Ok, my search for a trailer started in earnest about 6 months ago with the focus on pricing, availability and vendors. Rough market with as many facets there are small towns in Georgia!
Landed on a local dealer with.... a supplier in Georgia - the birth place of nearly all trailers or so it seems.
I bought a Freedom 7X12, single axle with a 'chrome' package and mag wheels. Outlay of $3.2K with a 3 week ship delay.
Worksmanship was pretty close to what you'd find if chimpanzees set out to build a piano and when I pulled it home I had 72 hours until I had to have 3 sport bikes, gear, fuel and the rest in Birmingham. I had already mapped this out and had purchased the flooring, the paint, the PVC pipe (for my helmet racks) and all of the chocks (cheapo versions, more on that later) and flush mount D-rings. I was ready but was surprised at how shabby the worksmanship on ALL trailers seem to be....
Anyhoo, here is how the inside looked to begin with:
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Here is the aftermath with the wife and I POUNDING away at this damned thing until nearly midnight on day 1:
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
Day 2 I installed the accessories, diamond plate, chocks (I used the Harbor Freight jobs) were less than optimal BUT they bit and throughout this ordeal / little piece of fun in life they held like rocks. Used flush mount D-rings that required a nice, $40 3.5" hole saw that I now have if any of you should ever need to borrow one!
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
Although I have been doing so for nearly 20 years.....
I ran this lady like a rented mule during this set up and she never shirked a single duty!
Even got on her hands and knees
and swabbed the deck!! WHAT A WOMAN!
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
OK, so I joined Sport Bike Track Time and enrolled me and two of my local riding buddies in a track day at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham AL (folks, if you have a list of things to do before you die and have not been to this place by GOD place it on the list and just GO). It is truly a Mecca of motorcycles / motorcycling and is worth the price of admission! The museum is breath taking and the track? Holy Shi* is all I can say. I have now been there twice and it is without a doubt one of the most unique surfaces man has fashioned for operating high performance machines! Nuff said there!
We set up camp:
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
The AMA Superbikes will be at Barber in mid April (the week prior to the Bash) and ALL of the rigs are already there so that the riders can start practice. Here is my fave!
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
Anyhoo....
I have been to an Ed Bargy Racing School (at Barber back in Sept of '07) and now add this track day to my track experiences.
It F'n rained til noon and we were absolutely miserable out there. My buds had NEVER been on a track and they basically did this because I threated to kill them if they did not go and at 1100hrs I was catching some mean looks!
By noon though, the sun came out, heated up the track, heated up our hearts and baby.... IT WAS ON!
After two sessions these aggressive street riders (my riding buds) started figuring it out, well a little anyway and we had what you might call 'a piece of life', one of those times when all you think about is what you are doing at that moment in time. All else melts away and you are immersed in the moment; no office, no bills, no problems or worries, you are are one with the bike, with what it is telling you and you listen and tell it to shut up and keep screaming at the same time! It is the reason we all ride and it is the reason I took them with me to this and worked so damned hard on that trailer.
Hats of to Don (Raybusa) he let me borrow his camera mount and I stuck it on Mr. Busa during 2 afternoon track sessions and tried my best to slow down
and follow my two friends. They did great and so did the camera mount. THANKS DON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I took off the windscreen (dont do this by the way unless you want to feel what its probably like to ride a Honda Shadow on a race track) so the camera would have an unobstructed view of the action... and I have been editing and uploading to YouTube and making disks for nearly two days...
One last string of BS before we link to YouTube:
People rolled their eyes at me when they saw the Busa.
They asked what I was doing there with a drag bike.
They moaned and rubbed their foreheads when they looked in the trailer.
They chuckled when I rode to Race Control for tech.
But......
By the end of the day, I shi* you not.... people were chanting "Booosa, Booosa, Booosa" when I came off the track and entered the paddock! Out of 144 riders I was the only Hayabusa there.
We flogged a** (Mr. Busa and I) running laps in the 1:40s!
One guy told me "you ride it like its small"!
I rep'd us dammit!
The Busa is NOT a track bike but mine blasted past all of them at one time or another and among people with my same level of riding skill (which is still very green) I kicked Ducati, Kawasaki, Yam, Suzi and any other a** that was out there!
