Hank Hank at the SLO Motorcycle Classic, Oct 2012 |
Any day on a sidecar is a good day, some better than others but all are just simply good times. Sidecar days are even better when you can share with your friends and better still when you make new friends in the process.
Hank put together a great afternoon of activities with two BBQ grills going full tilt by midmorning, two Scalextrics Slot car racing tracks complete with electric sidecars as well as a dirt track to demo one of his bikes and of course the afternoon blind sidecar slalom.
There were folks that rode in from as far
away as San Jose as well as Monterey and Paso Robles. For me it was a nice 120km (each way) ride on
the California Central Coast. Hank put together a great afternoon of activities with two BBQ grills going full tilt by midmorning, two Scalextrics Slot car racing tracks complete with electric sidecars as well as a dirt track to demo one of his bikes and of course the afternoon blind sidecar slalom.
The slot car races were full-contact no rules Mad Max style
racing. Given these parameters I had to
devote the appropriate resources and build a competition Gobi
slot-sidecar. Again racing is racing and
this is serious stuff so I tuned my miniature hack as any good competitor
would. Christie gave me a hard time for
cheating but I told her it wasn’t possible to cheat since there weren’t any
rules and then promptly bumped her out if the way…lol.
How do you hot rod a slot car? Well, I took it apart and coated all of the
moving parts with dry silicon. Ha!...it
worked like a charm. The old camo Gobi
would lap the others easily in two and half laps. Boom! That just happened. Yeah yeah I know they are just slot cars but
it was still pretty funny. The hardest
part was keeping it on the track! After all, physics are still physics
regardless of the size of the sidecar.
OK, so now on to real track. The slalom was a load of fun and
I suppose its only fair payback to have the monkey in control for a
change. Its funny because I never really
thought about it before but now I have a better understanding why a few of my
friends don’t want to monkey because they have to be in control.
To clear up any confusion, blind sidecar slalom isn’t a
figure of speech but a literal description of the challenge. First you form a team, having a trustworthy
monkey with good communication skills is the most important factor in this low
speed death-defying mechanical adventure.
Then as the pilot you have to take a big bite of humble pie (did someone
say pie? —sorry I digress—pie is for later), precede to the start, then don
your blackout glasses, ease out the clutch, take your time and LISTEN to what
your monkey tells you.
When you roll off
the starting line you will take left and right commands (from your monkey) to safely
navigate through the course in both directions without (hopefully) hitting any
cones. It’s kind of like getting a pilots
instrument rating without having any instruments. Seriously it’s tremendously
disorienting but good for a laugh.
After copious amount of BBQ, pie and a good sunburn everyone
started winding down and shuffling home.
Taking with them kind gifts from our host and an afternoon of fond
memories.
Steve and Hank agreeing that next year Steve will have a hack as well--hint hint |