EDITORIAL
Moving on NO, I haven’t decided to vacate the editor’s chair at Cycle Torque, so you can have a collective sigh of relief. I’m talking about the direction my son will be taking with his road racing next year. Let’s get one thing straight. I’m not a father who dreams, in this case, of his son being a champion international road racer, or his daughter being a soap star or similar. In fact I’m probably the opposite, I think being a professional sports person or being in the public eye can be a poison chalice, with plenty of pressure a by-product of such a life. We’ve spent the last three years competing in the MRRDA series on Honda CBR150s, Moriwaki 80 and our oneoff Yamaha GP Mono. It’s been generally good fun, and at times been not so enjoyable, with crashes and long trips a part of the first couple of seasons. I’ll just take a side note here to take my hat off to Paul Edwards and the rest of the MRRDA crew who’ve made it possible, they’ve done a fantastic job and should be commended. But it’s time to think about where to next. Alex turns 16 in October and can jump on any open class bike, whether it be a 250GP bike or a superbike. Of course it would be sheer
44 - NOVEMBER 2009
lunacy to shove him on a superbike but going on everything I’ve seen he should be fine to go to 600 superstock, as long as he has a decent amount of testing prior to his first race. But this is where I get nervous. Alex is yet to turn 16 and is about to start year 11 at high school. His education is far more important than racing motorcycles, especially when it’s not my dream or necessarily his to be the next big thing on a racing bike. There are plenty of kids and parents out there who are chasing that dream, we’d only just be joining the queue. Sure, Alex wants to ride a 600, he just loves riding but I’ve also made him aware of the hurdles that await the wannabe pro racer. There are plenty of options you can try before stepping up to this level. Alex has already tasted the 250 GP Mono and the thought of running a decent 125GP twostroke sends chills down my spine after seeing a couple of mates and their kids struggle to keep them together. You can go to the 400cc class and race with the MRRDA or similar series, you can go BEARS or club racing on lower level machines. What I’m getting at is there’s no hard and fast rule which says you have to jump all of these classes
and get to the big boys straight away or you’ll never be successful. I think that’s absolute crap. And besides, isn’t it supposed to be all about fun? The most fun Alex ever has is when he’s racing his mate Brodie Thackeray. Sure there are other racers out there on the track with them but they don’t care who they beat as long as they beat each other. When you see 15-year-olds shaking hands as they are on the slow down lap and then back slapping each other and swapping tales in the pits, well that’s what makes it worthwhile to me. With all this in mind, and after much deliberation and reflection, I have decided to buy a new Triumph Daytona 675 for Alex to ride next year, allowing him to race in either Superstock or BEARS. What I have also decided, is it’s time to sell the Cycle Torque Yamaha GP Mono (pictured above). To recap, we got the idea from America and the UK where a number of companies and privateers were building road racers out of 450cc off-roaders. We took a new 2008 YZ250F, shortened and beefed-up the original suspension, fitted supermoto wheels and big brakes, plonked on an RS250 road race fairing and seat, plus fitted the obligatory clip ons, rear
sets etc. The bike has been ultra reliable and Alex has even managed to stay on it, so it’s never been crashed. There’s a number of mods done to up performance and there’s a few spares, like footpegs and handlebars, gearing changes and so on. That is a very quick overview of the whole process but it is a great bike and ripe for a new home. The bike comes with all the motocross gear, wheels, bodywork, ‘bars etc, which has never been used and never seen dirt. The engine has been used for approximately 15 hours and the top end will be freshened up prior to sale. The bike and all the gear as it sits would cost over 15 grand to build from new parts. For everything we are after around $9000, less for the bike as a motocrosser. You can even see the bike in action on the road race track (Broadford in Victoria) during a practice session. Go to www.cycletorque. com.au to check it out. We’ll also have it displayed on the Cycle Torque stand at the Sydney Motorcycle Show in November. For more info email me at chris@cycletorque.com. au or call on 02 4956 9820 or 0404 030 925. – Chris Pickett
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