Stand by.. we are trying to upload some vid to YouTube and post some links....
Landed on a local dealer with.... a supplier in Georgia - the birth place of nearly all trailers or so it seems.
I bought a Freedom 7X12, single axle with a 'chrome' package and mag wheels. Outlay of $3.2K with a 3 week ship delay.
Worksmanship was pretty close to what you'd find if chimpanzees set out to build a piano and when I pulled it home I had 72 hours until I had to have 3 sport bikes, gear, fuel and the rest in Birmingham. I had already mapped this out and had purchased the flooring, the paint, the PVC pipe (for my helmet racks) and all of the chocks (cheapo versions, more on that later) and flush mount D-rings. I was ready but was surprised at how shabby the worksmanship on ALL trailers seem to be....
Anyhoo, here is how the inside looked to begin with:
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
Here is the aftermath with the wife and I POUNDING away at this damned thing until nearly midnight on day 1:
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
Day 2 I installed the accessories, diamond plate, chocks (I used the Harbor Freight jobs) were less than optimal BUT they bit and throughout this ordeal / little piece of fun in life they held like rocks. Used flush mount D-rings that required a nice, $40 3.5" hole saw that I now have if any of you should ever need to borrow one!
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
Although I have been doing so for nearly 20 years.....
I ran this lady like a rented mule during this set up and she never shirked a single duty!
Even got on her hands and knees
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
OK, so I joined Sport Bike Track Time and enrolled me and two of my local riding buddies in a track day at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham AL (folks, if you have a list of things to do before you die and have not been to this place by GOD place it on the list and just GO). It is truly a Mecca of motorcycles / motorcycling and is worth the price of admission! The museum is breath taking and the track? Holy Shi* is all I can say. I have now been there twice and it is without a doubt one of the most unique surfaces man has fashioned for operating high performance machines! Nuff said there!
We set up camp:
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
The AMA Superbikes will be at Barber in mid April (the week prior to the Bash) and ALL of the rigs are already there so that the riders can start practice. Here is my fave!
ImageShack Links Do Not Work
Anyhoo....
I have been to an Ed Bargy Racing School (at Barber back in Sept of '07) and now add this track day to my track experiences.
It F'n rained til noon and we were absolutely miserable out there. My buds had NEVER been on a track and they basically did this because I threated to kill them if they did not go and at 1100hrs I was catching some mean looks!
By noon though, the sun came out, heated up the track, heated up our hearts and baby.... IT WAS ON!
After two sessions these aggressive street riders (my riding buds) started figuring it out, well a little anyway and we had what you might call 'a piece of life', one of those times when all you think about is what you are doing at that moment in time. All else melts away and you are immersed in the moment; no office, no bills, no problems or worries, you are are one with the bike, with what it is telling you and you listen and tell it to shut up and keep screaming at the same time! It is the reason we all ride and it is the reason I took them with me to this and worked so damned hard on that trailer.
Hats of to Don (Raybusa) he let me borrow his camera mount and I stuck it on Mr. Busa during 2 afternoon track sessions and tried my best to slow down
I took off the windscreen (dont do this by the way unless you want to feel what its probably like to ride a Honda Shadow on a race track) so the camera would have an unobstructed view of the action... and I have been editing and uploading to YouTube and making disks for nearly two days...
One last string of BS before we link to YouTube:
People rolled their eyes at me when they saw the Busa.
They asked what I was doing there with a drag bike.
They moaned and rubbed their foreheads when they looked in the trailer.
They chuckled when I rode to Race Control for tech.
But......
By the end of the day, I shi* you not.... people were chanting "Booosa, Booosa, Booosa" when I came off the track and entered the paddock! Out of 144 riders I was the only Hayabusa there.
We flogged a** (Mr. Busa and I) running laps in the 1:40s!
One guy told me "you ride it like its small"!
I rep'd us dammit!
The Busa is NOT a track bike but mine blasted past all of them at one time or another and among people with my same level of riding skill (which is still very green) I kicked Ducati, Kawasaki, Yam, Suzi and any other a** that was out there!
Stand by.. we are trying to upload some vid to YouTube and post some links....
