long way home and made sure that I hit roads that I often ride on so that I could tell the differences. The Tiger and Hypermotard are nothing alike except for a similar power plant, 1100 and 1050 cc’s. The Hypermotard is much more rigid, much lighter (It’s like a bicycle!) and has so much torque! This thing is a unicycle!
Bike Swap #2: Hypermotard for Black Tiger
I returned the Hypermotard during lunch the next day because I needed to take the Tiger in to get my clutch looked at. I started to notice a weird noise when I engaged the clutch, so I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t eating the clutch plates up. I dropped the bike off at R. Falcone Motorsports here on 16th Street in Indianapolis.
The noise that I was experiencing was like I had a vibrating metal table and I put a bag of pennies on the table. It isn’t damaging yet, but I want to make sure the bike is all polished up before I head down to Richmond, Va., for the IndyCar Series race.
Bike Swap #3: Black Tiger for 2008 White Speed Triple
Luckily Gene Tomey (the GM at R. Falcone Motorsports) values me as a customer and felt bad that both my Scrambler and Tiger were in the shop. He felt so bad that he allowed me to take a loaner bike.
At first he walked the floor and pointed at this Piaggio super-moped painted in Peanuts cartoon characters! You know Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the gang? That was a quick laugh, and then he pointed at another Black Tiger or a fleet of Sprints. I felt that if I was going to get another bike, I might as well get something I hadn’t ridden before.
I asked about the Speed Triple, and he put me on it. The Speed Triple is a fast bike like the motard, but it really isn’t my style. If you haven’t already noticed, I like to be sitting straight up with my feet underneath me, not behind me.
Much like the motard, the Triple is really nimble, light and powerful, but one thing that I won’t do with this bike is put too many miles on it or “test” it. Since I doubt it’s a normal occurrence for the dealer to give drive-a-ways while the bike is in service, I wanted to instill a small bit of trust with Gene.
Jarrod
Last Friday, I got an e-mail from the company that said this …
“We would like to invite you to participate in the first track lap on the new MotoGP track. This will be done in association with the Nicky Hayden Historic 1st Lap that is taking place on April 7th.
A select group of people from the community will meet at the base of the Pagoda around 10:30am and the track lap will be at approximately 11am. Please bring your bike and park in the oval track garage area (you will see the other bikes parked there). We will be finished no later than 11:45am. Please let me know if you have any questions or if there is another rider within the company who needs an invitation.
Thank you,
Ellie”
I had been out of the office for quite a few days, so I was extremely excited about this particular e-mail. After arriving late on Sunday night and waking up early, I couldn’t wait to fire up my bike and head to the office. I sat there at my desk, anxiously awaiting 10:30 so that I could head over to the frontstretch for this ride. Then at about 9:45, I got a phone call from IMS Senior VP Mel Harder, and he asked when I was coming over to the track because he wanted me to lead the ride! I said, “I can come over whenever you want me to.”
I was honored and pumped, and jumped on my bike and rode on over to the garage area, dismounted and walked to the pagoda, where there was a large group of riders anxiously awaiting the opportunity to hit the track.
The ride was a lot of fun; I wasn’t the very first rider because even I couldn’t be trusted to keep a safe pace, so they put two of Indianapolis’s finest at the head of the field. When the ride was over, three of us went out to Rick’s Boatyard and enjoyed a nice lunch.
Later that day, I sent Mel another text message thanking him for putting the ride together and asked him when I could come over and do some laps at a decent pace (above 30 mph). He quickly responded, “How about 3:30, when Nicky is done?” I responded, “I’ll be there!”
I searched around the office for some cameras and found a small camera that was perfect to mount on my bike. I got it all fixed up and headed over to the track.
Once I got there, Mel and IMS engineering chief Kevin Forbes asked how many laps I was going to take, and I said “I don’t know, until I get bored.” Kevin quickly responded, “One lap?” I responded back, “No way, at least three!”
I really didn’t realize that Forbes’s crew was set to convert the track back to the traditional oval for the world’s biggest race, but I figured that “The Ride” blog deserved serious content!
The laps were awesome. I was extremely timid for the first lap since I hadn’t been on my bike in a while, and I wanted to be sure not to eat it. To be honest, it was my first time on a motorcycle on an actual racetrack, so I wasn’t exactly confident. Each lap I got a little braver but still kept a conservative pace.
So where’s the video? The video player actually ran out of battery so I didn’t get a thing. Sucka! Click here to watch the video. Enjoy.
As I mentioned last week, I planned my wedding the same weekend as the Red Bull Indianapolis GP, or as I like to say it, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway planned the Inaugural GP on my wedding weekend …
Wedding Tip Number One: Check with your place of work before you set a wedding date.
My fiancée and I had been struggling with a date on which we were going to commit our lives to each other. There were a few factors that we needed to consider before we actually set the date.
Introduction:
Hi! Welcome to my blog. I really couldn’t come up with a more spectacular entrance to my redbullindianapolisgp.com blog.
My name is Jarrod Krisiloff, and I am extremely pumped for the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP. I am an avid rider and a speed junkie who coincidently planned my wedding the same weekend as MotoGP. So throughout my “weekly” blog, I’ll be delivering updates on planning your wedding around a motorcycle race, places to check out around Indianapolis on your two-wheeler and just about any other topic that comes to mind.