Back on the Clay with the Duke

On Saturday afternoon the shiny KTM Duke II was wheeled out of the van into the workshop. She was in for a shock. No more pootling down to the corner store for some milk for this baby... she was going to be flat-tracked!

With no time to take a pic for the before/after... the wheels were off...

Half-way through the transformation...

Mike getting the dirttrack tyres fitted.

Forks are about 5 inches longer than they should be for a flattracker... so we just dropped them through a mile and hoped for the best...

Jack on what he called the 'Mad Max bike'

While working on the Duke we got to see the potential... and the challenges. The biggest challenge being the ride height. She's a tall gal for a flattracker!

The objective of the first phase of this project is to get her to the start line of a race. By Saturday night, the only thing we needed for that is a shark-fin chain-guard (Geoff the welding god is currently whipping one up for the first race in 2 weeks!) and a couple of rear number-boards. But she was good to go for practice.

The Duke was introduced to the world of dirt-tracking at King's Lynn on 29 March 2010 at 13:29...

... where she got to meet some pukka flattrackers!

I was a bit nervous for the first session and just felt my way around. It's been almost a year since being on the clay and smashing myself up. Also the fist time I'd ridden the Duke. Everyone was bombing past me as if I was standing still... they were probably thinking "What the fuck is this muppet doing here?"

'Boastie' going like a rocket!

I started to get into it and have fun. My technique is crap, but at least this time around I have a steel shoe... it makes a huge difference.

A few sessions in, I was tipping her into turn 3, trying to get her sidey-ways. Ghhhhhhhssssssssshhhhhhh.... Pete Boast, the 2009 UK Shorttrack, UK Thunderbike and European Shorttrack champ comes flying up my inside... foot out, steel shoe making a scraping-clinking sound, inside bar nearly on the deck, front wheel pointing in the complete opposite direction to where he's going. Fuck me! It's like he's in slo-mo in National Geographic film... in HD! And I get to see this all from 3 feet away! Now THAT was cool! Worth the 3 hour trip up there just for that moment. The image burned in my brain and he leaves me in the dust. I wanna ride like that!

Sideburn Gary with his beautiful Woods Rotax, all shiny and new from a winter refresh...

... and then he turned on the style!

As the afternoon went on, I got quicker and quicker... until at last I wasn't the slowest one out there. There was a blue line and that suited my novice experience... more grip, less slidey. I'm dog-slow going into the turns... virtually no slidey-action there. But once I apex, I'm okay and can keep up with most... until 100 yards down the track we turn again...

Anthony Brown of Co-Built showing us how it's done!

It was a great day on the clay that hard on this virus-riddled body but was fantastic practice. Much needed practice! I got a long way to go to learn to ride flattrack... so every minute on the clay is valuable.

The Duke was great. Waaay too tall, but that motor is a peach! Just hook it into third and she keeps on pulling! She's about 30kg lighter than the old bone-smashing-monster, so that was the most noticeable difference.

Steve of Red Max with his cool-as Harley XR. there ain't nothin' like the sound of a big VeeTwin with megaphones!

I can't enter into the Thunderbike class as intended because she still looks like a MX/DTX bike... so I'm going to be chopped liver in the Shorttrack class... also get less track time. No worries... we've got a lot of work in front of us to get her to look and handle like a framer... but it looks promising. :-)